On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 8:30:13 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 5:56:41 PM UTC-8, James wrote:
On 11/01/17 08:11, wrote:
On Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 6:48:20 AM UTC-8,
wrote:
A friend who speaks Italian spoke with a bike builder in Italy who
spoke to Ernesto Colnago. He verified that the problem with Carbon
Fiber aside from possible manufacturing defects is that the resins
grow more and more brittle with age. After two years or so they can
grow so brittle that the ultra-lights can fail at any second. This
is why Colnago will only give two year warranties and why they
build their "light" bikes considerably heavier than other
manufacturers.

Have a good ride on your CF when you can get the same weight with
an aluminum frame.

I don't know how many of you besides Joerge make a habit of hard
climbs. But light bikes do NOT make hard climbs much easier. In fact
they add a lot of problems. Once the grade gets up to 18% you can't
use low gears because on the light bikes it will lift the front wheel
off of the ground. The bike will then pivot around the rear wheel and
if you're ready for that you can lay the bike over before it turns
down hill.

That's funny. The difference between a light bike and a "normal" road
bike might be a 1-2kg. Compared to the body weight of the rider at
70-80kg, this is nothing - and it is a distributed weigh loss over the
entire bike, not just the front end.

James, you are FAR out of it. A "light" bike now is under six kg and possibly down to 5 1/2.

Experienced cyclists move their body weight forward to keep the front
wheel on the ground and maintain traction with very low gears. MTB
riders have been doing it for decades.

Modern bicycle design with short wheelbases and long top tubes do not allow you to shift your center of gravity forward unless you can stand up. And you can't stand on the pedals on steep hills where you have to pedal circles.


The way professional climbers get away with this is that they use
LARGE gears. Then you don't have the leverage to lift the front
wheel.

BS.

George Hincapie won a mountain stage of the Tour even though he is a sprinter. His gear was a 23 and that was the lowest gear of the group going over the top.

Yabbut loookit his legs