Bicycle thread

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by vfr700

Hey, stop finishing my thoughts!

As long as you stop doing *that thing* yer doing right now, I will!





M

[pierce]

Mafac? ok, I guess. they were on the bike about a month 25 years ago. I know they were the defacto brake on tandems of the 70s... yes, I knew how to set them up for the right toe-in and stuff, but they were so flexy, they squealed soemtthing fierce no matter how you tweaked them.

There was a fancy composition pad I liked to use on the Shimanos that had a heat sink on the outside, those worked great, and wouldn't fade even on long downhills, although they would sometimes start to delaminate when they got old and thin (easy solution, replace them)

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by vfr700

It's nice to see other people who speak 60's, 70's, & 80's cycling. MAFAC, Super Champion, then Wolber, Duegi, Carlton, Surpebe Pro, XC Pro, SSC, Nuovo Record, Super Record, Binda, etc, etc.

My favorite bike that I regret getting rid of was a Guerciotti SLX w/ Surpebe Pro, circa 1988.

Dood! You suck!

My older Italian bikes were all second tier: Battaglins and I was running Shimano and/or Shimano compatible stuff ie: New Success. The one 'top tier' bike I owned was a PDM Concorde. Started out tryin to make it a Team replica and quickly realized that my college student budget didn't include C-Record.

Hmph! Just realized that I useta take my Ergo shifters off in the winter 'to keep em working' thru NoVA slush/rain/snow winters. Went back to bar-cons ever Nov or so. Didn't put the Ergos back on till April! After a few winters of that, I just said eff it! and just left em on. 'Course, by then I'd bought a few other frames and they had brifters on em too.

I always wanted some Wolber Invulnerables for training. ...and some Vittoria Paris-Roubaix tires for winter riding too! That extra few mm of tire shoulda made a difference. Sadly, I rode none of the above.

M

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by pierce

Mafac? ok, I guess. they were on the bike about a month 25 years ago. I know they were the defacto brake on tandems of the 70s... yes, I knew how to set them up for the right toe-in and stuff, but they were so flexy, they squealed soemtthing fierce no matter how you tweaked them.

There was a fancy composition pad I liked to use on the Shimanos that had a heat sink on the outside, those worked great, and wouldn't fade even on long downhills, although they would sometimes start to delaminate when they got old and thin (easy solution, replace them)

Scott Mathauser pads. Had some but lost one of the pads 'cause the PO shortened em and one fell out and I lost it

M

[vfr700]

I had invulnerables too, never had a flat! SS mesh under the tread did the trick! I worked at a shop 88-90, and had much of this stuff at my disposal. I glued them to my trusty GP 4's. The 330's were for racing, and the 280's were for climbing.

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by vfr700

I had invulnerables too, never had a flat! SS mesh under the tread did the trick! I worked at a shop 88-90, and had much of this stuff at my disposal. I glued them to my trusty GP 4's. The 330's were for racing, and the 280's were for climbing.

I've always been too heavy for f & rr 280s. So I stuck with 330s. (still have a 12" stack of tubular rims in the garage for when I move back to where there's a track!)

Mmmmmmmm Superbe Pro!

Too bad they didn't get indexing.

M

[vfr700]

It's too bad Suntour couldn't compete. Even the Sprint 9000 was good stuff for the time. XC Pro rocked, Surpebe Pro was awesome. Comparing second string Campy groups of the day (Victory & Trimpohe) to the Sprint 9000 was a no brainer. I'd like to find a Surpebe Pro group & hang on to it.

[vfr700]

I lusted after Record Strada rims laced to C record hubs.

[pierce]

Originally Posted by vfr700

It's nice to see other people who speak 60's, 70's, & 80's cycling. MAFAC, Super Champion, then Wolber, Duegi, Carlton, Surpebe Pro, XC Pro, SSC, Nuovo Record, Super Record, Binda, etc, etc.

My favorite bike that I regret getting rid of was a Guerciotti SLX w/ Surpebe Pro, circa 1988.

I still have my very beat up 1975 Motobecane Grand Record (the top line touring version, I'd ridden and sold a English racing frame as being too short and stiff for long distance riding) which got upgraded to all Campi Nuevo Record, Super Champion blue label rims, etc. 24" frame size (unusual, most bikes were 23 or 25), Reynolds 531 double butted lugged cro-moly, still has the original Phillips(?) bars, but I wore out and got rid of the Brooks Pro saddle a long time ago when Avocet came out with the first modern saddles (and wore out 2-3 of those too). sometime in the early 80s, I rebuilt the wheels for 700c clinchers after clemente silk sew-ups got real expensive...

Used to ride centuries, and do bike-packing on that beast.


(spitting image of my Motobecane when it was new)


now, the one *I* really miss was a Raleigh Pro Mark II. gorgeous frame, my friend had sold me as it was a hair too big for him (and perfect for me). I'd built it up wth he parts from my motobecane, and upgraded everything back to the full campi that the Raleigh had been originally (he'd stripped the parts to put on a custom frame he'd replaced it with). That Raleigh frame rode so sweet, the size was perfect for me, but then I tail ended a car at speed and bent it rather badly :((( so all the parts went back on the Motobecane, which really wasn't that bad, it handled better with panniers (a little bit longer wheel base, more relaxed fork rake).


(not mine, just a random pic off the net, but thats what color the Mk II was)

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by vfr700

I lusted after Record Strada rims laced to C record hubs.

I have a triplet of Campy Omega XL clinchers I'm gonna lace into a pair of NOS Mavic 571/2 hubs



Similar to these:

Laced into:


Gonna be a Niiiiiice riding wheelset! The Omega XLs are most similar to Mavic's MA40, just a little wider and a little shallower. Mmmmmm comfy!

M

[vfr700]

[quote=pierce]I still have my very beat up 1975 Motobecane Grand Record (the top line touring version....

Very nice!

[DoctorIt]

Originally Posted by Perry

Damn, I'm looking for a (cheap but good) bike for my gf, she's 5'8" long legs but I think that's still too tall a bike for her...

Yeah, I thought of you, actually, but it's definitely too big.

[trailer Rails]

Originally Posted by Mercury264

Really ? Surely if you have enough braking power to lock the wheels up, you pretty much have all you need

The more effort you are putting into braking, the less effort you can put into steering/ bunny hopping the bike. i cold lock the wheels up on my 1988 Schwinn with U-brakes but the brakes were so weak that at the end of a down hill I would start to get arm pump. When I had arm pump it would be harder to control the bike.
Now if I only have to use one finger to control the speed of the bike, I have a lot more energy left over to throw the bike into corners and hop logs with.

Old cars and motorcycles could lock up the wheels with drum brakes, but why do they all have discs now?

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by trailer Rails

The more effort you are putting into braking, the less effort you can put into steering/ bunny hopping the bike. i cold lock the wheels up on my 1988 Schwinn with U-brakes but the brakes were so weak that at the end of a down hill I would start to get arm pump. When I had arm pump it would be harder to control the bike.
Now if I only have to use one finger to control the speed of the bike, I have a lot more energy left over to throw the bike into corners and hop logs with.

Old cars and motorcycles could lock up the wheels with drum brakes, but why do they all have discs now?

OK, that makes sense about having more control/less arm pump.

As for drum V disk brakes on cars, one word: Heat

[Oznerol]

Originally Posted by Mercury264

As for drum V disk brakes on cars, one word: Heat

That's actually an issue on bicycle brakes, too. An extended downhill with rim brakes can get the rims hot enough to blow a tire. And downhilling MTBers often deal with brake fade even with discs.