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I find this interesting, genuinely curious as to how much you can tell about frame material through like, 45mm of rubber. It's particularly relevant especially given the price of steel gravel bikes at the moment.
Belagerent-
i rode that nsrag frame for about 6000km with 700c wheels using tyres from 28mm to 40mm, and as you say, tyre pressure was all i could use to get more or less comfort. my current gravel is a cdf with smaller (35mm) tyres and i get much more compliance from the frame
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In the vertical plane, not a lot. Esp in the rear triangle where it's often said to be. But Steel bikes are more likely to have lateral twist kind of flex and that accounts for a lot more comfort and ride feel (good and bad, depends how much etc) than most give it credit for or realise. Al frames can also do this too. The Arkose was always designed and ride-checked not to be too stiff against those lateral twist forces. Eg there's a big difference in that area between an Arkose and a couple of other Al frames I've ridden - some are silly-stiff imho.
Glws
jameso
quite. having moved to steel i would say that tubes are overspecced and the frame lacks a bit of critical flex, but it's fast and light