Bob Roll is also on record speaking about frame issues, especially in the Spring Classics, for 7-11 bikes. In an interview in the old Mountain Bike magazine (of all places), he talked about broken frames and that team members went to find replacements. Hampsten to Landshark (later Knickman as well), and Roll himself to a DeRosa built frame. He went on to say that those problems subsided once the team switched to Merckx frames, and the team rode those pretty much entirely. Once available, some rode Litespeed, as Hampsten did on his Alpe d' Huez win, but EM and Litespeed had their agreement in place by then, I think.
I believe the interview appeared in the issue with the cover shot of the very cool Graham Watson photo of Roll riding through the mud in Paris Roubaix, trying to remain upright. One of my favorite photos of all time. By the time of this issue, Roll was a MTB racer, as a member of Team Z, I think. Crazy world.
Apologies Dale, some of that crept into off-topic, but may sneak by as KOF material.
Greg Overton pretty sure that's how I remember it Denver area, Colorado
Quoting edvintage63@aol.com:
> Sorry for the repeat - apparently the original fell victim to some
> bad formatting ...
>
> I may have overstated the connection between the problems with the
> True Temper tubing and riders seeking alternative frames in my
> previous post on the 7-Eleven team bikes. However, those problems
> are pretty well established: Ben Serotta describes multiple frame
> failures, and Ron Keifel relates an incident in Italy where he
> finished a descent with his frame barely in one piece. There's more
> in the original article here:
>
> http://www.roadbikeaction.com/
>
> Ed Granger
> Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> "So I too sought to get to the bottom of this, and asked Roger Young, who ro
> de on the track and on the road for 7-11. Here is his response regarding th=
> e construction of the Murray and Huffy bikes:
> *******************
> "We never had trouble with the True Temper tubing, though we did find some =
> experimental designs did not endure well, but with corrections we never had =
> problems in competition and no one had a mishap that caused any injury. =
> I did ride the bikes and never had any trouble at all myself."
> **************
> Stephan Andranian
> Costa Mesa, California USA"