I've been riding my Raleigh Gran Sport more than anything else recently, but I plan to do some work on it soon, so I got out my Fuji S12-S LTD to ride in case the Gran Sport work takes more than an evening or so. But when I test rode the Fuji, I was struck by how
sluggish it felt. It's been a while since I last rode it, but the difference took me completely by surprise. So now I'm trying to figure out what's behind it. I really liked the Fuji, so I'm hoping there's something that I can adjust to make it ride as smoothly as the Raleigh.
To put it in perspective, when riding the Fuji on flats I suddenly felt like it was just sucking up the effort I was putting in... even in a low gear. And even riding
downhill it seemed like it was more effort-ful to keep pedaling than it would have been on the Raleigh.
Posts like this can be boring without photos, so here are the bikes in question:
1975 Raleigh Gran Sport
- "third in the Raleigh line, behind the Professional and International, and on par with the Competition" (according to a friend who sold them at the time)
- Reynolds 531 double butted throughout
- 24 1/2 inches
- ~25.5 lbs
- front tire 27 x 1 1/4, Forte Strada
- rear tire 27 x 1
1/8, Continental Sport 1000
- 10 speed, range ~ 33 - 102 gear inches
1982-ish Fuji S12-S LTD (sorry for the crappy pic and the leaves covering the saddle nose)
- second in Fuji's touring line at the time, behind the America
- Fuji 331 double butted cromoly (hi-ten fork)
- 23 inches
- ~27.5 lbs (with currently installed rear rack)
- front tire 27 x 1 1/4, Panaracer Pasela
- rear tire 27 x 1 1/4, Panaracer Pasela
Tour Guard
- 18 speed, range ~ 30 - 108+ gear inches
A couple things I'm thinking about and would like input on:
Weight
I really don't think that 2-ish pounds of weight should make a significant difference, but maybe? (I'll be trying it without the rack pretty soon...)
Frame Material
Could the difference between 531 and Fuji's cromoly really be that pronounced?
Tires
I've heard that Paselas were supposed to be pretty supple & quick, but are they possibly this much more sluggish than the Forte/Continental combo? Could the Kevlar TG tire really be that sluggish by itself?
"Planing"
Maybe I've found myself in a Jan-Heine-style Twilight Zone of bicycle physics where one bike simply works with me and another works against me due to a combination of subtle material and geometry differences (or personality)? I do remember describing to someone once that the Raleigh seemed to have the Quality Without A Name....
I'm going to keep experimenting to see if I can resolve this, but I'd really love to hear from the collective wisdom here. Any ideas?
Sincere thanks!