Seat Stays....?
Yup, you have clamped them into something SOLID on the chassis, but unless they are clamped TOGETHER at the TOP (as they meat the seat...) and that creates a wide-based 'triangle) then what EXACTLY have you attached it to....? A fibreglass seat which you can BEND with the pressure of a single finger!
The seat is ALREADY mounted in this way via the seat stay and that is BETTER at resisting 'flex than an added stay as it's 'solidly' welded to the chassis. Additional seat stays are usually boted via a FLATTENED end which reduces the stiffness to a fraction of what it was when the tube was round.
Secondly if ONE additional stay makes a difference by stiffening the chassis..... what does the SECOND stay do if the first significantly stiffens the chassis? If two can do TWICE the job, surely, you could stop the chassis flexing AT ALL if you mounted 10 stays....?
The point about 'placebos' is NOT that they DON'T work and people don't find 'benefit' from them..... it's that, even though they HAVE no effect, users STILL claim to feel BETTER when using them!
It's not a FRACTIONAL effect, either. Staggeringly, when medical trials on older HIGHLY EFFECTIVE drugs are done using a parallel placebo test as well, the placebo often has MORE effect than does the REAL DRUG!!!!.
People on placebos for high blood pressure ACTUALLY see their blood pressure DROP if they use them. It's fun to note that RED placebos have MORE effect than WHITE ones!
Don't believe that because you can 'go faster' with seat stays that they ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING! We are all subject to the placebo effect..... and it's damned annoying, too! Try each modification 'blind'. Let your machanic change the setting WITHOUT TELLING you and see if you can 'feel' the change! THEN you'll know if it's a placebo or not!
Ian
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