John,
Thanks for the clip. The things is, I don't think we were
discussing the difference between pre-war and post war bikes.
(Although, it's worth noting that a fair number of Brtish bikes
already used the same sort of frame geometry that Signor
Colnago describes. He was hardly the inventor...)
I think we were discussing the difference between current
geometry and the style that was in favor from the 1950s through
the 1980s. Even if you ignore the sloping top tubes and long
seat posts, modern frames differ in that the handlebars are
mounted much lower. Yet the racers are rarely in the drops.
>From my perspective, this is because current road racers are
expected to use the drops for only minimal amounts of time.
Fred Rednor - Arlignton, Virginia (USA)
> Was just reading the Ernesto Colnago interview. This is what
> he had to say
> in Tales from the classic peloton, January 8, 2004:
>
> CN: I've noticed the difference between the design of
> bicycles made before
> WW2, like Bartali's Legnano and the post-war bikes, such as
> Coppi's. Can
> you discuss the evolution of modern bicycle design at that
> time?
>
> EC: Certainly, I remember when I did my first Giro d'Italia
> as a race
> mechanic in 1955, I saw many riders with a very big frame and
> a very low
> saddle, which was the old style, from before the war. They
> looked bad on
> the bike and weren't very comfortable. So I said to some
> riders on the
> (Nivea-Fuchs) team 'I'll make you a smaller frame that will
> be more rigid
> and lighter, with the saddle out a bit more'. The bicycle
> frame is made of
> two triangles, in front and in back. What is the basic
> concept of a
> triangle's shape? Strength... so if I reduced the size of the
> frame
> triangles, they would gain rigidity and transmit more power.
> For example,
> back in the early fifties, if a rider had a 58cm frame and
> the saddle was
> out of the frame 8cm, I realized it would be better to have
> them ride a
> 58cm with the saddle out 10cm. You understand? So that's how
> I created a
> frame that became the moda. It was nicer to look at, a
> slimmer,
> better-looking design.
>
> CN: So your approach to bicycle design in the mid-fifties was
> a smaller,
> more rigid yet lighter frame?
>
> EC: Yes, I started to build smaller more rigid frames. Not so
> low like the
> sloping designs today that comes from mountain bikes, but we
> re-scaled the
> frame designs so riders could us a smaller frame with more of
> the saddle
> out. That was my first real theory that I applied to bicycle
> design and it
> was appreciated and then adopted widely.
>
> John Betmanis
> Woodstock, Ontario
> Canada
> _______________________________________________
>
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