Revracer

To confess, I elected not to ride my C&V at the Fall Classic 50-miler and I guess I was in the company of other C&V riders who elected to ride their more modern bikes. While I did see a few steel bikes and a number of earlier Cannondale models, I did not see one bike with downtube or friction shifters on the 50-mile ride.

With a gathering of over 1,000 cyclists riding, it would be fun to have a group/class convened of retro or C&V bikes much like L'Eroica at this event. Could Pennsylvania pull off a back road gravel ride with hills for challenge? Absolutely. Bicycling originally had a timed gravel road climb on the 50-mile ride, but elected to drop it after testing due to having only one line up the gravel hill with 700+ riders.

I am now inspired to look at the other C&V retro rides in my area as I think it might have been fun to have gone C&V. Of course, there is always next year.

rccardr 

I would LOVE to do a true retro-ride. Have looked through the Cino and Eroica pics and think: "I could do that...and I have some bikes that would qualify...AND I'm an old geezer type, so I'd fit right in!" Maybe after I retire and have the time to travel. But eastern PA isn't that far for me or a bunch of other folks, maybe it's worth suggesting to the organizers? I know I'm going to suggest it to the organizations that run the centuries I do every year.

Rode a century this past weekend- The Richmond Gran Fondo- as well as the Backroads Century two weeks before that. Both of them had some DT shifter bikes- a Raleigh, couple of mid/late 80's Cannondales- but mostly a bunch of very (to me) similar looking crabon items. Very few steel bikes at all. I rode my Della Santa (most likely a late 80's) corsa speciale and got a few comments. At 20.5 pounds it's somewhat heavier than a plastic bike, but not so much that it slows me down. Age does that.

Revracer

rccardr, after making this post I had the same idea and sent the idea to one of the organizers. Not sure if the idea will take hold with Bicycling Magazine as I suspect most of the advertising comes from large manufacturers and want to sell new bikes.


Sounds like it was a great ride and a C&V that comes in at 20.5 is a very light ride in my book and only about a pound more than my carbon bike when fitted with pedals and seat bag.