Weight Weenies
My bike weighs about 6 kilos. It is no waify little thing either, with it having a 61cm frame and and three stories of seatpost. It has beefy tubes, a stiff bottom bracket and steerer, and deep section wheels which are laced 3x in the back and 2x in front. This bike has never made me go faster; only going faster has made me go faster.
Gianni rode Haleakala in the 80’s on a heavy steel frame with a 42T chainring and a 23T cog in the back. He rode it wearing a cuttoff sleeveless t-shirt; an offense which, had I known when we started this site, I would have put him on probation for. Then he did it again several years later on a titanium, campa-equipped steed with a compact and wearing proper kit. He rode it in about the same time, also proving that you go as fast as you want, not as fast as your bike is.
Gianni Bugno (different Gianni but possibly the source of inspiration for Keeper Gianni’s name), won back-to-back l’Alpe d’Huez stages on a 24-pound steel Moser, beating lighter carbon TVT’s to the punch both times.
Riding light bikes is fun, but they won’t make you go any faster. Pushing harder on the pedals does.
@Beers
I’m looking at switching to an 11-28 soon rather than the 11-25 that came on The Redback (jumped from 34 to 36 up front), when there’s only a 60g gram difference in going Ultegra & I can get 3 for the price of 1 DA, you can bet your arse I’m choosing Ultegra.
Side note, apparently the all alu Ultegra is actually quieter than the Ti infused DA as an added benefit.
@unversio
It’s the half-Anquetil, in the Krabbe mythology.
@Mikael Liddy
I’ll give you that, but Gert and Big Mig are taking him to style school in that pic.
@Mikael Liddy
I am all for the less expensive, more durable cassette that weighs 30 grams more. Especially in Campagnolo, I just looked and a Chorus cassette seems to cost more than DA! But an all steel cog Chorus cassette lasts a very long time if you keep your chain clean and replace it at appropriate intervals.
BTW I am pretty sure Ultegra is all steel cogs too. I can’t imagine an Alu cog lasting for more than a nanosecond.
@Nate
could well be the case, when it comes to research, I’m a student of the Strackian school of thought.
Regarding style, it may have been something to do with the name similarities, but Mig has been my idol from very early days…
While we’re on the topic of bikes of that era, the original Phast Phil brought one of his Zullos to the Melburn Custom Bike Show for some ogling on the weekend, pictured here with the man behind many a ruined marriage here in Australia
@Mikael Liddy
I’m not sure what Lance thought about Rule #15 but in those days (1993-ish) he had to wear black shorts. If the team kit had registered with the UCI with coloured shorts or short panels that was fine, but a rider couldn’t wear different shorts from the rest of his team so he was stuck with Motorola black shorts.
It was only when Cipo started accepting the UCI fines for wearing different coloured shorts in the Tour a couple of years later that things started to change, with the UCI caving in to custom kits for tour category leaders/World/National Champions eventually.
Why don’t my italics show up after posting when the option is there in the post editor wtf??
@frank
Your guns and the level of suffering you wish to inflict on them is limited by your brain. I’m sure there are many things that can effect your relative level of suffering, but it just might be that in certain cases you push harder for longer on the steel bike rather than on the lightweight plastic bike. If you go into it with the mentality of ‘this thing is slower, there I will push harder,’ then you might just go faster. And maybe no matter how hard you tell your brain to suffer on the lighter bike, it just won’t go to the same limits.
I watched the Marinoni Movie back in April. Giuseppe Marinoni broke the… “Senior’s” (74-79) Hour Record in 2012 on the same bike frame he had built in the early 80s for Jocelyn Lovell. He raced on that bike not because it was the lightest or the fastest, but because it gave him the mental fortitude to push harder.
@Oli
Because @Frank cares little for your nuances…
@Nate
You know your classics!
@HigherGround
On a Dutch website I read that indeed he had a saddle sore when this pic was taken. But did not say what the tape was supposed to help. Apparently he had some blisters on his feet as well?
He does look differently now by the way:
@wilburrox
I don’t know the answer to that question, although I would speculate that there is some sort of reverse progression. In the everyday world Dura-Ace would most likely be as abused as Ultegra or 105, but those groups, particularly 105 are directed towards cyclists that can’t or won’t go all in in the most expensive stuff. Weight savings come with some sort of sacrifice regardless of the material used. My instinct tells me that the top end stuff is higher maintenance and most of us don’t have the advantage of having our bikes overhauled completely by professional mechanics on a regular basis.
This is just an observation. I have no science to bolster my theory.
@Jay
I guess the cheaper and heavier materials used, would wear better? I run DA @ 13500km pa, I change the chain @ 3500km, I haven’t had to change cassette or chainrings yet, is that good or bad durability?
@piwakawaka
Definitely good.
@HigherGround
I’m guessing it was a first attempt at grippy tape, but who knows. Maybe he was channeling Eddy Van Halen?
I believe the correct term for my jersey of choice on that ride was “wife-beater”. I too was working the Gert headband and Gert wristband. Big sweaty bastard. 1985. Frank might have been right about the 42 on the front. It looks big. He was also right about what a shit climber I’ve always been.
i don’t believe Bugno’s Moser was 24lbs.
@Cary
Yeah – my 1978 Gios Brooklyn comes in at 21 lbs. Interestingly my 1995 Pinarello Sestriere with modern 11 Sp Athena Gruppo also comes in at 21 lbs. Though The Butler (1967 mid range Claud Butler) does come in at 24 lbs.
@Cary
Indeed. My 1978 Brooklyn Gios comes in at 21 lbs. Interestingly my 1995 Pinarello Sestriere with modern 11 Sp Athena Gruppo is also 21 lbs. The Butler (1967 mid range Claud Butler) does come in at 24 lbs.
the early ’90s Motorola MX Leaders were burly bikes, and they were between 20-21lbs.
Stumbled across this today, it might explain things here.
That didn’t work. “Quote” is not capturing the previous comment. This is what I was referring to:
REPLY | QUOTE | #17 @frank // Jun 25 2015
PROFILEMESSAGE
@Barracuda
@piwakawaka
@RVester
Do you have a source that Gianni Bugno’s TdF-ridden steel Moser weighed 10.8 kgs?
@frank‘s source for all his ‘facts’ is being Dutch.
The guy who owns my LBS has a great line “I can make it lighter but I can’t make it any faster”.
Source ? Who the hell uses credible information to back up facts ?
That’s absurd
The day we start to cite sources or in any other way become credible is the day I shut this place down.
@MangoDave
hmmmm……..
@Teocalli
Who measures anything in lbs anyway?
@RobSandy
Old farts like me!