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Lance Armstrong for President~!

Sailor Ripley
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Re: Lance Armstrong for President~! July 23, 2004 at 08:57 PM UTC #
Originally posted by Bollocks:
Originally posted by mark e smith:
"Carbon-fibre is another innovation, dropping the weight of a racing bike from 9kg to less than 7kg."

At that level of cycling, that is a lot.
Not sure about in Merckx day, but today there is a min. weight for the bike in the Tour.

Regarding shifting: while intergrated levers/shifters make shifting more convenient and don't require you to remove your hands from the bars, any cyclist worth a shit isn't "guessing" what gear they are hitting when using friction shifters. When you ride your bike day in and day out you know exactly how to hit the gear you need. Haven't noticed this year, but I know last year Lance was running one intergrated lever and one downtube friction lever on one of his bikes.

Just remember, most of those fancy cycling gizmos, materials, innovvations etc. aren't necessarily for better performance. Sure, that's what the marketing spiel is, but the riders use most of their stuff because they are paid to. If Trek put out a titanium frame next year, guess what Lance would be riding? And it's not because it's any better than CF.
mankie
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Re: Lance Armstrong for President~! July 23, 2004 at 09:03 PM UTC #
Originally posted by Sailor Ripley:
Just remember, most of those fancy cycling gizmos, materials, innovvations etc. aren't necessarily for better performance. Sure, that's what the marketing spiel is, but the riders use most of their stuff because they are paid to. If Trek put out a titanium frame next year, guess what Lance would be riding? And it's not because it's any better than CF.
CF has a limited lifespan whereas Ti lasts forever. I would personally take Ti over CF any day….thinking of buying a Ti (frame only) right now, that's in liquidaton at $545, then build a bike of my own.
Sailor Ripley
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Re: Lance Armstrong for President~! July 23, 2004 at 09:07 PM UTC #
Originally posted by Bollocks:
CF has a limited lifespan whereas Ti lasts forever. I would personally take Ti over CF any day….thinking of buying a Ti (frame only) right now, that's in liquidaton at $545, then build a bike of my own.
I'm not argueing which material is better, just saying Lance will ride whatever is Trek's highend so they sell more bikes. TDF riders don't care about longevity though, material life is a moot point for them.
markie
Joined: October 15, 2001 at 05:01 AM UTC
Posts: 13178
Re: Lance Armstrong for President~! July 23, 2004 at 09:22 PM UTC #
Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
Originally posted by mark e smith:


Do you think Lance would still have won the tour if his bike weighed 2 or 3 pounds more?


I think he would.
questionable. Have you ever carried 3 pounds an average of about 100 miles a day for 20 days?
I was thinking about this whilst doing real work…..

Lance made 1 minute at Alp d'Huez over Ullrich in 40 minutes.

If being 1% heavier made him one percent slower (worst case scenario, there are rolling/momentum advantages to having more weight) then bike and rider must weigh around 170 pounds…. So a pound and a half would have been OK.

My gut weighs much more than 3 pounds.
markie
Joined: October 15, 2001 at 05:01 AM UTC
Posts: 13178
Re: Lance Armstrong for President~! July 23, 2004 at 09:23 PM UTC #
Originally posted by Bollocks:
.thinking of buying a Ti (frame only) right now, that's in liquidaton at $545, then build a bike of my own.
Why? 853 is pretty good. I would stick with it.

Do you have clipless shoes and pedals?
bungle bud
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Re: Lance Armstrong for President~! July 23, 2004 at 09:34 PM UTC #
its cheaper to get a good bike and replace parts over time than to build a bike, when i got mine i got a great deal, the parts alone would have cost more than the bike.
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