gitaneusa.com :: View topic - Saur NOT riding Definitive Gitane for Paris Roubaix?

sandranian · Site Admin

Check out this picture:

This was Jimmy Casper's spare Gitane for the Scheldeprijs on top of the team car. This one was fitted with top mounted brake levers...and is not the normal carbon Definitive "The One" that the team has been using, but is an another bike painted in the team's colors. Note the picture here:

The bike uses an aluminum steerer tube as well....

So...what kind of bike is it? I wonder if the entire team will be on these "scab" rigs?

Wisey

I reckon it is this one:

The Casper bike looks like carbon to me. Can't see any welds around the head tube. Different fork on the B........i. But that's perhaps not a big surprise for P-R anyway.

I think the important question is why do they thenk "The One" isn't good enough for the pave? Are they too light? Or does Casper like a stiffer than normal bike like many other sprinters? Even Robbie McEwen frequently used a heavier (cheaper) model of the team bike to have a slightly stiffer bike.

Could one of our French speakers ask the question on the Saur Facebook page?

sandranian · Site Admin

In speaking with people "with knowledge" this morning, it may have to do with the integrated seatpost, which generally is pretty jarring on the pave. The domestiques on the team may still ride "The One", but Casper, as team leader, may get the more comfy rig so as to help him finish more refreshed.

Peter S. Horn

So, would that Casper bike be a "non-ISP The One"; a Dream On model; a custom? The seat stays do not flare out (are not curved) as the normal Saur (Definitive The One ISP) Team bikes. Good question.
Peter H.

Gtane

I would almost certainly say the machine is to do with rider comfort on the pave. Note the curved forks too. They probably just went for a machine that was comfortable and which they could badge as Gitane rather than designing something from scratch. However, it could well be a Gitane made purely for the Classics. There's a lot of experimentation and tailoring for the Classics nowadays.

I read somewhere that the brake levers on top of the bars allow the rider to adopt the less stretched position on the bike while they 'float' across the surface at the optimum speed. The riders prefer to take the pave at speed so the bumps feel like an overall shudder or vibration rather than a continuous set of bumps and knocks at a slower speed. Similar to driving on sand in a vehicle where it rucks up to create uniform waves - very uncomfortable at the wrong speed.

With Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, look out for conventionally spoked wheels (very often using Ambrosio Nemesis rims and 3x), additional bar tape, shock absorbing seatposts, stems and stays, slightly longer wheelbases, etc.

Steve Bauer tested a stretched out relaxed angle machine one year when riding for Motorola (early 1990s I think) and Tom Boonen generally drops his saddle height by 1cm. Not only that and many more examples besides, what about the rush on part and full suspension machines in the early 1990s? Tom Boonen had a special aluminium machine built for him rather than ride a bespoke carbon a few years back, I think it was badged Specialized but I'm not sure who actually made it.

The Cycling News site usually has photos of the Paris Roubaix bikes.

Tim

sandranian · Site Admin

Gitane also produced front suspension bikes for Paris-Roubaix in the 1990's. I would imagine that the Casper bike is a Bianchi, as Gitane and Bianchi are owned by Cycleurope. I don't see Gitane designing a "one off" bike or prototype for Paris-Roubaix....

Gtane

Good thought on the Bianchi, that's very plausible.

Tim

sandranian · Site Admin

One question has been definitively answered (no pun intended): The entire team appears to be on these "new" bikes. Here are some better pictures of them:

Note the Ambrosio rims.

vanhelmont

Gtane

Vanhelmont,

Here's the link to the aluminium machine that Tom Boonen road to victory in 2007:

http://tinyurl.com/y4mxbpo

I remember that Hincapie fall and the bike. That was really tough as he was doing so well to that point. I'm sure the bike made it straight back to R&D.

I didn't know about Alessandro Ballan riding a steel machine in 2006, thanks for that and the link. I keep hoping that steel will make a return here and there, particularly the stainless variants. I'll look out for it this year.

Tim

verktyg

Steel - The Miracle Metal! Cool

One BIG problem with CFRP Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (carbon fibers in epoxy resin) frames and components is they can catastrophically fail without any warning. Titanium and to some degree aluminum can too! Shocked

A nice feature of the stainless steels being used today is they have very high yield strengths and will stretch before cracking or failing. Of course they can always fail at a weld but the tubes are not likely to fail.

I'll ride carbon when they pull my cold dead fingers off of my down tube shifters! Evil or Very Mad

Gtane

Here's a close-up of the front end of Jimmy Casper's bike used for Paris Roubaix. Lots of clearance at the fork crown.

http://tinyurl.com/yba6gnc

Tim