Thursday, June 28, 2012

Front Center: Someone is even nuttier than me

First, recall my front center non-rant.

Check it out: Richard Sachs doesn't measure (or know) the head tube angle or trail on any of his frames. Just designs entirely around front center.

Wow. I agree with ERichie that front center is super important - but I am amazed that you can produce a bike that rides well without taking into consideration, or even measuring HTA or trail.

To be fair, I think those things matter quite a bit more for mountain bikes (Sachs does only road and CX stuff). Still, an interesting perspective from someone who is the epitome of framebuilding success, with literally thousands of happy customers.

2 comments:

Hassan is melting said...

Richie Sachs? What???? Have you gone to the asshat side? That guy and his minions... yikes.

I'm so disappointed.

ps. once my voice returns I'll give you a call.

Johan Larsson said...

Well, from what I can see his (Sachs) fork rake and head tube angle measurements ends up very normal anyway. That his method works goes as a proof that his frame configurations doesn't vary much. It surely isn't a recommended way to do things, but it works for him and his bikes. I'm quite sure that if he ever had have a need for configuring bikes for front loads, or been making mountain bikes for that sake, he would have developed an other method of designing frames.