Looking for an interview here on Slowtwitch - and I just don't find it!: Triathlon Forum: Slowtwitch Forums

Looking for an interview here on Slowtwitch - and I just don't find it!

Oct 31, 14 11:36

Hello all,

I am looking for an interview which was published a while ago here on Slowtwitch. Of course I have checked the interview section, but have not managed to find it.

From what I recall, the interview was with a bike designer (or former bike designer), who described how they did "blind bike test".

For example they covered up a race bike and told the tester that he is about to ride the realllllly relaxed and very comfortable endurance model. And surprisingly a lot of testers described the ride as being very relax and comfortable.

Same thing happened when they put the tester on endurance bike and told him that he is riding the super stiff, sporty and whatnot bike. Majority of testers described the ride exactly like that.

I'd appreciate any help!

Take care
Jurgen

Last edited by: YouYou: Oct 31, 14 11:40

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Re: Looking for an interview here on Slowtwitch - and I just don't find it! [YouYou] [ In reply to ]

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Devlin

Oct 31, 14 11:41

Post #2 of 3 (384 views)

YouYou wrote:

Sure it's not the one on wheels? (Well, not entirely wheels specifically...)

http://www.slowtwitch.com/...perception_4571.html

John

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Last edited by: Devlin: Oct 31, 14 11:42

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Re: Looking for an interview here on Slowtwitch - and I just don't find it! [Devlin] [ In reply to ]

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YouYou

Oct 31, 14 11:51

Post #3 of 3 (369 views)

John,

That is it ! The part that I was looing for is actually in the thread.

I've participated in numerous blind product studies over the years where we controlled bikes or the wheels (I've done this twice with a bike manufacturer during development work around a pro team, and many times with wheels) with fabric shield tensioned between seat post and stem, flat black rattle can paint on everything, etc. In each of these studies, the entire subject group including pro riders, engineers, and other industry people with LOTS of experience, struggled to find any real differences between any of the bikes, until after the study was de-blinded and everybody (including me) instantly began to try and rationalize it all� This is just human nature, we all do it, and from experience, it is nearly impossible NOT to do it.

One of the major discoveries was that after controlling for seat post (round post shimmed into aero frame so as to not give it away) not a single rider found the aero road bike to be less comfortable, less compliant, etc, than the identically setup 'endurance' or 'roubaix' bike (clearly this leaves room for the aero seat post to be why people feel aero bikes are less compliant..seatposts generally have more effect on bike compliance in the lab than frames do, but that's another story). We ran blind wheel tests a couple of times a year at Zipp to benchmark competitive wheels and our own prototypes, and we also found that blinded riders were generally unable to tell the difference between stiffness and inertia, had no reliable feedback on weight, lateral stiffness, or comfort in general, and in the end were generally only able to pick out the aero wheels because they were riding laps around a closed park environment using power, so the more observant ones would notice speed differences. In the end, we sort of determined that when riders didn't know what they 'should' feel, they really struggled to find differences in stiffness, compliance and weight between frames or wheels. The strongest correlation we ever saw was to tire pressure, but not in the way you would expect. Almost everybody assumed the setups with lower tire pressure to be the endurance bike and would then score it exactly as you would expect a magazine review of a comfort bike to look�so we determined that we all naturally would latch onto something we were confident in, in this case comfort, and then would proceed to perceive everything you expected from that bike: less aero, less stiff, better damping, etc. Imagine the shock for the group when it turned out that the it might have been a super stiff race bike, or an aero road bike! Let the rationalizing begin!

Thanks a lot for your help
Jurgen

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