Originally Posted by
Kontact
I don't understand the relation to my point. The frame can store potential energy and release it into the road later.
Energy (temporarily) stored in the side deflection of a bottom bracket is not (necessarily) redirected to the drive train in a beneficial way.
This is no more complicated a concept than the aforementioned pole vaulting. It just isn't as dramatic.
Actually, bicycle frames are more complicated. Hand waving arguments that equate the two (very different) systems don't amount to much.