Good article. Geoff Drake is a cool guy, didn't know him well but he's a mensch.
Slight quibble with stating specs like the wall thickness or the headtube angle without mentioning that those vary, depending on the frame size. I worked there when the Stiletto was being developed and I helped design it. (I designed the lugs.) I don't have a record of what tube thicknesses went with each framesize, but different thicknesses were used.
Head angles varied from 73.5° on the smallest frame to 75.5° on the largest, with fork rakes variying as well to match the frame they went on, less rake on the larger frames. Such steep angles definitely put more emphasis on quick handling, less on comfort, but they aren't uncomfortable to ride. I wouldn't choose it for a century, but for spirited shorter rides or a 1-hour criterium, it's the bees knees.
Another quibble with attributing the idea for oversized tubes to Gary Klein. They go back way further, before Gary was born. A 30 mm downtube in steel (only slightly oversized, actually kinda small by today's standards) was used by French constructeurs for Campeur singles, as well as tandems, going back to the 50s at least, probably earlier. Reynolds made 30 mm downtubes in 531 DB — I used them in the late '70s and early '80s, still have one unused 30 mm downtube. They were never listed in the English-language catalogs, but we were able to get them through Reynolds's French distributor.
Even further back, a friend of mine has a tandem from the late 1800s that used 1-3/8" (35 mm) tubes for all the main triangle. Ahead of its time.
Mark B in Seattle
Last edited by bulgie; 09-18-21 at 04:56 PM.