On a personal note. Crit Bike Gearing. Racing mostly in N.J. where most crits were usually flat and fast, me and some of my team mates started going to a five speed set up, 53 x 13-17, (We saw some hot shots doing it at The National Capital Open) Actually removing the inner chain ring, shift lever, and the front derailleur. Thought we were cool, until a bump threw my chain off at a race in Rahway. Then we just left the front derailler on but nothing else. Then one day after removing the 17 and 18 cogs off a regina extra 13-14-15-17-18 freewheel to put on a 16 and 17, I screwed up and couldn't find the16 and 17 replacement cogs, so I left it that way, just a 13-14-15. After racing at Summerville and noticing I was really only using three gears, the 13, 14 and 15, I decided to give it a shot, and actually raced many crits with just a three speed bike....At 30 + m.p.h. the other gears just didn't seem to matter...
Ed Busch
Vonore, Tennessee - USA
> Bill Talbot's assessment of both of our mid-80s PDG Paramounts is spot on
> i
> n terms of rear triangle beefiness and related STIFFNESS,,,,and I stress
> ST
> IFF. In my personal opinion, my PDG is overly stiff. Mine is built fr
> om Columbus SLX, not SP, and I suspect your 85 is too, but maybe I'm
> wrong.
>
> I see "CRIT" bikes as having steep head angles and high bottom brackets
> for
> obvious short fast circuit riding with lots of corner turns. This desig
> n, as pointed out in another post was primarily due to the popularity of
> CR
> IT races dominating the USA in the 1980s.
>
> Regards,
> Kevin Kruger - Grantville, PA=0A=0A=0A