There are realistically 5-6 companies that are really looking at system integrated design and performance, and from these, I believe we are going to continue to see a drive toward the multi-factorial design approach that you reference. The problem with this, of course, is that we will ultimately lose some of the overall customizability of the total system which might be good or bad depending on how you look at it.
The compliance changes are definitely measurable and meaningful, but only in the systems that are done right..which is to say that we still have some issues with connecting benefits to features that may or may not be present in a given design. For example, on the compliance side of things, the Canyon 'aero' bike that Kristoff won Flanders on has a rear vertical spring rate that measures out comparably to many other company's 'endurance road' bikes.. so given the choice, most people would pick the 'endurance road' bike for the comfort because nobody has published the data to say that this aero road bike is similarly compliant. In this way, we have some aero road bikes that are as comfortable as other companies endurance bikes and some company's endurance bikes that are or aero than other company's 'aero' bikes... makes things kind of difficult, no?
On the popping sounds you hear, this is due to inner tubes being pinched rather than tire pressure increases due to sun and temperature. I've studied this 100 different ways, and if I take a wheel with properly installed tube, I can put it in a refrigerator, set the pressure at 100psi, and then move it to a 350F oven and not have an issue. We have tried in the lab to replicate this many, many times and cannot do it. I'm actually working on a paper discussing this, but from experimentation, I would estimate that nearly 100% of those race morning flats are caused by pinched tubes...and some of those I would bet come from rolling bikes around on deflated tires in an attempt to solve this problem in the first place!
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