Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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Ha, I had a Benotto from Mexico. I can't kill that thing. It was a road bike.
Many of the off the shelf frames were made to the typical stage race geometry. Some of the American frames had higher BB and tighter wheelbase due to the around the block racing we did. I had a Gios that I crashed into the back of a car on a race course and destroyed. I love that thing as it was a faster bike due to the slightly higher BB and shorter Wheel base. I found the French frame of the time, compared to Italians, they has a longer top tube. Still, today, my Time has a top tube that's 5mm longer then most bike out there. I am spoiled, for a steel frame it has to be Italian. I had a Medici Track bike. I sucked at the track. I am smaller, so the bigger guys have huge muscles that can really turn an angry pedal. Plus those bastards leaned on me too much. Around the mid to late 80s, the Rainer brothers (Mark,I think its Matt) are from SD and they raise hell up here at the Encino track. Fast mofos.