[CR]PX-10 a racer?

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme)

Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 09:16:05 -0400
From: "Daniel Artley" <dartley@co.ba.md.us>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]PX-10 a racer?

With all this talk of PX-10's being an out of the box racer, I'd like to question the cognoscenti about its true ilk. My PX-10, bought in 1968 came with a 45x52 and 14-24 cogset, which were decidedly race gears, but the geometry seemed so much more touring than race. I loved that bike. The bike was comfortable, handled nice, though there was a particular "S" bend near the dam of Loch Raven reservoir north of Baltimore that brought out a harmonic vibration in its head tube. It was the favorite of the local touring club, lots of white PX-10's on the faster group rides back then.

I was a bike mechanic back then, spending all my savings on bike parts, and tried to make the PX-10 all Campy in the way people with little money could do it, Campy derailleurs, Mighty Compe cranks, etc. It soon became obvious though that the frame was the weak link, and I bought a Woodrup road frame in 1973 that was sooo much more of a racing machine when all the parts combined. My question:

Does anyone know people who actually raced the PX-10's of that era other than as beginning racers who shortly moved up to 'real' racing bikes?

Happy trails,

Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland