Clarification/help...Smiley, others?

[dbrk]

There just appeared within the past two days this addition to the Demos page:
59 Hors Categoris OS with Ouzo Pro/Serial #: C-HC-59-00103

Am I to understand that this is a steel Hors with the DKS rear? Would this be made of C4 or such steel CC tubing? Forgive me for being dense. Having just got home for a long trip and leaving for L.A. on Friday morning, we were pounded today with snow (plowing, shovelling, plowing) and the editors remarks on the new book arrived to make me busy and incapable of rational thought.

What do my pals say? The size is right (59x58) and so is the price.

Thanks a million,
dbrk

[dnovo]

I don't recall if they ever built a steel Hors, but if you don't want to wait until morning to call Ben, send Dave Kirk a note, he's usually up late. But steel or ti, for it. And welcome back.

I had an editor once. His finest contribution to my Appeals Handbook was to respond to one of my objections by correcting me on whether "a**hole" was one word, two, or whether it was best written by using a "-" (And I got a three page exposition on this point too!) Can we say anal retentive, boys and girls? Dave N.

[Smiley]

no DBRK the DKS was only built as a Ti frame set and the OS is an Oversized tube set which it was built with , any frame bigger that a 56 like + 57 and larger would have the OS designation , this frame had an OS top tube and chain stays. I wish you good luck in purcashing this frame as this technology will never be duplicated as I was told it was the most expensive bike for Serotta to build at the time. I guess the plug in ST stay is much easier in comparison and sexier looking only to some but not in this engineers eyes. I still lust to ride my bike when I see it leaning on the wall...opps getting a bit carried away here , sorry. Hope we answered your questions.

[Smiley]

I checked the geometry against my own frame a 57.5 ST , 73 STA and 58 TT and I think this frame is a 7 cm BB drop and it would fit you just fine as this would almost measure as a 60 cm frame with a 8 cm BB, get Serotta to give you the standover height and you'll find its your perfect fit.

[dbrk]

I'm a bit confused, Smilely (which is perhaps not unusual). Can you explain the difference between the DKS and the HC? Is it the Ti tubeset? I think I have model names confused? I'll call Serotta today (seein' as how getting out of the driveway is entirely impossible this morning unless and until the plower comes...my own efforts literally blown away by the overnight winds...and there is at least a foot of snow out there!)

good thing I'm going to L.A. this weekend and looking forward to a spin with my pals Thom, Mavic, blastin'bob...anyone else? Come ride with us! I'd love to meet folks. I think we are scheduled for Sunday morning. More about this if there are queries...

dbrk

[Tom]

I wonder if I'd get in trouble if it showed up at my house.

[Tom]

I've muttered under my breath that nobody ever unloads a bike in my size and the next thing you know there are two or three non-ferrous alternatives.

I think there should be another definition for the word obscene: "Titanium bike obtained for riding on salty, gritty or otherwise grimy roads and generally getting the crap beaten out of it."

[JohnS]

Geez, I can finally help dbrk! The bike model was the HC. DKS was the name of the rear "suspension" itself.

[Smiley]

The Legend Ti with DKS was a simplified name for the original Hor's Categorie frame name. Some people had a hard time with the prononciation of Hor's Categorie and Serotta simplified the model especially in light of the addition of the ST rear end stays. The true die hard fans of the DKS still insist on calling the frame by the founders initial intent and thats Hor's Categorie in my book. Best of luck to whomever ends up with this bargin as the freaking fork alone is worth $ 200 bucks used.

[Climb01742]

smiley--
my hors has a threaded F1 fork. as an infidel, i really don't like how thread stems look. but my LBS guy said the F1 is a great fork. that serotta only stopped making it because it cost too much to produce. my LBS guy has an F1 on a track bike ben built for him. what makes the F1 so good? thanks.

[dbrk]

But not to me...the bike was sold yesterday, I am told this morning by AmySerotta. In a certain way this takes a load off my mind. I have too much on my plate as it is...

Incoming: JB's repaint of my CSi, a repainted in pumpkin like the old X0-1 Bstone version of the RB-2, Rivendell Quickbeam in the mail, an old Mercian leaving now for new paint, Herse with Mike Barry for restoration, Mariposa 650B singlespeed...YIKES!!! TOOOOOO MUCH going on!!

dbrk

[flydhest]

Originally posted by Smiley
The Legend Ti with DKS was a simplified name for the original Hor's Categorie frame name. Some people had a hard time with the prononciation of Hor's Categorie

Smiley,

Difficulty like . . . putting an apostrophe into the word 'hors'?

:banana:

[Ginger]

Your editor was probably getting you back for having to read every word of the appeals book.

Or perhaps you inspired the editor to write an argument worthy of the book?



dbrk...do you have time to ride all those bikes?

[Smiley]

the fork is great and I have mine posted for sale BUT I may keep it and re-use it cause I don't know if I'll like my new Reynolds any better. The fork ( F1 ) ride so much like a steel fork , its as stiff as they get and in comparison to the Ouzo Pro I can hardly bend the fork blades on it versus the Ouzo .

[dbrk]

Ginger queried...

dbrk...do you have time to ride all those bikes? [/B][/QUOTE]

It's true that I have a lot of options. It's likely that no two bikes are actually set up identically and there are plenty of wheels with different tire combinations. So leaving aside the huge differences that arise from frame design issues, the bikes also differ in character by parts and ride. Usually in a given year I get on some kick or another. A coupla' seasons ago I rode the Pegorettis all the time. A few years before that I rode one of the Rivendells about 90% of the time. But there are a few that get out more than others. Here's how I think about it, if anyone cares:
*Cold, wet, gravel, salt, yuck, early season: Moots YBB Psychlo custom, VaMoots, Ibis Ti
*Later season titanium: Seven Axiom, Seven Odonata, wish I had a DKS Ti
*Weenie Days: Hampsten Z1, C40, Carrera Giove
*Perfect Day, Any Day, preferably dry: Sachs, Riv Goodrich "racer", CSi custom
*Oldschool Style, Newschool Ride: Mariposa Audax, CSi with DA, CSi with Mavic, Waterford, etc.
*Frictionin' with Style: Peg Luigino, Rivs
*Frenchie: Singer, Herse, Mariposa, etc.
*Italiano NewOld: Masi, DeRosa, Colnago, etc.
*Cause I feel like it: Bstone, MX Leader, etc.

Anyway, I look at the day and weather, how far I'm planning on going and how much time I have (the same thing), what sort of sizing and fit I feel like, the best bike for a given route (flat, up, rolleur, etc.), oldschool or newschool or mixed, and then I pick. 'Tis true I can keep the miles off any one frame.

If the house were burning down: Sachs, Singer, Herse, Mariposa, Rivendell goes out the door first. Too nice, too hard to get another.

dbrk

[Ginger]

I wasn't clear.

What I was contemplating was the time it takes to strip down, pack up, ship off, and rebuild a frame if you were doing it all yourself. If you do it for multiple bikes (as multiple as you have posted over the past few years) through the year along with regular maintenance on the bikes you tend to ride more you've got to be so busy wrenching that there's not so much time to ride! Hence: Do you have time to ride all those bikes, not what bikes do you have time to ride.

I totally understand having multiple bikes for different riding moods. I just don't have as many of them.

I will refrain from the dancing banana...just for you.

[Keith A]

dbrk -- just curious which CSi is getting repainted?

[Ginger]

Dnovo, I hope you weren't paying your editor by the hour!

When editing I occasionally (well...usually) make the pages bleed, but I have found that if I write more than one simple line to explain an editorial choice that I make I am arguing with myself about the issue, not trying to convince the author.

[Ahneida Ride]

Douglas,

The HC is a Legend with the DKS Suspension Triangle.

Yea . I was eyeing that myself ( wrong size ).
It was one hell of a dealski !!! I'm suprised it
lasted so long.

i

[dbrk]

First to the kind Ginger:
Wrenching, packing, shipping, etc. never keeps me from riding. I am, after all, a college professor and that means that I largely make my own hours for work. In the evenings or early, early mornings, I wrench and do bike preps and during the heat of the day I ride. In warm temps I like to be out by 10 or 11am and home before 4pm when other duties don't call. In short, I am a very, very lucky fellow and get lots of time in the saddle. In fact, if I had less time in the saddle I might be more fit and less tired. Last year I rode myself into a near exhaustion such that by the time of the TdFL I was neither fast nor alert (though I still had the endurance). This year I hope to do some more "fitness" riding though I loathe even the sound of that. I ride solely and entirely for fun and love and I'll be darned if I turn it into a "workout". I have plenty enough work without associating it with bikes. But nothing to complain about, I get out aplenty because I can push my work and home duties around the best times to ride.

Keith asked which CSi is out for the repaint, well, that would be my formerly white/red "Faema" paint job custom with the TdF lugs. I love the bike but positively disliked what the ht extension did to the lugs. My other gripe was the very plain HJ fork crown which I found entirely unsuitable on a bike that I thought deserved something more refined. So that is the reason I asked the redoubtable Curt Goodrich to build me a new fork with a Pacenti crown and to shave off the ht extension which will affect the ride and fit not one iota. For the record, as it were and if anyone would give a hoot, I have
a 60cm Atlanta repainted blue with silver outline decals by JB (purchased from the Doc), this bike wears DA9 and TA cranks; a 58cm Atlanta repainted quicksilver by Serotta, DA9, Campy cranks, and a Serotta quill stem; a 60cm CSi repainted black with blue and white outline decals that wears a last-generation Mavic group, the black stuff before the ill-considered Zap; and then the custom CSi 60x56 (shoulda' been 57.5) that I just had refitted and painted. The pure stock 60s are a bit too long in the tt but nothing requiring less than a 10cm stem while the stock 58 is a tad too aggressive; the custom CSi, well, I should have TOTALLY ignored every last suggestion of the dealer and built it 58 in the tt and without that ht extension and it would be perfect but the jerk will praise my nearly 130mm stem that looks so handsome because it is one of those great Mavic stems from the late 90s (sleek, thin, elegant). Anyway, I'd like a Legend some day but not soon and I'm not keen to pay the price and I'd like a DKS or Hors but this last one got away. Gosh, I love bikes.

dbrk