In case you're thinking it was slower back then - check the stats:
Gent-Wevelgem, 2005: winner Nico Mattan, 208 km @ 42.577 kph.
Gent-Wevelgem, 1974: winner Barry Hoban, 244km @ 44.383 kph.
doing the conversion.....44.383 kph is 27.58 mph for 151.6 miles!
Holy crap - Hoban did it with his downtube shifters not working -
they kept ghost shifting and had to ride it with his hand on the shifter most of the time on the climbs. There, I changed it.
read this article - and dont worry, it mentions eddy and roger - a
rare loss.
5 comments:
Thank you! i was just about to buy a new bike... and it was like, wait a minute! It isn't the bike, it is the engine!
"hand on the shifter most of the time"
? so, looking at the picture, his shifter was located on his face? did he shift with his nose?
ITS THE RIDER, ALWAYS.
duke, it was the fact that mechanically the bikes were worse - in some cases and that he did what he did with technical issues.... if you have ever riden with friction shift that didnt work right, you would know. I bet his nose itched....most not all of the time.
thanks for the comment.
Shifters... HA! You have witnessed my alternative to these modern devices.
There was a time even before frition shift (or any shift for that matter).
i have seen some of the rather crazy contraptions they used. amazing none the less. i suppose we could all go back to when you had one gear on one side of the wheel and a different one on the other. i am actually looking at getting a fixed gear bike....should be lots o fun.
drew
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