Bicycling

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I ride a double-butted 531 frame, and I have been hearing about "dead" frames for decades. However, I have never seen a single test showing the difference, and I can assure you that metallurgical research facilities are pretty well packed with testing machines.
The trouble with developing bikes is that the changes we can make are almost always far smaller than the difference that having the rider expect to go faster makes. Bikes are placebos. When Major Taylor held the world sprint championship, he used cranks bent into a 180 deg arc so he could "push on the ends." Of course, it was just extra weight and flex, but he made them work. The year that Campy came out with the Hi-Lo flange rear hub, those who couldn't get them often gave up trying to lead the amateur events.
If you want a simple machine with a stiff pedal feel and a soft ride, you need a recumbent, with the bumps and pushes at right angles to each other instead of having to choose between them in the usual structural compromise.

Once made myself a recumbent to try the concept out. The force steer I could do ok, but it was the essential need for a mirror in that position which made me decide the recumbent position wasn't for me, and I missed the direct steer of a diamond frame.
531 does not go dead. It is 753 which goes dead.

All my 531 bikes are over 20 years old. I have test ridden 531 bikes which have been close to double that age and they ride as well as they left the factory.

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 09 Aug 2019, 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

During my peak cycling years, I rode between 10,000 and 14,000 miles a year. Sadly, I sold my last road bike about four years ago to pay for hiking equipment, since hiking had taken over as my main outdoor passion. I regret, it now. I'm definitely getting back into cycling within the next few years. My last road bike featured a very light and comfortable carbon fiber frame with Shimano Dura Ace and Ultegra components.

I hope you get a nice new bike. I think you can't go wrong with a good touring bike if you just want one bike to do everything. Touring bikes are designed to take weight and also designed for lite offroad use as many countries they are designed to tour have dust tracks as roads.

As a teenager I loved biking around the neighborhood. Now it's family biking when we can squeeze it in. My NT husband is a big mountain biker, so I look to him to get us out.

Enjoy!

Before there was 753, all the pro riders on 531 got new frames every year, and told those who couldn't afford one that their one-year-old frames had gone dead. This always seemed to happen over the off season, not during the last race. I have hung out with Mike Burrows of England and Chet Kyle, who did the US Olympic bikes, etc etc, and you never hear a word about "dead" frames among the engineers. However, the myth sells a lot of frames.
My friend Conrad Oho ran a bike repair shop in Marin County, and made the first Mountain bikes that could go up as well as down. He made his bread and butter on overhauls. They often cost more than half the price of a high-end new bike, but the results were better than a new bike.

I never ride without a helmet and mirror. I don't want to be guessing about approaching traffic when I'm dodging road hazards. There is a vast range of handling qualities in recumbents, from short wheelbase models with direct steering to long low riders that need very different reaction timing, but are fine after a week. The Bike-E was an example of one that is just plain unpleasant for reasons we understand better now, but a good store should have several models to test.

They are very rare in UK bike shops. I used to like the looks of the Peer Gynt recumbent tourer.
My favourite two bikes are the 1989 Dawes Galaxy and the Orbit Gold Medal from about the same age. The Orbit feels a little more sporty... More of a sports tourer. The Galaxy is a proper touring bike.
I have other bikes. five bikes I am keeping for myself. The others I plan to part with.

It depends on your focus, I guess. A touring bike is a great machine, I had a great Nishiki that I purchased in thr mid-80s. But once I got my first road bike, I fell in love with the breed, even though I never raced seriously. No one bike can do everything well, in my opinion. A road bike is a poor choice for bikepacking, and a touring bike is a poor choice for racing. I took multi-day trips on my road bike, but I didn't camp out, so I didn't carry that much. It worked well for me.

Now that I enjoy backpacking, I'd love to go bikepacking, so a touring bike will probably be what I'll get first.

Yes, definitely. I recommend Banjo Brothers

Hey cool bicycle thread!
I have always enjoyed cycling, grew up in Germany and went to France on vacation as a kid. We would often be there during the Tour de France. If we were lucky we would even see some live stages, I was born in the 60s, remember seeing Eddy Merckx, Poulidor, Bernard Hinault, Greg Lemond and others...
I started riding myself as I was older. Used to ride in Germany especially when I lived in Berlin.
I started on a Gitane bike and worked up to a Ciocc with a Shimano 600 group, unfortunately totaled my first Ciocc, but replaced it whit a new Ciocc which I upgraded in the early 2000s with a Campagnolo Chorus group, I love Italian steel lugged frames!, I also have a fixed rear Trek mountain bike (nothing special) and a Pashley Speed with the double top tube. I am not as much into the different brands and details as I used to be at one time, but I guess sometimes the special interests kind of come and go...I dont care too much for the carbon bikes and triathlon bikes, prefer road bikes. I would love to have a Colnago Master...

Racing, it is often said, improves the breed, but bicycle races have been treated a strictly athletic contests, with nearly one-design bicycles. There has been a bit of progress on the fringes for triathlons, etc, but we never see even basic recumbents racing against diamond frames since they were outlawed 75 years ago. Now, the streamlined bike record is over 140 km/h (88 MPH) but there is almost no audience for the races with cutting-edge technology. There is more interest in the clownish attempts of students who have not studied the prior art. I'd like to see at least another class running at the major Tours with anything allowed except stored energy at the start. We'd get millions of dollars for developing better e-bike partss as well as full velomobiles.

There's something that I would like to do which would not be quite so easy today. To build decent traditional touring bicycles to the way I think they should be built as general all rounder type bikes which are durable, easy to repair, have the gear range needed without going silly with cramming too many gears on the back end... Traditional inch headsets and traditional bottom brackets. Simple 21 speed via a triple chainset... Down tube gear levers. External routed cabling on brake levers for randenneur style drop handlebars....

Wtxgear... Do you mean the Pashley Speed 5 which has a 531 triangle? Double toptube? You must be quite a tall rider as they only make that for the largest frame size. Ooh. If you are in the UK and are tall, I have a 25" racing bike looking for an owner. Is a Ferrari.

I am 6'4". That is indeed the largest Pashley frame. My Ciocc frame is 61cm if I recall correctly and I have the saddle tube quite high in it. On the Pashley I wanted to go for a relatively large frame. Back in the old days people did not raise their saddles as high and it was quite normal for you to not be able to stand over the top tube when dismounted. I alsio like the different look of the double tube.

picture is Guvnor, but same frame as my Speed 5

Last edited by Wtxger on 21 Aug 2019, 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

I like cycling. I'm looking for a winter destination where I can cycle for a few thousand miles.

Yes, I know the Speed 5. Came out about two years ago. I was wanting a single speed Guv'nor, but I didn't have the funds. (Neither do I now! Haha!) Sadly the Guv'nor is only available in 3 speed form today.

Question. The wheel/tyre size. Is it 28 as in 700c, or the old large 28" size that was once popular many years ago? I am a bit apprehensive about using unpopular wheel sizes. I could always put 700c rims on it if I wanted to, but it would be a shame if it is only in the old 28" wheel size as tyres are so difficult to get.

they are the old 28" tires, I believe Kenda tires and Schwalbe tubes, not too difficult to get, at least as long as there is Amazon to order from. On my road bike I have tried all kinds of different tires as it is 700C. The Speed 5 has black Kenda tires.

Last edited by Wtxger on 21 Aug 2019, 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.