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@clubman
While I'm here......
I had an interesting conversation with another old bloke the other day which referred in part to the old bikes this thread is keen on. The relevant bit went like this:
"1960 was my first season as a senior, and I had some success with a few road race wins. By the end of the year I'd improved my road bike to the point where I felt it was state of the art - everything was Campag! " (NB at that time you weren't supposed to get cash prizes as an amateur, but you could receive equipment - which, of course you could swap or trade for cash at your bike shop).
"At the beginning of the 1961 season I got an offer to ride as an 'independent' for Wally Green Cycles, which I took. One little snag was that I had to ride the bike they gave me (for sponsorship reasons) and it was quite a lot inferior to my own. In particular, it had a Cyclo parallelogram rear mech which was a copy of the Campag."
"Didn't it work? " I asked.
"Well, yes, it did work after a fashion, as long as you keep on adjusting it, but it was nothing like as good as the Campag."
Incidentally, that Cyclo mech was barely any cheaper than the Campag Gran Sport. Although I've seen plenty of drawings of them in old adverts I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh, let alone in use.
Moral: don't be guided in your choice of kit by what professionals use - they ride what they're paid to use.