Rick Chasteen wrote:
> Mike, et al:
>
> >>>>>>>If you compare a Super Champion, Rigida, or MA-40 clincher from the
> '70's/'80's, you will find current clinchers are much lighter and
> stronger.>>>>
I didn't think this was the case, so I pulled some rims out of the attic and weighed on a kitchen food scale. A modern Mavic Open Pro Ceramic weighs 470gm. A Mavic MA2 is just slightly heavier at 485 gm. The recently discontinued Ambrosio Gentlemen, which I think is essentailly the old Super Champion Gentleman, is 482gm. A Rigida 1320, however, is noticeably lighter at 440gm. Conclusion, modern clinchers, at least the widely used Open Pro, are about the same weight as the average old clinchers and heavier than the Rigida, which is the clincher rim I most commonly see on 70's era bikes set up for racing. Note that the Rigida I weighed was a 27", so I'd think a 700C Rigida 1320 would be a little lighter, at least 10gm probably, so for the same size the Rigida would be about 40gm lighter than the Open Pro. Not a huge difference, but noticeable. What is a huge difference is that between any modern rim and even a medium weigh old tubular rim. A Super Champion Arc-en-Ciel, which was not considered a very light rim in the 70's, weighs 340gm on the same scale, 130gm less than the Open Pro.
Regards,
Jerry Moos