Smilin George sets us straight
There was a hilarious exchange of posts at r.b.r. and r.b.t. the other day. The old American racing hero George Mount posted a few judicious times and really set us straight.
It started with a typical flaming thread on rbr about how Greg Lemond stole the World’s from Jock Boyer way back when. He did! He didn’t! You suck! Then out of nowhere appeared a post from George saying to the effect that “I was there. I rode with Jock and Greg. They agreed how the race would go. That Greg would take it if he could, because Jock was feeling off his pace.” Oh… Well, that really put the kybosh on the arguing.
A few days later, he helped someone decide which of the great framebuilders to hire with a post to rbt. The usual suspects were arguing about whose detailing was better than the others, which angles, which tube brand, produced the clearly superior frame. George posted and said to just go with whoever they like then let the framebuilder do their job and stop worrying. Pick your frame color, coz that’s the most impt thing as everyone knows anyway. Then forget the rest. He said he never knew any spec about any of his bikes, nor could he tell the difference when he was riding them. He said they varied a tiny bit from each other but they all worked fine and he could win on any of them. He also said something about a pro not being too fussy about free bikes. Oh… More hilarious silence from the peanut gallery.
It kinda reminded me about a chat I just had with old sixday champ Clare Young about a couple of his kids’ (Roger and Sheila’s) world championship bike frames, which he was selling for $150 apiece—custom Euro frames, perfect cond., from the 70’s—he probably still has em (anyone want a World Champ’s bike?). I asked if he knew what the angles were. Clare answered “Pretty good ones, I suspect.”
