Amongst my collection I have an old Bicycling article ("A Look at the World-Hour Record Bicycle", July '74) by Fred DeLong which states that Cino Cinelli was involved in helping with the Hour Record effort and one of the his suggestions to Ernesto was to use "narrower flange Cinelli hubs" to reduce air resistance. The idea was dismissed it seems, but it's obvious that Cino was well into aero concepts in the early 70's.
The article also states "several" bicycles were made as well as shows a replica bike on display at the NY bike show. That replica bike looks nothin g like the actual hour bike though (wrong size, wrong components). There is also a photo of Eddy on a very cool *full-chrome* Molteni-Merckx track bike that looks like a could be a De Rosa!
Tam Pham Huntington Beach, CA - USA
On 5/10/07, Jerry Prigmore <robinjer@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >From: oroboyz(AT)aol.com
> >Subject: [CR]Putting Cinelli Lasers in a proper perspective
> >
> > Everything has to be viewed from the perspective of the era in which i
t
> >was made...
> >
> >Time trail bikes, even today, have never been necessarily light (as
> >compared to bikes for climbing for instance). Aerodynamics are deemed to
> >trump weight in most cases.
> >
>
> Post 1972, that is. The Hour Record bike (don't ask me which one, there
> is
> only one ;-) ) certainly has to be seen in it's historical context, the
> early 70s. Why Ernesto and Eddy's maniacal obsession with light weight i
n
> the Hour Record bike, when what was called for wasn't a track bike, but a
> time trial bike? For that type of effort, wouldn't a 18-20 lb bike have
> been plenty light and allowed Ernesto to watch the attempt without having
> to
> close his eyes and cross his fingers every time Eddy got out of the
> saddle?
> Drilled handlebars? How many grams did that save? My guess is that it
> was
> simply because they were both obsessive personalities, and that it went
> without saying that a machine of that caliber and importance simply had t
o
> be the best, lightest, finest bicycle ever. Since we're talking about
> putting machines in perspective, the bike certainly fit in with the times
.
> It occurs to me now that this has probably been beaten to death in the
> archives. Sorry, just chiming in with Dale here, thinking, out loud. Er
,
> so to speak.
>
> Jerry Prigmore, who certainly has a lot of opinions for someone who never
> turned a pedal in anger.
> Clovis, California, USA.
>
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