« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2013, 11:06:05 AM »
From what I've been told by the race team mechanics, it was never about weight (well it was but I'll get back to it). Aluminum frames always weighed more. It was all about stiffness and isolating movement in the suspension. With an aluminum frame, they could accomplish the stiffness desired in a small and light enough package. It still made the bikes "feel" fat and increased the weight a tad, but it was worth it for the suspension engineers. My guess is that to get the stiffness of the aluminum frames with steel, it would weigh and package significantly more.
Personally, I prefer steel frames. All "perimeter" framed bikes "feel" fat to me. I lost the argument already with someone who provided numbers that proved them to be no wider than regular frames but you can't argue with "feel". I suspect that feel is the area between the knees and thighs (since the distance between the foot pegs is apparently the same).
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 PM by ' »
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