Doodling on a piece of paper at the moment(obviously it's slow in the office at present) and began to think of the theoretical possibilities of short/long wheelbase tri/TT bikes. Maybe some of you bike designer or engineer types can help out with this.
It's a given that tri bikes generally don't handle as well as road bikes. But the wheelbase on your tri bike is usually fairly close to your road bike if they're the same frame size. So this is more of a function of the weight of the rider being placed forward. Slowman has a theory about improving a tri bike's handling characteristics by increasing the wheelbase in a tri bike. He suggests decreasing head tube angle and increasing fork rake thus increasing the center to front distance. This will give the bike an oversize wheelbase which he feels would give better rider weight distribution. However, it is to my understanding that the best way to increase a bike's handling is to increase the chainstay length, but in this case the chainstays are remaining the same. In fact they will even become proportionally shorter if only the center to front is increased. This in theory(as I understand it) should mean more twitchiness so would it not negate any advantages of the longer wheelbase.
Going the other way to a shorter than normal wheelbase would present problems of increased twitchy handling, decreased ride comfort and would be a pig for curvy descending. However there would be more frame stiffness and would be lighter so you should be able to better put the power to the road better without the longer frame flexiness. If you were racing a TT on a strait flat surface and not worried about hills or curves, would there not be advantages to making an extra short wheelbase bike?
I would imagine that a large part of bike design has been trial and error, so it's probably fair to assume that the shorter and longer than normal wheelbase designs have already been tried. Just wondering if anyone has any knowlege or thoughts about them.
It's a given that tri bikes generally don't handle as well as road bikes. But the wheelbase on your tri bike is usually fairly close to your road bike if they're the same frame size. So this is more of a function of the weight of the rider being placed forward. Slowman has a theory about improving a tri bike's handling characteristics by increasing the wheelbase in a tri bike. He suggests decreasing head tube angle and increasing fork rake thus increasing the center to front distance. This will give the bike an oversize wheelbase which he feels would give better rider weight distribution. However, it is to my understanding that the best way to increase a bike's handling is to increase the chainstay length, but in this case the chainstays are remaining the same. In fact they will even become proportionally shorter if only the center to front is increased. This in theory(as I understand it) should mean more twitchiness so would it not negate any advantages of the longer wheelbase.
Going the other way to a shorter than normal wheelbase would present problems of increased twitchy handling, decreased ride comfort and would be a pig for curvy descending. However there would be more frame stiffness and would be lighter so you should be able to better put the power to the road better without the longer frame flexiness. If you were racing a TT on a strait flat surface and not worried about hills or curves, would there not be advantages to making an extra short wheelbase bike?
I would imagine that a large part of bike design has been trial and error, so it's probably fair to assume that the shorter and longer than normal wheelbase designs have already been tried. Just wondering if anyone has any knowlege or thoughts about them.