Lycra shorts.
The nicer modern wool shorts are ok, but I'm not going to ride 21 straight centuries in them.
Doland Cheung SoCal
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of kyle-chrisbrooks@earthlink.net Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 1:35 PM To: Tom Dalton; Classic Rendezvous Subject: RE: [CR]history rewritten on Versus TV (some Off-Topic material)
I saw that segment during the Versus TV Tour coverage, and I wondered what other people thought of the list of the "top 5 innovations" in the Tour (and racing in general, I suppose). The list was as follows: 5 - rider/team car race radios 4 - clipless pedals 3 - team "follow" cars 2 - integrated brake/shift levers 1 - the derailluer
Now, Bobke's misinformation about the derailluer's invention aside -- what did people think of this list? I don't have a big quibble with the derailluer listed as #1. I'm sure all of us love derailluers -- vintage, on-topic, or otherwise. But what about some of the others? Integrated brake/shift levers? Clipless pedals? Nice inventions, both, but have they really improved racing? Made the racers faster? Made the bikes that much better? Hmmm. . .
I'm getting into some off-topic stuff here - but one item I really take issue with is the inclusing of team car race radios. How Phil Ligget could even read this list on the air makes me chuckle, since he's commented several times in the past couple years how he thinks these radios have ruined racing and should be eliminated (granted, I doubt Phil came up with the list, or was even asked for input on its content).
Then, the question is, what "innovations" would you put on the list instead? Lightweight steel alloy tubing (such as 531)? Aluminum components? Now I'm getting into some really off-topic possibilities - but what about carbon fiber? (17 lb bikes WITHOUT drilling the bike to the brink of failure?) Aerodynamics? (remember LeMond beating Fignon in the final time trial of the '89 tour?).
Just wondering if anyone had some thoughts on it.
Kyle Brooks Akron, OH
> [Original Message]
> From: Tom Dalton <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
> To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>; Jan Heine
<heine93@earthlink.net>
> Date: 7/20/2007 10:00:30 AM
> Subject: [CR]history rewritten on Versus TV
>
> During last night's TdF coverage on versus, there was a tiny morsel of
vintage bike content. In a brief segment about equipment innovations
there were a couple of shots of what appeared to be an old Molteni team
bike, with SR equipment. It was pretty thrashed and used to represent
that arcahic old friction shifting with it's 1st gen SR rear der and
knobbly shifters. To their credit, Versus identified derailleur gears
as the most significant technological chane to hit the Tour during it's
history (pharmaceuticals aside, I suppose). Seems like a good choice to
me anyway.
Then I had to shudder just a bit, when Bob Roll attributed the invention
of the derailleur to Tullio Campagnolo. Now, as far as I'm concened,
Tullio invented the light bulb, the Diesel engine, and the integrated
circuit, but I'm pretty sure he did not invent the derailleur. In fact,
I'm pretty sure that he did not even invent the parallelogram body that
Campagnolo first used on the GS. It's my
> understanding that there is some Juy guy who can take credit for some
major invention related to derailleurs, though having not yet read "the
book," my knowledge is very spotty.
>
> Can someone with more credibility that me (that's a pretty open set
> of
folks) please shoot Bobke an email at Versus TV and set him straight?
Jan, you're the first person to come to my mind on this one.
>
> Tom Dalton
> Bethlehem, PA USA
>
>
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