Re: [CR]New evidence on aluminum cranks and tread for friendly discussion

(Example: Framebuilders:Brian Baylis)

In-Reply-To: <9A2A8F73-19D7-4EF0-B2B2-AB1C75FC580B@earthlink.net>
References: <a0623098fc25dc5b56fdb@[192.168.1.33]>
Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 08:40:11 -0700
To: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>, CR Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]New evidence on aluminum cranks and tread for friendly discussion


>I'm struck by how his writing in Le Cycliste reads like the kind of
>hyperbole written in Bicycling magazine today! As they say, the
>more things change, the more they stay the same?!

Rebour and Le Cycle certainly were bike industry insiders, not keen on rocking the boat too much. However, here is something from the same article I quoted earlier on the French National Championships in 1950:

"Finally, we have to discern a prize for elegance to the bike of Bobet.

The racer who shows up at a race with such a well-finished bike shows his love for their bike, and that is a good thing, which may foreshadow their performance. [Bobet's] bike showed care in the smallest details. The chrome-plated lugs were very finely thinned.

[...more description of Bobet's bike...]

Following the example of the great Italian champions, whose bikes always are models of elegance and finish, our racers owe it to themselves and to their builders to present themselves at the start line with impeccable machines. There should be no rolls of electric tape on the frame and handlebars, no pieces of inner tubes holding the water bottles in place, none of these unappealing solutions that now seem to date back to the heroic age."

Note that Bobet won the race, so his impeccable bike did "foreshadow" his performance.

Can you imagine Bicycling exhorting racers to pay more attention to present their bikes better? (Of course, perhaps Rebour was just articulating what the industry and sponsors wanted to see anyhow.)

In the 1970s, Rebour once showed a "drillium" derailleur from Eddy Merckx' bike with the caption: "One wonders about the purpose of such insignificant weight savings on this component." (Le Cycle August 9, 1971.)

Maybe we just have moved further down the slippery slope...

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com