Re: [CR] Heine's "The Competition Bicycle-A Photographic History" A Brief Review

(Example: Racing:Roger de Vlaeminck)

Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:29:13 -0800
From: "Rachel Valiensi" <valiensi@mac.com>
To: Jan Heine <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] Heine's "The Competition Bicycle-A Photographic History" A Brief Review
cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>

Hullo All, I received my copy of Jan's book on Monday. What a nice surprise; I forgot it was coming. I'm very pleased with the book. The photography is outstanding, and although the write-ups are brief they are informative. The range of bicycles covered was also refreshing. I especially liked the Charlie Cunningham MTB and the Petersen racer, but that is way off topic... I hope Jan does a second volume. Cheers! James Valiensi Norhtridge, CA, USA On Wednesday, November 19, 2008, at 08:01AM, "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net> wrote:
>At 12:41 AM +0000 11/19/08, gholl@optonline.net wrote:
>
>>In short, this book is interesting, and well done, but limited in scope.
>
>Thank you for the review, George. Considering the vast history of
>racing bikes, any book on the subject has to be limited in scope!
>
>I, too, have a list of bikes I would have liked to include, but the
>book would have ended up with 1000 pages, and cost $ 500. I doubt
>there is much of a market for a book in that price range, and of
>course, we also were limited by bikes that still exist and were
>available for photography. Perhaps we can expand on the theme in
>another book in the future.
>
>For the choice of bicycles, we set out to show only bikes that
>actually had served in competition, not look-alikes. Our goal was to
>show different areas of competition, from amateurs to Tour de France
>champions, men and women, including randonneurs, newspaper carriers
>and mountain bikes. For important areas, we have more bikes, whereas
>the "fringe" gets one bike each...
>
>We did not compile a list of makers, but selected bikes with
>interesting history. We also wanted bikes that represented technical
>milestones, not many duplicates of the same type.
>
>For example, for Campagnolo-equipped bikes, we have seven: One is
>Fiorenzo Magni's 1948 bike with the Cambio Corsa. Then we have a
>top-of-the-line Bianco with all the best 1950s equipment, including
>Gran Sport derailleurs and 3-piece hubs, but still with Stronglight
>cranks, Mafac brakes and many other parts Campagnolo did not yet
>offer. The 1965 Cinelli shows how the group concept had evolved the
>Record group, which was lacking only brakes to be complete. Eddy
>Merckx' 1974 bike has the full Nuovo Record, including the brakes.
>Peter Weigle's 1975 time trial machine is a great example of the
>drilled-out components of that era. Greg LeMond's 1981 bike is
>equipped with the Super Record group, the ultimate expression of this
>classic component set. Sean Kelly's 1991 bike has a mix of C-Record
>and Chorus and old SL pedals, showing that racers were not always
>happy with Campagnolo's products during the "dark" ages, but his bike
>already points to the future with its modern slant parallelogram
>derailleurs.
>
>For riders of these bikes, have a yellow jersey in the Tour (Magni),
>an independent racer, two American amateurs, a world champion
>(Merckx), a future superstar (LeMond) and one of the greatest
>Classics riders ever (Kelly). Their bikes provide a good overview of
>Campagnolo's history.
>
>We also included Andy Hampsten's Giro d'Italia machine because it
>contrasted so nicely with LeMond's Gitane. LeMond's bike was a
>traditional European bike, entered by a European team, unchanged
>since the 1970s in most respects. Hampsten rode for an American team,
>used an American frame, Japanese Dura-Ace parts, index shifting,
>clipless pedals and a criterium geometry. One was the past, the other
>the future, but in a nice twist, LeMond was even more successful than
>Hampsten.
>
>Kelly's bike then shows how Campagnolo reacted by developing their
>own index shifting, and finally got it right after much trial and
>error. That is the history I wanted to bring out in the book.
>
>Similarly, we chose two 1920s racing bikes: One an Automoto which
>still had the brakes clamped to the seatstays, but had a lugged
>frame, the other an Alcyon with a welded frame, but more modern
>brakes. Both are big, heavy brutes of bicycles, which showcase the
>type of machines these riders used to conquer the brutal Tour de
>France stages of the day. Not coincidentally, Automoto and Alcyon
>were the two companies that dominated the Tour in the 1920s.
>
>Gino Bartali's and Fausto Coppi's bikes from the 1949 Tour de France
>form a nice contrast. Bartali was old-fashioned, and his bike showed
>it: Cervino derailleur with shifter paddles, and a geometry that is
>straight out of the 1930s. Coppi's bike was much more modern, just
>like the rider, with finely thinned lugs, modern geometry and Simplex
>derailleurs. Each represented its rider. Both worked equally well,
>and it was only due to a crash that Bartali came second and Coppi won
>that year's Tour.
>
>We ended the book with Rominger's hour record bike, because it shows
>the end of an era. It has a classic steel frame (lugged, but with
>aero tubing), but carbon disc wheels and aero bars are harbingers of
>radical changes about to come. I decided not to get into modern
>carbon bikes, because they deserve their own book, once the dust has
>settled a bit, and we have gained enough distance to see the big
>picture. Perhaps we should have titled the current book "The Classic
>Competition Bicycle"?
>
>Which is your favorite bike in the book? Mine is Coppi's Bianchi. Its
>frame workmanship is sublime, and it's even my size!
>
>Jan Heine
>Editor
>Bicycle Quarterly
>140 Lakeside Ave #C
>Seattle WA 98122
>www.bikequarterly.com