Horrible sinking feeling

That sometimes something you've held dear for so long is actually a load of old bollocks.

My Orange Clockwork. A nice old school steed. Old school geometry. Old school XT. Real feel of
steel, yadayada etc.

Great beastie for those unchallenging road/smooth track bimbles.

In the cut and thrust of town riding, it goes to pieces. The slack head angle and short fork mean
that it reacts to violent "oh monkeyfarts, that bus is coming right at me" manoevres like a D-reg
Scorpio on dead shocks. In the "must get a sprint on to get in that lane" out of the saddle
situation, the steering wibbles horribly in a manner that I can't recall in a bicycle since my POS
Falcon Cheetah.

It's a shame. There be touring bike in that there DNA.

But it goes to show that "horses for courses" goes for bicycles as well as, um, horses.

It also goes to show that MTBs have evolved. And some.

Still a cool bike though.

Andy Chequer, off to get the Ribble 653 roadworthy again.........

(kill the heretic and whatnot)

 

"Andy Chequer" <[email protected](youdontwantthisbitinit)thisisasparagus.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> That sometimes something you've held dear for so long is actually a load
of
> old bollocks.

Or the opposite can happen: I recently dusted off my old Technics turntable
(w/ Grado cartridge) and played some old vinyl albums. You know what? They *do* sound great.
Everything I know about audio (which is quite a lot, actually) suggests that vinyl is inferior
to CD's. Why then does it sound so sweet?

> My Orange Clockwork. A nice old school steed. Old school geometry. Old school XT. Real feel of
> steel, yadayada etc.

It's funny that you should mention old skool XT. I just dug my trusty 1992 XT thumbshifters out of
the bin and mounted 'em on my grocery getter (1992 Research Dynamics steel frame). The beautiful
snick-snick of XT thumbies will make a grown man weep, especially when you see how few parts are
involved. Simple, effective, indestructible. No wonder they don't make 'em anymore! ;-)

The best hardtail I ever owned was a 1996 Voodoo Bizango (Tange Prestige Ultimate Ultralight) with
XTR M900 drivetrain, RaceFace cranks, Marzocchi Bomber fork and XT thumbshifters. Why did I sell
that bike? I heard that disc brakes were superior, and fell for the hype. Sold it to buy a disc
bike. I was a fool. I thought $275 for a scratched-up Bizango frame was plenty, and counted myself
lucky; but I'd pay more than that to get 'er back again.

> Great beastie for those unchallenging road/smooth track bimbles.
>
> In the cut and thrust of town riding, it goes to pieces. The slack head angle and short fork mean
> that it reacts to violent "oh monkeyfarts, that bus is coming right at me" manoevres like a D-reg
> Scorpio on dead shocks.
In
> the "must get a sprint on to get in that lane" out of the saddle
situation,
> the steering wibbles horribly in a manner that I can't recall in a bicycle since my POS Falcon
> Cheetah.
>
> It's a shame. There be touring bike in that there DNA.
>
> But it goes to show that "horses for courses" goes for bicycles as well
as,
> um, horses.
>
> It also goes to show that MTBs have evolved. And some.

I agree. My old 1992 rigid bike has those classic slack angles and long chainstays, and it steers
like a cow. It feels slow - very slow. I can't figure out why it's so slow. All I know is, my 2003
Weyless aluminum frame is *much* faster (same tires, similar XTR drivetrain). Why? Steeper angles?
Stiffer? Longer top tube? All of the above? Yeah, probably. The bikes are definitely changing. If I
had a need for one, I'd finally consider full suspension and disc brakes; but I don't, so there's no
point. Give me superlight hardtails! (and maybe a shock seatpost - I am getting old).

Barry "turned 41 last Sunday" Sanders

 

On Thu, 22 May 2003 18:39:39 GMT, B. Sanders wrote:

> Or the opposite can happen: I recently dusted off my old Technics turntable
> (w/ Grado cartridge) and played some old vinyl albums. You know what? They *do* sound great.

I've really been wanting to do that sometime. Maybe that'll be on my summer to-do list.

> The best hardtail I ever owned was a 1996 Voodoo Bizango (Tange Prestige

Huh. My "new" bike is a 1996!

> Barry "turned 41 last Sunday" Sanders

Congrats! I turned 44 three Saturdays ago. It doesn't feel like I should be 44 yet, though.

--
-BB- To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)