At 2:39 PM -0700 9/21/08, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>I don't even get excited about ones owned by famous racers. The older I
>get, the less I'm inclined to hero worship.
Even though I do not worship heros any longer, I do get excited when I have the opportunity to examine their bikes. The reason is simple: The bikes show what these riders thought to be the best equipment for a given purpose at a given time. This holds especially true in the old days of the CR timeframe, before riders actually rode the bikes they were paid to ride.
When you look at Fausto Coppi's Bianchis, you see bikes that are what every Bianchi Reparto Corse bike would have been if Brian Baylis had made them. When you see Eddy Merckx' bike, you see what a super-strong rider wants from a bike. Comparing the bikes of two French amateur racers, one an also-ran on a standard Rochet, the other a serious winner on a custom-built Bianco, shows a world of difference in geometry, workmanship, setup and more.
As I have tested many bikes for Bicycle Quarterly, I have come to realize the importance of feedback between builder and riders. Those world championship stripes often are just a marketing gimmick, but at their best, they represent some rigorous testing that influenced the design and execution of the bikes that carry them. Of course, the professional team bikes represent this at the utmost.
The famous racers were/are exceptional riders, and to understand the interplay between machine and body that made them champions is of great interest to all cyclists. I feel that makers whose bikes never have been ridden in anger have a hard time figuring out what makes a bike special. As KOF bikes become collectors' items more than actual performance machines, there is a danger that they lose their performance edge. Any framebuilder would do well to study carefully what Gino, Fausto, Eddy and others rode.
A different topic is how to sort the true bikes from the fakes. I have seen some horrendous fakes that supposedly came from team mechanics...
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
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