Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Been out on my 35 year old Claud Butler 531 today. It rolls significantly better than any of my new bikes. How or why I know not.
Old versus New.
- Thread starter gavroche
- Start date
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fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Pah, gone are the days of a 42 x 21 as your lowest gear. Even my 39 x 24 isn't low compared to what most road bikes have now - they match MTB's for gearing.
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Back in the day 42x23 was your granny gear.
T4tomo
Legendary Member
Switch from 9man to 8 man teams.
DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Funny, this. My Scott, despite being aluminium, probably weighs the same as your Claud, around 23lb. But show it the slightest amount of slope, and it's away! My weight helps some, of course, but even so...
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
33 year old Trek, also 531, (anniversary)with a corn cob block in the rear, still outperforms most of the newer bikes. Straight gauge shop name(Corso) Italian tourer, perfectly able to do distance, very comfy over what short rides it's done, also shows a liveliness not seen much today. Old Raleigh USA Technium 26" tourer from the 80's, mix of aluminum and CR-Mo, glued together, as tubes were too thin to weld and employees not trained in welding or brazing, lightest and most comfortable bike of the sort I've ridden. Main triangle is aluminum, stays, headtube and fork are Cr-Mo. A bodge, but a good one. I don't think bicycles have come so far since the '80s.
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
In what way does it outperform modern bikes?
My definition of outperforming would be going faster using only the same power output.
All this talk of whether newer bikes are better than older bikes... it's all relative to the rider and the riding.
Efficiency tests tend to be done emulating competition conditions, at high kph and power output, and that means absolutely nothing to me. At the speeds I ride and the kinds of rides I do, a modern TdF-quality carbon bike would not get me round any quicker than my 531 steel bikes. And I'd be significantly less happy if I couldn't fit my nice fat 32mm tyres and carry a big supply of sausage or bacon butties in my bag... and all the other stuff I like to carry.
But in competition, when accomplished athletes are riding at their maximum ability, obviously modern bikes are better -- if they weren't, Froome and Wiggins and all their mates would be riding on steel.
One thing I am saddened by is the way the retail road bike market is almost totally focused on competition factors and almost exclusively sells aluminium and carbon bikes, when for most leisure and commuting cyclists I reckon steel is probably still the best all-round frame material - but now it's a specialized up-market touring bike material.
I ride in a mixed group of cyclists, and a good few of them have, say, a road bike (Al or C) and a mountain bike (Al with sus), but neither are good all-rounders - and it's not long ago that one friend commented "I love the way you can just go anywhere on that old bike of yours" (speaking of my Raleigh steel tourer).
For my riding, I wouldn't want a carbon bike any more than I'd want a steel pencil.
Efficiency tests tend to be done emulating competition conditions, at high kph and power output, and that means absolutely nothing to me. At the speeds I ride and the kinds of rides I do, a modern TdF-quality carbon bike would not get me round any quicker than my 531 steel bikes. And I'd be significantly less happy if I couldn't fit my nice fat 32mm tyres and carry a big supply of sausage or bacon butties in my bag... and all the other stuff I like to carry.
But in competition, when accomplished athletes are riding at their maximum ability, obviously modern bikes are better -- if they weren't, Froome and Wiggins and all their mates would be riding on steel.
One thing I am saddened by is the way the retail road bike market is almost totally focused on competition factors and almost exclusively sells aluminium and carbon bikes, when for most leisure and commuting cyclists I reckon steel is probably still the best all-round frame material - but now it's a specialized up-market touring bike material.
I ride in a mixed group of cyclists, and a good few of them have, say, a road bike (Al or C) and a mountain bike (Al with sus), but neither are good all-rounders - and it's not long ago that one friend commented "I love the way you can just go anywhere on that old bike of yours" (speaking of my Raleigh steel tourer).
For my riding, I wouldn't want a carbon bike any more than I'd want a steel pencil.
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
It is faster, something to do with quality in a context little encountered these days.
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Baering in mind a modern CF bike is at least 3kg lighter than a mid eighties 531 framed machine which bits are so well made that the old one is faster?
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Blimey how much does your 531 frame weigh?
I've just weighed my mid eighties 531c bike (with Brooks Swallow saddle) and it weights 10.2kg - and it looks like you have to pay a lot to get a modern CF bike around 3kg less than that.
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Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
The main thing is being happy with what you've got. Old or new, heavy or light if it puts a smile on your face you're a winner.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
That's not entirely the case, although i expect in large part that's true. Most international level teams ride what their sponsors give them, and the manufacturers sell far more carbon than steel, and make a bigger mark-up than steel, so will want the riders to be seen on them - there will be commercial considerations as well. Even if a steel bike could run with the pack (and I've yet to see any evidence one couldn't do so with a comparable rider), that ain't what's putting the food on their table.
I keep telling my wife that when she complains about me.
