The reason for the weight is the bikes used a lower grade steel tubing that had to have thicker walls to put up with the rigors of children high jinks.
Over in Europe where there is a long history of road racing on bicycles many innovations were made to make bicycles lighter and faster. In frame design and manufacturing the best tubings used were chrome molybdenum steel double butted tubing often made by Reynolds.
Double butted means the tube is thicker near the ends than in the middle, making the unit lighter with some spring and strength. These tubes are never welded together but are brazed at lower temperatures in lugs.Some lugs are simple and others are works of art such as this one.
In this age of carbon-fiber wonder bikes there are still high end steel bikes being build and sold. Steel has a different feel than C-F and the proponents will say āsteel is real.ā Maybe like those who like LPs over digitized music.
Some of these builders will use lugs, but more common with new welding techniques will weld the tubing together. My bikes are titanium which has a lot of quirks as it canāt be welded in the presence of any oxygen. Neither of my have lugged frames Iām sorry to say but evidently there are TI frames using double butted TI tubing and lugs.
I hope I havenāt bored everyone to death. with too much information that no one needs to know.
Hereās a bike like the one Tim rode that we all wanted, A 1964 Schwinn Paramont a speed demonās dream.
It sure is a good looking bike, I still dream of one like it. Before I got my Birthday gravel bike I was looking at Paramounts of this vintage. Most available were track bikes, basically very stiff fixies with no brakes and bikes that were too large for me.
As to the tires, I believe that there were optional tubular (sew-up) wheels or clincher. I just found that picture and it was even the right color of our friend Timās bike. Looking at the head tube length I think it would fit me. Ah well, @CarlosLuis enjoy the bikes you have.
And at my age, I am not safe with toe clips
If youāre interested hereās an informative page on sew-up tires.
Theyāre āregularā tires; I canāt remember all the terms. Hereās a picture of what is, I believe, the first āseriousā bike I owned:
Yeah, yeah, itās not a picture. You have to check out the details of the tires. Yeah, no @CarlosLuis I donāt have that bike anymore; it was nicked, so I did buy the bike I had dreamed of. Whatever.
As you can see, this was quite an elegant bike - with 5 speeds and a derailleur. I took my first overnight bike trip on this bike (from Buzzards Bay to Provincetown, Ma.)
@bostrav59 that Space Rider is a sweet looking bike! I tried to get my parents to by me one, but it was too big for me . I ended up with a gas station Roadmaster which in hindsight I wish I still had. I took a lot of spills on that bike it was too big for me too, lol. This wasnāt the actual bike but a picture of the one I had that I found on the ānet.
The Lounge is somewhat hidden. It is only available to members who have been around long enough and who have a certain number of posts and visits and read-time, etc.
I donāt know the exact metrics that are used, but maybe a mod (hi @elver and @catlady!) can give details.
Any post on FUD can be read by absolutely anyone on the internet (even non-members) except for posts in the Lounge.
The purpose of the Lounge is if you donāt want to share something wide-open publicly with anyone on the internet, but just want to share it with the more trusted FUD members.
Here is an example:
Suppose you were having a problem at work with your boss and how he complains about your diabetes management. You want to ask FUD people for advice on how to handle it, but want to make sure your boss can never see your post!
Something like that would be great to post in the Lounge.
@CarlosLuis@elver@bostrav59 and otherās: Iād just like to say Iāve really enjoyed reading these posts! Iām not an avid biker (like some of you), but its one of the things I like about this group, we donāt ājustā talk about āitā (T1/T2), we talked about cats, dogs, goats, bikes and wealth of other thingsā¦just like life! Thanks!
@CarlosLuis That first bike posted looks like the bike my brother got that was a more āmodernā bike when he hit around 12ish? 10 speeds and I wasnāt allowed near it lol. I couldnāt ride it really anyways as I remember trying to get on it and it was way too tall. He was 5 years older so my feet wouldnāt come close to touching the ground even if I managed to get on it. And thatās when I inherited his old one that I still couldnāt touch the ground on but at least with a slight tilt I had more of a chance. Of course when I first got it, my Dad put training wheels on it. At some point they got me a 3 speed girls bike that I loved. I went everywhere with it.
with too much information that no one needs to know.
. I ended up with a gas station Roadmaster which in hindsight I wish I still had. I took a lot of spills on that bike it was too big for me too, lol. This wasnāt the actual bike but a picture of the one I had that I found on the ānet.
