What's with the new Lemonds?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Matt O'Toole
I was just looking at the Lemond website -- what's with the new aluminum frames? How are they
different from Treks in the same price range? Why even bother with two separate brands? How can this
possibly help dealers, who usually sell both Trek and Lemond?

Matt O.

It is a challenge for dealers to pick inventory.
Some potential customers will choose because of the name, geometry, look, sloping top tube (or not).
It is difficult to make an informed decision unless you can ride the bicycle.
You and your dealer work together to pick what fits you best and meets your budget.

Matt: The TREK and LeMond bikes have differing geometries and, as a regular on this newsgroup, I'm
sure you're aware that the only thing that matters is geometry... you could build a frame out of
Titanium and another out of bamboo and, if they had the same components and geometry, they'd ride
exactly the same. What, me sarcastic? Never!

In all seriousness, they will ride quite differently based on geometries. LeMonds will simply ride &
fit some people better than TREK, and vice versa. It was never the intent that LeMond would become
the patron saint of the steel frame, and they (the powers-that-be at LeMond) didn't recognize that
it had happened. There were definitely opportunities to be had in staying the course (continuing
primarily with steel frames, for the subset of the market that really wanted that) but the thinking
was that it was too small a market overall. Plus, in larger frame sizes, it truly is a lot easier to
design a bike that handles well out of aluminum than it is to make one out of steel, particularly if
you're trying to hold weight down.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles www.ChainReaction.com

"Matt O'Toole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was just looking at the Lemond website -- what's with the new aluminum

frames?

Quoted message said:

How are they different from Treks in the same price range? Why even

bother with

Quoted message said:

two separate brands? How can this possibly help dealers, who usually sell

both

Quoted message said:

Trek and Lemond?

Matt O.

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles said:

... in larger frame sizes, it truly is a lot easier to design a bike that handles well out of
aluminum than it is to make one out of steel, particularly if you're trying to hold weight down.

Weight I understand, but what's the relationship between size, handling, and material?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

... in larger frame sizes, it truly is a lot easier to design a bike that handles well out of
aluminum than it is to make one

out

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of steel, particularly if you're trying to hold weight down.

Weight I understand, but what's the relationship between size, handling, and material?

As a frame gets larger, it has increasing difficulty trying to resist the forces moving it, if the
tube diameters are kept the same. If you build a steel frame in a small size with a "normal"
diameter tube, vs a 63cm with the same tubing, the 63cm bike is going to be substantially more
flexy laterally. You could get around this by using a larger-diameter steel tube, but this isn't
generally done because it would be rather heavy (or suffer from the beer-can effect, due to wall
thicknesses becoming too thin to resist being easily dented). You could also simply use a
thicker-walled steel tube to increase stiffness, but this doesn't improve things nearly as much as
going to a larger diameter.

For a material like aluminum, you can build a fairly large diameter tube without weight being a
significant issue (and still have thick-enough walls to minimize beer-canning). This makes it easy
to build a frame that has greater resistance to flex in the front end.

Finally, if you've read the FAQ on shimmy, and the various reports in the newsgroups, it becomes
fairly evident that it's more likely to be found in larger frames, and within that subset, more
common in those that are more flexible. There's more to it than just that, of course, but it's a
major contributing factor.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles www.ChainReaction.com

"Jay Hill" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain Reaction Bicycles said:

... in larger frame sizes, it truly is a lot easier to design a bike that handles well out of
aluminum than it is to make one

out

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of steel, particularly if you're trying to hold weight down.

Weight I understand, but what's the relationship between size, handling, and material?