Allsop Softride Powercurve - Gotta scratch the itch!
 

Showed up locally and I've always been curious about these. So I grabbed it. Came with everything in the picture as well as the original Shimano 105 wheels and a third water bottle. Guess in the spring we'll see how smooth my cadence is after a winter on rollers, LOL!

I really know nothing about these or even what year this is. This one is Tange Infinity steel and not exactly light. 24 lbs 2 ozs as in the pic. The "aero" wheels look cool but my understanding is that tend to be pretty heavy and flexy.

Anyway Shimano 105 7 speed components other than the wheelset on it which is equipped with a 10 speed cassette right now.

One quick pic of how I brought it home.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d6320095f0.jpg

I have 2 still and the advice I give is sit in the seat and let the suspension work. Do not lift your rear when you see bumps coming. You will ride faster and better that way. Roger

Careful setting up the front shifting, especially with STI. The front derailleur location on these bikes is too close to vertical--more like 11 o clock than 10. For sure install a chain watcher--or use bar end shifters. I was the warranty person at a shop that sold these so my view is a little jaded. Also there are no replacement new beams available and they do delaminate.

Have no clue what I'm going to do with this or if I can really even ride it. From reading about these in the past I thought the various beams were rated for a max weight. When I went to get this I didn't see any weight range on it. There is a label on the bottom of the the beam between the two mounts but it was too faded to really see anything printed on it. That may be where the weight range was.....

Curious about the purpose of this one. Rear has mounts for rack/fender. I expect the original front fork did too.

They were rated at a riders weight but I have ridden with beams that were not for my weight and could not see/feel a difference. Besides my 2 my wife had one and we had a Burley Rock and Roll tandem with a beam in the back and that was maybe the best application of them. I will see if I can find some pictures. Roger

Found some pictures. Red one is a pre production bike and the other is a production bike. Rode the red across the USA west to east in the mid 1990s. Roger

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7d0ef5d4e.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...28f905813.jpeg

The Aerospokes are a blast from the past!
How did those wheels ride for you?

Back in the day our shop saw a few of these come through. Interesting idea, but I also believe the best application for the beam is on a tandem.

I liked the Aerospokes and they are still on the bike. Bought them a a swap meet from 2 different vendors as a mismatched set. At this point they have thousands of miles on them. Roger

I had an off road model that I really enjoyed until someone offered me too much money for it. He had contacts in Japan that would pay dearly for anything manufactured in the US.

Hmmm......how am I going to clamp this thing into the stand, LOL???

I dunno, but if you don't like those wheels, you know where I am, perfect for a Look KG196.
A lot of those were 650c too. I'd like a Softride, fits right in with the Y-Foil as significant and oddly attractive.

I have a Solo in the stand now with clamp secured on the upper tube where you have a bottle carrier and pump clip.
The clamp turns 360 degrees so the bike can be positioned as needed.
Looks like you might have room on the short vertical tube in front of the rear wheel too.

I also have a Power Wing that doesn't play well with the repair stand.
I have had to place the clamp on the beam for that one.

Yep, I checked with the seller before I made the drive to make sure they were 700c wheels. Since he was giving up two sets with it. I do like how the Gipiemme wheels look on it so hopefully they work for my current 190ish pounds.

Out of curiosity I compared the weight of the two front wheels with their current tires and skewers. 2 lbs 11 for the Gipiemme and 2 lbs 13 ozs for the Shimano 105 hubbed Araya rimmed one.

Getting ready to take off all the computer stuff and those Campagnolo Aero bottles and mounts. I wonder if there's any value in these used bottles as they go for crazy money NOS on Ebay. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them since I ride all my bikes. They'd look cool on the blue Lemond Maillot Jaune but then I couldn't take out real bottles when I rode it.

Anyway, the clean up begins. The parts seemed to be working ok but they haven't bee cleaned in awhile from the amount of greasy buildup on them.

I used the very short seat tube (front derailleur mount) on mine for bike stands. It worked with Blackburn ones. Roger

I had a Softride Powerwing 650. It took a while to compensate for beam sag and get the saddle height and angle correct. The bigger problem for me was the beam width, as it rubbed by inner thighs. This was a minor issue when riding in cycling shorts but became a major while wearing a Speedo for triathlons.

Alex Steida, the 1st North American to wear Le Maillot Jaune, competed on an Allsop for the Evian-Miko team circa 1991.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f86b04ffdb.jpg

Well, I gave it a pretty good clean yesterday outside. A bit of a challenge since it was in the 20's.

I was curious about tire clearance on this so I threw on a used set of Zonda's I have on hand that have a set of 700 x 27 Vittoria Open Pave CG's on them These clear with no problem. In fact, there seems to be a few mm's room left at the worse spot under the rear brake bridge. Put the cleaned up original 7 speed cassette from the Shimano wheels on it and swapped the Look Delta pedals for a set of Look Keo's.

Took off the Campagnolo cages and bottles and swapped in my normal style.

I guess the Gipiemme wheels weigh a lot along with the 1/2 lb of gunk I cleaned off the drivetrain. It's now down to 22 lbs 13 ozs. I'll probably run it with the GIpiemme wheels though if they ride good for me.

Not sure how the owner was running this with the 10 speed setup. Even in friction mode the rear was a mess as he still had a 7 speed chain on it. I pretty much couldn't get it to run smooth in any gear. With a 7 speed cassette on it it's working fine and the indexing is back working properly.

On my red bike I had a triple with 7 speed freewheel for 21 gears. That was my cross country bike. I used Shimano stuff from mountain bikes. Rear was 12 to 28 and front was 28, 38,50. The 28 to 28 was useful going over the Big Horn mountains. The red bike is one of 1 of 100 prototype bike Alsop used for testing the concept. Actually frame number 49. They were by a NW USA builder named Paul Barkley. The beams were sold as a kit to retrofit bikes originally but the people who used them said it made the top tube to high to ride comfortably. That is why they made bikes around the beam. If you are old enough Alsop was a plastics company that was famous for making an adapter to use 45 RPM records on a normal record player turn table. Roger

Well, I checked this for clearance of Conti GP 4000s II 700 x 28 and as I figured, to close on the rear to be safe even for me. Rear brake bridge just barely cleared by like a mm.

Took the RD off and partially apart to clean it. I don't think this bike was ever cleaned as much rock hard gunk I keep finding built up on it. Even the heavy duty Pedro's struggled to loosen some of the concrete like grease.

Got done and was going to take a lap or two around the block for a little test but nope! Snowstorm had snuck in while I was working.

Just thought I'd update this a it to capture where I took this bike. I got it about the same time I realized I needed to majorly downsize the collection. So the mindset of late has been just to sort it out and make it a nice rider for someone. So to that end I did a fair amount of changes. But it's languished on the local ads with no interest so this morning I did a couple of other changes to suit me and will be giving this a fair shake now I guess. Didn't really want to ride it and fall in love with it because then I'd keep it, LOL.

Parts Changes:Deda Piega Handlebars - New

Icon Graphite Stem - Used

Campagnolo Sirocco 35mm wheels – Used/mint

Claris 8 speed STI shifters - Used

Bontrager Bottle cages (pair) - New

Bontrager Bar Tape - New

Shimano Shift cables and housing - New

Shimano Brake cables and housing – New

SRAM 8 speed cassette – New

Downtube adaptors -New

Continental Grand Prix 4000s II 700 x 25 tires

Look Keo Pedals -Used

Avocet O2 saddle - Used

I'll admit those silver Parade wheels that came on it are very cool looking. But they are also Campagnolo so had to go if I wasn't going to friction shift this baby. I originally put some brand new Zonda's on it but then swapped those back out to put on the old Trek 5200 triple I'm sorting out as a serious hill climbing rig. I then tried to use the beautiful old Mavic Tubulars that were from the Saturn Pro Racing Team. I got these on the GP&GS Lemond. But the fat Veloflex tubular tires barely cleared so that was a no go. Had these wonderful Scirocco's sitting around so I grabbed them this morning and mounted them on with a brand new 12-23 SRAM cassette. The I got rid of that little Terry Dragonfire saddle and put on my beloved Avocet 02. So want to take this out now but it's raining. We've also got a marathon going on up here this morning and the valley will be a zoo all day. The rain is supposed to go through out the day too so maybe I'll "test it" tomorrow.

Anyway. one snapshot of it as it's configured now. Not the best because I'm shooting inside to stay dry.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d1d8928bfc.jpg

I was able to get a better shot in this afternoon between the various rain showers.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b9657cd937.jpg

Those things are like litter every season on CL here in the PNW. They sold tons of them here and they seem to be "flipper bait" as I've seen a few over the years start out thinking they have a fortune on their hands. After a year or two the price drops out of the thousands and into at least the realm of possibility.

My Softride (a medium PowerWing 700) has the beam rating decal on the top of the beam. 180lbs offroad, 200lbs road.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a26f2766d1.jpg

Yep, yep, but nope?
1) Yep, I think I set the saddle height about 1/4" higher than my diamond frame roadies. 2) Yep, my thighs rub the beam. I never realized how much until I just looked at the decals just now. The non-drive side decal is much more worn. 3) Nope, by the time I bought my Softride (in 1999), I was long past racing triathlons in a Speedo and was racing in one piece tri-suits.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f2e5de130f.jpg

You don't see them to often around here. I got mine just out of curiosity and then realized I just had to quit buying bikes. I've never given it a fair shake but I think I'll get it's chance this week to make it's way into my "19 mph" club. Hopefully it fails miserably so I don't fall for it, LOL! Still the few rides on it have been really fast but they were shorter than normal.

I know this and the Prologue TT have been my only bikes not to sell quickly locally. But they are both oddballs, LOL!

Looks like I never updated this with how the bike did. It crushed the 26.7 mile ride doing it in 1:20:08 for the only 20 mph avg ride of the year! So now I can't stop thinking about treating this odd bike to some upgrades.

I've got pretty much complete used Dura Ace 7700 and I think 7800 groupsets stashed in the parts bin. I'm thinking the bike has earned one of these. Right now it's pretty much all Shimano 105 with those Claris shifters. Something so fast deserves better.

Even more than that I'm considering some true aero carbon wheels on this. The ride above was fairly easy and it felt like I could have dropped another gear for even more speed along most of the route. Not to mention how amazingly well the bike smoothed out the rough chipseal roads I use. I'm wondering how something like a 60/40 carbon aero wheel would do on this. I can do a 60/38 tubular build from farsports for under $700 and it looks like that would be right around 1400 grams. With winter fast approaching there's no rush for the wheels so I could even forgo paying for shipping and stay with their slow but free shipping. Hmmmmm.....