This thought, Chuck, makes me think back to the recent Anquetil geometry thread, where he used a frame many would now call a vintage sport-tour, similar to my Trek 600 and '80 Woodrup. Both of which I feel are good for "just riding around." I assume his frame design was based on the state of the art in concieving the competitive race bike, in terms of what the priorities and constraints were (in other words, designers as today did their best with what they had). I'm mainly thinking here of the long chainstays and wheelbase, with laid-back angles.
Or was it just a French thing? Were the Italian frames of the day similarly long and stretchy?
Renews the desire to acquire a bike of the day and sample how they felt.
Ken Freeman Ann Arbor, MI USA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Schmidt Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 1:09 AM To: CR RENDEZVOUS Subject: [CR]JRA (Just Riding Around)
A friend wrote me this today...
"Bikes improve, but they were nearly perfect by the end of the century before last... and these improvements have been mainly in the
"gadgetry" like the shifting and stopping. Not in the JRA (Just Riding Around) where 99% of the cycling experience happens. Look at a 34 year old (Colango) Super as the case in point. In fact the JRA has had to suffer for those other advances!!!"
Strikes a real cord with me because my daily riding these days is done mostly on three 48x16 fixed gear bikes; those or my mid-70s road
bikes (my Ergo and STI equipped bikes languish unridden for years at a time)!
Déjà vu all over again? Preaching to the choir? Comments?
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, CA USA
http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)