Big bikes were popular 45-60 years ago...

Freeman · Thursday at 13:01

Old Ned said:
A friend of mine - who is Ronnie Corbett size - offered me his 1952 track bike that he rode at Fallowfield Stadium BITD. As I am rather taller (quite a bit actually!) I asked the size and he replied 23". What! I replied. Yes, he said, I rode it with the saddle on the top tube. It fits me perfectly.

The best place to look at how fashions in frame size change is old black and white photos of Tour de France riders where their saddles are low and down near the top tube and the tops of the bars are almost level with the saddle. Possibly not so many crashes in those days?

Nobody knew that aerodynamics were so important to cycling before was it LeMond who won the TDF because of his aero bars? And TDF cyclists did not have to wear helmets until 2005!!! It has been researched that cyclists wearing helmets take more risks, they get an invulnerability syndrome. If we went back to not wearing helmets I am sure cyclists would be much more careful and there would be fewer crashes. I never wore helmets cycling my entire life, and research shows that in accidents involving collisions with motor vehicles , helmets are not effective in protecting the rider. As an official old man, I ride slowly now, don't take risks like when I was young, and feel very safe riding a bicycle. As time goes by, nothing seems to get better with Western society, I just try to live in the 70s all I can and ignore so-called improvements in things since then, and most of the consumer goods too.

pigman · Thursday at 18:12

Freeman said:
Interesting theory. More frame sizes were offered back in the day of level top tubes.

Not sure I entirely agree with this. If you look at size ranges for off the peg frames back in the steel days, a typical range would be (inches) 20.5, 21.5, 22.5, 23.5, 24.5 and 25.5. that's six sizes. Today we have XS, S, M, M/L, L, XL. That's also six sizes. Add in the possibility of S/M and it's seven. Back then there were no women specific designs. There are now. That's another 3 or 4 sizes

LondonClassic · Thursday at 18:34

pigman said:
Not sure I entirely agree with this. If you look at size ranges for off the peg frames back in the steel days, a typical range would be (inches) 20.5, 21.5, 22.5, 23.5, 24.5 and 25.5. that's six sizes. Today we have XS, S, M, M/L, L, XL. That's also six sizes. Add in the possibility of S/M and it's seven. Back then there were no women specific designs. There are now. That's another 3 or 4 sizes

Bigger manufacturers (Raleigh, Peugeot, Falcon) offered just four sizes. Holdsworth had a fifth on some models - which must have been like having an amp that went up to 11.

I can testify as teenager in the mid 80s bigger frame was bragging rights and parents went large as they expected the bike to last to adulthood when the bike buying thing stopped being their problem.

SteelNipple · Friday at 22:18

Freeman said:
Nobody knew that aerodynamics were so important to cycling before was it LeMond who won the TDF because of his aero bars?

The Scott clip-on bars might be famous from LeMonds 1989 TdF victory, but didn't every team use aero bikes during the time trial stages by that point? Aero track bikes already existed in the late 70s and even 10 years before LeMonds legendary second TdF victory Hinault rode the Gitane Profil aero bike with deep-section Mavic rims during the TT stages in the 1979 TdF. The importance of aerodynamics was most likely acknowledged on a wider scale in the industry.

The 1979 TT bike. Picture from 1980 Cycles Gitane catalogue.

pigman · Friday at 23:22

SteelNipple said:
The Scott clip-on bars might be famous from LeMonds 1989 TdF victory, but didn't every team use aero bikes during the time trial stages by that point? Aero track bikes already existed in the late 70s and even 10 years before LeMonds legendary second TdF victory Hinault rode the Gitane Profil aero bike with deep-section Mavic rims during the TT stages in the 1979 TdF. The importance of aerodynamics was most likely acknowledged on a wider scale in the industry.

The 1979 TT bike. Picture from 1980 Cycles Gitane catalogue.
View attachment 959840

Not really.
Aero bikes were largely based in oval tubes and an attempt to crudely conceal cables when aero levers weren't available.
What lemond did was to recognise the rider's aerodynamic position on the bike

Flit · Saturday at 16:36

And back to the topic at hand...
Frames are all 68cm (C-C) and with an age 58 years to only 13 years old, still all being ridden….

67cm 1976 Jim Merz behind the Portland TI S&S smaller frame on tour in New Zealand