On Tue, 7 Aug 2018 11:46:05 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

On Monday, August 6, 2018 at 6:38:25 PM UTC-7, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 6 Aug 2018 18:17:45 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

On Monday, August 6, 2018 at 10:24:29 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
On 8/6/2018 12:02 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, August 4, 2018 at 5:24:37 PM UTC-7, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
I was looking at the Mountain Equipment Co-Op site for tires and a cassette for a 700C hybrid that I'm tuning up for a friend. Whilst on the site I saw 26" tire for $240.00 CDN. Vee Tire Co Snowshoe XL Studded 26" Tire https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5047-2...ded-26%22-Tire Btw the tire is made in Thailand.

Then I saw a 12 speed cassette 10 -50 teeth for $611.00 CDN! https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5053-7...Speed-Cassette

What gives with these prices? Car tires are not nearly that expensive and I bet motorcycle tires cost less too.

Baffled by these prices.

Cheers

You want ridiculous . . . sorry, Andrew, but really? http://www.bikeattack.com/bianchi-eroica-sale/ MSRP $4K on sale for only $3,700 -- for Dia-compe CP brakes and a knock-off three-spider crank of yore that I wouldn't have bought back in the "pre-1987" era, which is apparently the index point for "old." https://magazine.bikesoup.com/bianchi-leroica


This frame looks like something from the '60s, however, and certainly pre-77-ish when most of the manufacturers started trending towards braze-on TT cable guides. The old style cable clips allow you to snag your wool shorts on little bolt-ends. Always a feature I liked. My son saw the brake cables and worried about strangulation hazard, but I told him that back in the days of yore, us hard men accepted that risk.

I love the bike soup article:

"it's not being geeky and pretentious about vintage mechanics or a manufacturing process of a time gone by, it's about getting into the spirit of a style of racing that is seemingly far-removed from what we have now. It's a handsome sort of riding where pastries were as important as the climbs and style was as abundant as the passion. Long live Eroica events, and bikes like the Bianchi L'Eroica, for keeping the spirit of those legends and their endurances alive. It may be a new bike, but the smile it creates is as old as the sport itself."

Pffff. I about blew my coffee out. WTF? Racing has always been about hacking a lung -- it certainly wasn't about looking good and eating pastries because pastries were as important as the climbs, at least not when I started in the '70s. You wore a bunch of wooly stuff because that's what was on the market or what was sold as mandatory team gear. You rode Italiano frames with BBs that wanted to unscrew, friction shifting crap, nail-on cleats and then went out and beat yourself to death unless you were that genetic freak who made it look easy. I think the bikesoup people are smoking something.


People race all kings of vintage hardwa
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6197/6...ebee0359_z.jpg

and classic motorcycles, airplanes, boats (probably old
horses too for all I know)

And boats, etc., but think of Tommy Simpson suffering on Mont Ventoux -- "put me back on my bike . . . I need to buy a pastry . . . a croissant. . . aaaak!" Who comes up with all the **** about days of yore being a "handsome sort of riding where pastries were as important as the climbs"? Racing has always been about suffering, and you can bet all these "handsome" racers of yore would have killed to get a UCI minimum CF uber-bike with 11sp and a real gear range. Tommy might be alive today if he had a 34/30 and maybe some better drugs. I mean really, who thinks that strychnine is performance enhancing. It's like the dopes who took a smoke before the big climb. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/df/79...d48efc6bd1.png I think that the people who do retro racing should be expressly limited to retro drugs -- and retro medical care after a crash, maybe some leaches and mercury salts for infection.

-- Jay Beattie.



I don't know who writes all the goofy **** about the old days.

I think that strychnine is, in fact, a performance enhancing drug all
be it not to be compared with more modern goodies.

See:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-strychni...drug-512532345

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carmend.../#4e90be3c747e

Yes, you're right, it is a stimulant (and a deadly one), and so is nicotine in the cigarettes smoked by the ancients before a big climb. But really? Caffeine and amphetamines were well known in the '50s and back to the turn of the century. Why take a stimulant like strychnine that can kill you in low doses? The ancients also drank brandy, which makes no sense to me since alcohol wipes me out. The ancients did a lot of odd things, IMO.

-- Jay Beattie.


Strychnine use, I believe, dates back to the 1800's. Benzedrine, the
first of the amphetamines was marketed in 1933. I suspect that it was
a matter of using what was available.

Performance enhancement has been a factor in athletic competition
since the first Greek Games in 776 B.C. when athletes consumed sheep
testicles prior to the games. (Sheep Testicles contain testosterone
so maybe they do help).