Funny,I read the 1984 interview with Tom Kellog, Gary Klein and Jim Redcay last night. Klein said then that bicycles were in the third "era". First era - push bikes. Second era- pedals and the high wheelers. Third era- safety bikes - diamond frames and chain/shaft driven drive trains. That he had developed a new tubing for the closing chapter of the third era. That further evolution in metals, composites and ceramics were just more of the end of that era.
Magnesium -more tweaks to push this era a little longer. (The first two eras lasted about 15 years each, This one has gone on 140 years. Will any of us live to see the next?)
I took a spin on professor David Wilson's recumbent 44 years ago. Short wheelbase, under the knees steering, semi-reclined position, Easy to ride, completely natural first time and obviously fast. I rode with the professor a few times as he commuted home and I headed out on training rides. Yes, I always caught him from behind, chatted and left him but he was a middle aged professor and I was a mid 20s bike racer. He was one of the few non-racers fast enough for me to condescend to slow to. And that bike had commuter clincher wheels and nothing special parts. But sew-ups and racing equipment and that recumbent would have been a rocket. I knew that with my spin around the parking lot.
Now with this magnesium for the frame of that recumbent, plus race worthy gear; that 1976 bike would be an all-world fast road bike today, just not allowed to race. (I say this and I will not be a convert until I lose my balance because I love "the dance"; the out of the saddle climb. I live for it. Maybe the fourth era will be a design that dances. I can hope.)
Ben