I only recently got a chance to look up close at the Curnoe print, so I was mostly guessing from the image itself when I put together the components for my version. So I thought, for example, that the original had Campagnolo brakes (they're Weinmanns) and a Cinelli stem/bar (they're T.T.T.). I had no idea that Curnoe used Pino Morroni QRs, but, wow, that's cool. But knowing this probably wouldn't have changed my choices very much, given the semi-autobiographical nature of the project, and given the emphasis I'm putting on "adaptation." The basis of my adaptations appears in the chart itself, where I force myself to justify my departures from the original, either on aesthetic or athletic grounds.
Yes, I do know that I am weird, and that this is just a bike. But by clicking on the image below (and you will need to click to be able to read it), you tacitly acknowledge that you too are weird—and that this is not just a bike!
ps: how awesome was the Tour of Flanders yesterday? I'm going to turn this blog into a racing blog some day!
7 comments:
Tell us why the Jubilee rear didn't work. I've read Jan Heine on this subject who claims they're perfectly durable, but I tried a short and a long cage model (one on a TT and the other on a randonneur) and found them really fussy to shift. I agree with Mike Barry that the best derailleur is a Simplex SLJ (on my randonneur now), and I went with a Campy NR on my TT bike. A few grams heavier but now worries about shifting.
You can find all the gritty, sad details here. The short version is that I couldn't get it to shift on to a cog bigger than a 20T, because of my somewhat ridiculous relocation of the derailleur hanger...
Have you actually used a Jubilee for any serious riding? I see them on Peter Weigle's bikes but I can't escape the suspicion that they're part of a nostalgic cult for old French bike bits, some of which are great (the Simplex gears and shifters, TA and Stronglight cranks, Mafac brakes) and some not worthy of hard use (Jubilees!).
One small TT bit of history, to wit: I've never seen any Jubilee derailleurs on the machines of the most weight-obsessed time trialer of olden days: Alf Engers. He rode his bikes really hard, and took drillium to the limit, and preferred to lighten his Campy gears rather than use Jubilees. He must have known something.
I haven't ridden the Jubilee hard, no. I do hear the shifting is quite good with the hanger in the right spot (not just from Jan Heine, also from here). But my previous experience with non-slant paralellogram derailleurs with "good reputations" has been very poor. I even found the SLJ pretty tricky to work with. The Mavic 851 was a nightmare!
Well, good for you for not becoming a slave to fashion. You have to have confidence in your shifts if you're doing any hard riding. Even modern gears can fail--witness poor Andy Schleck's troubles on an Alpine climb in last year's Tour. As his SRAM Red derailleur jammed, Contador looked over his shoulder and flew off, taking Schleck's last chance at victory with him.
That was a heartbreaker! Although wasn't he in a small-small gear? Tsk tsk! Anyway, I hope the Leopard-Trek mechanics have our Andy properly set up this year!
My 6-speed/friction/slant-parallelogram setup should be immensely reliable and shift very well -- though I'll need to pick my gear beforehand on long climbs...
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