Originally Posted by
63rickert
At the top end even Cannondale gives some small attention to these issues. Lower down the line, where everyday riders do need and want comfort, the frames are all massively overbuilt. What you call "point of being harsh" would be what I call unrideable. But lots of customers bought the harsh/unrideable (pick one) bikes and bought them again. So why pay any attention? Marketing department rules. Customers are malleable, there are no standards.
Loved my all-531 Helyett Speciale track bike when my parents bought it for me in 1964. Loved my early '70s Paramount, Raleigh Pro (the first version, the white '64 Tokyo Olympics model), Atala Pro, Bianchi Specialissima, etc., etc. But I think my favorite bike of all I've owned is my 2005 Specialized Langster road-geometry aluminum track bike.
That bike's (aluminum) fork has 36x20mm straight blades---no taper, same dimensions from crown to dropouts. The frame's top tube is 36mm, the down tube is 40 mm.
Why do I prefer this aluminum bike, which should be all but unrideably stiff, some would say, to all my steel bikes? (i) It's as "comfortable" (whatever that means for a road bike) as any bike I've ever owned. (ii) The wheelbase (38.5cm) is ideal for my preferred handling. (iii). Most importantly, it's the most torsionally stiff bike I've ever ridden.
Until I bought this Langster, I never realized that such a stiff aluminum bike could handle more predictably than even the best steel bikes. That quality has turned out to be addictive. I gradually gave up riding my few remaining steel bikes and have been riding aluminum bikes exclusively for nearly 15 years now.
All the complaints about aluminum bikes in this and similar threads remind me of an anecdote I read in a Guitar Player magazine interview years ago. The guitarist being interviewed had, early in his career, worked in the touring band of a famous veteran blues musician---Robert Lockwood Jr., I'm pretty sure. Lockwood overheard the guitarist complaining about the things he hated about his current guitar---sound, feel, etc. His boss said, "Let me try it." After playing it for a while, he handed it back and said, "Guitar's fine. Must be you."