Bike porn

Before you start...you’re wrong

You're welcome to your opinion about the paint, that's a question of taste and you clearly don't have any. On the other hand, that cantilever cable hanger is moronic.

I’ve a set of bars with that ‘feature’. I haven’t died yet.

#metoo

But every now and then on a descent I shit myself.

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proto x-86

Can anybody explain the double chainstay to me?

explain the double chainstay

An ongoing competition between steel frame builders to see what ridiculous claims of benefit the punters will swallow

As expected...
But what are the claims for this construction?

what are the claims

Usually higher efficiency or greater comfort, or in really egregious cases the perfect combination of both. You'd need to ask Yamaguchi exactly what they thought they were achieving here.

It turns out that it's surprisingly difficult to design a space frame which outperforms eleven straight tubes. You're nearly always much better off using the same amount of metal to make one big tube rather than a multiplicity of small ones.

Ladies and gentlemen I found something Tester doesn't know!!!
(thanks anyway)

You're nearly always much better off using the same amount of metal to make one big tube rather than a multiplicity of small ones

Poor Dr Alex, spinning (inefficiently) in his grave.

Poor Dr Alex

I don't think he died poor, because he realised that while being in commodity bikes was no way to get rich, you could sell almost anything, no matter how fundamentally ill-conceived, at a high margin to a certain kind of geek as long as you built it lavishly and wrapped it in techno-babble explaining why your brilliant solutions to the problems your fundamental design flaws had created were a good thing. See also Porsche 911 🙂

fundamentally ill-conceived

is perhaps a little harsh; unlike lots of other 'innovative' designs, Moultons do seem to have genuine advantages to trade off against their drawbacks...

I suppose it's hard to shake the suspicion that Dr Alex was casting around for ways to use his elastomeric suspension on bicycles, and that the small wheels were a result of that, rather than the other way round. (Probably also relevant is the fact that he was heir to a rubber fortune, wasn't he? Don't think he was ever poor Dr Alex...)

What I find interesting is how the basic pneumatic-tyred diamond-framed safety bicycle hit a local design maximum really very early on, and how durable that maximum has proved to be (recumbentists aside...).

Dear lord...

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Think I would prefer Geraniums.

#allmusicisnoise

Surely you mean Germanium? I didn't know you can make frames from it. The geranium frames I've had are very light but lose rigidity if not watered regularly.

There was a local shop that used to be a distributor for Sachs back in the early 90s, beautiful frames but often kinda shit paint quality.

Very surpriaed to hear that as the paint often looks fantastic in photos. Never seen one in the flesh.

That may be limited to early 90s. I believe that they are currently painted by Joe Bell.

Yeah, almost as bad as classic UK makers. Sloppy, no idea how the paint aged as I couldn’t afford one anyway and besides I was lusting after the Grant-era B’stones that I couldn’t really afford either.

You're nearly always much better off using the same amount of metal to make one big tube rather than a multiplicity of small ones. <

havnt been here in years... and now this? :))

But what does your statement mean?