What former professionals ride
02-23-15, 08:49 AM
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What former professionals ride
I was curious what style of bikes that former professionals ride in their own time. If they still rode pure race bikes with a huge bar drop, or what. This is a few years old, but this is Andy Hampston's bike. 33c tires, @ 2 inch saddle/bar drop, nice wheels but they aren't 1200g carbon things, full frame pump (seeing a few pro's with those on their training bikes) compact cranks, ect.........
His company makes some nice frames BTW
Pro bike: Andy Hampsten's Cycles Strada Bianca Ti - BikeRadar
His company makes some nice frames BTW
Pro bike: Andy Hampsten's Cycles Strada Bianca Ti - BikeRadar
02-23-15, 09:02 AM
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02-23-15, 09:10 AM
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It's not unusual for a custom framebuilder to ride an unique bike simply to showcase some custom modifications that their company can do for customers.
02-23-15, 09:15 AM
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There's a local ex-pro around here that still rides a full-on race bike. He apparently spends a lot of his free time trying to win Strava these days.
02-23-15, 09:34 AM
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02-23-15, 10:19 AM
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02-23-15, 10:23 AM
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The man has taste. 7800 is awesome stuff. Hollowtech 2 BB. 33mm tires. Check out the ancient 7400-series pedals.
Former pros have nothing to prove and know what works. I'll bet you can learn a lot from seeing what they ride: long chainstays, a bit more fork rake etc.
It's also interesting to see what current pros use as training bikes. 32 spoke alloy clinchers, 30mm tires, saddle bags, leftover groups, frame pumps, fenders seem to predominate. Nothing fancy.
Former pros have nothing to prove and know what works. I'll bet you can learn a lot from seeing what they ride: long chainstays, a bit more fork rake etc.
It's also interesting to see what current pros use as training bikes. 32 spoke alloy clinchers, 30mm tires, saddle bags, leftover groups, frame pumps, fenders seem to predominate. Nothing fancy.
02-23-15, 10:23 AM
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Once you race professionally, you shouldn't get much joy out of being fast on Strava. I guess he was never very successful as a pro.
02-23-15, 10:35 AM
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It looks like his Ritchey stem is one of the 6 degree rise models.
From the link:
I can only really get excited about my bikes now if they have compact cranks. Not having super climbing gears on my bikes limits my rides to boring terrain.
Last edited by rm -rf; 02-23-15 at 10:45 AM.
02-23-15, 11:00 AM
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I was curious what style of bikes that former professionals ride in their own time. If they still rode pure race bikes with a huge bar drop, or what. This is a few years old, but this is Andy Hampston's bike. 33c tires, @ 2 inch saddle/bar drop, nice wheels but they aren't 1200g carbon things, full frame pump (seeing a few pro's with those on their training bikes) compact cranks, ect.........
His company makes some nice frames BTW
Pro bike: Andy Hampsten's Cycles Strada Bianca Ti - BikeRadar
His company makes some nice frames BTW
Pro bike: Andy Hampsten's Cycles Strada Bianca Ti - BikeRadar
I've heard of several incidents of people who do group rides, saying that some former pro racer showed-up for the ride on some old vintage steel bike, which was nothing special, compared to all the carbon wonder-bikes everyone else was riding.
02-23-15, 11:04 AM
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We have a former pro rider here. He wasn't TdF level, but he did ride on a national team for a few years. He rides a custom Ti bike with endurance geometry that he has had for many years.
He is a great guy to ride with. He doesn't use a computer or keep track of mileage, and I have never seen him showboat. However, he will go on training rides with people to help them push their pace, and if someone is having a really hard time on a hill, he will fall back and talk them up the climb.
He is a great guy to ride with. He doesn't use a computer or keep track of mileage, and I have never seen him showboat. However, he will go on training rides with people to help them push their pace, and if someone is having a really hard time on a hill, he will fall back and talk them up the climb.
02-23-15, 11:29 AM
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^A build for Paolo Bettini, 2x RR WC, Olympic RR champ, multiple grand tour stage winner and multiple monument winner... Pretty darn slick bike. SUPERCAMPIONISSIMO
^Super Mario... OK, the following link has better pics of his bike, but the pic above seemed most appropriate for the guy... Cipollini Rides a Cipollini - Slowtwitch.com
02-23-15, 11:33 AM
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Nothing could be of less concern to him than the opinions of a bunch of wannabes on some irrelevant forum in a dark corner of the interwebs.
Awesome.
02-23-15, 12:08 PM
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I actually race occasionally, he's prohibited from doing so.
02-23-15, 12:37 PM
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