Originally Posted by
Jeff Neese
That's not unreasonable. When my wife was learning to ride she was very fearful of downhills and I'd yell at her for riding the brakes. She was indeed probably going not much more then 8 mph at first. She had to learn to trust the bike.
I have seen the same thing with novice riders .... the sensation of growing speed on a downhill leads to growing fear, in some new riders .... but look ... the idea that some bikes are better on bad terrain than others is absolutely understood. Whether it was 30 minutes or twenty or 20 mph or eight ... I know from riding rigids versus what I have now (~140 mm travel in front and I think 100 in back) that I can blast at high speed over stuff I had to crawl over before.
With a rigid bike each rut or root is its own obstacle demanding a whole routine of aiming the wheel, lifting the front end, pedaling a little and adjusting for the inevitable slide when the back end hits a different root at a different height and angle, trying to drop the front wheel in a controlled fashion--though often it too would hit a root and slide off, which required another correction .... trying to keep the weight transfer moving forward and not just up and down, while sliding side to side --same or different side at different times---with both ends .... while trying also to flex the while body from toes to hands to absorb the shock of each impact.
With big travel, it is possible to just hit the section fast and miss a lot of the roots and the suspension keeps the wheels on the ground and the frame isolated from the shock.
Since we all understand the principle, why argue over the numbers, which are not to the point. Cyccommute made it clear he didn't actually measure, and it seemed clear to me that the numbers were an indication, not a precise description, which illustrated the story and highlighted the difference between shocks and no shocks.
If we are doing serious math with accurate measurements and known values, sure ,,, then the number matter. If we are just looking for ways to tear down someone with whom we do not agree ... well, I will not address that.
(And no, I will not disclose whether or not Cyccommute paid me to post this.)
