Here is an interesting thought.... 1975 Bike weight: 24lbs Body weight: 180lbs 2002 Bike weight: 17lbs Body weight: 225lbs :)
John Quigley
Oklahoma City, OK
>From: "Don Ferris" <ojv@earthlink.net>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: RE: [CR]using classic bicycles, well?
>Date: Thu, 9 May 2002 09:22:33 -0600
>
>
>richardsachs@juno.com writes:
>
> > ...and the masi bicycles that were
> > race-ready in the 70s are useless in today's
> > racing environment.
>
>Gilbert Anderson writes:
> >I think with proper training ( what you see before you son is a friction
> >downtube shifter that operates like this; back and forth) and education
>an
> >early Masi would be extremely competitive in actual competition against
> >modern equipment.
>
>I think you're both right. I think Richie's point is that there is a
>cutoff
>where a classic becomes a liability and at the higher levels of racing, it
>would be. A couple of years ago I'd occassionally dust off my old
>Paramount
>for the hell of it and show up for fast group rides. I never had a problem
>keeping up even when using a 52/49 and a 13-26 for the hilly routes in my
>area. I could ride at the front, even on the climbs. On road sign sprints,
>the downtube shifters were a definite liability, sometimes I wished for
>more
>gear choices, but they were wants, not needs. But in a race environment,
>I'd
>rather have the modern gear especially if you contested sprints. Today,
>I'm
>off the back on my thoroughly modern 16 pound (steel) wonderbike. Twice as
>many gears and 7 pounds less bike weight don't make up for my lack of
>training or the 20 or 30-odd pounds of cottage cheese I've spread over my
>body. Like that guy who rides that Trek says, "it's not about the bike"
>and
>I had that proved to me again last night on the MTB by some guys on
>singlespeeds.
>
>Cheers!
>Don Ferris
>Littleton, CO