On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:59:53 -0700 (PDT), Scott
wrote:

On Jul 10, 9:54*am, John Forrest Tomlinson
wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:39:03 -0700 (PDT), Scott

wrote:

On a slightly related note, I can tell you that there are plenty of
riders using carbon fiber bikes that were NOT made by their sponsor.
e.g. *Gerolsteiner's TT bikes aren't not Specialized bikes, but the
decals sure read "Specialized".

Yeah, it's possible someone's on a steel bike. *I doubt it, but I
wouldn't be surprised.

Also, just to cement my arrogance, if you *should* be surprised if
that was true. Extremely surprised. *There is zero reason any rider in
the Tour of France should be a on a steel frame and many reasons (both
economic, performance and logistical they should not).

You should be shocked.

Really, you don't think that even a single rider in the field may
actually prefer a steel frame to a carbon fiber frame? And that rider
(should one exist) may be able to get that steel frame for free from
the builder?

It's been done before many, many times by lots of riders.


What's been done?

No reason
to definitively conclude that it is not going on now.

Let's talk epistomology. I can't prove a negative here and I won't
ask you to prove a positive, since you merely said you "wouldnt' be
suprised." I'll assume wouldnt' be surprised means there's a 1 in 10
or many a 1 in 100 or even a 1 in 1000 chance of it happenning.

I'm saying the chance is far, far less than ever the most generous
odds above. Far less than 1 in 1000. Orders of magnitude less.

Now, if something that has a 1 in, say, 10,000 or 1 in a million
chance of happening happens, among 200 riders, you wouldn't be
surprised?

Wow.

And here's a surrogate. Find a single example of a pro tour or
continental level pro team using a steel frame in any UCI-level race
in Europe. Try it. Can you find even one?