A strange bike indeed.

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Grant said:
No and yes. The ones today are more refined and subtle.
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UCI rules have a LOT to do with this, as well. They essentially made the template into a double diamond, both wheels same sized with no obvious aero advantage. So frames like the boomerang-shaped ones were banned. Their objection was to make time trial and road bikes affordable (I wish I were kidding!) for Third World countries! I call it a crock of excrement... There was some credence to their argument as the Pinarello pictured was “supposed” to be a production bike that never was. It was in the catalogue, but had a TBA price and availability. Moser never offered any of his crazy TT bikes to the public, so the UCI DID have a point there.

I was on a one-man crusade to save the Softride. I felt it was no more an unfair advantage than the bikes that were getting into the 14 pound range (I think the UCI minimum weight settled in at 15 pounds). My main objection to it being banned was that it could extend careers of older athletes suffering from extreme back problems. Duathlons were done for me as my knees and body couldn’t take running any longer. I was trying to restart my cycling career and the Softride was the ONLY bike that didn’t kill me over 50 miles and I felt 50 miles fresh at 100 miles. In the end, I couldn’t use that bike and my cycling career was officially DONE.

I was going to enter a race on my bike and if they didn’t let me enter, I was going to hand them a summons that I was going to sue for discrimination, blah blah blah. When supporters of the lawsuit started becoming more tepid with financial support as well as feared possible ramifications of such action, I bowed out. And besides- I really thought about what it would do to everyone else who paid their entry fees with all that preparation. It was sensible to bow out.

Francesco Moser kind of went crazy on the bikes bearing his name with a 30” rear wheel, faired-in seat and the like. Essentially when the bikes stopped looking like bikes, that’s when the UCI stepped in. When guys put themselves into bizarre body positions on the spaceships on two wheels, that was the last straw. Granted, some of those Hour Record bikes had hundreds of thousands of dollars in them trying to beat Graeme Obree and his bike he made in his garage with a washing machine bearing for the bottom bracket. I think he had all of $1500 USD in that bike.
 
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Almost bought a Softride last year, comfortable bikes. Beam parts are scarce.


while I'm here, in action 84...
noticias_08_1984-Moser-650x405.jpg
 
hamppea said:
Almost bought a Softride last year, comfortable bikes. Beam parts are scarce.


while I'm here, in action 84...
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Did I hallucinate that after Moser’s hour was stripped from him that he tried on a bike more per the bike Merckx used and he was 48 years old at the time? I know there were a rash of Hour attempts in the 90s including Boardman, Obree and Indurain. It became super popular for a brief spell, it seems. I know the Pinarello TT bike was based (loosely) on Indurain’s hour bike.
 
bunnyman666 said:
Did I hallucinate that after Moser’s hour was stripped from him that he tried on a bike more per the bike Merckx used and he was 48 years old at the time? I know there were a rash of Hour attempts in the 90s including Boardman, Obree and Indurain. It became super popular for a brief spell, it seems. I know the Pinarello TT bike was based (loosely) on Indurain’s hour bike.
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Not aware of that. I do know the bike was considerably heavier than the bike Merckx used due to the fly-wheels.
 
bunnyman666 said:
The latter one has longer beam serviceability. Yep- I own SEVERAL.
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I'm a bit hesitant on the Softride aluminum frame design. I do like the beam. I tend to sit lower and further back. It does require those specialty parts. I get suckered into buying hard to get stuff when it becomes available at reasonable costs even though I might not need them at the time. You know how it goes, when you need it it's not around, but ONE seller has parts at 3X the going rate.
 
hamppea said:
I'm a bit hesitant on the Softride aluminum frame design. I do like the beam. I tend to sit lower and further back. It does require those specialty parts. I get suckered into buying hard to get stuff when it becomes available at reasonable costs even though I might not need them at the time. You know how it goes, when you need it it's not around, but ONE seller has parts at 3X the going rate.
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Exactly!

I can’t find my stash of pivot bolts, but I would NEVER GOUGE anyone if I sold them. I would have to ensure my own supply LOL, but the head engineer at Softride gave them to me; i would not feel right gouging on those.
 
 

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