Re: [CR]Classic conciousness, where are you So. Florida?

(Example: Events:BVVW)

From: <Gjvinbikes@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 23:43:09 EST
Subject: Re: [CR]Classic conciousness, where are you So. Florida?
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


In a message dated 2/15/02 3:53:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, rabbitman@mindspring.com writes:


> His riding partner is riding an Eddy Merckx mid 80's steel lugged bike that
> has been tortured with a carbon fiber fork and Sti shifters. Susan says "
> thank god you got rid of that silly fork and the those shifters on the
> frame". What???? Did this guy suddenly get faster, just because his ride
> now sports a carbon fiber fork, and a different method of shifting? Give me
> a break!
>

I got in on a Profile Bladed Raked Carbon fork close-out back a year or so ago when they were getting rid of their "old" stock of threaded steerer tube forks. I can only say that to us a shop rats these forks were Really Cheap, so I figured, sure, why not and installed it in place of the original Colombus steel fork on my '70-something Trek 930 or whatever. I thought it might help take the edge off the road buzz, or something, and maybe be a bit lighter.

Well, you know, I put the steel fork back on last summer before the LAB rally in Altoona, because I wanted to run fenders and the Profile didn't have any eyelets. I have to tell you that maybe the carbon fork did weigh a little less and maybe it did feel different on rough road a little, but I swear the bike corners cleaner with the steel fork. It just feels better, somehow, particularly when things are getting a little dicey. The Profile BRC now sits in a corner - I had been considering putting it on the poor old Raleigh Competition that needs a 9 1/5" steerer, but have not had the incentive.

I have a cheap Ti road bike I call the Ti-Mobile. It runs 8-speed STI, (the Trek is using 8-speed bar-ends), and I like it - but mainly because it cannot get paint dings and couldn't care less about getting wet. I'm maybe a couple of mph faster on it, average, but it is not as comfortable on longer rides even with its Brooks SwifTi.

They don't make carbon fiber Treks large enough to fit me and they are scarey anyway.

Glenn Jordan - Durham, NC