On compliance and comfort
In my previous post I mentioned that I was thinning the herd over here. It turns out 6 bikes is more than enough. The bikes I’m keeping all have one thing in common though, which is that they’re all really comfortable. How they achieve their comfort is definitely different. So below I rant and rave on how I believe comfort is achieved, mostly on steel frames and forks. You can achieve a compliant and comfortable ride feel in a variety of ways. Each one has its own benefits and drawbacks, which I’ll suss out below.
Option 1: Tube shape, outer diameter, and butting profile. In this recently uploaded chat with Tom Ritchey at Sea Otter, Tom talks about just how nice an old high quality 1” threaded rim brake bike rides. Having beat the hell out of my Centurion and the Randy Herse, I know exactly what he’s talking about. You can see how the fork flexes over chatter and chunk, while still basically holding a line. Like he mentions, there’s really no way to get a disc brake fork to flex in the same way as a rim brake fork. Yes you can have compliant disc brake forks (see Option 2 below), but the NDS fork leg as to be overbuilt to withstand disc brake forces.
The Randy Herse with its noodle tubes
Note: Narrower tubes will be more supple than a tube of the same wall thickness that is a wider diameter. This is very noticeable on my 25.4 mm top tube Bridgestone NB-26, compared to the 31.8mm top tube Specialized Hard Rocks. While it’s impossible to fully suss out, I’m 99% sure I prefer the ride of the Bridgestone because of the dainty top tube. I don’t even think it’s a super nice bit of steel or anything, just the smaller diameter is doing a lot to make the ride quality so nice.
Tange Champion #2 tubing with a nice small 1” head tube mmmmmmmmm
Option 2: Fork crown. As I mentioned above, once you introduce disc brakes into the equation, you gotta spec and build your fork legs differently. My Stooge MK4 and Rambler forks feel really nice over high speed chatter. But as Tom says in the video above, the comfort is coming from flex at the crown instead of the lower legs. I know Andy builds his Stooge forks to curve at specific places to be stiff enough for disc brake forces, but still flex the way he wants. He also said that the MK4 80mm offset biplane forks all bent at the biplane crown, and that the newer biplane forks are built stronger up there. Personally I’ll take the slightly under built and more comfortable MK4 fork crown. If it fails, it’ll fail safely and fairly chill. #steelisreal
Check out how nice and thin those biplane crowns are
Option 3: Tires. This is where we see most folks getting compliance these days, through the options of wider tires, lower pressures, and the whole “supple tire” thing that Jan Heine (René Herse) and Path Less Pedaled have been promoting. I’m a true believer in supple tires for certain applications (namely road, although my Stooge MK4 sports some pretty darned thin sidewall tires, and the rear tire on my Rambler is René Herse light casing thin). It makes sense— the tire is the first thing that contacts the road, so you may as well get rid of the vibrations at the source. It’s also really nice to have less rotational weight, but your mileage may vary when riding around sharp rocks off road. I personally have found that a supple 40mm tire will feel more comfortable than an overbuilt 2.2” tire. That being said folks like Grant Petersen say that the supple tire thing doesn’t make sense since you generally need to run a high enough pressure to prevent pinch flats, so you may as well run a slightly more stout casing aired down for more damped support. They both have their benefits IMO.
More tire = comfort, right?
Option 3.5: Tire inserts. Much to my surprise I haven’t ranted and raved about Cushcore on this blog yet. But it’s one of my favorite bike inventions ever. I run them on my MK4, Rambler, and Murmur (although I might be taking it off soon just to see). Yes, inserts protect your rim and prevent your tire from burping if you’re really shralping turns, but where they really shine is as damping for your tire system. Cushcore is what I’m most familiar with, and it makes a rigid bike a legitimate shredder even on crazy chunk. You should try it.
You can’t tell but there’s Cushcore XC in these tires.
Option 4: Wheels. This take is kind of half baked, but I do notice a stiffer ride feel with carbon rims than most of the aluminum rims I’ve owned. There’s a lot of variables here (for example Zipp 3Zero Moto carbon rims are engineered to have “ankle compliance”, and there’s some really stout aluminum rims out there too), but I find that to be a worthwhile rule. Also some folks say Berd spokes are a lot more compliant than steel, but I don’t have experience with them.
Plastic rims play nice on my MK4, which gets its comfort and compliance from other places
Option 5: Cockpit. You hear Ronnie Romance talking a lot about how, similar to Option 1, the bike industry has jumped the shark by going to oversized threadless cockpits and 31.8mm (not to mention 35mm) handlebar clamps. The theory goes that quill stems and 22.2mm / 25.4mm / 26mm bars are more flexible. In general I find this to be true to an extent, with a few caveats. The first being that Dr. Welby thinks 31.8mm clamp size allows bar makers to make the bars thicker where it needs to be and thinner out at your hands where you want a little more compliance (to paraphrase he said, “Look to nature— a tree branch is thickest at the base and thinnest at the ends”). Also OneUp 35mm carbon bars are well-known for their comfort, but that’s thanks to the layup and ovalized tubing. That being said, Analog Cycles says the opposite:
This has 100% been my experiences. I’ve done some serious singletrack shredding on 26mm handlebars and it’s definitely possible to fly way too close to the sun and just have a noodle cockpit that deflects every which way ). In general I find I legitimately cannot comfortably hold a line on anything technical with Ron’s Ortho Bars— both on a 9/8” threadless system and especially on a quill stem. Shit was legitimately scary. However, it feels great for rambling over chunk when I just want to take some sting out of some chatter while riding in a straight line. My 26mm Towel Racks feel amazing on my 9/8” threadless system— they take out some chatter when rambling but also are stiff enough to hold a line. At the end of the day these are all pieces of a system, but there does seem to be ways to predict how certain parts will ride.
This cockpit handlebar/stem combo was a total noodle fest, but felt nice for JRA
You can also use a suspension stem like a Redshift but in general I am spiritually opposed to these things and think it’s ass-backwards to have a handlebar that dives lower when you’re descending something chunky. In my opinion you’re better off just riding a better bike if you need a suspension stem.
Option 6: Grips. Grips are part of your cockpit but I think they deserve their own section. In general push on grips will feel more comfortable than lock on grips. I have been loving Oury and Wolf Tooth push on grips (specifically the Razer grips since they’re a smaller outer diameter than the Fat Paws) on both 22.2mm and 23.8mm bars alike. Rev grips are a unique option too that folks seem to like. Some lock on grips are engineered to be more compliant (like the Loam Labs grips I love). Bar tape matters too of course. My Wolf Tooth Supple Lite tape is my favorite, although I do love Newbaums tape wrapped around Fizik bar gel.
Oury all the bars, including 23.8mm!
At the end of the day you need to ride what’s best for you. I’m 200# with no kit so I can make things flex a bit more than my wife that weighs a lot less than me. I personally never want cockpit flex on a performance off-road bike (like my Stooge MK4 or Starling Murmur), but I do want handlebars that take out a little bit of the high vibration sting on those bikes. Think about the use case for the bike, and think of your bike in terms of a system complete system.