RE: JB Near as I can remember, I started lusting after bicycles at about age four...that was a long time ago now. A Dutch track bike dangled from a rafter in my Grandfather's garage. It was love at first sight. When I laid eyes on my first 10-speed in 1958—a Raleigh Bluestreak—my head (and heart) exploded. I've been chasing that one ever since.
My bikes are all steel, I built the oldest in 1998 and most recently one of Hiroshi's EBISU, built precisely for my 130 lb. frame. It's an artful, no nonsense rocketship. Fast as any carbon—but with its skinny tubes, lugs, and curvy fork—looks like it, too, was built in 1958. I also was employed by Richard Schwinn in Waterford, WI—therefore surrounded by the metal works of many legends, including Richard himself. Those guys all know a thing or two. On our long rides together, my pals and I carried on endlessly about JB the engineer or rather, his many opinions / obsessions / observations. We all agreed with most every JB declaration. We whiled away the hours, mile after mile, jabbering until our vocal chords gave out. I didn't have the math skills to make it as an engineer, but I've got the heart for it. My grandfather was a brilliant aircraft designer...I just wasn't there when the math genes were passed out. But I am handy, I love tools, and I've always maintained and built my own bicycles (frames notwithstanding). In fact, the only mechanic I ever trusted was Colin O'Brien, proprietor of Cronometro in Madison Wisconsin and as I recall I may have let him work on one of my bikes one time long ago. Someone wondered how he'd fit in today, good question. I have a riding pal in Athens, GA with a beautiful collection of steel bikes—including works by Richard Sachs, Peter Weigle, Pegoretti, Masi, and others in that club. But he also rides modern carbon bikes and will argue energetically with anyone who looks down on today's machines. He loves his 'plastic' (as referenced by Richard S.) 26-speed and the science behind it. So back to JB. I'd be inclined to say that he'd look down upon carbon bikes (with 8 oz. carbon wheels) and the way we ride them. Meaning lots of gears, high cadence, wider tires, plastic seatposts 2 feet long, skinsuits, bike positioning, white socks reaching up to the knees, and those damn white shoes etc. etc. But maybe, with his obvious intelligence and brilliant engineering chops, he'd totally embrace the technology. The more I think about it, I'm betting he would. Afterall, consider all the carbon in a Porsche 963. Take away all that plastic, not much left but the tires. BEST / Jock Dewey On Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 7:49:25 AM UTC-8 andyree...@gmail.com wrote: > I'm in the process of building a JB-inspired road bike but with a nod to > current bicycle trends: mainly wider tires and spinnier gearing. As a > result, it's made me wonder what he would be riding today if you spliced > his timeline and moved his prime days to current day. > > Today's Radavist > <https://theradavist.com/conversations-with-tom-ritchey-part-two-the-influence-of-jobst-brandt/> > article > really fueled that question so I'd like to open it up to this group who > likely have much more insight into the man and his bike(s). > > What are we thinking? Rim brakes or disc? Carbon? Steel? Ti? I see a lot > of similarities between him and Jan Heine as far as a desire for > performance and reliability, so perhaps he'd lean towards a rando build? > > Take it away if you wish, > Andrew > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/4b29ed1e-a0b9-440d-bcc1-5a83d7de0a67n%40googlegroups.com.
