CYCLING GLOSSARY

Rivendell's somewhat biased take on frame materials

Sheldon Brown's cycling glossary (does not include "stiffness")

I THINK that what framebuilders mean when they say "stiffness" is "how much or how little the frame flexes under load." That is, if you're hammering really hard, is that energy being lost to flexing the frame (or crank arms), or is it being transmitted directly to the wheel?

NB there are loads of more specific terms associated with frame construction (see that rivbikes link) that do a better job of describing what precisely is going on when you subject a frame to the stresses of cycling.

Is it possible to hammer a bike TOO hard resulting in a healthy component breaking? I am a bit paranoid about going all out on my bike in case the stresses are too much - and see the crashes thread for why I'm nervous about spontaneous equipment failure (which was, admittedly, in an older, poorly maintained bike).

I basically think about it as little as possible, otherwise I'd never ride on my wheels.

Also, ddb's crank to thread, although the "healthy" part is debatable.

I spent about 4 hours reading Sheldon Brown's glossary, especially the bits when he talks about some prototype hub briefly tested in Lithuania in 1921 and then melted down, and he still has pictures.

Sheldon brown is a legend. If I ever go to Boston I am going to pop by Harris Cyclery to chat with him.

They have his site bookmarked at the bike shop and I've heard people refer to him as Uncle Shel. Which is how I think of him, more or less.

He makes me kind of want to build crazily-spoked wheels.