Originally Posted by BeeYoung

After riding with groups for a while in 1999 I decided to try my hand at a cat 5 race, the bike
I used was a old 1975 mid range race bike, it only had 2x5 with friction shifters.
The crit was flat and only had four corners, I kept in my 52 and only used the 16 and 14.

For this type of course the bike did not hold me back, I was near my physical limit the whole race.

When you first start racing, in my opinion the bike makes very little difference, you quickly discover if
you have the motor or not.