> I notice the same thing on any charity ride or a lot of brevets. It's Ti or CF up front. Still takes a good motor of course. Ti bike are almost always custom, meaning whoever is riding that probably spends a lot of time on the bike given the time and money invested. Moreover, while Ti is letter than steel, Ti frames use wider tubing. The weight difference between a Ti and steel frame is not all that different. While good CF frames are up there in price, there are a lot of lower cost models out there, making them easier for younger (and one would hope anyway, better shape) cyclists. Good steel road frames, like Ti, are almost usually custom (or in the case of Riv, custom quality and price). You are not going to see a lot of steel riders at the front of any large race primarily because there are not a lot of appropriate steel bikes out there. Especially so in Europe, where the custom bike building industry lags the U.S. signficantly. Check out the blogs of a lot of the U.S. steel builders out there and you will see that many are getting a % of orders from Europe and Asia as well. As the overseas markets begin to develop their own steel builders, I expect you will see more steel bikes in general and more leading races.
On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 6:53:38 AM UTC-5, z-man wrote: > I notice the same thing on any charity ride or a lot of brevets. It's Ti > or CF up front. Still takes a good motor of course. > > For example, my 64cm Atlantis, w/ GB 30c tires, Berthoud fenders, VO front > rack, Brooks B 17, and Berthoud bag weighs in at almost 37 lbs. > > I can take my 67cm Seven Alaris, w/standard gearing (53/39, Campy 12/29 10 > spd), a small under seat pack, and small-ish Ortlieb handlebar bag, equally > comfy Specialized saddle, carrying the same stuff, the whole rig weighs > 19.4 lbs. > > On a hilly 200 or 300k on the Riv, I'm usually mailing it in by the end. > I'm usually still knackered on the other but at the finish much sooner. > > Sent from my iPad > > On Aug 6, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote: > > > On Aug 6, 2012, at 1:00 PM, Jim Cloud <cloud...@aol.com> wrote: > > > >> I find some of the various modern Constructeur bikes, built with > >> French components from the 1960-1970's (e.g. Mafac brakes, Simplex > >> derailleurs, T.A. or Rene Herse modern manufacture cranks), to be a > >> little strange. Richard Sachs once characterized the modern > >> infatuation with the French Constructeur era bike, as the end-point of > >> touring bike design, as being in the vein of Civil War enactors. He > >> also made the point that most of the riders in the top finishing group > >> of classic brevets, such as the P-B-P are not riding bikes that evoke > >> the Rene Herse or Alex Singer randonneur bikes of the past - they're > >> riding modern carbon fiber frame bikes. I think this was a valid > >> observation > > > > I am reminded of Dr. Clifford Graves's story of PBP, in which the > technical inspector told him that his Rene Herse was "too heavy" and that > most of the other riders were on race bikes (I'd bet that the difference > was probably all of 2 kg or so). > > > > Of course, my Rivendell All-Rounder has fenders, 32 mm tires, lights, > front rack, Berthoud bag, Mafac tandem cantis, etc... And did before Jan > started publishing VBQ. My inspiration was the old Guinness book. > Initially I saw Jan as a sort of like-minded fellow, but he has gone far > beyond me in that direction. One of my other favorite bikes is a 3 speed > "club racer" type bike (I designed and built the frame) with a Carradice > Nelson that I bought from Riv at least 15 years ago. And my other favorite > bike is my old Ritchey from my racing days, with 25s on it. > > > > I much prefer Jan's event reports, interviews and histories to the tech > articles. I have never liked bike test reports in any magazine. At least > Jan makes no bones about his very specific preferences and standards, which > makes it easier to interpret his evaluations. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/8EUziu7OLzMJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
