Chatting to an old boy today

[Cuchilo]

I thought he was about 70 but he said he's 90
When I was a lad and racing he said , we used to fill the seat post with lead to make the bike more responsive aswell as heavier for training .
You probably all knew that but I thought I'd pass it on anyway

 

[TissoT]

Good to listen to older generation..... The things they did ..I have never heard of that one .

 

[Peteaud]

Whilst doing the Somerset & Dorset C2C charity ride last year i was at around 45 miles and going up a long slog with the legs getting tired, when an old guy on an old steel raleigh came past and said "nearly there lad, keep going"



"Lad", i am 45 years old

 

[Ern1e]

I thought he was about 70 but he said he's 90
When I was a lad and racing he said , we used to fill the seat post with lead to make the bike more responsive aswell as heavier for training .
You probably all knew that but I thought I'd pass it on anyway

Not only that his bike would most likly weigh a bloody ton any way ! old steel frame/rims. I remember once borrowing my great uncles stead oh my god that thing was heavy and also single speed.

 

[Cuchilo]

He did talk about his bike a bit . He said the steel was so thin it must only be as thick as a fag paper . Funny how a fag paper is used to measure thickness eh . I'll ask him what bike he has next time I see him , may even approach the subject of buying it but the way he talks it may offend him .

 

[sidevalve]

Depends on when he's refering to. Remember even the 60/70s were forty/ fifty years ago now so he may well have been using a 531 or better steel frame. Remember lightweight bikes are not an invention of the 21st century and we are not going back to the 1900s. Also the wall thickness of best quality double butted steel tubes is amazingly thin. As for using a single speed gear well I suspect the multi geared bike has been around for a bit longer than that. Anyhow there's many around now using fixed single speed wheels and they seem to manage quite well.

 

[mickle]

I thought he was about 70 but he said he's 90
When I was a lad and racing he said , we used to fill the seat post with lead to make the bike more responsive aswell as heavier for training .
You probably all knew that but I thought I'd pass it on anyway

I think he's making it up - but If he did fill his seat post with lead he was probably on his own - in the whole history of cycling only a handful of cyclists have ever wanted to make their bikes heavier. As for 'making the bike more responsive' - i call bullshit.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I think he's making it up - but If he did fill his seat post with lead he was probably on his own - in the whole history of cycling only a handful of cyclists have ever wanted to make their bikes heavier. As for 'making the bike more responsive' - i call bulls***.

There is something odd about the claim, isn't there? While I can believe that cyclists trained with artificially heavy bikes, why would you then need greater responsiveness for training but not for racing?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

There's an old boy in Ipswich who whips around the town on a singlespeed that looks older than envy.

 

[Cycleops]

There is something odd about the claim, isn't there? While I can believe that cyclists trained with artificially heavy bikes, why would you then need greater responsiveness for training but not for racing?

I think he may have meant the bike felt more responsive when the lead was removed.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I think he may have meant the bike felt more responsive when the lead was removed.

Aha, I read it the other way round!

 

[Cuchilo]

His actual words where . When I where a lad ( 70 years ago ) This is 70 years ago from the 23rd of Jan not the 25th for those that need the information to ascertain the truth .
When I where a lad , we used to put little bits of lead in the seat post .
I replied , ahhhh to make the bike heavier for training ?
He replied , not only that but it also made the bike more responsive .
Not sure why he would lie about it but there ya go .

 

[Owd Fella]

I remember people putting bricks in saddle bags in the winter and for training. When you changed to a race bike it seemed to fly in comparison.

 

[tyred]

If you look at old advertisements, you will see bikes from the early years of the 20th century advertised as being 25 - 28lb in weight - which is lighter than my winter bikes.

I have a lot of friends in the VCC who collect classic and vintage lightweights, I've sampled many and possibly the most responsive bike I have ever ridden was an early 1950s Ellis Briggs (built with high end 1970s components). I wish I had one.