Jan Heine wrote:
> Contrasting your experience, I find that my old bikes are faster than the
> new stuff I test for Vintage Bicycle Quarterly... Whether a placebo effect
> (I love the old machines, so I go faster?) or not, my best times all have
> been on "old" machines - whether short (2 mile) hillclimbs or 765 miles on
> a 1947 tandem in Paris-Brest-Paris 2003, where only one tandem was faster.
> And that tandem was 30+ years old, too, and ridden by two men, whereas
> ours was mixed.
It's very hard to compare directly, but I nearly concur. What I found, after many builds, new and old, is that there's a different optimal setup for bikes with STI, oweing to the more foreward hand positions needed for shifting. Matching those ergo's to a bike with downtube shifters doesn't work so well for me, I need the saddle further back to ride the bike to it's potential. Only when abrupt changes in grade become frequent does the modern setup seem to show any advantage. The STI-equipped bike of course allows out of the saddle gear changes and the (typically) more foreward saddle position makes sitting/standing transitions less of a heave. Another thing that sometimes makes riding an older bike unpleasant is any lack of grip at the saddle or bar tape during the first few miles. I sometimes have to put some water on the contact surfaces during dry weather to keep myself securely attached to the bike! As long as my position is well balanced, I can nearly sprint from a seated position while working a downtube shifter.
David Snyder
Auburn CA, USA