My Brennan and Sieber track bikes from around 1930 and 1937 respectively ride as well as bikes made in the 1970s. They are exceptions because they have modern type head angles, fork rake and trail. Many pre-war bikes have very slack head angles. The effect on ride and handling can be quite bad if the head angle is shallow, say 68 degrees and there is too little fork rake. This gives very ugly floppy steering. A prime example for this affliction would be a BSA American Path Racer. Its a little unfair to point to an early BSA but the design persisted into the 1930's if I remember.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
> All these pre WWII frames I read about on CR and
\r?\n> salivate over the pictures of: do they ride as
\r?\n> wonderfully as they look? I have not yet ridden a
\r?\n> pre-war frame. With the same hub/rims/tires and drive
\r?\n> train on a pre-war frame and a post war frame, would
\r?\n> they ride about the same? Put another way, did frames
\r?\n> get better in the 50s and 60s and 70s, or were fine
\r?\n> lugged steel lightweight frames of the 20s and 30s
\r?\n> fundamentally just as good as the fine lugged steel
\r?\n> lightweight frames that came later?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Don Wilson
\r?\n> Los Olivos, CA USA
\r?\n>
\r?\n>
\r?\n> D.C. Wilson dcwilson3@yahoo.com
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