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this will be a short report because i don't know how long i'll have access to the brother-in-law's borrowed ibook thing...and i keep screwing up the mouse commands and opening up bizarre saved websites having to do with advanced fruit fly genetics. colin is the type of dangerous radical sarah palin warned you about- utilizing untold amounts of monies which could see better use in the coffers of haliburton and blackwater....to produce a super fruit fly that'll be able to invade and terrify produce markets, unwashed garbage cans and lunchrooms and scuzzy diners the world over....
but let me talk about something i know.
the bike doesn't matter in a way that it has never not mattered before. the average pro-tour sled sucks. it's parts are nice, it is light, it is saleable and cool looking but it lacks more than just the charm that charachterised the tools of the trade during any other time in history. almost without exception-the pros are riding chinese built carbon junk. sometimes these bikes have geometry that some product manager was able to rip-off from some old italian drawing so that thing at least handles right. sometimes, the product manager fanices himself smarter than fifty years of italian road bike design, and re-invents the wheel in such a way that only three of the 12 stock sizes can be employed by pro-riders. a 5'1 guy on 54cm bikes- 6'4 guys on 58cm bikes and all of'em on the same 54cm tt bike....mad painful but it doesn't matter.
there are a few guys in the indusrty who restore my faith in bike design though. andy walser cumudgeonly selling 4 pound garage made tt frames at full retail to pro-riders who risk losing their jobs for their decision to buy some speed makes me smile. so too does the million euro development of theo bos' track bike. beyond this you've got guys like dario and richard still letting competition be their muse in their efforts to conitnually refine the race bike.
but it's a couple of the big guys i'd like to really tip my hat too. the first among them is pinarello. they seem to have been able to harness the global reality that makes italian production of any sort of manufactured good a losing proposition. still, their bikes exude class, look great and more importantly ride like a great bike should. and if you need something really special because one of the 16 stock perfectly balanced princes doesn't quite meet the need, enter the dogma- a customizable magnesium wonder-bike that rides better than any bike made by anyone ever.....pereiro and petacchi should never share anything...but the dogma-made with the same tubeset even- suits both these athletes perfectly.
but the winner of who makes the best race bike doesn't go to our pals in treviso, amsterdam or parts unknown, switerzerland. it goes to the 800 pound gorilla from waterloo wisconsin. the new madone is an incredible bike. it looks great, its light, it has wonderful torsional rigidity and its geometry in all its sizes make sense. it was designed by bike guys who listen to their athletes and are determined to get them the best tool in the world with which to perform their jobs. they don't claim any revolutionary knowledge of geometry- yet saw fit to allow for the lower headtubes modern shifters and bar shapes and the current morphology of most racers demand. their integrated post and bearing systems make sense both from a performance, marketing and retail sale standpoint. when i needed a custom seat mast for my client brian scalabrine so he could get his saddle high enough on his 64cm frame, the boys in wisconsin just made one. when i fit zdeno and sent a bike cad drawing to trek- they made the bike- 150mm stem, custom fork, seat mast and all. they could have just told me to stick my client on a 64cm performance fit madone bike and deal with a bit less drop- but they didn't, they re-inforced a 62cm pro fit frame and made z a perfect bike.
bear in mind-trek had no clue who my clients were. they did it because they are bike builders and they could. look at the pictures from astana training camp and you'll see a number of custom aluminum rigs for some of the guys. this is the only pro-tour team that still has its bike supplier making custom frames for lowly domestiques simply because the ds and the rider might benefit from it. trek gets it.
nonetheless, the trek madone has to be one of the most boring bikes i've ridden. but boring is a good thing. boring like a formula one car, no bad habits just a bike that does what you tell it too.
jerk
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Originally Posted by Saab2000 
