[Fredrico]

First class bike! A timeless icon of the sport. Ride the hell out of it! If you haven't already, you'll experience what the sport is all about.

 

[Fredrico]

Thanks for your guys concern but before this gets too far I should share that I have been riding for decades and believe it or not I do know how to use a quick release. New bike (for me) rookie mistakes happen. Weight is not everything. Agree with PBL450. If I was concerned about a few pounds, my ass would be the first place to look. I have some light carbon but my steel bikes are usually the ones that get chosen for anything less than a hilly century.

Those top of the line steel bikes handled so well on the flats. Like you say, not too stiff, not to flexy. They'd absorb shocks but not give up the connection to the road. Consequently, they also climb very well, despite the weight. And as you point out, it's mostly plopped on the saddle. 21 pounds is light. It'll weigh nothing when you're up off the saddle.

The lighter bikes I've ridden always seem to steal more energy on climbs. They can't handle the weight moving around on top. Designers keep trying to eliminate that. So they made frames really stiff with fat tubes, put on big diameter press-fit BBs so they don't come loose, and compensated for the harsh ride with elastomer shocks atop the seat tubes and lots of gears in back, and now we got dropper seat posts. Notice they're going back to threaded BBs, pencil thin seat stays, and skinny mainframes?

GCN did a test comparing old steel to modern carbon and discovered only a couple of watts difference on the same climb. Some of that difference would surely be attributed to gearing, climbing in 42-21 vs 39-28. A slight weight handicap would add up on a competitive group ride, but riding solo, great handling would make up for the difference, seems to me.

 

[Fredrico]

Several of the steel bikes I own have horizontal drop outs. You really need to clamp the QR down tight on the rear wheel to avoid the wheel slipping and the tire rubbing on the chain stay. Get some older Campy or Shimano QR levers. They have internal cams and can be clamped down hard without breaking.

That's right! Campy or Shimano skewers always solved slipping in horizontal dropouts in back. Also slightly misaligned dropouts wouldn't hold the skewer flat.

The point of horizontal dropouts was you could align the rear wheel to track the front, and adjust the wheel base a cm or two, presumably for handling or to fit different size tires. Nobody did that, of course, so I guess trusting vertical dropouts was a positive step up!

 

[Fredrico]

I always thought that horizontal drop outs were for track type single speed set ups. What ever the case, I find vertical drop outs much easier to deal with.

Me, too! I wonder if horizontal dropouts originated on single speed bikes, where you'd have to pull the rear wheel back to taek out slack in the chain. So when derailleurs came about, they reversed the dropouts and kept the adjustability. The industry attracts lots of Gyro Gearloses. If the wheel in vertical dropouts doesn't track, it's probably went out of dish.

 

[Fredrico]

I've heard/read that Campagnolo horizontal dropouts are a carryover from their early Cambia Corsa derailleur geared dropouts, which allowed the axle to roll forward and back to slacken the chain and allow shifting under movement.

A Campagnolo masterpiece: the Cambio Corsa – B.G. legendary Bikes (bglegendarybikes.com)

And it worked! Assume that's a free wheel.

The dropouts look just like their later ones, minus the adjusting screws. Investment cast, man. Rock hard. Clamp that wheel in there with Campy skewers, and that thing won't come out!