Originally Posted by Pat Stowe .
Croce brakes? not work? hmm Were you aware the correct adjustment required the pads to be much farther away from the rims than any other brake?
How many decades ago did you use the "mismatched"' campy parts from different eras that formed your opinion? Did the shifter guides/indents match the brand/type of freewheel or cassette you were using?
Shimano? The company that; introduced planned obsolescense to cycling, requires that you buy 2 or three extra parts to get the one you want? leaves out the most needed tool in a shop kit and requires you buy a whole new kit to get the one you need, that makes a non trimable front derailleur changes designs constantly with built in incompatibility often year to year and model to model, whose races are non-replacable, whose chains wear out so quickly many shops won't sell them or stock a few but "push" Sram or others?
Yes I was aware that it was supposed to be required that you set the pads a little wider than normal. I tried everything from milimeter clearance to as wide as they could go with a myriad of different pads. Sh1t would be a polite way to put their effectiveness but it was good enough for a TT bike 90% of the time. The 10% that it wasn't you just rediscovered how fast you really could go around corners at the bottom of hills... Continetal's LA tubulars were very forgiving even at 175psi.
The mismatch of parts was early to mid 90's. Super Record cranks from the mid 80's, croce brakes, chorus rear mech... Good enough for a long 20 minute, 10 mile TT ~29mph on a pair of Shamals. That pic was take about a week before I moved from the 175mm Campag cranks to 185mm TA Alize.
Reynolds 531 tandem tubeset too because the downtube was too long for a regular 531C set
Exotic stuff, no? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/ROTF.gif Descente 'batman' skinsuit designed in the windtunnel with raised ribs (for my, not her pleasure) and Bell Vortex aerolid were... The skinsuit was 'used' when I got it from the UK descente importer and cost an arm and a leg.
Danfoz,
I too was broke when I raced. Who wasn't broke when they raced and went to university? All my Campag equipment apart from the Shamals was used. My road bike had all Shimano gear because i needed fast gear changes and Campag Syncro was beyond sh1t. If some of the planets lined up, if it didn't rain the past few days and, it was a big AND, the wind wasn't blowing in the wrong direction you might get three consecutive indexed shifts out of your synchro gear system. Campag record outshifted by Shimano 105... by a country mile and if you fudge a shift it doesn't matter how good the rest of the groupset is the basic function of pressing hard on the pedals to generate power has been disrupted.
Alienator,
For me the pinacle of perfection with regards to brake lever ergo is the 7900 Di2, thin and skimpy like a traditional lever but it just begs you to try and find an uncomfortable position if you could... I've not tried the EPS levers because it's still as rare as rockinghorse sh1t around these parts. The 7900 levers on my "posh" bike are the most comfortable standard cable actuated "brifter" that i've tried, not just because it's comfy to pop your hands on but because the brake lever position is adjustable. It's not much of an issue for rides of a few hours in length but for the 12+ hour slogs that I do every so often in the high Sierras, that feature itself is worth it's weight in gold. Each to his own but I wouldn't trade those levers for anything but Di2 right now.
Campybob,
That licorice chainset that Campagnolo puts out has nothing on this:
3D awesomeness not seen since 1986 and C-Record - except lighter and probably much stiffer. It might be as light and as stiff as the aluminium Cannondale Hollowgram Si SL chainset that I have which, IMHO is better than the current Super Record chainset. Lighter, stiffer and has an replaceable spider that allows 130bcd and 110bcd chainrings. Shimano are going for 110bcd across the board to cut out the nonsense of 130 and 110bcd and beefing up the chainrings. Nice.
I'm not sure that I'd go with this particular gear ratio but, Mmmmm shiny
It's not about materials - it's about function. If a manufacturer put out a frame made of spaghetti and cheese but it worked better than my current frame then Italian food frame it is... Calfee put a convincing arguement for bamboo frames for long distance events. Carbon isn't the be all and end all of performance. That Shimano is the biggest producer of carbon leisure equipment chooses not to manufacture all it's premier equipment from that material kinda tells you they think of things the same way.