[John Rogers]

Back in the 1970's and 1980's when I was racing I had 4 bikes. One was a track bike, no brakes, etc. One was the training bike with long wheelbase, shallow seat angle and head tube angle so it rode very smooth since many roads in the San Diego area were rough and riding 500 miles a week you want smoothness. My road racing bike was almost the same geometry as some road races were on rough roads or your part of the road in a pack might not be smooth. Lastly my criterium bike was shorter and stiffer and it could turn/maneuver very fast. All had the same dimensions so when the crank arm was at the bottom of the stroke, my knee was bent 10 degrees and my heel was upward at 10 degrees also. The road bike and criterium bike had long enough top tubes so that my back was flat when my hands were in the curve of the bars. All of them had a bit longer seat tube and shorter seat height above the top tube.

Back then all were steel tube and mine were made in Italy except the track bike that was made by Benotto in Mexico City. I finally bought an aluminum framed Vitus bike in 1984 and used it in criteriums mostly. The first carbon bikes were failing because of poor resin and curing.