Donald Gillies wrote:
> (which fits with the CR timeline).
>
> I was surprised by an article about Darrel McCulloch and his work for
> the Australian national cycling team. In particular, he stated, "The
> life expectancy for these bikes is 12 months at the maximum" (article
> written June 2006).
>
> http://www.llewellynbikes.com/
>
> For any CR members who were sponsored racers in the 1970's and early
> 1980's, what do you think was the life expectancy of your bike ?? Was
> it 1 year, 2 years, 3 years?
>
> What was a typical failure mode - A crash? A tube separating or
> starting to tear? A braze-on that broke-off ?? Or is it just that the
> bike looks ragged and - the factory or the sponsor is not set up to do
> repaints ??
For a professional team, it's because the cost of a new frame every season is trivial compared to the risk of a failure on an old frame.
--
John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA