Originally Posted by Dave Moulton
Response to Rev. Chuck
Response to Maelstrom.
Cyclo-cross bikes built in standard light weight road tubing do not break. When I built the Fuso MTB in 1985 with standard road tubing it broke. Other people experienced the same problem because it was about this time we started seeing oversize tubes and shock absorbers introduced.
I think the problem lies with the wheels; they are too strong and too heavy for the frame. Cyclo-cross bikes use sew-up (tubular) tires. Being tubular when they hit something hard they flex and absorb shock. The rims too are tubular; strong but extremely light and somewhat flexible.
I have put forward this argument earlier in this thread and so do not want to repeat myself, but if you strengthen one part of a bicycle; you weaken it somewhere else. To just keep increasing the size of the tubes may not be the answer.
No I fully understand the argument (its not even an argument...I completely agree). In mountain biking when they developed dual crown forks to stop breaking the single crowns people started destroying the headtubes (ovalizing). When those became re-enforced the headtubes themselves started ripping off.
I was actually speaking about 2 parts of the bike. The bottom bracket has always caused issues for dhillers (obviously the bikes are ugly and not needed but they are still here) and freeriders. The sizing came directly from road bikes, which doesn't allow for big enoguh bearings. If the originators had brought the sizing from bmx...these problems might not exist (not we have outboard bearings which is a decent fix...but doesn't actually eliminate the problem just puts a bandage on it). Headtube is in a similar state....