Re: [CR]Yesterday's equipment in modern races

(Example: Framebuilders:Masi)

In-Reply-To: <40A05204.1B579992@earthlink.net>
References: <156.34ad4045.2dd19957@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:53:49 -0700
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Jan Heine" <heine93@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Yesterday's equipment in modern races


It now becomes clear to me:

In the so-called "dark ages" of the 1980s, Campagnolo equipment in fact was far superior to Shimano's Dura Ace, thus Campagnolo-sponsored riders won most races. Clearly, they outbraked and outshifted the hapless Shimano-equipped guys again and again, adding up to many victories in all major races.

Recently, however, Campagnolo has lost their technological edge, and Shimano's equipment finally is working properly. Thus, Shimaho has been able to win 5 Tours in a row.

This is sort of the opposite of what has been reported widely (that Campy finally has caught up with Shimano in function), but the facts speak for themselves.

To compare average speeds from one year to another is not too informative. That would mean that the equipment made a huge step backwards in the year following the "Festina Affair." That year, almost every race posted much slower average speeds than before. Must have been a bad year for both Campagnolo and Shimano. (Or, as Roger Baumann, winner of PBP 1956, put it: "It wasn't because of headwinds that average speeds decreased so much!")

Recently, speeds have increased again, but most observers in Europe have put this down to improved "rider preparation," not improved equipment.

The fact that even track racing, which has not seen many improvements in equipment - some of those guys still use toestraps and steel stems! - is getting faster indicates that it is not the equipment that is behind the gains.

I really like the idea of today's equipment in yesterday's races (tongue in cheek). Consider that many very real technological advances - such as alloy cranks, multiple, easy-to-shift gears with a wide spread of ratios, powerful brakes - all were available decades before they were adopted by racers, and the idea would not have been so far-fetched in 1948. One wonders what would have happened if somebody had got a Rene Herse or Alex Singer randonneur, minus the racks, lights and fenders, put some nice sew-up wheels on. It would have been easy to assemble a 20-lb., 15-speed bike at a time when most racing bikes easily weighed 5 lbs. more and made do with many less gears. Maybe Fausto wouldn't have been campionissimo...

In fact, people tried all kinds of stuff, including aluminum frames, but found them not worth the effort. Some stuff broke, other things just didn't provide much of an advantage. When truly superior stuff came out, however, like the Mafac Racer brakes or the Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleurs, most pros adopted them rather quickly. -- Jan Heine, Seattle Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly http://www.mindspring.com/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/