"Come Eurobike, there'll be a whole new range of Museeuw bikes on display, plus Frameforum will be able to share the full set of test data for those who like the science bits".

Eurobike opens on the 2nd of September. Everything comes to those who wait….

"Come Eurobike, there'll be a whole new range of Museeuw bikes on display, plus Frameforum will be able to share the full set of test data for those who like the science bits."

@Stan S. The full 'bells and whistles' findings of the study have yet to be made public, as stated in the above quote. A full report will be available to the press and trade at Eurobike.
That is my understanding based on info from Museeuw Bikes.

"When the four are stacked up together, its clear from the graphs how well the Museeuw flax-based frame stood up against the competition. In short, the subjective claims of the many happy Museeuw owners (and those fortunate to have ridden one in tests) are now backed-up with an objective set of results confirming what they've known all along; the Museeuw is undoubtedly one of the finest – if not the finest – performance composite frame available today."

This is a clever attempt at marketing, not objective presentation of material.

For every 27-second interval I used an FFT-algorithm to get a 2D frequency spectrum, i.e. "frequency vs. load" graph. By using the 27-second interval I could avoid any response delay of the frame when impacted. By comparing each individual 27-second frequency spectrum of the rearstay and seatpost at the same interval I was able to construct the nice 3D graphs (appr. 300 graphs put next to eachother) that were shown on Frameforum. I have to apologize for naming my axes, especially the y-axis since it actually shows how much of the original load is being absorbed. "0,8" actually means that 80 percent of the original load is being absorbed/dampened somewhere between rearstay and seatpost and NOT 0,8 percent. So the MF-5 dampens around 70 percent of the original load as where the Pinarello Prince absorbs only 45 percent of the original load measured at the rear stay.

A new website for Museeuw Bikes will be launched shortly after Eurobike and it will contain an R&D section where you will be able to find all data and facts on these tests with a more elaborate explanation and also a short explanation on the activities we are planning with Ghent University to further expand the Flax technology in bicycles.

Thanks for your interest!

The general idea was: if I could find a way to correctly measure and determine the difference between the loads that were introduced into the frame and the loads that the rider would experience, I could find out how "comfortable" a bicycle frame is quantitatively. Therefore, placing one accelerometer on the rearstay, near the rear wheel hub would get me the loads coming into the frame and an accelerometer positioned just below the saddle would get me the loads before the rider experiences them. The reason why I used 5 accelerometers was to gain insight on the effect of the design of each specific frame structure (ISP/no ISP, curved vs. straight rearstay,…). In the future I will try to analyse this data as well but for now I only focused the rear stay and seatpost data to get the broader picture.

(continued below)

I'm actually the person who performed these tests and I have to say that the original article on Frameforum dropped the ball on a couple of points. I prepared a technical presentation for the Museeuw Bikes press launch, which I also presented and could thus explain in more detail. A copy of this presentation somehow made it to the guys at Frameforum who picked it up without the proper technical explanations. I will attend Eurobike, so if any of you have any questions please come by the Museeuw bikes booth and I will gladly answer all questions.

For those of you that will not be able to make it to Eurobike next week, let me explain below what the graphs show and how I got to make the assumptions…

(continued below)

"Those vibrations have two significant parameters : amplitude and frequency. The amplitude part is how hard the shock is, while the frequency is how long that shock lasts before it is dissipated. Amplitude is measured in parts of a second, frequency in Hertz, or length of cycle. If you think of it in terms of a bell, the amplitude is the note and the frequency is how long the bell holds that note before fading away."

Frequency is length of note? Seems like the authors need a discourse in elementary physics. Frequency is how often the wave cycles in a second, and is the reciprocal of time period. If I shake the author of the article 3 times in one second, the frequency is 3 Hz. Each shaking will endure for 0.3 seconds.