Convention, unconvention

摘要

How do people decide the correct balance between form and function? For years, large touring bikes had heavy, slow steering, and then aggressive companies began to apply their engineering knowledge to this problem. Shortly the market was flooded with lighter-steering machines. As soon as the word got around, it was no contest-all makers had to follow suit or have their products rejected by riders now accustomed to a higher level of function. The same happened with cruisers. Fashion dictated a large steering rake that would normally make control heavy, but engineers found ways to deliver the look of sloping fork tubes with the function of a more upright (but unseen) steer axis. Lighter, more pleasant steering was the result.