The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised weights

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

Quoted weight of the 'AA' in the '94 catalogue is 25.9lbs, in fact, only two bikes in that year from Kona were below 24lbs, the Kula and the Hei Hei. I'm pretty confident that they were a lot more than £900.

Kona really were clever with their kit, they pushed the lightweight angle, speccing mix and match groupsets to prove that you didn't have to bend over for Shimano and that you could build a lighter bike by not doing so. With their long top tubes, they have a very modern geometry too, slap some decent disc brakes on some of their high end bikes from '95-'96 and you'd struggle to find a better bike today.... almost

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

Russell":1sglrzk6 said:

I've not seen any evidence here yet that in the '90s (up to 1997, as defines retro) you could get a sub 24lb hardtail for £900 or less, so I'm calling it... Pound (£) for pound (lb) modern bikes are lighter than their retro equivalents. Flicking through the archive has also revealed that manufacturers BITD were every bit as elusive with quoting weights as they are these days... Rose tinted indeed

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You just don't seem interested in the facts laid before you.

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/...dback&Model=WCF+Vertex&Type=bike#.UU4S-ldON2g

And as I said, things were different back then. Most catalogue spec were only a rough outline, you specced the forks you wanted at point of purchase.

Plenty of the Marin models came in under that weight with the forks that were around then.

The whole thing about comparing £900 is specious too, as I pointed out.

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

At the end of the day I think many of the quoted weights were "fictional" it depends very much on the manufacturer.

For example

I have a lovely control centre headset for a Kona still in the box, box says 130g, my scales say 150g (and that's without any grease in it!),

However

I have an Orange C16r frame (17in) that the catalogue says weighs 1940g my scales say 1939g!

Orange were accurate & honest and even quoted different frame weights for different sizes, Kona bent the truth it seems...

I'm a bit of a weight weenie could you tell?

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

highlandsflyer":2vjvwkx3 said:

You just don't seem interested in the facts laid before you.

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/...dback&Model=WCF+Vertex&Type=bike#.UU4S-ldON2g

And as I said, things were different back then. Most catalogue spec were only a rough outline, you specced the forks you wanted at point of purchase.

Plenty of the Marin models came in under that weight with the forks that were around then.

The whole thing about comparing £900 is specious too, as I pointed out.

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:facepalm:

nope...

:facepalm: :facepalm:

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

Russell":2kznkxwn said:

Kona really were clever with their kit, they pushed the lightweight angle, speccing mix and match groupsets to prove that you didn't have to bend over for Shimano and that you could build a lighter bike by not doing so. With their long top tubes, they have a very modern geometry too, slap some decent disc brakes on some of their high end bikes from '95-'96 and you'd struggle to find a better bike today.... almost

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This.

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

The weights quoted as someone said were a bit "optimistic"

It's like when American car manufacturers in the 60's quoted things like 500bhp for a top of the line Mustang. It wasn't but people bought into the hype.

And also a good point someone made earlier about the modern safety standards.

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

Pyro Tim":kyk9v58l said:

It's happened in cars. The Mark 1 Golf GTI is still the fastest made Golf GTI, as the new ones are so heavy

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That was actually true for the mark II and III but from the Mark IV and later models this statement is not very true.

...but I will say one thing about this.....I have driven all from Mark I to IV and the one that felt fastest was the Mark I with the original 1,6 110 HP engine even though the Mark IV was actually faster.

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

Russell":3uaomtvg said:

I've not seen any evidence here yet that in the '90s (up to 1997, as defines retro) you could get a sub 24lb hardtail for £900 or less, so I'm calling it... Pound (£) for pound (lb) modern bikes are lighter than their retro equivalents.

Click to expand...

Russell":3uaomtvg said:

highlandsflyer":3uaomtvg said:

You just don't seem interested in the facts laid before you.

http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/...dback&Model=WCF+Vertex&Type=bike#.UU4S-ldON2g

And as I said, things were different back then. Most catalogue spec were only a rough outline, you specced the forks you wanted at point of purchase.

Plenty of the Marin models came in under that weight with the forks that were around then.

The whole thing about comparing £900 is specious too, as I pointed out.

Click to expand...

:facepalm:

nope...

:facepalm: :facepalm:

Click to expand...

Interesting reaction to your assertion being inaccurate.

I will say again, in my view the average mid range modern bike is heavier.

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

Not really, every thread you participate in where some one disagrees with your view ends up in a pointless last word competition between you and A.N.Other, I've no desire to do that to this thread. You've expressed your opinion which differs from mine, I'm happy leaving it at that.

Re: The good old days when bike manufacturers publicised wei

highlandsflyer":69fhj4o4 said:

I will say again, in my view the average mid range modern bike is heavier.

Click to expand...

It's also stronger, stops better and more capable in a wider range of conditions