jeirvine 

I know drillium was a thing back in the day to lighten race bikes. To what extent was pantographing something just for fancy consumer bikes, and how much was it done on actually raced bikes?

repechage

It shows up but not on the whole teams often.
The guys who had it when I was racing, worked for the shop that sold the bike or had generous parents.

Sir_Name 

Well mine's been getting a lot of screen time lately... I'm not sure if significant weight savings would be expected from drillium, with rare exception (Merckx's hour record bike comes to mind). I believe it was mostly for show rather than go. Significant material removal on any load bearing part may be for more limited use than a season of racing or everyday riding. Granted, many know more than I do.

In the 'actually raced bikes' category:






No drillium present.

Sir_Name 

An interesting Rebour illustration:

JohnDThompson 

IIRC, those drawings were of Merckx' Mexico City hour record bike with the Pino Moroni components, drillium, and other modifications.

Sir_Name 

I believe so. Searching for 'Merckx hour record' led me to the illustration at least.

Last ride 76 

Gotta agree. Lots of, (maybe most), drillium was done by folks who were their own mechanics and liked to monkey around with their equipment. Pantographing, on the other hand required (much) more sophisticated tools.
Many shops that carried high end stuff didn't even stock pantographed bikes in the early to mid seventies.
Best regards, Eric

repechage

Over the holiday I watched La Course en Tete, (I left off the punctuation), youtube. Concentrating on the bikes. Eddy rode lots of variations, sometimes drilled calipers, and levers, shifters, milled seatposts, drilled chainrings, and these were on his road machines. Sometimes a Unicanitor, sometimes a Brooks Pro. Some frames with Spade pantographing, (Colner style spades). There were glimpses of others' machines, but of course the film was concentrating on Eddy. I first saw this film in 1975 in a movie theater on the 20th Century Fox lot, a member of the club had access to a copy and clearance to show it once, as a fund raiser for the club, this was when things were word of mouth only, it caused a serious traffic jam, way too many wanted to attend. Terrific to watch it with a bike racing centric audience, even with no subtitles it was outstanding.

Sir_Name 

Thanks for that - loved it.

Great idea for a thread. Hope others chime in.

OldsCOOL

What an elegant, classy ride.

JJScaliger

Does it get any cooler than this?

1975 Cyclocross World Champion Roger De Vlaeminck?s Bike - Cyclocross Magazine - Cyclocross News, Races, Bikes, Photos, Videos

jeirvine 

Nope. None cooler. Did not know RD was CX champ. It does appear from the article that this bike was not his actual race bike.