Res Ipsa Locuitur. Again, Freek, I believe is right on. The stem did not hold the bars, i.e., it stunk! Edward Albert Chappaqua, New York, U.S.A.
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 6:00 PM, Freek Faro <khun.freek@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 to
> 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), TdF
> 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 be
>> 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
>> >
>> > =0A=0A=0A