Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
Check out Bicycling magazine from about 30 years ago.
At that time they comissioned Gary Klein (I think) who built the terantula, a fixture which measured frame flex when a measured load was applied to the crank arm. As I recall, the terantula data didn't compare very well with test rider's subjective assessments.
Bicycling doesn't conduct objective testing anymore - and they never encounter a product they don't like.
ok well that just means they are not testing properly or are not performing the right tests. Last time i checked, magazines are more interested in creating articles than truly creating data. I'm not talking about lab simulation of road data, im talking about actually measuring real road vibration levels with the operator on the bike...
the "softer ride" of carbon frames is purely speaking of damping out high frequency vibration... this should be fairly straight forward.