At least for CR criteria I believe it was, as you say, index shifting.
But I am not sure. L'Eroica is, I believe, a bit arbitrary. They have
no real way of determining frame date and they use not so much 1980 as
the presence of clips and straps, donwntube (non indexing) shifters, and
they make noises about internal cables but am unsure they really ck that
especially since lots of older bikes had it.
Edward Albert
Chappaqua, NY, USA
>>> John Betmanis <johnb@oxford.net> 10/27/07 4:15 PM >>>
At 03:40 PM 27/10/2007 -0400, George Albaugh wrote:
>Also, will somebody please explain how the cut off year of 1983 was
>selected? What's magic about '83? Campagnolo's death? Or was 1984
>some sort of water shed event year that has some how gone unnoticed by
>common riff raff such as myself???
I'm sure Dale has various criteria for that date, but here's my take:
There is no particular date when bikes suddenly changed from the traditional vintage type we all love, but here, in my view, are some of the distinguishing differences on "modern" bikes:
Index shifting
Clipless pedals
Aero brake levers
TIG welded frames (but there were several aluminum and titanium frames like that long before 1983).
Composite frames (carbon fibre, although some of this was available to pro riders before 1983).
Threadless headsets (a cheap and dirty MTB innovation).
The 1980 cutoff used by l'Erioca is even more strict (if enforced), because it would automatically eliminate some of the above. However, there were many bikes sold in 1983 an even later that would still conform within the physical criteria.
John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada