Yep. At the time the trials were held it appears they were extremely influential, at least within the French industry. And it could be argued that the ending of the trials was equally influential as in many respects including the aforementioned cranks and brakes the modern engineers all the lessons learnt were apparently forgotten as even with modern materials and manufacturing processes those modern engineers are manifestly incapable of significantly bettering those products of decades earlier. Will a set of modern Campagnolo Record crankarms in CFRP really do anything functionally better than their half century old lighter production aluminum ancestors? Will a heavier pair of modern dual pivot brakes actually stop a bike unambiguously better than those ancient Herse cantis?
I doubt it. Which is both mindboggling and a pretty serious indictment of current bicycle component engineers' real competence. Maybe engineers just aren't properly empirically tested and measured today as they were then.
Kurt Sperry Bellingham, Washington USA
2009/2/8 Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>:
> Your logic escapes me. The last Traials were held in 1949. When the tri
als were being held, and several years after, components like the TA cyclot
ourist rings and Stronglight 49D cranks were made that were as light as muc
h modern carbon stuff. So it appears the Trials had MAJOR influence on the
componets being made when they were being held. Do they have influence to
day? Of course not. Nearly everyone who participated in the last Trials i
n 1949 is now dead, and few people in France and almost no one anywhere els
e has ever heard of the Technical Trials. Until Jan chronicled them, few p
eople even on the CR list had heard of them. Hard to be influenced by hist
ory of which one is ignorant.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA
>
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 2/8/09, Mitch Harris <mitch.harris@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Mitch Harris <mitch.harris@gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [CR] Rene Herse Ligtweight Record Bike
>> To: hersefan@comcast.net
>> Cc: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net, Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>> Date: Sunday, February 8, 2009, 7:02 PM
>> On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 11:30 AM,
>> <hersefan@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> > Pick up an old set of Herse Cantilever brakes, or
>> consider the simple g
>> > ear changing mechanisms, and then grab a TA
>> Cyclotourist crank and compare
>> > its weight to a modern Carbon crank. The new stuff
>> doesn't come out l
>> > ooking so impressive anymore.
>> >
>>
>> That's the part I don't get. We often talk about
>> the trials as
>> influential, but
>> where's the influence?
>>
>> --Mitch Harris
>> Little Rock Canyon, Utah, USA