Originally Posted by
dgodave
None of those engineering innovations are essential to the function of the bike.
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What really matters are the design innovations: wheel and tire size, and frame geometry. This bike could have been built in 1982 with the technology available at the time, and function pretty much the same.
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Couldn't you use this same logic to say it is the same as a paperboy bike built in the 30's?
Those design innovations are exactly what make it not a 1982 frame but something that has evolved over 30 years. Sure the bike would function the same in that you pedal and balance it goes forward, but along with those frame changes and component upgrades, bikes got better. That Surley is a pretty bike, but being made of steel and having a rigid fork does not equate it to anything available in 1982.