The Stiffest road bike on the market?

Anonymous

Hi, I am looking for the siffest road bike frame on the market. This dean't necessarily need to be the lightest though.

I have a trek 5500 which is now about 5 years old which is pretty stiff for its day, but I think that fames must have become a fair bit stiffer since.

I have test ridden the Cervelo R3, & soloist along which A scott CR1 and would be interested to hear what peoples impression of other bikes are, i,e, the looks, specialized, treks, colnago, bmc etc........

redddraggon

I doubt there's a frame much stiffer than the one on my £270 halfords bike......it weighs a tonne though.

But that's not the answer you're looking for though is it?

pjm-84

I like my Trex 5.5 and find it very stiff. I also have an Colnago Extreme Power on order so I be curious to compare.

wildmoustache

canyon tests as very stiff. Scott Addict is pretty stiff as well for it's weight

why do you want a frame so stiff?

SteveR_100Milers

Its probably thoughtlessly made whichever one it is....good luck!

giant_man

It depends on what you call stiff. What is stiff to one rider might not feel as stiff to another. I have heard Canyons are a stiff ride, but if you have the money, I'm sure you could find the stiffest road frame out there.

portuguese mike

Isaac from germany are renowned for making very stiff bikes - very harsh ride though

sonicred007

Can I ask a question related to this thread?

Is it simpler the stiffer the bike, the more response it is to your effort as less energy is lost before it transfers to the wheels?

maddog 2

I read a report a while back which actually tested the stiffness of a sample of frames

[bike mags actually testing stuff! :shock: What a novel idea I hear you shout]

The Cervelo R3 came out top. I'll try and dig the article out.

As said though, "why you want the stiffest frame" is a more interesting question.

andyp

portuguese mike wrote:

Isaac from germany are renowned for making very stiff bikes - very harsh ride though

German bikes generally seem to have a reputation for stiffness. Marcel Wust, who is German, in his reviews for ProCycling always commented at length on the stiffness of the frame he was testing.

It's a balance though - whilst stiffness is needed you also need a level of comfort otherwise just riding the bike will tire you out.

Grifcp

andyp wrote:

It's a balance though - whilst stiffness is needed you also need a level of comfort otherwise just riding the bike will tire you out.

Amen to that. Its interesting that canyon who make one of the stiffest frames available are looking into this issue in depth.

http://www.canyon.com/eurobike2007/projekt001_en.html

APIII

andyp wrote:

German bikes generally seem to have a reputation for stiffness

The German Tour magazine regularly tests frames and components, producing a number of objective statistics regarding stiffness. It seems that the German market (and therefore manufacturers) is heavily influenced by these measures of stiffness. I believe the Look introduced the 'Ultra' models because their regular 585 and 595 frames did not perform too well in these tests.
How these measures relate to the real world riding experience is a different matter I imagine...

Pirahna

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/08 ... otout.html

andyp

Pirahna wrote:

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/08/bsnyc-2008-dream-bike-shootout.html

Thanks for posting that Piranha.

Maybe you should warn people not to follow a link if they are drinking - I just sprayed my monitor with coffee! :oops:

aracer

sonicred007 wrote:

Is it simpler the stiffer the bike, the more response it is to your effort as less energy is lost before it transfers to the wheels?

No, the evidence suggests that bike stiffness actually makes very little difference to efficiency of energy transmission.

(donning flameproof suit in expectation of getting jumped on by those who don't like me posting science on here - I'm not even going to touch on whether a stiff frame actually makes any difference to comfort, as life is too short!)

Brian B

If its the stiffest road bike that you want then check out the links below. The Storck Scenarios are reputed to have the best stiffness to weight ratio than any other bikes on the market. Its another super stiff frame built in Germany and Marcel Wurst rated it as one of his best bikes to ride ever.

I have the Scenario 0.9 and it peforms just as advertised - super stiff and responsive and they not very common which also appealed to me. Phone Wally at Poshbikes 01622 762055 as what he told me about Storck bikes turned out to be the gods honest truth.

http://www.poshbikes.com/

http://www.storck-bicycle.de/index.html

andyp

aracer wrote:

(donning flameproof suit in expectation of getting jumped on by those who don't like me posting science on here - I'm not even going to touch on whether a stiff frame actually makes any difference to comfort, as life is too short!)

You post science? :shock:

I thought it was opinion like everyone else but what do I know.

Garybee

andyp wrote:

aracer wrote:

(donning flameproof suit in expectation of getting jumped on by those who don't like me posting science on here - I'm not even going to touch on whether a stiff frame actually makes any difference to comfort, as life is too short!)

You post science? :shock:

I thought it was opinion like everyone else but what do I know.

It's easy to tell when someone posts "science", they post their opinion and then type FACT after it......FACT

sonicred007

Thank you

aracer

sonicred007 wrote:

Thank you

Was that to me? :shock:

You sure you don't want to tell me I'm wrong as it feels like you're losing lots of power when your frame flexes? :shock:

Anonymous

aracer wrote:

sonicred007 wrote:

Thank you

Was that to me? :shock:

You sure you don't want to tell me I'm wrong as it feels like you're losing lots of power when your frame flexes? :shock:

Aw bless, nobody even want's to tell you that you're wrong .
Tell us about all the races you won on your Banana Team Replica bike instead.
Don't forget the bit where you let your tyres down to combat fatigue.

Monty Dog

IME the stiffer the bike doesn't necessarily make the best handling, particularly when racing on rough UK roads. All too often in races I find myself having to back off the power when accelerating out of corners because the bikes is just jumping around all over the place or rough roads and I can't keep the back wheel on the floor. You only have to watch this years' Ghent Wevelgem and watch all mainly Unibet riders crashing to realise than an over-stiff bike doesn't mean great handling. Modern bike technology means that it's easy to achieve the right level of torsional stiffness without killing the 'feel' of the ride.

pjm-84

I never found the Isaac frames stiff.

I have and still have a 7005 frame which was and still is far stiffer then any of the Isaac frames I rode.

PhilofCas

I realise it's a little out of date but it's interesting reading nonetheless, Mr Brown comes up trumps again (by, that sounds bad)

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/rinard_frametest.html

4kicks

Leaving aside the issues of if you really NEED/Want a stiff one (ooer)

Germany´s Tour-Magazin did a test of the stiffest frames (NOT STW; pure stiffies) in mid 2006

Code : (Model, lateral stiffness, bb stiffness, fork stiffness, weight)

Overall + lateral siffest:
Jan Ullrich Vuelta, 113Nm/°, 123Nm/°, 76N/mm, 2005g
Centurion Hyperdrive 3000, 113Nm/°, 120Nm/°, 51N/mm, 1823g

Stiffest BB:
Gazelle Giro, 111Nm/°, 131Nm/°, 64N/mm, 2062g

Best STW:
Canyon F10 Ultimate (2nd test), 111Nm/°, 129Nm/°, 56N/mm, 1060g => 104.72Nm/°/kg

[Simplon Exos, 113Nm/°, 103Nm/°, 40Nm/°, 1544g]
[Scott CR1 Limited, 84Nm/°, 101Nm/°, 43N/mm, 925g => 90.81Nm/°/kg]
Think the Canyon C8 Aluminium also rated highly

Sure there are some new ones but there are some big beefy frames that are way stiffer than may of the carbon jobbies that have been mentioned.