[CR]British Derailleurs

(Example: Framebuilding:Restoration)

Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 13:30:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Tom Dalton" <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
To: chuckschmidt@earthlink.net, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]British Derailleurs

Chuck wrote: "I always burst out laughing when I read this Walter Mitty, Snoopy and the Red Baron stuff on the list. You guys crack me up!!!!!"

Com'on Chuck, are you really doubting that if the guy on the RRA is stronger than the guy on the Litespeed by more than enough to make up for the mechanical losses in the 3-speed hub, that the guy on the RRA won't kick his butt? It then seems like only a small logical leap to say that a 22-pound hub geared 3-speed RRA is "faster" than a 17-pound 10-speed Ergo C50.

Peter, it's not the bike, it's the rider... though at some point, it's the bike. There's a reason racers don't use SA hub gears, or even the modern 7-speed Rohloff equivalent, ever... period. They are less efficient, and it has nothing to do with the number of available ratios or what those ratios are. It's about mechanical losses. No doubt Sheldon Brown could shed further light on this. So while Lance could kick my butt if he was on a downhill MTB and I was on whatever I choose, that doesn't make a downhill bike good for road racing.

Have fun thrashing the well-heeled D.C. officebodies on their Litespeeds, God knows they are everywhere down there. But try to keep in perspective exactly who you're thrashing and why you are abel to. Give yourself some credit, not your RRA.

Tom Dalton

Bethlehem, PA

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