Originally Posted by
TVS_SS
To end this debate, all it requires is a simple Design of experiments, a few strategically placed high frequency accelerometers and some analysis. This would quantify your 'ride quality' and go a long way in putting logic behind the debate.
The other debate about component groups is equally lacking true engineering information, but that would require a much larger set of metrics... i'll leave that for another day.
Quantifying ride quality for whom? For the measuring device (the engineer) or for the discriminating rider who may be a pro rider on a race. In the Tour, a rider may have 3 different bikes. On the Paris Roubaix, the bikes may change out forks for different wheels because of the cobblestones.
In the end, its not about a debate, its about the riders and their race situation. The two engineers who started a bike company in Toronto started a new team and called it Cervelo Test Team. Guess what they were testing and who do you think they were asking to test them?