Roman,
I also read that little article and I think Hogg ignored
some really important factors. With modern shifters and brake
systems, it's much easier to ride with your hands on top of the
brake levers. I believe that at the moment frames are designed
to optimize that riding style. It seems to me that racers only
ride in the drops during the most extreme sprinting situations
or in criteriums.
Older racing bikes were designed so that you rode in the
drops for much longer periods of time.
Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia (USA)
> Here's part of a Q&A from current cyclingnews.com regarding
> vintage bike
> frame sizes compared to modern frame sizes. The answer is by
> Steve Hogg -
> self proclaimed bike fit expert. I'm not looking to stir up a
> controversy
> about older vs newer is better etc. - just wondering about
> the old time
> religion of bike fit/riding style and frame geometry. I was
> wondering if the
> guys that were riding seriously back then and could compare
> old vs new had
> any thoughts on this subject? I'm not sure Steve Hogg has
> his facts
> straight on old racing geometry (which I've always thought
> was no steeper
> and/or slacker in the mid 70's than modern frame geometry).
> His comment
> about having fewer gears leading to the need to spin more
> seemed bogus. Did
> riders ride in more forward possitions than today?
>
> "Modern frame sizes too small?
>
> Do today's bicycle manufacturers, in an effort to reduce
> weight, make
> bicycle frames too small for the rider that they
> are supposed to
> be catering for.
>
> Looking at older pictures of racers like Eddy, Coppi, Van
> Looy, it seems
> that these racers rode frames that may have been larger than
> today's
> frames. If you look at the saddle to bar drop, it seems that
> they do not
> have the large differences of today's racers. Van Looy made
> the comment in
> an interview in a magazine, stating that if you cannot get
> into the drops to
> get aero, what is the point.
>
> Steve Hogg replies:
>
> You are right. 30+ years ago, larger frames for a given rider
> than they
> would ride today were common. Riders had less gears to play
> with too, so
> pedaling fast for extended periods was more valued than it is
> now. This
> meant that seat tube angles were often (not always) steeper
> on many frames
> of the 70's than they are now. Leather seats of the era had
> much shorter
> seat rails than modern seats which steepened the effective
> seat tube angle
> by a degree typically. The net effect of all of this was that
> riders rode
> further forward generally.
>
> As a rider moves forward, there is a weight transfer onto the
> upper body
> which has to be supported by the arms and upper body. This
> mitigates against
> reaching low because the back tends to arch and tense to
> assist in
> stabilising the rider. As an example, forward positioned
> triathletes with
> low positions would struggle to cope if their aero bars were
> removed. So the
> answer in the 70's and prior was to have larger frames and
> hence higher bars
> relative to seat position. If you have a look at photos of
> Van Looy on the
> drops he was VERY hunched over as tends to happen when the
> seat is too far
> forward and real effort is being applied. Coppi wasn't as
> cramped as Van
> Looy and Merckx less cramped again but still, they had higher
> bars than is
> common today.
>
> Another thing that may have played a part is that races were
> often longer
> than they are now (Grand Tours were four weeks not three),
> road surfaces
> often weren't as good resulting in comfort being a higher
> priority than
> aerodynamics. Cycling then was basically a working class
> European sport
> where there wasn't a large amount of money to throw at
> biomechanical or
> aerodynamic studies and so on. Riders did the best they could
> with what they
> had."
>
> Roman "dreamin' of warmer weather" Stankus
> Atlanta, Georgia USA
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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