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Wooden bikes

materiabikes.com

51–60 of 238 posts

Re: Wooden bikes

#51

Ride comfort (on a rigid bike) is primarily a function of the tyres (size/inflation/construction). A bike with cheap 23c tyres at 150psi will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. The same bike with decent 25c or 28c tyres at e.g. 50-70psi (depending on rider weight) can float along with a magic carpet like ride.

Very true - but a great seat post and saddle can help - I stuck a carbon seat post on my alu bike and it was amazing, and even on my full carbon I moved to a carbon seatpost and carbon (unpadded) saddle - soaks up the vibration even though I have the tires at 100psi. People often comment on the lack of padding on the saddle, but with a nice pair of bib shorts it is fine. And 250g for the seatpost and saddle ;)

To clarify - vibration that it best dulls is 'road buzz' which you can really get on a alu bike, esp with high pressure tires. A carbon seatpost and seat can be as little as £50 for both - I got my seat post from wiggle and seat from china - happy with both - and recommend to all my friends.

Yes this will have little impact on 'bumps' - though the saddle def soaks some of them up.

I posted this to refute that 'only' tires have an impact on ride - frame, wheels, seat post, saddle, bars and bar padding, shorts etc can all have a positive impact on ride - and allow you to ride at a high tire pressure and get all the benefit of lower rolling resistance.

Re: Wooden bikes

#52

Ride comfort (on a rigid bike) is primarily a function of the tyres (size/inflation/construction). A bike with cheap 23c tyres at 150psi will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. The same bike with decent 25c or 28c tyres at e.g. 50-70psi (depending on rider weight) can float along with a magic carpet like ride.

Why call those 23c tyres "cheap"? Why mention price at all? Ride comfort is a function of tyre size, not tyre price. You can buy very "exclusive" expensive 23c tyres, pump them up to 7 atm. and have just as hard a ride as the person who just overtook you on his "cheap" 23c tyres. That "magic carpet" ride does come at a price but it is not monetary: the softer the tyre, the more resistance and with that the slower the…

Yup; I prefer the hard ride and not to feel like I'm peddling a tractor.

Re: Wooden bikes

#53
They're not talking about vibration damping, they're talking about attenuating impulses.

To dampen vibrations as soon as possible, you want very high stiffness.

Re: Wooden bikes

#54

Ride comfort (on a rigid bike) is primarily a function of the tyres (size/inflation/construction). A bike with cheap 23c tyres at 150psi will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. The same bike with decent 25c or 28c tyres at e.g. 50-70psi (depending on rider weight) can float along with a magic carpet like ride.

Why call those 23c tyres "cheap"? Why mention price at all? Ride comfort is a function of tyre size, not tyre price. You can buy very "exclusive" expensive 23c tyres, pump them up to 7 atm. and have just as hard a ride as the person who just overtook you on his "cheap" 23c tyres. That "magic carpet" ride does come at a price but it is not monetary: the softer the tyre, the more resistance and with that the slower the…

> That "magic carpet" ride does come at a price but it is not monetary: the softer the tyre, the more resistance and with that the slower the ride.

Unless you're riding on a velodrome, pumping your tyres up to 120+psi doesn't decrease rolling resistance, infact the the opposite is true. If the tyre can deform around small bumps it rolls much more easily. This is why very expensive and fast tyres have casings with a high thread count (sometimes even made of silk) so they are more supple.

Re: Wooden bikes

#55

Ride comfort (on a rigid bike) is primarily a function of the tyres (size/inflation/construction). A bike with cheap 23c tyres at 150psi will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. The same bike with decent 25c or 28c tyres at e.g. 50-70psi (depending on rider weight) can float along with a magic carpet like ride.

True enough, but the more magic your carpet is, the more likely you are to get flats.

Re: Wooden bikes

#56

I don't understand the market for bicycles in the thousands of euro price range. Bikes get stolen often enough for me to never be relaxed leaving such a bike outside a shop or caffe or such. If you can't leave the bike anywhere, it's almost useless, except perhaps as a virtue signalling device.

> virtue signalling device.

Perhaps you mean status signal? I don’t think having a bike is rare enough in Europe to be considered virtue signaling anymore.

Re: Wooden bikes

#57
I wish someone invented and actually sold tires which can't go flat. I don't mind if it makes the bike somewhat harder to ride. For short-distance trips (intra-city) this should be no problem, and could perhaps even save me a visit to the gym.

Re: Wooden bikes

#58
post #57

I wish someone invented and actually sold tires which can't go flat. I don't mind if it makes the bike somewhat harder to ride. For short-distance trips (intra-city) this should be no problem, and could perhaps even save me a visit to the gym.

Schwalbe has such a tire. It‘s filled with some sort of foam: https://www.schwalbe.com/airless-system/index.php/home.html

Re: Wooden bikes

#59
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How impractical can a bike be if it gets the job done? Or did you mean in some not utilitarian context?

They get the job done, but require much more energy to do it. Some bikes are more about looks than practicality.

Agree completely, although I wouldn't go so far as to say looks are the only reason someone would ride an 'impractical' bike.

I pretty much only use fixed-gear bikes for city riding, even in cities like San Francisco and Seattle with tons of hills (albeit one with handbrakes — I'm not suicidal). I like the way they look and feel, and there are other benefits (generally cheaper, easier to maintain, etc) but the main thing I like is the "impracticality". Cycling is my main form of exercise, and on any given day the bulk of my moving-around time might be biking to/from the coffee shop or my coworking space. The inefficient energy consumption and increased cardio is a feature.

Re: Wooden bikes

#60
post #58
post #57

I wish someone invented and actually sold tires which can't go flat. I don't mind if it makes the bike somewhat harder to ride. For short-distance trips (intra-city) this should be no problem, and could perhaps even save me a visit to the gym.

Schwalbe has such a tire. It‘s filled with some sort of foam: https://www.schwalbe.com/airless-system/index.php/home.html

Thanks, this will be my next tire :)
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