Originally Posted by
shuru421
So the only real difference is that Columbus EL-OS has the same amount of stiffness of the MAX but throughout its entire frame as opposed to MAX which is specifically stiff in certain areas.
Question. Why is it a compromise for the stiffness to be increased by the same amount in all directions? Is stiffness a win/lose situation? I thought stiffness was a good attribute?
the idea behind the ovalizec profiles on the MAX tubeset as well as Mini MAX was to make the frame laterally stiff to resist flexing from climbing
and sprinting but still have some vertical give to soften road shock. Using the oversized EL OS tubes achieves IMHO a compromise of the two. You get better performance than you would from say a SLX frame but perhaps not as good as MAX might achieve but you have a softer ride.
Bianchi has long sought this sweet spot in reducing BB flex without ride quality suffering. First through their SuperSet frame design using slightly heavier gauge DT and CS tubes and SuperSet II with slightly larger DT ovalized at the BB shell. Then came the Mega Pro frame which seem to have borrowed heavily on MAX influences
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