Originally Posted by
steve-in-kville
I see a lot of folks here building up the older 10-speed road bikes. Do these older frames offer any type of performance advantage? Or is it all about the style and look? Something else?
For use on open public roads a frameset designed for road use, in particular one designed for road racing, will have lively handling, compliance over rough surfaces, predictable descending and sufficient stiffness for climbing and sprinting regardless of drivetrain flavor.
Well made high quality lightweight steel framesets with horizontal dropouts make excellent FG conversions, in particular British framesets of Reynolds 531 which were designed for use by club cyclists of the era who regularly competed in time trials riding a FG. Pic of the inestimable Beryl Burton attached.
"Track" style frames ridden on indifferent surfaces at pace for long miles in my opinion ride like lumber wagons, are twitchy on high speed descents and nervous in cross winds. None of those effects on a well fitted road machine, FG or not.
-Bandera