Dazza,
I wouldn't describe your lovely drops as hooded. I would describe them as socket style. When I think of hooded drops I think of something like this-
Rear 'breezer style' hooded dropouts | Singular Cycles NZ
Agreed, what I was trying to convey is the surface shape between the CS and SS has some hood shape to it, it is this area that puts material in a plane that resists stains, I could cut up some CAD drawings to show this which might not be apparent in the photographs
The hooded drop outs have very little limitations on stay OD. I get why builders like them. I've built many bikes with them. The hooded drops are stiffer as evidenced by how difficult they are to H-tool them.
with a forged dropout you are bending the dropout to H tool align, with a true hooded dropout you are bending the chainstay/seat stay to set the dropout, hence lots of grunt. (H tools can lie when looking for very tight tolerances, as the dropout wheel bite facet can distort, very minor but it is there. With my cast dropouts there is still some freedom to ensure very nice alignments, more difficult then forged but then the rotational alignment is easier during the build than forged dropsBut to posit that this additional stiffness is somehow perceivable while riding well... I'm sorry that's a little too princess and the pea for me. With a classic forged drop out vs. hooded style drop out the distance from the edge of the drop out face to the chain stay where the stay is in it's round state is about 10-15mm. So are people arguing that an increase in stiffness of those 10-15mm over the length of 420-430mm is significant enough to be felt when riding? I seriously doubt that.
agreed, the distance is not important, it is the gusseted effect that the material in the hood or dropout that is a flat plane when viewing in plan view that increases the rigidity of the CS, rear axle and CS assembly, the moment is at the dropout, not the BB as many think as the BB swings. It is measurable on a jig. The large surface area as you mention makes attaching any seat stay size to the dropout. The chain stay diameter at the dropout is just as important as at the BB shell. I'm not saying any of this to get people to change what they use. As to racers having multiple bikes, yes some do. But most don't. So wheel changes do matter in my experience.
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