Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

... it's a constructive conversation, I'd say some of what can be measured in a jig can be felt on the road/trail, but not all. Frame twist might be one of the easiest imo - there's more of it. BB area stiffness I'm less sure of, or at least the way the forces and feedback through the cranks work I find it harder to tell - yet BB stiffness and frame twist are part of the same system to an extent. I've been riding square taper cranks back to back with HT2s and I'm just not convinced I can feel much difference aside from that first moment of input under a big load. I'm not powerful or heavy enough for it to matter. I can feel flex overall, but isolating the BB? Nah.

love my D3 but my volare 953 feels so spritely in comparison - how much that is actually due to BB stiffness or down to overall system/wheel weight, I guess is probably hard to quantify but I always assumed it was due to the very high stiffness through the volare's oversize 953 BB

It won't be all the frame.

I found it largely down to component choices in the end, like how the right saddle put you more at ease when riding.

Riding square taper with 46/30 doesn’t make that obvious a difference after getting rid of the FSA external BB it used to have.

I've been riding square taper cranks back to back with HT2s and I'm just not convinced I can feel much difference aside from that first moment of input under a big load.

Yup.

Difference however is chainring flex when shifting from small to big compare to a modern Shimano 4 arm chainring that’s ridiculously stiff.

1 Attachment

Re’ frames ... torsional flex(?) is vertical compliance when you’re cornering though.

And maybe it’s those occasions ... when you plow fast into a pothole/tree-root on the apex, that you test a frame’s suppleness.

The Volare 953 was a bike designed to satisfy a pro road race team wasn’t it? If so I suppose it should be (basically) as stiff as possible.

They're bikes. They're all the fucking same.

Pick the one you like the look of or believe the marketing hype for. Ride it.

thread title has gone a bit shit imo

thread title has gone a bit shit imo

I think it should be:

Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / Not quite CX bikes/ Whatever scoble is riding this week

LFGSS ends

I like it. Someone smart must've come up with that.

"Gravel bikes"

alright phildas

Too specific

i think @Maj should take care of renaming the thread, he clearly masters the infinite levels of detachment required

"what about an arko....sold out? hang on 4130 frames are £900???? .......check the pdf..wiz what.???"

Here's my latest attempt at whatever it is we're doing here, anyway.

5 Attachments

bikes iirc

Gravelthread implodes when gravel becomes the new centrist norm of cycling.

1 Attachment

Some excellent gravel today. Even found a seesaw in a small copse of trees... which is weird.

3 Attachments

What gravel?

Good point

tbh 5 days of consecutive rain means that gravel season is over in the UK.