Acutally this analysis is not correct - when the frame springs back all the energy that went to move the frame one way moves it back the other - and that movement is augmenting the pedal stroke - energy can't be wasted - it has to be conserved (i.e go somewhere and steel just doesn't dissapate a quanifiable amount of energy as heat from what I understand). Again, we do "waste energy" from extra body movement, but a frame cannot absorb energy in any relevent extent.
Many of the best riding quickest feeling bikes are very flexible - again, it is having the right flex that is important.
Mike Kone in Boulder CO
At 12:14 AM 6/2/02 EDT, NortonMarg@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 6/1/02 10:46:34 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>GandJFahey@aol.com writes:
>
><< spring helps a bike accelerate - but so does
> stiffness perhaps - confused? Yes - it is confusing. Its all about the
> right balance for each rider. Need spring but not too much.
>
> Doesn't it take at least as much energy to "put the spring into the tube"
as
> the amount of spring that is returned? In other words, there's no free
>lunch.
> No mystic source of energy that automatically bends the tubes into a
tensed
> spring position, I think you have to supply the energy even if it springs
> back. ?? >>
>
>Energy spent bending the frame is energy not spent making the wheels go
>around. When the frame springs back, none of that energy goes into making
the
>wheels go around either. Frames that are too flexy "waste" energy. Stiffer
>frames are more efficient. If they're too stiff they feel "dead" and aren't
>really comfortable to ride. A frame is a spring. No spring maker uses HiTen,
>they use spring steel because it's better.
>Stevan Thomas
>Alameda, CA