compliance is in the terminus of the blades, if the blade is raked. if the blade is straight, then the bending moment of the fork is shifted to the steerer

This isn't true for monocoque carbon forks that can be laid up to be compliant in one direction and appose twist in another regardless of blade shape. Carbon fishing poles are straight, they certainly have compliance. I can make a super strong and stiff steerer/crown lay up and "carbon fishing poles" for fork blades if I don't have to worry about cold-gluing or bonding the fork in pieces. If the fork is made in one mold you can do just about anything with it in terms of locating the compliance. Imagine a fork with "fishing pole" lay up on the front and back of the blade, but stiffer material used on the sides up near the cown. The bending would occur where the stiff lay up ended from the crown down regardless of blade shape.


Fork failures should not necessarily occur at the crown, this is one of the reasons for 1.5" or similar tapered sizes

-SD

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https://www.kickstarter.com/...bike-for-the-new-era

You can play around with seat padding, magic seatposts, fluffy tires, and flexy forks all you want. But, if you're really looking for plush, try Titanflex:

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"100% of the people who confuse correlation and causation end up dying."

"This isn't true for monocoque carbon forks that can be laid up to be compliant in one direction and appose twist in another regardless of blade shape."

i'm no fork expert. i'm certain what you say is true, though i haven't ever (yet) been a beneficiary of it. my "era" as a bike maker featured straight blades by companies like wound up and colnago, and i never experienced the fishing pole paradigm. i'll have to bring myself up to speed in the type of fork design about which you write.

"Fork failures should not necessarily occur at the crown"

nevertheless, this seems to be the place where most fork failures seem to me to happen. or did happen. and, btw, i'm talking about the "good" fork failures, that is, the failures that must and will happen on a testing machine.

if this is not your experience at felt, note i'm more than a decade out of the bike business, so, maybe forks fail in other places nowadays. but if they do, i'm guessing it's because of the newer tapered steerers, and i haven't seen 1.5" bottom bearing sizes make much if any headway into tri bikes.

in any case, do you not think my point (for the purpose of the thread) still holds, that this is the place where steerers bend, ipso facto this is the place where compliance occurs?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Wilier Cento uno Crono

bicycle design/manufacturing is as much an art as it is a science

all things same:

- sta < 90degrees will add compliance
- aero shaped dt, st, and seatpost will add compliance
- seat stay to down tube intersection below top tube will add compliance
- well engineered elastomer inserts or sections will add compliance

- carbon does not necessarily (but many times does) = smoother ride
- cushioned saddle does not necessarily = smoother ride
- more padding in shorts does not necessarily = smoother ride
- effectively engineering elastomer in an ~1in^2 x-sectional area located in seat tube is a very difficult task
- saddle/short padding can not be compared to above as too many mass and biogeometrical differences exist between rider, short, and saddle
- butt cushioning prob means you fat- therefore harsher ride due to greater upper body force applied onto saddle surface
- more saddle time = smoother ride
- chamois cream = smoother ride

stick with reputable brands, reputable models unless stretched for cash or a particular brand and model speak to you

sometimes if lucky can come out with all 4

(now if i can only get that into my signature line) ;)

best regards,
- jeff :)

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goals, personal:
- under same username post st rr of Kona m80-84ag mop, tail end of the dopers finish
- shoot age from tips on par 72
- beat SuperDave in one-on-one
all within single wk- Viva Chopin, Fryderyk; Faulk, Peter; Helmsley, Sherman; Palillo, Ron; Rogers, Fred McFeely; Sanford, John Elroy; Snuka, Jimmy- and the water bottle isn't half fuller on the other side