Originally Posted by
13ollocks
BITD, Litespeed marketed their characteristic radial seat stays as being compliant for all-day comfort etc etc. Pure marketing BS, IMO - the stays on my ~24-year-old frame are beasts - I can't imagine them flexing worth a damn under any circumstances, although they do look pretty. In addition, when I see some of the comparatively wispy yet adequate seat stays on any number of modern CF frames, it's clear that the thicker stays on older frames were, in many cases, overkill, adding unnecessary weight and likely stiffness. Frame design has certainly evolved since then.
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a few summers riding one of these - talk about curly stays! I honestly don't recall if it was any more comfortable as any other bike I rode.
This is kind of weird engineering problem. On the one hand, if you want something to flex more easily, building a curve into it should encourage it to flex with that curve. On the other hand, titanium gets stiffer as you cold work it, and Serotta discovered in the '80s that their S curve chainstays were stiffer than straight ones.
OTOH, Dave Kirk's curved stay frames are assembled under bending tension - like a preloaded suspension spring.