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walter
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 4391
Location: metro-motown-area7/19/14 7:34 AM |
those are fun
i rock an '80s style us-team jersey from time to time.
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dddd
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3345
Location: NorCal7/19/14 12:26 PM |
I posted this photo of my 1980's TT bike earlier as part of my "photo hosting dilemma" post, but here's where I wanted to post it.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19083
Location: PDX7/19/14 1:01 PM |
That seat post seem worrisome looking at it. ;)
Cool bike, as usual when you post pics. ;)
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dddd
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3345
Location: NorCal7/19/14 4:19 PM |
Thanks Bob.
By some small miracle, someone on BikeForums Classic & Vintage identified this bike's seatpost as something he had in his inventory, un-cut.
I bought the longer post, then trimmed it minimally to get my usual 30" saddle height.
The post actually slides in past the top of the "G", then can be raised about a half-inch, if required, while remaining tightly clamped in place.
The designer and bike are both French btw, and the stars & stripes theme supposedly celebrates Greg LeMond's first World's victory iir.
This bike's steel frame's "fender" strut is actually fabricated as a closed-section hollow tube with a crescent-shaped cross-section, so has enough stiffness to maintain the frame's integrity.
I'm told that this was perhaps the most expensive bike one could order in the early '80's, eclipsing even the subsequent Kestrel bikes of the later 1980's, and even the chainrings are patented for their sort of "reverse BioPace" action, and used here with 180mm arms!
Riding this thing sort of wakes up your legs in a not entirely pleasant way as the bike flies up hills and gobbles straightaways. It requires some specialized training efforts and muscle adaptation in preparation for going all-out on it.
Designer Edmund Polchlopek raced on a couple of professional French teams around 1960, and died in an auto accident some 6 or 8 years ago. His designs went beyond cutting edge for the early-1980's period.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19083
Location: PDX7/19/14 6:48 PM |
The more I see that the more I want to appropriate it, or one. ;)
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walter
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 4391
Location: metro-motown-area7/19/14 7:56 PM |
most ideas are soo not novel these days
that bike is a cervelo S5 with rotor rings, waaaaay before its time!
very cool and way more desireable than any modern plastic-fantastic IMO.
what kind of rims/spokes do the wheels have?
<img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5041/13632808633_b7eccc022b_c.jpg" width=615 height=461>
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19083
Location: PDX7/19/14 9:03 PM |
I've heard of bio-pace, but that might qualify as psycho-pace on the chain rings...
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dddd
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3345
Location: NorCal7/20/14 1:38 AM |
PsychoPace, maybe, it's very aggressive as far as feeding in a gross helping of resistance early in each pedal stroke, but the bike really responds in terms of acceleration..
Thanks, Walter, I thought about the same thing when this bike turned up first on Craigslist, then on Ebay at less than half the price. My $650 bid was the only bid the bike got, and it shipped out of the California desert region near Victorville.
Original owner's name appears faintly on the top tube, reads "Guido".
The clinchers on the bike are just shop-built Shimano 600 hubs with aero rims.
The sewup wheels (not shown) are Rovals, which were also cutting edge at the time and launched the pre-built aero race wheel market in the very early 1980's.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19083
Location: PDX7/20/14 10:39 AM |
gross helping of resistance early in each pedal stroke
Obvious enough, love to feel how that goes.. ;)
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dddd
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 3345
Location: NorCal7/20/14 3:25 PM |
"Obvious enough, love to feel how that goes.. ;)"
Especially with the bike's 54/48t tooth-count and original corn-cob freewheel. :-O
Makes me wonder who Guido was.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19083
Location: PDX7/20/14 3:26 PM |
Guido?
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