Donald Gillies wrote: I was surprised by an article about Darrel McCulloch and his work for the Australian national cycling team. In particular, he stated, "The life expectancy for these bikes is 12 months at the maximum" (article written June 2006).
http://www.llewellynbikes.com/
For any CR members who were sponsored racers in the 1970's and early 1980's, what do you think was the life expectancy of your bike ?? Was it 1 year, 2 years, 3 years?
What was a typical failure mode - A crash? A tube separating or starting to tear? A braze-on that broke-off ?? Or is it just that the bike looks ragged and - the factory or the sponsor is not set up to do repaints ?? Thanx.
Don, These are good questions. They are also questions that I can't answer, but I will speculate that the life expectancy of a "classic" steel frame in the hands of an elite rider was probably greater than it is for a modern frame in the same circumstances. A lot is made on this list of the fatigue resistance of steel. A lot is said to imply that if a steel race bike failed, it was probably badly made. I've heard it said that with classic steel, only big strong ridres broke frames, but everyone else's lasted forever, but that now everyone breaks frames. The general message seems to be that classic bikes were much more durable, and therefore better.
I think we can look past all this lugs or no lugs, OS or conventional, CF vs Ti vs Al, vs Fe, good vs bad, skilled builder vs hack, and see what the modern race bike is being asked to do. Namely, it's being asked to do exactly what the classic race bike did, or possibly a bit more as top riders become stronger (don't ask how!). At the same time the bike is being asked to do this job, it's mass is being reduced appreciably. That's it. Different materials, configurations, and joining techniques can take you a certain part of the way, then you start having to make other concessions. With more money in the sport, and a trend among consumers to be more and more willing to pony up, the concessions to durability have become more acceptable.
Tom Dalton Bethlehem PA USA
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