I don't know about the outlaw racing at dusk, but I do seem to recall an explanation of unique frame styling. At one time in England I think? Race photos could not show the name of the builder as this was advertising and the riders would lose their amateur status. Thus the only way of identifying the builder was to make it clearly identifiable in some other way. There is no way to hide curly stays in a photo.
Bill Boston
-----Original Message----- From: Richard M. Sachs [mailto:richardsachs@juno.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 2:03 PM To: moos@penn.com Cc: sachs@erols.com; OROBOYZ@aol.com; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [Classicrendezvous] Laing stays are an Affectation?
regarding all this hellenic, etc. stuff...
my memory is foggy on some of this, but
didn't most of the non-trad 'affectations'
arise during those pre-war years when british
racing was banned on the open roads, relegated
to outlaw type time trials only at dusk and later?
does anybody recall this story...riders rode only
in black, no commercial marks on uniforms...OR
on frames. if i'm half on here, the explanation i'm
reaching for is that all the 'unusual' frames designs
we associate with this thread were born out of
a framebuilders yearning to have an identifiable
look, whether there were transfers or not, or whether
the sun was out or not.
i can't seeing any engineering gains in any of this
stuff. only decorative. regarding the hellenic stuff,
after the stay is joined someplace on/near the
seat tube, i can't figure out how it's additional length,
that part that travels to the top tube, adds, or does
anything at all.
i'm not an engineer. and i'm not old enough
to have lived through those pre-war years.
any thoughts?
e-RICHIE