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You are ONE of the people to whom I defer on this subject: you KNOW about metals and I DON'T!
Can you clarify the point, please?
The resistence to scratches and the ability to avoid remaining permanently 'bent' are NOT the subjects we are discussing, here. People are NOT using 'soft, hard medium' axles to avoid scratches of to save them from a DNF thorugh a bent axle!
What they are CLAIMING (as do the manufacturers) is that the STIFFNESS (ability to resist being deflected temporarily through loading) of the axles is different between 'soft', 'hard' and 'medium' axles and it's SOLELY that change in stiffness that can be used to alter handing. I used to believe what I was told on axle srtiffness but when the likes of you (metallurgists) tell me that the stiffness of ALL steels is very similar...... I begin to smell a RAT! It wouldn;t be the FIRST time we karters have been HOODWINKED by people selling us stuff!
To answer the question:-
1) is there a way of SIGNIFICANTLY 'stiffening' an axle SOLELY by changing the alloy of steel or by using 'hardening' process and NOT by thickening the wall diameter or changing any OTHER axle-attributes?
2) would such the changes IN STIFFNESS be large enough to be REALISTICALLY noticeable in a kart?
I take your point about 'damping' and 'resonance' but I have yet to hear ANYONE claim that that they change their axles to reduce/increase the 'ringing'!
95% of karters BELIEVE that it's the STIFFNESS of the axle which is important to them! I suspect it's like religious people claiming that the MANNER in which they sacrifice their chickens alters their wheat harvest...... i.e., B*LLSH*T!
Ian
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