Twitchy steering..?

As for designers not being able to get the experience that all depends how hard they want to try I suppose. If I were a bike designer I would at the very least have ridden all the common frame/fork materials before making any judgements (backed up by the readily available data).

Actualy I do agree with you, I just have the tendency to stir up arguments for the fun of it. You'll find that a lot of designers doing sports stuff don't know shit about the sport and that a lot of sportsmen doing design don't know shit about design. Don't get me even started on marketing people...
Personaly, I'm slowly getting into cycling, gathering knowledge and getting as much riding experience as I can. It's a lot of investment though, very difficult if you want to broaden to a range of sports, especialy for a student.
Appologies for thread hijack.