repechage

Buy a Colnago Mexico, start with a light frame. Then decide on if you are focusing on weight or Campagnolo.
Light wheels, tubulars, alloy railed seat.

OldsCOOL

Trivia question: back in the day the dragracers acid dipped car bodies to lose weight. Did any of the vintage bike teams ever do this with steel frames?

repechage

Only the individuals that perspired excessively, that was acid drip.

phoebeisis

Right-Betat had some HiE rims-but even I wasn't that foolish-pretty sure they were DRILLED- or looked drilled- yeah I was dumb-but not that dumb-I suspect Greg Gulotta warned me off them

Yeah-loved those Avocet saddles-light cheap and comfortable

Yeah the Huret derailleur- I was aware of it but cheap KICKED IN- and the sun tour CYCLONE MAYBE?? was soooo cheap-and worked so well-lighter than campy- but the price was sooo good on japanese components back then-300 yen to the dollar-until a sudden spike to 180 yen

In any case-steel frame-20 lbs would be about it with normal person easy to buy components

phoebeisis

I went to the WEIGHT WEENIES site-
suntour cyclone 1973 true weight 175 grams
For some odd reason no Huret?? Under Sachs maybe-should have looked
For claims of 145 and 160 grams for the Jubilee-but I would like to see it on weight weenies-or pictured on a scale
Easiest way to get faster or more hp in cars-lie
same story bike components

PS Just re-read what I wrote-
I am NOT saying you are lying or the huret isn't the lightest-word back then was it was
But I have a STRONG IRRATIONAL PREJUDICE AGAINST FRENCH COMPONENTS of that era
Yeah-I LIKE the French-practically a frank-o-phile (heck then won our revolutionary war for us) great bread booze cheese no whiny PC about "gotta be inclusive" for french -some neat cars-great plane(concorde)-and they dislike Brits so lot to be said for french
But "something" happened to me in late 1970's- I have blocked it out partially
THAT soured me on french components
I think I spent several DAYS trying to get BB cups off-or maybe pedals-or maybe the wrong sizing on their stems
SOME FRENCH WEIRDNESS-
Just made me pour venom on french components of that era-and to avoid french bikes to this day
Yeah irrational predujuce!!
It was much harder to get good info back in 1978-no internet-and bike shops mechanics-clicky bunch same with the racers(which I wasn't) so you tended to learn by making HORRIBLE mistakes-warped me

OldsCOOL

The Cyclone S is a beauty.

JohnDThompson 

Huret's catalog claims 133gm:



Yes, French components can be idiosyncratic, but for me that's part of the charm.

Bandera

A teammate built a gold Alan aluminum frameset w/ cyclone derails & Fiamme Ergal tubulars "back when".
It was light, he was light and he moved up to Cat 2 on it, and looked stylish/trick.

-Bandera

repechage

Don't forget the Concorde was a joint French and British venture.
Must have been a young French temptress that spurned you affection for things French.

I will have to dig out my Huret Jubilee, mine is the slightly heavier version without the factory drilled jockey cage. They worked pretty well, only adaptation I found was that it takes more cable to traverse the cogs. So when I switch bikes I have to relearn how much to move the rear shift lever.

A good argument can be made for the Suntour Cyclone, they do shift well and are just slightly heavier.

Cougrrcj

My first gen Cyclone short cage weighed in at 160g actual weight.

Back when I was at Ohio State in '76-77, one of the guys in the dorm had an all-Campy 25" Paramount that weighed in at around 21 lbs. His track bike weighed in at around 18. My Fuji weighed in at 26, which was pretty light compared to the 35-40-pound Continental of the day!!

EddyR

My lightest custom built bike back in 1962 was 22 pounds. My mid 70's stock 531 Zeus weights 19 with tubulars.
Ed

Velognome 

I don't remember the same kinda fixation over weight that there seems to be now; other than the guys that rode on the school team.

wrk101

The poorer weight weenies (like me), started with something more basic. In my case, it was a U08. The bike was incredibly light given its construction. I upgraded mine with alloy handlebars, alloy seat post, alloy rims (my first wheel build) and an alloy 3 piece crankset. I added light weight tires (Michelin Elans), and it ended up being pretty light for that era. If I still had it, I'd go weigh it. But it was lighter than most of its competition at that price point back then.

Shortly after this period, the onslaught of quality bikes from Japan changed everything.

Bandera

Oddly enough from a modern perspective the obsession on weight was in the Time Trial machines in our club "back when".
With aerodynamics taken care of by "burying" one's stem and staying flat-back on the drops TT machines ran the lightest kit possible. With no cornering & braking loads big strong guys rode very light gear for the period and went fast.

The Clip-on Scott bars of a later era and the dedicated Aero-TT machines were over the technical horizon.

-Bandera

jyl

How many miles can one get from an alloy freewheel? The guys at my LBS are warning me they are "race day only" parts.

Chombi

One might hate the French for their esoteric "weirdness" with most things, but in the end, the always win as they have St. Catherine Deneuve on their side......and I heard Audrey Hepburn spoke really good French too......................(Uhmmm........just made that up......Vive la France!!)

Bandera

"Back When" you were kidding yourself that alloy cogs would be a race-day advantage.
They were an expensive dead end technology that went no where, except for posing.

-Bandera

repechage

I used lightweight stuff, 280 gram rims and Clement 195's and 220's as soon as I could afford too.
After I won races, I found myself on 350 to 400 gram rims and 260 to 285 gram tires. It was more important to finish and place than have the lightest stuff out there.

Italuminium

Certainly not raging at each other on the internet about who has the least carbon on his bikes... I sometimes look at that Other WW Forum, and yesterday they had a thread on which Lightweight wheelset (yes, that brand of 3000$+ wheels) was best for commuting. Madness.

phoebeisis

Yeah-that derailleur was sorta famous back when-but it was really rare by comparison to campy or sun tour or shimano which wasn't as common as sun tour back then-
133 grams-yikes!!

I wonder why such a famously light derailleur hasn't been posted on weight weenies?? Even the 175 grams of the cyclone puts it in the top 10-15% of derailleurs on that list.

Yeah I had that bad experience-maybe it was a cups?? and became permanently prejudiced against french stuff(might have had a stem problem also)
It was sooo much harder to get info back then.

phoebeisis

Nah-I was never even got close to being spurned.
I think it was the BB cups-or maybe pedals-in any case I spent a lot of time trying to turn something the WRONG WAY
And by a lot of time-I mean several days probably-I was extremely stubborn

Other than French bike components of that era(and my dad owned a mid 1970's Peugeot car that was plenty quirky and spectacularly unreliable-even for that era!) I LIKE the French and French "stuff" movies cars some of the food-and their casual distain for their brit cousins-
Some years back a French Minister of Something made an offhand comment -something to the effect that " almost all british and german men were gay"
ha,ha-no PC there-brits and germans were "not happy"
that strange APACHE DANCE?? QUIRKY!
Yeah French not PC-
Hell they BOMBED GREENPEACE! Who does that!?
Quirky bunch but I like them!

Italuminium

Actually, it has some fame there too. In record setting lightweight bikes people often use the Huret Jubilee, tuned with carbon pully plates, Ti or alu bolts and CNC pulley wheels, operated with carbon dt shifters and shifting over modern cogs with fatter spacers to get something like a 7 speed cassette.

Italuminium

this RD, for instance. It's a thing of beauty. Schaltwerk1 . When tuned to it's final form it's slightly less pretty, but still very, very cool. https://www.lightbike.de/Lightbike_2_...schaltung.html

phoebeisis

But for some reason I couldn't find it in the LIST on Weight Weenies forum??
Yeah pretty much the MOST FAMOUS LIGHT REAR DERAILLEUR- couldn't find it on the weight weenie nuts forum??
I must be blind but couldn't find it??
Makes no sense because it would STILL be very very close to the top
What am I missing there-
it deserves PLACE OF HONOR REAR DERAILLEURS- 40 years and still very near the top-wow!

qcpmsame 

Around here there wasn't a big weight weenie thing I can recall. If you had good Columbus or Reynolds 531 tubing and fork blades, Campy or SunTour components and tubular wheels you were pretty well top of the line. A few of the plastic saddles, mentioned previously, showed up but Team Professional Brooks were the rule for our cyclist. Drillium was something we saw in the French magazines that got over from time to, time or maybe in VeloNews, but I honestly never saw a component with it here. I guess we are such a back water that it never got much thought, a Palo Alto catalog was really exotic and never shared with others, the drool spots took away from its elite status.

The things mentioned here are somewhat of an education for me, I am trying to learn the C&V history from y'all, thanks for the info, its appreciated.

Bill