Frame
The frame of a racing bicycle must, according to the UCI regulations, be constructed using a "main triangle" with three straight tubular shapes—the top tube, down tube, and seat tube. These three tubes, and other parts of the frame, need not be cylindrical, however, and many racing bicycles feature frames that use alternative shapes. Traditionally, the top tube of a racing bicycle is close to parallel with the ground when the bicycle is in its normal upright position. Some racing bicycles, however, have a top tube that slopes down towards the rear of the bicycle; the "compact" frame geometry was popularized by Giant.
Frame manufacturers are free to use any material they choose in the frame. For most of the history of road racing, bicycle frames were constructed from steel tubing, and aluminium and titanium alloys were also used successfully in racing bicycles. Racing bicycles in these three materials are still commercially available and are still used by some amateur racing cyclists or in vintage racing classes. However, virtually all professional road racing cyclists now use frames constructed from various carbon fiber composite materials, and a typical modern carbon fiber frame weighs less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs).
Particularly since the introduction of carbon fiber frames, the shape of the tubes that make up the frame has increasingly diverged from the traditional cylinder, either to modify the ride characteristics of the bicycle, reduce weight, or simply achieve styling differentiation. However, a recent trend in road racing bicycle frame design is tubing claimed to reduce aerodynamic drag, adopting many design features from time trial bicycles. While many professional riders use such bicycles, as of 2012 they have not been universally adopted in the professional peloton. Such frames are typically slightly heavier than comparably-priced frames without aerodynamic shaping, and reviews of such bicycles have indicated that ride and handling characteristics of many have been inferior to more conventional bicycles.
Read more about this topic: Racing Bicycle
Famous quotes containing the word frame:
“A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe, and of such valor as God himself.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He drew the curse upon the world, and cracked
The whole frame with his fall.
This made him long for home, as loth to stay
With murmurers and foes;”
—Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)
“Human life itself may be almost pure chaos, but the work of the artist—the only thing he’s good for—is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning. Even if it’s only his view of a meaning. That’s what he’s for—to give his view of life.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)