Like you, Chuck, it seems unbelievable to me too...
Despite being an ardent fan of the French cycling scene for over 30 years, I'm always been very suspicious of the *claimed* weights of those special bikes in the reliability/technical trials of yore. I have used a calibrated scale at my shop for many years and have learned things rarely weigh as little as most cycling magazine writers, or especially, bike manufacturers boldly claimed.
There is a lot of myth in the sport of cycling, and a 16 lbs. bike with fenders, racks, lights, etc. falls into that category, IMHO. I've been paid to prepare spare-no-expense, lightweight bikes for a few fast American randonneurs going to PBP (when fenders were obligatory) and that 16 pound figure makes me very skeptical. Yes, I know they were quite light considering the additional racks, fenders, lights, and all, but I wasn't born yesterday.
Just as Singer, Herse and the others wanted to win the reliability trials, they certainly *did not* want them to fail in front of the crowd and judges either! Indeed there was much prestige in winning the contests, so you didn't want to screw up and make things too light and thus, unreliable. Moreover, after a good effort to create an extremely light but usable bike by the constructeur, it still came down to needing a rider with a very strong pair of legs and a keen sense of tactics to win. Please note that the manufacturer wanted to sell more bikes, not the services of his winning rider! They often sought out some strong, yet unknown rider to use in the trials (and in the very active French cycling scene back then, this wasn't as hard as it sounds). If they used a known race-winner, then everyone would say, "Well, of course, with such a strong rider, any bike would win." So, by seeking out an up-and-coming unknown, then they could say it was the brand of bike that was so important. All in all, too often I think the rider's contribution in these trials is overlooked in the interests of the various sponsors.
At any rate, if someone still has one of these rare beauties, I'd like an accurate measurement, please. No doubt it will be much lighter than normal models that looked the same, but I would bet they tipped the scales at over 20 lbs for a 700c wheeled, 52 cm or larger bike. No shame in that at all, most randonneurs would give their eye teeth for a reliable 20 lbs bike. But this is a lot more than the hoary 16 lbs figure so often thrown about by people who never picked one of these special bikes up, much less weighed it.
And just for fun, let someone with deep pockets take a modern Ti or Alu bike with a carbon fiber fork, sew-up tires and rims, and throw in all the lightweight fasteners and special lightweight sprockets you want. But then equip it with French racks, bags, fenders, lights of the period, and all the other things needed (at least one water bottle & cage, pump, tire repair kit, etc) to ride 400+ kms in one go without mechanical failure. No fluids in the bottle(s) during weigh-in of course, but with batteries in the lights, etc. I'd bet *that* bike would still be more than 20 lbs.
So, unless this mythical French super-randonneur weighs a good bit less than a modern Ti/Alu frame w/ carbon fork of modern times, could someone please explain how this could be so? Were the components vastly lighter? (I doubt it.) Please back it up with a reliable weight measurement, not the scribbling of an enthusiastic journalist (whose magazine relies on ad income from frame builders), or some manufacturer with a vested interest in claiming an extraordinarily low weight to get more bike sales. After all, that is exactly why they participated in them.
Bill Bryant Santa Cruz, CA
on 7/1/02 12:58 PM, Chuck Schmidt at chuckschmidt@earthlink.net wrote:
> Jan Heine wrote:
>>
> (cut) Bikes were very special, with every component
>> reworked. Tubes were superlight 0.3 mm. Resulting bikes were more
>> like 16 lbs. with lights, racks, fenders, etc. Not designed to last
>> more than two or three events.
>
> A question.
>
> My newest bike is a 2002 Waterford 2800 fixed-gear road bike made from
> Reynolds 853 steel tubing with polished stainless steel lugs. It has a
> Record track group (48x16), single front Record brake with carbon lever
> (ergo guts removed), Nisi Sludi 290g sewup rims, Ibis ti stem and
> Campagnolo ti seat post with a Sella Italia SLR 135g saddle, and
> Speedplay pedals.
>
> This bike weighs 16.5 lb.
>
> Now, a 16 lb. bike with lights, racks, fenders, etc????? Please explain?
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> SoPas, SoCal