From there it was probably and hour’s drive to Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, about seven miles from New York City on the other side of the Hudson River. The frameshop where I worked was at the back of a bike store that the Fraysee’s owned.

The terms of my initial visa that I had when I entered the US, was that I would return to England before the end of the first year. I could then renew my visa and come back again.

I planned to return to the UK for the Christmas Holidays 1979, that gave me almost a year to work and save for the trip. By the fall of that year, it was clear money was going to be tight and I needed to find some extra cash to meet expenses.

On the corner of the same block where the frameshop was, there happened to be a large warehouse type building. It was home to a company that packaged Christmas wrapping paper. They were hiring seasonal part time workers for an evening shift.

And so it was, I started moonlighting. When I finished my day job building frames, I would work 6 to 10 in the Christmas wrapping paper plant.

It was probably around this time of year, early November, as I took my one-mile morning walk to work, I rounded the corner off Main Street, Ridgefield Park, to a scene of utter devastation.

The Christmas paper business had burned to the ground in a fire during the night. Only the four walls were standing, the roof was gone; firefighters were cleaning up. All that was left of the place where I had worked the previous evening was a blackened, smoldering pile of rubble.

As I walked slowly past on the opposite side of the street, the cold realization was sinking in, that I no longer had a part time job, no extra income, and possibly no Christmas trip to England.

However, within two weeks, the owners of the business had savaged and repaired some of the machinery, and had started up again in another building close by.

With only a few short weeks left before Christmas, they were now desperate to replace their lost stock, plus make up for two weeks lost production. I not only got my job back, I was now working an 8 hour shift, from 6pm. to 2am.

There was a feeling amongst the workers, of wanting to help the owners succeed; they had not given up, we were not giving up.

I was also working two shifts on the weekends; the result was I probably made more money than if there had not been a fire. I made the trip to England with cash to spare.

I thought of this incident just yesterday when I wrote a quote in the form of a question,

“How boring would life be without uncertainty?”

 

We need certainty in our lives to feel secure; we need to be reasonably certain that we will wake up in the morning, and that our loved ones will still be there. That our job will be there and the building not burned to the ground as I found.

Then every so often, life throws us a curve, something unexpected. Without the unexpected, life would be boring. Curved roads are more interesting than straight roads; we don’t know what is round that next bend.

Within uncertainty, there is adventure, excitement. I have always found throughout my life whenever a relationship has turned sour, or I have lost a job; when I look back years later, it was for the good.

I’ve had many disappointments, but very few regrets.
 

A physician who deliberately injured two cyclists with his car was this week found guilty on seven counts that included assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious injury and reckless driving causing injury. He was immediately taken to jail.

This was the culmination of a three week trial in Los Angeles that resulted from an incident on July 4th, 2008, when Dr. Christopher Thompson, a 60 year old emergency room doctor, got into a confrontation with two cyclists on Mandeville Canyon Road, Brentwood, CA.

Annoyed at not being able to get by the cyclists on the narrow winding road, the situation escalated when one of the cyclists flipped Thompson off. The doctor cut in front of the cyclists and slammed on his brakes.

One cyclist hit the back of the SUV resulting in broken teeth, lacerations to the face that included needing reconstructive surgery to his nose. The other cyclist fell and suffered a separated shoulder.

Thompson told police, “I just wanted to teach them a lesson.” I think more than anything, the doctor has taught himself a lesson, one that I hope other drivers will get.

Deliberate dangerous moves like cutting cyclists off or slamming on brakes in front of them, have serious consequences.  Thompson could face up to 10 years, but we will have to wait until December, 3rd for the sentencing.

Whatever he gets I’m sure this will cost him financially big time. His defense costs alone for a three-week trial, and I can practically guarantee a civil suit will follow.

If I could ask Dr. Thompson one question right now as he sits in jail, it would be, “Was it worth it?”

Read the story in the LA Times

I received an email a few weeks back from Andres Viglucci, a reporter with the Miami Herald; later we talked on the phone.

Andres was preparing to write an article on the Miami Critical Mass ride and wanted my views because he had noticed I had opposed CM in the past here on my blog.

Whenever I have written an anti-Critical Mass piece, I get comments from pro-CMers saying stuff like, “It is not a protest, it is a celebration of cycling,” and “It is so much fun.”

I am sure it is fun, it is an unofficial “Mardi Gras” on bicycles, and this is my entire problem with these events. It is a group of people having fun at the expense of a larger group of people, namely other road users.

For example, a group of people cannot dress up in costumes, get a marching band and parade down the street without a permit, especially during Friday evening rush hour.

However, you can legally ride a bicycle on a public road at any time, and this is technically what Critical Mass riders are doing

They are abusing the privilege of riding a bike on the road. Doing so in the pretence that they are bringing awareness to cycling, when if the participants were honest they are doing it because it is fun and because they can.

They are simply having a huge party on bicycles, taking over the streets and technically, they are not breaking rules; however, if they were a mob on foot, they would be arrested.

In the video at the top of the Miami Herald article, I see an unruly mob of cyclists taking as many as four lanes, when they could quite easily ride in one lane. I see cyclists riding though red lights, while fixie riders get to display their track stand skills while corking the intersection.

Blocking or corking an intersection is illegal and the perps justify this by saying it makes it safer for the group by keeping them together, and it cuts down on the delay.

So here you have one group of road users delaying another, and justifying it by saying it keeps the delay to a minimum. What’s wrong with that statement? And I can’t think of any thing that gets a motorist's blood boiling more than having a green light and can’t go.

Andres Viglucci actually wrote a pro-cycling article, he got on a bike and rode with Critical Mass. Kudos to Andres and the Miami Herald for having the balls to write such a piece; many big city newspapers will not risk doing so in an auto centric society.

From the article, I gather that Miami has a pro-cycling Mayor and Chief of Police. The article mentions there are plans to put in more bike lanes in the city. So why does the Critical Mass movement feel it is necessary to bring attention to the plight of cyclists? It would seem Miami city officials want to encourage cycling.

Critical Mass needs to decide if it has a real purpose, if the purpose is to celebrate cycling then do so at 6am. on a Sunday morning. (Probably the best time of the day temperature -wise in Miami.)

Riding at this time would cause the least disruption for other road users. Of course, if the object and most of the fun is in causing disruption then it just proves my point.

In which case Critical Mass needs to be honest and admit its purpose is for the selfish enjoyment of its participants, and it is not cycling advocacy.

Responsible cyclists in Miami might consider contacting the Mayor and the Chief of Police and let it be known that they distance themselves from CM, speak out and encourage people not to participate.

Why should I, an avid cyclist, want to spoil the fun for other people on bikes? Because Critical Mass is handing the general motoring public a stick to beat the rest of us with, whenever they see us commuting to work, or out riding alone

Footnote: In the top picture I don't see too many helmets. What conclusion, if any, do you draw from this? Am I being over critical of Critical Mass, what is your take?

In 1982 when I began building custom frames in San Marcos, Southern California, I was fortunate that there was an excellent chrome plating business in nearby Escondido.

It was the chrome lug work and other parts of the frame that helped me gain my reputation for beautifully finished work.

This was the same plating shop used by Masi, later used by myself, Dave Tesch, Brian Baylis and other local builders.

What makes a high quality chrome finish is the same as what makes a good paint finish; it is what’s underneath, the preparation.

On a frame like the one pictured above, the whole frame is chrome plated, however, only the parts that will show are polished; the main tubes that are painted are left rough.

First it would be an unnecessary expense to polish these parts, and secondly the rough surface made a better key for the paint.

The parts of the frame that would be left exposed chrome plating were first highly polished. The slightest scratch left by a piece of emery cloth, would show after the plating process.

To achieve the best chrome finish, (Which this is.) the polished steel is first copper plated, polished again, then nickel plated over the copper, and finally chrome plated.

The copper affords the best adhesion to the steel; nickel gives the finish more corrosion resistance, but is yellowish in color. Finally the chrome gives the bright, bluish, almost mirror like finish. The coats of plating are extremely thin, measured in millionths of an inch, rather than thousandths.

Chrome is an abbreviation of the word Chromium, one of 91 natural occurring elements. Chromium is a metal which is not useful by itself; things are not made from chromium. However, it can be alloyed with steel to increase strength and hardness, or used for chrome plating.

Chrome is always applied by electroplating; it is not simply dipped in a tank. Say for example a frame was to have a chrome rear dropout faces, right chainstay, (To prevent chain slap damage.) and a chrome front derailleur braze-on. 

The Fuso Lux frame (Above.) and the John Howard fames were chromed in this fashion.

The frame is suspended in a vat of chromic acid. H2CrO4 with the parts to be plated below the surface, the surface of the liquid acid is agitated to make small waves. Without this there would be a solid line where the plating ends that would show beneath the paint.

Electric terminals are connected to a plating material, either copper, nickel, or chromium and to the frame to be plated. A current passes through the acid solution (Electrolyte.) and molecules of the metal travel through the solution to deposit on the frame.

A frame plated in the manner just described would be plated 2 or 3 inches up the seatstays, to include the whole rear dropouts on both sides, left and right chainstays, and the bottom bracket shell. In addition, the seat tube would be plated up to 2 to 3 inches above the front derailleur braze-on.

Also of course part of the down tube would be plated; it being impossible to immerse the derailleur braze-on without immersing much of the lower portion of the frame.

As I mentioned before, only the dropout faces, right chainstay, and front derailleur braze-on would be polished; the remainder would be plated, but with a rough, less shiny surface.

A frame with chrome head lugs (Picture left.) would have the head tube and several inches of the top and down tube plated.

After chroming in this manner the parts to be left unpainted would be masked with masking tape.

The edge around lug work required some delicate cutting of the tape with an Exacto knife.

If a fork crown was chromed the steering column was masked with duct tape before the fork was placed in the tank so it was not chromed.

Similarly, the bottom bracket threads were protected with a rubber plug.

I would use an etch primer over the chrome; this contains phosphoric acid that etches into the metal and provides a firm key for the coats of paint that followed.

Good chrome plating is expensive; one of the reasons being the high cost of disposing of the large amounts of toxic waste this process generates. Even the water used for rinsing the chrome parts after the plating cannot be disposed of without first treating it to render it harmless.

I remember the shop in Escondido had a low wall, about 18 inches high, built around the plating tanks so any spillage was contained, and could not escape out of the building and seep into the ground.

The chrome plating industry was the first to be regulated for toxic waste by the government, and is still highly regulated. Workers in the industry have to undergo regular medical checkups.

It is not the business I would choose to be in, but I was glad to have access to a good plating shop when I needed it.

A more detailed description of the Chrome Plating Process can be viewed here

• Life is a journey. A bike ride if you like and the joy is in the ride, not the destination.

Each morning I awake is like starting out on a fresh ride, I have a rough idea of what is in store for me on today’s ride.

However, when I actually get out on the road, I know there will be variables. Weather, traffic, mechanical problems, maybe a flat tire.

I do not set out expecting the worst, but I should not be surprised when little setbacks occur. Life is a stream of surprises. The things we like we call "Natural," what we dislike we call "Accidental." In reality it is all natural, all part of life's journey.

I may be riding in rush hour traffic, some are driving in an orderly manner, and others are in a hurry, driving erratically, cutting in front of people. Add to this, hoards of pedestrians on the sidewalk and crossing the street.

It all seems like chaos, when in fact everyone has a destination; they all have individual plans and know where they are going. Life too appears chaotic, but beneath the surface it is not.

The road I travel is the one I choose, although I may need to steer a course around a few obstacles. I have to remind myself, every moment is as it should be.

• Attitude is like a bicycle. A good one will make the ride easier and more pleasurable.

When riding my bike it is best that I simply to pay attention observe what is happening and react to situations as they happen. In life bad things happen, there is crime, the economy, various mishaps and misfortunes.

There is no point in dwelling on the negative, because it will only spoil the enjoyment of my ride. It is best that I just ride my bike, observe what is happening, and deal with the problems as they occur.

Like a flat tire, it is not very pleasant at the moment I am dealing with it, however, once fixed I am back enjoying the ride again. Expect the best, but deal with the less than perfect situation as it happens.

• Running a business is like a bike race. Or for that matter dealing with a day to day household budget.

My level of fitness is the experience and knowledge I have accumulated over the years. Mistakes I made in the past are like those hard training miles I put in.

The amount of money I have in the bank, or as income, is like the amount of energy I have. Unless I use it wisely I will not last the distance. If I have no plan and I chase every breakaway that goes up the road my energy (Money.) will soon run out.

Riding along in the pack is like being financially comfortable, I am conserving my energy and I am not being wasteful. However, if I want to get ahead I will have expend some of my energy.

Waiting for the right break and seeing that there are other good riders there, is like waiting for the right business opportunity at the right moment.

I make a big effort; spend some of my energy. I may have team members who will help me. These are like valued employees or good friends. If I am successful I will come out ahead and will get my reward.

If I fail I may get caught by the pack and I am at least no worse off than I was before. On the other hand, I may have expended so much energy that I get dropped by the pack and I am now playing catch up.

I am now in debt and the only way to catch up is to put in a super human effort. If I don’t, out here riding alone I am spending more energy than when I was in the pack, just to stay level and possibly falling further behind in spite of it.

The speed, at which I catch up, depends on the effort I put in and whether I have people who drop back to help me catch up.

However, unlike a bike race life is ongoing and the effort I put in while I was “Off the back,” was good training for the future.

I’m sure there are plenty more analogies of life and my bike; they will have to wait for another day as I think of them. In the mean time, perhaps you can expand on mine, or think of new ones.

People are campaigning in Britain to make it illegal to discriminate against anyone who is overweight, on the same grounds as race, age and religious discrimination.

Apparently such a law is already in effect in San Francisco, which bans “Fat-ism” in housing and employment and stops doctors from pressing patients to slim down.

I can to a certain extent, sympathize with anyone that has a weight problem, but the fact of the matter is, if you are overweight you are taking in more calories than your body is burning. The only cure is eating less and exercising more.

I consider it ludicrous to suggest a doctor should not tell a patient to lose weight; he would be failing in his job if he did not do so. I have known several people who were diabetic and after they started exercising and lost weight, their diabetes disappeared.

The campaigners, who belong to the Size Acceptance Movement, say surveys show 93% of employers would rather employ a thin person than a fat one even if they are equally qualified.

Well, duh. An employer would also rather employ a non-smoker over a smoker, a healthy person over a less than healthy person.

It’s why people have to take a drug test to get a job. Not because employers are into law enforcement; it’s because junkies do not make good workers. And is not a morbidly obese person a food junkie?

Statistics have also shown that employers will choose a tall person over a short person; why not a law to protect short people. After all an overweight person can do something about their weight, but a short person can do absolutely nothing about his height.

Maybe we should stop telling people who abuse drugs and alcohol that they are ruining their health. No more interventions for friends and loved ones, just allow them their right to kill themselves slowly.

Of course I am being facetious, but really. People should be encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle, and movements like these are counterproductive. This wide spread obesity epidemic has only materialized in the last twenty or thirty years, it is a lifestyle problem.

Like all such problems, it will only change when attitudes change, and lifestyles change. You cannot do that by laws and legislation, only by education and encouragement.

Please feel free to weigh in on this subject; I would be interested to hear your views

They were all former paper boys.

Long before the newspaper industry went into decline, the newspaper delivery boy disappeared, and that is a shame.

Not only from a nostalgic perspective, but a newspaper route gave a kid a certain amount of independence, and above all it taught the importance of taking responsibility.

Once a youngster had taken on the job, a commitment had been made and there were an awful lot of individuals relying on this young bicycle courier for their daily paper.

There were many reasons the newspaper boy disappeared. Fear by parents for the youngster’s safety, changing child labor laws, school classes starting earlier, etc., etc.

There was hardly a Hollywood movie made up until the 1970s, set in suburban America, that didn’t include a scene where a newspaper boy is riding his bike, and throwing newspapers somewhere in the approximation of the front porch.

Strange thing is, I occasionally see a newspaper boy depicted in a TV commercial, are there still any out there; has anyone seen a real one lately?

It occurred to me that a lot of readers that visit here are ex-newspaper boys or girls, and maybe for some that’s how interest in cycling began.

I thought it would be interesting to hear some of your experiences, and to know how long ago that was. Kind of like a survey to find when and why the newspaper boy went into decline. 

I wrote about an event held on March 23rd, 1952; the Calleva 25 mile time trial, an event restricted to a single gear of 72 inches. (48 x 18)

This event would go down in history when the first three riders would complete the distance in less than one hour.

The first time the magic one hour had been broken for 25 miles on a 72 inch gear.

Stan Higginson was the winner with a time of 59min. 20sec. Stan’s twin brother Bernard Higginson was second in 59min. 48sec. Dave Keeler took third place with a time of 59min. 58sec. Les Inman was fourth in 1hr. 0min. 52sec.

As a result of my writing this piece, Stan Higginson contacted me. A recent picture (Above right.) shows a still fit looking Stan, now 78 years young. His brother Bernard is also well; they live some fifteen miles apart, in Worcestershire, England.

Stan also sent some pictures from that era, including one taken right after the Calleva 25 at the moment history had been made. The picture is below.

From left to right is Les Inman (4th.) Stan Higginson (1st.) Bernard Higginson (2nd.) Dave Keeler (3rd.) Extreme right is Ken Sparks who was the 3rd member of the winning Halesowen C&AC team. Stan and Bernard were the 1st and 2nd Halesowen club members. Sparks time was 1hr. 3min. 10sec. and gave the Halesowen Team a total winning time of 3-2-18

Stan also gave me some interesting tid bits of information. He and Bernard normally raced on a single fixed gear of 84.4 inches. (50 x 16) He said it suited their slight build of 5’ 9 1/2” (176.5cm.) weighing 129 lb. (58.5kg.) and their very low profile positions.

Throughout the winter they trained on 62 inch gear. (46 x 20) This no doubt gave the twins their fast pedaling abilities.

Between 1952 and 1955 they won seven British National 25 Mile Championship Medals. 3 firsts, 2 seconds, and a third. Stan Higginson broke competition record 3 times. Their team. Halesowen C&AC won 3 National Championships, and broke competition record 4 times.

Stan’s fastest 25 was 56min. 21sec. and Bernard’s fastest time was 57min. 05sec.

The caption under this 1953 picture (Above) reads: The fastest of the brilliant cycling twins now serving in the Royal Air Force, S. F. Higginson has won the 25 miles championship of the Road Time Trials Council for the past two years, and is the current record holder with a time of 56 min. 29 sec. In July this year (1953) he became the first rider to beat 57 minutes at the distance.

Picture above: Stan Higginson turning in the North Lancashire 25 (1955)

Picture above: Stan riding a pursuit race at Herne Hill, London Track, Good Friday Meeting 1952

An interesting foot note. The person who put Stan in touch with me was Lewin Chalkley, who is the owner of Stan’s old Holdsworth frame. The frame below, recently restored, looks very much like the one in the picture above

At the end of my three part series on “The Evolution of Frame Design,” I suggested I was “Thinking outside the box.”

A little self serving I suppose; certainly less than humble, but I had just spent over a week writing the three articles.

It had caused me to dig deep into my memory bank and reflect on what I had achieved over the years building bicycle frames.

I was feeling pretty damn good about myself; about my career, and about the series of articles I had just written.

In my pumped up feeling of self importance, I came up with what I thought was a good finishing line, when I included the “Outside the box” idea.

I should have known better. There is always someone who will piss on your corn flakes.

The only comment the final article gathered as of midnight on Tuesday, two days after it posted, was a comment that suggested I was not even close to thinking outside any box.

Why? Because I didn’t even consider….. wait for it…..Recumbents.

WTF Mr. Bent Rider or whatever you signed your name as. I can’t remember now, because after giving the matter much thought and with no further comments appearing, I deleted it as being totally irrelevant.

Because as well being able to toot my own horn on my own blog, I can also delete comments. Something I rarely do by the way, unless it is something rude and obnoxious.

Not that this particular person was rude and obnoxious, because he wasn’t. But he was being a smart ass, and a smart ass who rides a recumbent is the worst kind.

Did you not read the articles? It was about road racing bicycles. It didn’t include BMX bikes, mountain bikes, and it sure as hell didn’t include recumbent bikes.

I spoke about sprinting and climbing out of the saddle, something you can’t do on a recumbent. Probably that design’s biggest drawback, because riding out of the saddle is the conventional bicycle’s form of overdrive.

The other drawbacks are the legs are pedaling in a slightly elevated position meaning that the heart has to work harder to pump blood to the muscles.

On a recumbent bike the drive is at the furthest possible point from the rear wheel, whereas on a conventional bike the drive is at the closest possible point to the rear wheel. These aspects alone tell me the idea is not worth pursuing further.

There are recumbent websites and forums where you can dicuss ideas with other like minded people; this is not the place.

Please take your phsychoceramic ideas elsewhere.

The final article in a 3 part series; Part I and Part II precede it.

After more than a decade of hard times from the late 1950s through the early 1970s the lightweight bicycle business finally came out of the slump, helped to a large extent by a bike boom in America.

By the end of the 1960s the 73 degree parallel frame was now the standard road geometry. Although it had been born out of necessity to build something that was easier to construct, it was still far better than the 71 degree seat angle, 73 degree head of the 1950s and before.

However, tradition dies hard, especially when those who had survived the hard times were the old established framebuilders that were around in the 1940s and 1950s, or new ones schooled in the belief systems of the old builders.

If you remember from the first article I wrote in this series, how the 2 degree difference between the head and seat angles suited the framebuilder, because the head and seat tubes diverged away from each other, and as the frame got taller the top tube got longer.

No one wanted to go back to 71 degree seat angles, so by the early 1970s the standard racing frame geometry became 73 seat angle and 75 degree head. Both Italian and British framebuilders followed this trend.

Typical are the head and seat angles on the 1973 Italian DeRosa shown at the top of this article. Picture from The Racing Bicycle Collection.

It was necessary to shorten the fork rake, otherwise, with the steeper head angle the point of the wheel’s contact with the road would actually be in front of the steering axis, making the bike just about impossible to ride.

Many of these traditionalists still held the firm belief that a bike should have zero trail; so by steepening the head and shortening the fork rake, (Offset.) they maintained the status quo.

See the picture (Left.) from the same DeRosa with the steering axis superimposed in green. Note there is little or no trail.

Now the head angle was steeper, steering was much more sensitive; less forgiving towards rider error.

Over the years road surfaces had greatly improved in Europe, bicycle tires had become narrower; as a result rear chainstays could be made shorter, therefore stiffer. Couple this with the steeper head and less fork rake, and bike wheelbases became a lot shorter.

Riders noticed with the new steeper head and short wheelbase, the bikes felt much more lively and faster when sprinting or climbing out of the saddle. Both riders and framebuilders attributed these ride qualities to the shorter steeper frame.

However, if you remember from the first article, “The Wheelbarrow Effect,” the livelier feel came from the fact that the rider’s weight was now directly over the front wheel, not behind the front wheel’s point of contact as it had been in the pre 1950s.

During the period from the late 1950s and through the 1960s, I had been building frames mostly for my own use; trying to find something that suited me. Because I never had any real notion to build frames as a business, I was not restricted to what was fashionable or what everyone else was doing.

In the early 1950s I found the shallow seat angle and long top tube totally unsuitable, I would always end up sitting on the nose of the saddle. Because of this I experimented with a frame that had a steeper seat angle and shorter top tube; my reasoning was, if this is where my body wants to be, I will build a frame to accommodate it.

I was also aware of the wheelbarrow effect. I experimented a little with different head angles but accepted early on that 73 degrees was the ideal head angle for a road bike, although a degree either way is okay. (72 to 74.) However, I did shorten the fork rake considerably to get the front wheel under the handlebars.

The resulting trail made the bike handle better, and go round corners faster, especially on fast descents. By the early 1970s I had established my design. The top tube was even shorter, seat angle steeper, and by using a longer handlebar stem, the handlebars were directly over the front wheel’s point of contact.

I was now building frames for other people and by 1974 had a full time business. The formula I used was simple; as the frame got taller, (Larger.) the handle bar stem had to become gradually longer to keep the handlebars directly over the front wheel.

This set up had the same desired feel when sprinting of climbing, but without the over sensitiveness of the steep head angle and less trail. Trail was a good thing; it helped keep the bike on a straight line, and gave certain self-steering qualities when cornering at speed.

The top tube became longer as the frame got taller, but at a lesser amount than the seat tube, because the handlebar stem was also lengthening.

With other people riding the bikes, some of them International class riders, my reputation grew as a framebuilder; the reason was the way the bike handled. 

As a young rider in the 1950s if I mentioned that my bike felt sluggish on the climb, I was told, “Good climbers, climb sitting down.” In the 1970s if an inexperienced rider crashed because the steering was over sensitive, he was told he didn’t know how to handle the bike.

My thinking was, put a novice on a good handling bike and he is an adequate bike handler; put an expert bike rider on the same bike and he becomes a brilliant bike handler.

Several readers of these articles have mentioned that they find this history interesting. What the reader sees as history is just a memory to me. However, I have found it interesting to reflect on the way the racing bicycle has evolved over the years, in many ways accidentally.

By the 1980s most of the world’s framebuilders had dropped the steep head angle thinking and gone back the old standard 73 degree head angle. They kept the shorter fork rake and found the resulting increase in trail was a good thing.

This was something I had discovered ten or fifteen years before. Did I influence anyone? I very much doubt it; I imagine most of the world’s framebuilders had never even heard of me in the early 1980s.

The saying, “Thinking outside the box” wasn’t even around when I was playing with different frame design ideas back in the 1960s.

Tradition is one thing that will always keep you firmly inside the box