"lively" frame?

Lively Frames are frames that you can realy feel the road under you. It is a snappy frame that can move forward when you hit the gas in a sprint. It also is a frame that just makes your riding experience a joy when you mount it for a good spin.

Dead frames describe the feel of some carbon frames where the road feel is muted. You just can't connect to the road beneath you. The frame is NOT snappy. It is hard to wind up in a sprint or up a nice ascent. Not a fun frame to ride for a long period of time.

Stiff frames are frames normally carbon frames where the Bottom Bracket Area exhibits no noticeable flex or 'chain rub' when you get out of the saddle and crank the watts. This could be a good and bad things. Often when frame is considered stiff, it will also beat up on your body a bit during a long ride. You just feel sore all over if your frame is too stiff.

Better feeling is the opposite of dead feeling.

When you test out a bike you want to get a good combination of stiffness in the BB Area, but a lively feel everywhere else. This make your riding experience just that much more enjoyable and fun. Welcome to the sport of cycling. It is truly a lifestyle. Good luck!

ret said:

Being relatively new, I hope I'm posting on the right thread. But I've been hearing a lot adjectives discribing road bikes and frames. I don't want to sound like a 2x4, but what exactly does lively, dead, stiff and better feeling mean when discribing bikes and frames. How do these or any adjectives for that matter relate to the comfort or ride of a frame/bike?
Thanks,
ret

Thanks for your helpful and informative response.

carbonguru said:

Lively Frames are frames that you can realy feel the road under you. It is a snappy frame that can move forward when you hit the gas in a sprint. It also is a frame that just makes your riding experience a joy when you mount it for a good spin.

Dead frames describe the feel of some carbon frames where the road feel is muted. You just can't connect to the road beneath you. The frame is NOT snappy. It is hard to wind up in a sprint or up a nice ascent. Not a fun frame to ride for a long period of time.

Stiff frames are frames normally carbon frames where the Bottom Bracket Area exhibits no noticeable flex or 'chain rub' when you get out of the saddle and crank the watts. This could be a good and bad things. Often when frame is considered stiff, it will also beat up on your body a bit during a long ride. You just feel sore all over if your frame is too stiff.

Better feeling is the opposite of dead feeling.

When you test out a bike you want to get a good combination of stiffness in the BB Area, but a lively feel everywhere else. This make your riding experience just that much more enjoyable and fun. Welcome to the sport of cycling. It is truly a lifestyle. Good luck!

"Lively" is a marketing B.S. term used by morons at Bicycling magazine when they cannot think of a precise or accurate term but have to put something in a review. It has no real definition. With the same components and air pressure it is difficult to discenr differences between many frames, so reviewers resort to making [censored] up.