Originally Posted by Chr0m0ly

I’m convinced it was the time period that Cannondale started making frames that started it. It’s the mid 80’s, you want a NEW BIKE!!! And you come across Cannondale, the “Rocket Bike”!

So you save your nickels and buy yourself a new whip. You hop off your old bike, likely a slackish 70s boom bike and on to your state of the art Cannondale SR300! WHOA! You feel every bump in the road!! Must be those Coke can tubes!

I think it’s just that Road geometry was getting tighter in the 80’s and Crit frames were becoming a thing… race geometry of the 70s was pretty close to current touring angles, and having the back wheel tucked up under the seat sends every jolt into your hips and spine. The ST frames with longer chain stays rock the rider forward instead of bumping them straight up. But touring was on it’s way out by then. Most companies were cutting back on the touring bike to make way for the racy bikes. So customers were ditching their multi purpose machines for more racing specific designs, and it’s the change in design that caused the harsh ride feel more than the change in material.