Richard Risemberg
What type of bicycle is your regular rider?
At present it is a Bridgestone 700, 57cm with 46cm Nitto Noodles and Technomic stem; officially “too small” for me (I am 6’1″), but my favorite bike so far. Just put fenders on it, so of course it’s stopped raining.
How would you rank the following frame materials: Titanium, Steel, Carbon, Aluminum?
1) Steel: best all-around; strong, light, durable (hundred-year-old steel bikes are still in service here and there); just the right amount of flex; handsome whether lugged or welded (assuming hand-finished welds); lower environmental impact than the other materials listed.
2) Titanium: light, durable, needs no paint; from what I hear it’s a bit more flexy than I’d like; higher environmental impact than steel
3) Aluminum: light and stiff–maybe too stiff; brittle and less durable than steel or titanium; requires oversized tubing in most cases which I find visually unappealing myself; high envrionmental impact.
4) Carbon Fiber: very light but not very durable–CF components have been known to shatter, and not infrequently. Made entirely of petroleum derivatives, so extremely high environmental impact, and, unlike the three metals above, not recyclable.
Who was your favorite vintage builder and why?
If Bridgestone counts as a vintage builder, despite being a factory, it would be them, for making bikes that are well-balanced in every sense: technical correctness, good handling, good weight/strength ratios, high social value/low environmental impact, not gaudy.
Have a soft spot for Austro-Daimler too, but keep getting outbid on eBay. Beautiful bikes reputed to last long and handle well. For pure beauty, a Zeus mixte I saw on eBay would be hard to beat.
http://www.rickrise.com
http://www.newcolonist.com
http://www.living-room.org
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