For the Hate of Eroica!!!!!!

[pbarry]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

...

Yes, what I expected from you..

[velomonkey]

The author continues to show a lack of even the most basic understanding . . . . .

" If you want to be exclusive, that’s fine; but don’t then market it as an event for everyone to attend."

Wait, what the literal F?

[purpurite]

Originally Posted by pbarry

I started riding when you were not even a wink.

With all due respect, this attitude on forums drives me insane. Just because you were doing something longer than someone else, neither makes your opinion more valid or your viewpoint on the subject more or less correct than someone else's. All it does is show a red ass.

Age isn't necessarily a sign of expertise or knowledge, it just means you haven't made any fatal mistakes lately.





By the way, I don't disagree with you at all—just the way that the message is being argued.

[fuzzalow]

Nuthin' wrong with Eroica. Nuthin' wrong with vintage bikes that max out at 6 or 7 cogs in the back (I forget how many you can squeeze into a 126mm rear triangle). Non-index, DT shifters are fine - I miss the way that you could just drop your hand downwards off the bar and it would fall onto the gear lever.

DT non-index gear levers are the Ferrari 365 GTB 5-speed gated manual shift transmissions of the bike world, especially if they are a Campagnolo drivetrain sans retro-friction levers from earlier Simplex or later C-Record. There is a charming crudeness and a skilled touch to shifting in this way.

Index gears are the paddle shifters of the modern bike world - click, click click. Nuthin' wrong with that either but it isn't the same and I think having all those gears at an amateur sport cyclist's disposal just made a rider learn to be less flexible in the rev band he could comfortably souplesse.

But it's all good, all done in service of the ride and you can't stop progress. And yet still, without going all retro-grouch and in fairness, from an Eroica point of view: All the modernity has the effect of cold efficiency and sterility that overlays what is at heart a very simple and liberating mechanical contrivance. Eroica is both about the bike and its means of deliverance for the type of experience it engenders. It is its own head. So tighten up those Alfredo Bindas, and ride.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by pbarry

Yes, what I expected from you..

/cue Old Timey fiddle music and voiceover by Sam Waterston

Dearest Martha,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits. Your last missive was a heartening one, and it is good to hear news from the home front. I do beg your forgiveness as it was filled with such joy that I read it around the campfire tonight to everyone, hungry for tales from home. They all laughed at Mrs Billings tripping over the Chamber Pot, but did wish her a speedy recovery.

I must confess that times here at the head of the peloton are dire. Our wool jerseys sag under the weight of the many items we must carry. Our shoulders chafe from the tires we must loop around them. Hands are calloused and scarred from the cotton tape that provides little comfort from the rocky, jagged goat tracks we must traverse that some men dare call "a road." Yesterday, my dear friend Guiseppe's forks snapped square at the lug, and by rule he was forced to re-forge them himself, lest he face disqualification from this ride. He lost only three fingers in the attempt, and we all rejoiced seeing his return to the group with but some coal ash mixed in the sweat of his brow, and a blackened stump where his ring, pinky and middle fingers used to be.

I do not want you to worry, though the dangers we face every day are real. Just a fortnight ago my life was saved by my trusty single pivot sidepull brakes, whose tremendous stopping force enabled me to barely cease my forward velocity in time to avoid a passing horseless carriage that I had spotted a quarter of a mile up the road. It is amazing how efficient and useful this modern technology is. It took three days for my hand to regain its natural form after being locked in such a hardened grip with the brake lever. But through Providence above I have survived to tell tale of another sunrise.

Oh Martha, how I miss your foot massages to help cope with the foot-crushing agony that it slotted pedals with toe clips. Every day, a fire within my bunions arises as the sun reaches its peak in the sky. To cope, we all pass a goat skin of wine around while chain smoking 30 cigarettes to open our lungs for the hard efforts to come in the after-noon.

I must go now, for the men must wash their goat-hide chamois in the nearest creek, then beat them against rocks to hope that they will provide some small comfort for our nether regions in the coming morn.

I miss you so, but realize that one day, this endless torture, the suffering, this...Eroica...will end and I will see you again.

Yours lovingly,

Beauregard Albert Jackson, IV

/end fiddle music and Sam Waterston.

[ofcounsel]

[rustychisel]

... of all the threads to show an injection of spite, this one... !!! Wow.

Can't we just go back to whether or not Lance doped?

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by Polyglot

On a cultural level, I believe that the California event is quite readily the most removed from the spirit of the original event. Had I my druthers, I would prefer to go to one of the Eroica rides in Italy, Japan or Britain before going to California

So the Americans ruined everything. Or is it just us Californians?

[Fivethumbs]

Is new dope allowed on the Eroica, or does it have to be vintage?

[rccardr]

So, yeah, I just finished the Coastal Route of 87 miles on a Cinelli with, yeah, friction and whatnot. Honestly, one of the most difficult rides I've ever done, and I did ten event centuries and about 6,000 miles in the saddle last year. Even flew out from VA to CA for the event. Bike porn in the concours tent was simply overwhelming, I mean major chubby stuff no matter what you ride.

Clearly, not for everyone. Either you get it and it speaks to you...or not. But I did get to ride with Andy Hampsten today, and that doesn't happen very often.

Flash, the Dear Martha piece- priceless. POTW.

[cadence90]

Originally Posted by Polyglot

I believe that it can be borne out that I was the very first person in North America to ever speak of and "hype" the original Eroica in Italy.

But, pray tell: just how, exactly, would this bearing out happen?

Originally Posted by Pelican

So the Americans ruined everything. Or is it just us Californians?

I guess we heathens just don't understand....

[cadence90]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Dearest Martha,....

Good stuff.

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by fuzzalow

Nuthin' wrong with Eroica. Nuthin' wrong with vintage bikes that max out at 6 or 7 cogs in the back (I forget how many you can squeeze into a 126mm rear triangle). Non-index, DT shifters are fine - I miss the way that you could just drop your hand downwards off the bar and it would fall onto the gear lever.

DT non-index gear levers are the Ferrari 365 GTB 5-speed gated manual shift transmissions of the bike world, especially if they are a Campagnolo drivetrain sans retro-friction levers from earlier Simplex or later C-Record. There is a charming crudeness and a skilled touch to shifting in this way.

Index gears are the paddle shifters of the modern bike world - click, click click. Nuthin' wrong with that either but it isn't the same and I think having all those gears at an amateur sport cyclist's disposal just made a rider learn to be less flexible in the rev band he could comfortably souplesse.

But it's all good, all done in service of the ride and you can't stop progress. And yet still, without going all retro-grouch and in fairness, from an Eroica point of view: All the modernity has the effect of cold efficiency and sterility that overlays what is at heart a very simple and liberating mechanical contrivance. Eroica is both about the bike and its means of deliverance for the type of experience it engenders. It is its own head. So tighten up those Alfredo Bindas, and ride.

I concur.

[DCilliams]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

/cue Old Timey fiddle music and voiceover by Sam Waterston

Dearest Martha,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits. Your last missive was a heartening one, and it is good to hear news from the home front. I do beg your forgiveness as it was filled with such joy that I read it around the campfire tonight to everyone, hungry for tales from home. They all laughed at Mrs Billings tripping over the Chamber Pot, but did wish her a speedy recovery.

I must confess that times here at the head of the peloton are dire. Our wool jerseys sag under the weight of the many items we must carry. Our shoulders chafe from the tires we must loop around them. Hands are calloused and scarred from the cotton tape that provides little comfort from the rocky, jagged goat tracks we must traverse that some men dare call "a road." Yesterday, my dear friend Guiseppe's forks snapped square at the lug, and by rule he was forced to re-forge them himself, lest he face disqualification from this ride. He lost only three fingers in the attempt, and we all rejoiced seeing his return to the group with but some coal ash mixed in the sweat of his brow, and a blackened stump where his ring, pinky and middle fingers used to be.

I do not want you to worry, though the dangers we face every day are real. Just a fortnight ago my life was saved by my trusty single pivot sidepull brakes, whose tremendous stopping force enabled me to barely cease my forward velocity in time to avoid a passing horseless carriage that I had spotted a quarter of a mile up the road. It is amazing how efficient and useful this modern technology is. It took three days for my hand to regain its natural form after being locked in such a hardened grip with the brake lever. But through Providence above I have survived to tell tale of another sunrise.

Oh Martha, how I miss your foot massages to help cope with the foot-crushing agony that it slotted pedals with toe clips. Every day, a fire within my bunions arises as the sun reaches its peak in the sky. To cope, we all pass a goat skin of wine around while chain smoking 30 cigarettes to open our lungs for the hard efforts to come in the after-noon.

I must go now, for the men must wash their goat-hide chamois in the nearest creek, then beat them against rocks to hope that they will provide some small comfort for our nether regions in the coming morn.

I miss you so, but realize that one day, this endless torture, the suffering, this...Eroica...will end and I will see you again.

Yours lovingly,

Beauregard Albert Jackson, IV

/end fiddle music and Sam Waterston.

That moment you realize you need some Flash in your friend circle. I love riding vintage bikes, but this is freakin' hilarious.

[oldpotatoe]

Like it or don't, my last trip to the mother-land(Italia) will be for the 2017 event. Riding my NR Ciocc and can't wait(need shoes is all). Auto entry at my age...and then I'll hang my Ciocc back up and ride my EPS Merckx and Moots..