Re: [CR]Cinelli 1R Problems

From: Freek Faro <khun.freek@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [CR]Cinelli 1R Problems To: "Edward Albert" <ealbert01@gmail.com> Cc: tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com, mikemullett@btinternet.com, "Classic Rendezvous " <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 5:00 PM

Mike Mulletts post and bold statement caught my attention, and I started to look through one of my cycling books, not so much to prove Mike wrong, as t o gain knowledge, since the idea that pros would prefer 1A over 1R stems seemed quite logical. Ok, I grabbed the famous (he he he) 'Joop Zoetemelk, een sportleven in woord en beeld', (ISBN 90 71956 02 4) and couldn't find one pic where a TI_Raleigh team member had a 1R stem. Not only that, there's not one picture where Joop has a 1R stem, not even in his Mercier days. I'll get back to that. OK, so far. Until I found a pic of the Rotterdam 6 day of ??? At the start line, where Arie Haan (he is a football player) is holding the start gun, next to Joop is Gerrie Knetemann, and he does have a 1R stem! But alright, he's from Amsterdam, and they are well-known to be pig-headed!

Leafing a bit more through this book, I found another nice pic (within the context of the Cinelli stems), Zoetemelk (Mercier) and Hinault (Gitane), Td F 79, shoulder to shoulder in a climb, both 1A stems. Mmmm. Another pic of Zoetemelk and Hinault, same 79 TdF, hey!! Hinault has a 1R stem!

Now I know why Hinault won that Tour ...

Freek 'just kidding' Faro Rotterdam Netherlands

2008/9/23 Edward Albert <ealbert01@gmail.com>
> I don't know who was or was not using stems that looked to be 1Rs. But
> again, I will cling to my earlier assertion that those stems did not work
> properly and racers avoided them. They may have tried them out, but soon
> after they switched back.
> Re: Cinelli pushing to have them ridden. Of course he would have. Given
> the cost of sponsorship Cinelli would expect riders to use what he was
> selling. However, as in the case of frames and other parts I would not b e
> at all surprised at all if the 1R you see on a pros bike was not in fact
> either doctored to fix the problem or doctored to look like a 1R. In the
> U.S. we all know about how AMF was not AMF, Huffy was not Huffy, etc, etc .
> I can't imagine a pro rider taking the risk of his bars slipping down in
> the
> heat of the action. Just does not make sense to me. But, of course,
> neither do a lot of other things.
> Edward Albert
> Chappaqua, New York, U.S.A.
>
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 4:16 PM, Tom Dalton <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Mike,
> >
> >
> > I realize that you were associated with the SBDU and that the TI Raleigh
> an
> > d Panasonic Team bikes came from that shop, but I think this sort of abso
> > lute statement might constitute revisionist history. I know for certain
> > that specific Raleigh-riding Panasonic team members used 1-R stems duri
> > ng at least parts of the 1984 season. Yes, it is interesting that Post
> > 's boys generally steered clear of the 1-R's, and we can add to this fact
> > that many non-Raleigh pros also avoided those stems. Certainly the Rale
> > igh-equipped pros were not the only ones to avoid the 1-R, and there were
> p
> > lenty of 1-As in use across the various teams (though I recall Guimard's
> gu
> > ys all using 1-Rs at this time).
> >
> > Rather than making inaccurate blanket statements, I think it is at least
> as
> > interesting to note that while the Raleigh riders largely avoided the
> 1-Rs
> > , there were exceptions to the rule, and that these exceptions seemed t
> > o NOT be seen during the cobbled races of the early season, but rather
> were
> > seen later in the season and particularly on the TT bikes (back before
> the
> > low-pro bikes). One has to wonder what would motivate anyone to make th
> > e exception rather than just using the 1-A since it worked well and was
> the
> > choice of most of the riders most of the time. Why would Panasonic have
> > used 1-Rs at all? Might Cinelli have pushed the team to at least use th
> > e 1-R when and where possible to get the top model some exposure? Sure,
> > it was already a well known part by the 1980s, but perhaps Cinelli wanted
> t
> > o promote it since it was a more expensive part, and getting teams to use
> i
> > t would help downplay its well desreved reputation as troublesome. Surely
> > Phil Anderson didn't insist on a 1-R because he thought it looked cool,
> or
> > believed it to be "faster," so why would it be on his TT bike in the
> 1984
> > Tour, for example?
> >
> > Maybe I've misundertsood you and what you are really talking about is t
> > he TI Raleigh Team riders before the Panasonic takeover. I don't recal
> > l those bikes exclusively having 1-As, but maybe that was the case.
> > However, you refered to Raleigh Riders of the Post era, and I don't th
> > ink that Post left the team at the time of the Panasonic takeover, since
> he
> > brought them in as a sponsor, and they were certainly still riding
> Raleigh
> > s.
> >
> > By the way, and I've asked you this before with no response, do you know
> an
> > ything about the following items on the 1984 Panasonic team bikes: Brand
> > s and models of tires, freewheels, chains, or spokes? Any info on tho
> > se parts would be most welcome.
> >
> > Tom Dalton
> > Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Mike Mullet wrote:
> > Just for the record, no pro Raleigh rider of the famous Peter Post era
> ever
> > fitted a 1R stem 1A was the order of the day, 1R stem clamping was just
> no
> > t positive enough.
> >
> > Mike (ex Ilkeston) Mullett
> > Reading
> > UK