I used to work for a LBS chain that is a big Serotta dealer, and by the mid-90's, when they were selling significant numbers of bikes, Ben Serotta said in a number of different ways that he'd rather build bikes correctly than build them as light as possible. David "Sometimes light ain't right" Feldman Vancouver, WA
Nice article in the March/April 2008 ROAD BIKE magazine that includes team riders perspectives on the various frames used by the 7-Eleven squad, including the MURRAY and HUFFY frames made by Ben Serotta (also includes discussion by Ben) and those built by Eddy Merckx.
Additional discussion about a few special "gray market" custom frames like one built by Ugo DeRosa for Bob Roll with special hand-cut stickers. Turned out that the frame was given to Bobke free-of-charge, but he unfortunately crashed it on the first day of the Tour. He later had the frame repainted by Cycle Art and equipped it with a Campy 50th Anniversary grouppo -- per Roll, "That bike was money".
Also brief mention of the Rossin built team bikes initially used, and Ron Keifel's praise of the Gios Super Record frames given to the National Team members following a factory tour. Ron mentions how they popped out the original GIOS fork crown coins and replaced them with American nickels.
Pretty negative comments about the Serotta built Huffys that used the light True Temper tubing --- i.e., problems with tube breakage. Ben Serotta's discussion in the article cited the pressure that was placed on him to use this tubing, and that "Never again would he be pushed by a team" to build lighter bikes with thinner walled tubing such as True Temper which proved to fail under race conditions.
Some nice vintage race photos in the article.
For what's it's worth, recommended reading in my opinion.
Regards, Kevin Kruger - Grantville, PA
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