C Wright wright9_nojunk@nojunk_mac.com said:The latest issue of Bicycling Magazine (Sept. 2005) has a review of a
Pinarello F4:13 and, among many other things, they comment that "it's also
one of the sharpest-cornering bikes we've ever ridden - your could
practically rub your hip on the road and not worry about blowing a turn."
That got me to wondering if, by design, one bike can really corner better
than another and, if so, why? If cheap entry level bikes are excluded and
the comparison is limited to bikes with high quality aluminum, carbon or Ti
frames and a reasonably good set of wheels why would one bike be able to
corner better than another? Or, would the major factor simply be tire
compound?
If there really WAS a bike that allowed taking a corner significantly
faster than any other bike on the market (or at least much faster than
most), it would be virtually impossible to lose a criterium race from
the lead group since you could simply motor through the final corner
5mph faster than everyone else and drop them like rocks down the
finish straight.
.... which of course makes the whole thing sound ridiculous (like the
equally bogus claims of several minutes certain aero equipment can
save in a time trial, since all it would take for anyone in the top
half of the Tour de France time trial to blow Lance away would have
been that magical equipment).
My guess is that the marketing folks from the company involved put an
idea in the magazine writer's head prior to the test ride, so the
writer felt whatever it was he expected...
Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame