[CR]Cycle manufacturers Engineers?

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Cinelli)

From: <REClassicBikes@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 04:52:22 EDT
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Cycle manufacturers Engineers?

I think it is a bit harsh of Hillary to suggest that so many British cycle manufactureres were not engineers or lacked engineering knowledge. At the very least, the larger concerns were good "production" engineers.

Any one who suggests that bicycle frames are akin to plumbing, mere because you are brazing tubes together, is obviously neither a plumber or an engineer. The Humber bridge is mainly a tubular design with steel welded and bolted together, but I would not ask a plumber to design or erect a similar structure.

George Stevensons father was an Engineer who introduced his son to the business, does this preclude George from being an Engineer? Brunel had no formal engineering training?

IMHO, until the improvements in design modelling and stress analysis that developed due to the automotive and aeronautical industries, aided greatly with the computer power that is now available, most cycle design was by trial and error and done to suit production techniques. Trial and error is a proven design technique and using it does not mean you are not an engineer. The bicycle is a simple design, changes and development are more aligned to its construction than its function, although this is perhaps changing now as world markets and free spending consumers allow function to command a sufficiently high price for ideas to flourish (i.e. ultra light, short lived aluminium frames).

Regards
Martin Coopland