So , on Sunday 9 May 2004 , Aldo Ross kindly posted a link , to a photo of :
"Fausto Coppi's bike set-up for the final time trial of the 1952 Tour de France."
I sent a copy of that message to my old cycling pal , Bruce , who now lives on the Northern edge of Indiana . Bruce wrote me an e-mail message :
"That bike could still be around and could likely still win today."
I came up with what I felt was an interesting , philosophical , historically-oriented , yet basically scientific , thought-problem . I posted a message to the C.R. List :
"o.k., here's what we need to do. right now. 1.) Get like at least 50 million dollars. o.k. get more . . ."
After sending a selection of the resulting responses to Bruce-in-Indiana , and blaming him for starting the whole deluge of e-mail , here is his reply , copied below , which I now share with the entire C.R. List .
I -ESPECIALLY- like the connection between color and material , and the fact that Bruce recorded higher speeds throughout his "scientific" side-by-side test !! Proof positive !!
:^)
Raoul Delmare
Marysville Kansas U.S.A.
*I* merely offered an unintelligent observation.
*YOU* proposed a multi-national, multi-million dollar, lugged-head holy war.
I don't even know those people!
In my own, highly scientific test yesterday, pitting myself against Bill, with Bill on a charcoal (color and material), STI (Stupid-proof Tested Instrument) shifting, looks like spokes are missing, TREK - and me on an old heavy British anchor labeled '753' (probably the tonnage), with parts so old they are labeled in Latin or Italian or some other non-Anglo language, and the added handicap of friction devices on the down tube . . .
He required drinking more water than I and otherwise we were pretty even.
Though, because I had my speedometer calibrated for a larger tire, I was much faster!