Dave’s review of the new Aspero 5 riding extremely harsh (even with maxed out tire widths at proper pressures) really has me rethinking my assumptions about the “wide tire revolution” and how it relates to the “ride feel” of modern bikes.
To be clear this is not a knock on Dave or Ronan - quite the opposite - I trust their opinions enough that it’s making me doubt my own assumptions.
My thinking previously was that with the rapid evolution of wider tubeless tires at much lower PSIs than we used to run, the tire’s ability to flex and compress was doing so much more of the energy absorption and vibration damping that much of the difference of the touted ride feel between bike frames was probably overstated or at least maybe a placebo effect. I could see how on 32c road tires at 60-65 psi that the frame ride quality would still shine through a bit, but I really thought that 40c+ gravel tires at 35 psi (or lower, im fat lol) would be doing so much of the work and compressing enough over bumps that the flex in the frame/post/fork would be so removed from the rider that those qualities would be effectively indistinguishable.
I understand their analogy about the bike and tires basically being a series of stacked springs , but I guess I’m just surprised how poorly they rated the harshness of that frame where I thought it wouldn’t have been a noticeable factor in the equation.
I guess my real question is has anyone noticed the same thing when riding these types of modern, large aero tubed bikes? I’ve been casually shopping for a new semi aero endurance type road frame (Rose Shave, new Endurace CFL etc for example) under the assumption that the ride feel would be pretty much indistinguishable, and focusing on geometry and fit as the sole differentiator as to how the bike would likely feel. Is the Aspero (and presumably other similar gravel race/ semi-aero endurance frames in this category) an outlier in how rough it rides? Are the vast majority of other less distinctly race oriented semi aero bikes probably all pretty similar in feel as I previously assumed or am I gonna have to test ride a bunch to get a good grasp of how they really feel under me?