Okay amigos, one last try and then I shall go back to work and remain forever silent on this topic...
Of course it was _possible_ to build a frame overnight if absolutely necessary, but to me the whole scenario is a bit silly. Consider what really happens after a stage is completed. The racer gets hydrated (even back then) and cleaned up. There's a doping control for the stage and race leaders. Then a massage. Then he eats and goes to bed. Now, to necessitate a completely new frame, there would have to be drastic changes to the geometry. Bear in mind, though, that Merckx was thorough in his preparations, and really wasn't about to change seat position and so forth by more than a few millimeters at a time.
Be that as it may... sometime during those post stage tasks, he has to discuss these _drastic_ changes with the frame builder. The frame builder either has to drive home or convey these changes over the phone. But the phone service in Italy is unreliable and fax doesn't yet exist. Bear in mind too that the builder (who is also a race mechanic to the stars) has been up all day working the race. So now the bike is build overnight using pre-built sub-assemblies, without taking any time for drawings or planning. On the other hand, if you're using pre-built sub-assemblies, how different is the geometry? And if that's the case, why bother with a new frame.
Anyway, now the frame has to be painted. I know a place in Italy where some shepherds claim to have seen the Archangel Michael. If you're lucky, your workshop is near such a grotto. So let's say you painted the frame there, and the sainted angel made it dry more quickly. Now you have to assemble the bike and quickly test ride it.
Next you have to transport said bike back to the racer's hotel
by breakfast. At that point, Merckx has to test ride it and
get it adjusted to his satisfaction. How often was this
supposed to have happened?
Ciao amici,
Fred "San" Rafael Rednor - Arlington, Virginia, USA
> This topic must have hit the overload button with me as I
> somehow awoke at
> 3am thinking about it. I would suspect that the changes a
> racer would want
> overnight would be in the toptube length or seat angle. I
> suspect that the
> rear triangle & fork would already be completed. What I'm
> not sure about is
> what else could be done ahead of time. Could the builder
> have the headtube
> completed and just cut the seattube end of the toptube once
> he had the length and
> angle? This may not have been that difficult. I think some
> of the members
> were picturing a complete bike build done overnight,
> including all the
> dropouts, fork tips, raking the blades, braze-ons, etc. I
> doubt that is what
> happened. But, as odd as it might seem, I do believe this
> could have happened.
> Lou Deeter, trying to overcome sugar rush from yesterday,
> Orlando FL.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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