Crock, thanks for your suggestions. I'm posting this reply to everyone here who is kind enough to read and/or to post some replies on this topic.

in 1972, Cino Cinelli published what was considered "THE" cycling bible. It covered everything about racing bicycles, from parts, frame geometry, to training and ergonomics, after exhaustive studies on the topic. Many books have been published since, and all seem to be a watered down version of this landmark book.

In those days, one of the considerations were the roads of the time: potholed, cracks, cobblestones.

Angles of the quadrilateral that any bike above the size of a 20" frame is, were 73 degrees for the head angle and same for the seat angle. He said he'd go "steeper", to 74 degrees, if the roads in europe were better. (before any of you try to correct me, that it is a main "triangle", think again. angles do affect vibration absorption because that head tube, although short, is a 4th side to the geometrical shape!)

My main frustration with a local builder, Marinoni with his bad character and myopic stubborness, and with many others, is that they were still building bikes with Paris-Roubaix frame geometry for north-american roads that have never seen cobblestone roads and with a cycling industry too young to have ever had cyclocross sections on a road race course.

The Eddy Merckx frames were no exception. They pretty much adhered to the Cinelli standards, as they did provide for a nice handling racing bike. What I find sad, is that if you look at almost all road racing bicycle specifications on the respective builders' websites, they all use the same old Cinelli standards - mainly because it worked, and continues to work for all racers.

But I do remember riding criteriums, and thinking what wusses they were all to not go faster in the corners, because my bike was able to take so much more than theirs'... way beyond the limits of the other racers' bikes. And I also remember that my Cambio Rino road bike was far better behaved and handling than my Cambio Rino track bike which I use as a single speed since Montreal decided to convert our beautiful velodrome into an indoor zoo they call a biodome). What was so remarkable, was the handling and maneuverability of the road bike, even better than the track bike by the same maker.

I was part of the Cambio Rino racing team, as I already posted somewhere, that imported these into Canada from Italy. The year after, Giuseppe "Joe" Gardin started to make knock-offs in Toronto, which had no consistency and no quality control, first under the Cambio Rino name, and after legal issues, changed the name to Gardin. I was lucky to have one of the rare ones imported from Italy before they started making inconsistent quality with totally random angles here on these shores. It was so bad, that I even noticed some had gaps, between a tube and a lug, because it was hand-forced to fit in at a different angle than the lug was made for. I know, because I saw them in the showroom every day. I mean no offense to the owner of the Gardin, honestly! It was just a sad reality.

I've received my carbon fiber cloth, and my resin epoxy has cleared customs on Friday, and I plan to try my hand at making some recumbents... but I think this will always remain a back-burner project for me.