Originally Posted by
Kapusta
The amount of energy a spring absorbs and stores is a function of the force applied to it over the distance that it compresses. That is also the amount of energy that the spring releases.
So the more flexible frame does absorb more energy when it bends, but it also releases that same amount of energy when it straightens out again.
The implication being that when a
frame flexes such that a rider's full energy is split between forward motion and downward flex, that upon un-flexing the frame returns that energy directly into forward motion. I suspect a
spring could achieve this, aside from heat loss, as it's force is in-line with both compression and return. But a frame's flex would have to be spot-on equivalent and in-line, and occur at a time when the rider could actually use it, for the return, in order to recover that energy in the form of the forward motion that was previously lost. Wouldn't it?