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The seat tube is split because it has rear suspension - the rear of the bike rotates around a pivot located just in front of the bottom bracket. Several early full-suspension bikes used a similar design for the rear pivot; this design was then knocked off by the lower-end manufacturers looking to cash in on the popularity of mountain bikes. It's extremely ...

Carbon fiber is stronger, and far less susceptible to fatigue than any other frame material on the market. It can be engineered to have the strength of titanium, the ride quality of steel, and the stiff and powerful performance of aluminum at the same time. I have only broken 2 frames in my life. Both were aluminum, ridden far beyond the fatigue life of ...

Watch the Tour de France...you'd be hard pressed to find a bike that is not carbon. Yes pros do get multiple steeds, but remember riding is their full time job. When was the last time one of us put 30-50 hours on a bike in a given week, never mind for 6-8 months! Now think about the wattage these guys put out and hopefully you are getting the idea...that ...

The biggest factor in bike stopping distance is the mass transfer towards the front of the vehicle when braking. On an upright bicycle, the limiting factor in how hard you can brake is the point at which the front wheel goes from slowing you to simply throwing you over the handlebars. As you brake, your center of mass shifts forward, lifting the rear wheel. ...

Up until the mid-to-late-eighties bicycles were not heavily branded. Frames bore the manufacturer's badge on the front, had the manufacturer's name on the frame and had the model name on the frame. Components did bear their manufacturer's respective names, however, these were just stamped on. You could read them if you wanted to. In rare exceptions these ...

Here is an example of high-end carbon fiber frame with similar geometry = Trek Y Foil. It proved to be unsuccesful design, but low-end bicycle manufacturers copied it anyway (also using cheaper materials and simplified design).

There have been a few "serious" bikes made with this design; Trek produced a few years ago. However, it proved to be a poor design as it puts the pivots in the wrong places. I took one of those cheesy Y-frames and used it as the basis for my home-built recumbent...It actually worked pretty well for that.

I like to use an excellent power calculator to answer questions like these. Play with the numbers, and you can see the exact effects on wind resistance of different rider positions or changing the type of tire. In short, at race speeds, wind resistance requires by far the most power to overcome. It ends up being anywhere from 85%–90% of your overall power ...

The main reason for the larger pulleys is that you don't need to make them as strong. More teeth helps to spread the load. A small pulley is lighter and can aid shifting, but needs to be made from stronger material so you don't shear/wear teeth as much, and so you don't wear the bushings as fast (as @alex commented)

There are 2 versions of derailleurs which come with extra large pulleys. The first, which is what is being discussed here, are the low end mega-range compatible derailleurs. A mega-range freewheel has one distinct characteristic which requires compatible derailleurs to have very large cogs. As seen in the image below, there is a large tooth count ...

Low end drive-trains tend to have a bigger range from smallest gear to largest. Meaning the biggest cog in the cog set on the rear wheel tends to be much bigger. that means there is extra chain length needed to cover all the possible cog/chain ring combinations. (aka the gear you are in) The larger pulley wheels take up extra chain length when not needed.

Tire size: not significant because on paved road any tire should provide enough friction (stopping force) to get you to the critical/tipping point. Bike weight: not significant compared to your weight (the difficulty is to stop the rider) Brake types: I've found disc brakes reliable in wet and snow on hills and in traffic. The critical factor is the angle ...

From my understanding, carbon fiber is extremely strong within its designed load parameters. That means the directionality of the load, the amount of load, etc. It is only when one goes outside this load design that you start to see failures (other than manufacturing flaws, but that could happen on any bike). For example, clamping a carbon fiber ...

Raleigh fitted a steering lock to many of their bikes up until the 1970's: I have got a bike with one but I would not use it without a secondary lock to a fixed object. Neither would I use what you are looking for, and for the same reasons! It is a solution looking for a problem that is not practical in the real world. You don't want someone taking you ...

Wheel locks are an implementation of this idea. They simply prevent the rear wheel from turning, which is effectively the same thing. Again, any thief with large enough bolt cutters will be able to effectively sidestep the problem without hassle. But worse than that, the odds of your bike being stolen while being immobilized like this are still orders of ...

It is clear that this design is heavy, weakens the structural integrity of what was once a simple diamond frame, introduces bushes that wear, does the 'pedal bob' and complicates the maintenance. However, what is in it for the manufacturer? 'Horst Link' and other properly thought out suspension designs are patented, these patents cost money to licence, ...