minor damascus road experience.

[stevelawson]

My daily rides are 80s 531 frames, I bought a 2006 Bianchi alu frame, carbon forks a couple of years ago, and am pleasantly surprised how rigid and quick it feels in comparison. Narrower, higher pressure tyres also have a big effect.

 

[onegoodbike]

It's good to hear others' positive experiences of riding more modern bikes, so thanks for that guys.

After much surfing I believe I have narrowed my search down to an early 2000's (is this technically still retro?) Trek 5500, so if anyone reading this has got one in medium sizing going spare in good condition then drop me a line .

Cheers Matt

 

[raleighinternational]

Having had several bikes, the carbon was definitely the fastest but the most fragile, having worn out chains, chain rings and freewheels at an arming speed.

The two 1970s Raleigh's get the job done and the extra weight means I arrive slower but having done more exercise.

My hammer bike is a 1990s chrome moly framed 7 speed Veloce groupset.
It's robust and reasonably fast.
The main difference I notice is riding style with brifters.
You have more leverage when giving it some stick riding on the hoods and your whole body is involved in your pedal stroke.
It's a more comfortable position as you're more upright when hammering which has to be more efficient you would think than doing the same being on the drops.

The 1970s bikes I don't feel comfortable grabbing the hoods with such ferocity in case I wrench them off!

 

[Jamiedyer]

raleighinternational wrote:

The main difference I notice is riding style with brifters.
You have more leverage when giving it some stick riding on the hoods and your whole body is involved in your pedal stroke.
It's a more comfortable position as you're more upright when hammering which has to be more efficient you would think than doing the same being on the drops.

Agree with this for sure. I like my downtube shifters on my tourers but for the Merckx it is a very different feel to the machine with STI's on compared to DT shifters.
Your comments explain it perfectly

Jamie