..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
celtic feet
i know that you're not really interested in this part, but there is a point to the following, so bear with me. this past weekend featured the islay jazz festival, at which i was greatly privileged to have a gig with some of scotland's finest jazz musicians. the venue is situated about a mile or so from washingmachinepost towers, and since the drum kit had already been delivered via motorised transport on friday (courtesy of the vocalist), this left me free to cycle to and from both rehearsals on saturday and gig on sunday.
only a mile - how hard could it be? well, under normal circumstances that would be perfectly true, but the past weekend on islay has been wet and windy and not at all conducive to arriving dry enough to sit comfortably behind the dee-dubs and in a position to entertain. paramount amongst 'bits that need to be dry' were the tootsies ensconced within the golden shoes. but all was indeed well, since just in time for such inclement weather had arrived a pair of neoprene overshoes from the chaps prendas ciclismo.
it's an unfortunate fact of life that overshoes get mistreated - not always intentionally - because a part of them always faces downwards and often interacts with the shoe cleat at times when you'd really rather it didn't. so it's often the case that these garments (they are garments aren't they?) tend to be replaced out of necessity every year or so. many of the overshoes that have been a part of my cycling wardrobe in years gone past, have had the unfortunate side effect of making me look like an extra from kismet (says the guy with gold shoes), but if you take a gander at the pic above, you will see that the prendas offering avoids this effect entirely. in fact, it was very pleasing to note that even when wearing these overshoes, they looked convincingly like a pair of regular boots. i think now it's only the pink jacket that attracts attention.
there's a sizeable cutout on the sole to fit pretty much any type of cleat you care to mention, as well as a smaller hole at the heel to allow for same on the shoe. it's the edge stitching that keeps the footwear similitude of the neoprene, and which keeps them snug across the shoes. there's a short zip at the back to ease fitting, and the neoprene is fully lined in blue with a very neat silver 'prendas ciclismo' embazoned on the outward facing snug bit.
neoprene keeps the feet dry and cosy, though there will always be the inevitable leakage top and bottom - rain's a bit like that you know. (witness matt seaton's article in the current issue of rouleur).
cost is a very reasonable £20, in sizes from extra small through to extra, extra large (shoe size 47+). as successfully tested in dreich islay september weather.
posted on monday 17 september 2007.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................elemental clothing
maurice white, philip bailey, verdine white and ralph johnson. you'll be wondering which team they're with. perhaps new domestique signings for slipstream powered by chipotle. well, no - these chaps have more in common with large hairstyles and flared trousers than with giro helmets and prendas neoprene overshoes. however, their connection with cycling isn't entirely spurious (i'm sorry, but yes it is) since they may well have inspired bill sebell to found earth, wind and rider*.
ok, so now that the long winded, obscure introduction has passed without comment, does this mean that earth, wind and rider makes lycra for seventies funk bands? no, fortunately for those of us living in the 21st century, they make a rather smart line of short and long-sleeved merino wool jerseys which bear more than a passing resemblance to those of yesteryear. long before earth, wind and fire were even past kindergarten.
based in cambridge, massachusetts, earth, wind and rider believe in ethical business practice, donating proceeds from the sale of their jerseys to '1% for the planet' an organisation of businesses that work together to help save the planet. and aside from the various styles of jersey from ewr's on-line catalogue, they have now branched into the custom jersey, allowing the embroidery of team name, company or slogan for the ultimate in woollen coolness.
jerseys come in either ladies' short sleeve. or men's short or long sleeve. in keeping with the coffee theme that seems to perennially pervade these pixels, it's the epic express espresso jersey illustrated above. prices range from around $105 (£53) for short-sleeve to $120 (£60-ish) for the long-sleeve edition. happily for those of us in europe and scotlandshire, earth wind and riders will cheerfully fedex across the atlantic.
*actually bill sebell would be as likely to buy an earth wind and fire album, as i would something by sydney devine, but you have to admit it was an obvious line to take.
posted on monday 17 september 2007. updated tuesday 18
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................don't go over the lines
mrs washingmachinepost is really good with kids. which is really helpful, because that's her job, but even her childminding skills generally fail to have those small people keep within the lines when colouring in. i, however, can remember being particularly conscientious about this when i was a small person - it was completely unacceptable for any of the colours, be they wax crayons or felt pens, to be filling in parts of the picture that they weren't supposed to be filling.
however, if you had one of the new colouring books purveyed by brooklyn artist, taliah lempert, colouring skills would improve dramatically. let's face it, you wouldn't want the top tube on a serotta to end up the same colour as the seat post - (would you?). neither of my kids are of colouring book age anymore, but were they still to be, they'd be lucky if they ever saw more than the cover of a bicycle coloring book (notice the difference in the spelling of colour/color, depending on which side of the atlantic you live). if truth be told, there should be a warning on the cover that states the book should not be given to those under the age of twenty-four due to tiny components that could confound small children. basically, this is a big person's colouring book, and don't you forget it - leave the kids with the teletubbies and barbie.
a bicycle coloring book contains 26 individual line drawings made over the course of this past summer (presumably summer in brooklyn was a deal longer than summer on islay) from taliah's paintings, and costs a mere $8 plus postage to whichever part of the world you live.
with winter approaching and the nights fair drawing in, forget the indoor turbo - there's almost a month's worth of training in here.
posted on monday 17 september 2007.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................city cycling by richard ballantine. published by snowbooks. 304pp illus. £9.99
when i was about knee high to a sprinter, i owned a copy of richard's bicycle book which told you pretty darned near everything a neophyte needed to know about bicycles. it was great at making clear that you had just spent not quite enough money on completely the wrong type of bike, and put the fear of death into you about squillions of ball bearings that would leap straight for the throat if you even so much as thought about removing the bottom bracket. (oh how those bottom brackets have changed).
but more to the point, it made it expressly clear what a bottom bracket was and why you should care, along with all that is still exciting about bicycles, how to ride them, where to ride them and just why it was such a great invention in the first place. sad to relate, i lent the book to someone when i had reached black belt status in bicycle mechanics, and it never returned.
richard's bicycle book was published as long ago as 1972, and it's still available in it's revised, 21st century format to this day. but, as is not unusual for a man with so much to say about bicycles, along has come this new ballantine tome by way of homage to the not quite so humble bicycle of today. as can be gathered from the title, in these days of congestion charges and maybe just general congestion, to say little of the need to save the planet, the bicycle has a higher profile in the city transport cycle (pun intended) and maybe, just maybe, there are folks out there in urban land who'd like to join the club. the bicycle as an efficient and enjoyable means of transport.
if nothing else, ballantine's boundless enthusiasm for the bicycle as the premier form of transport pervades every chapter - yes, some of the early captions err rather too far on the side of corny, but the man is genuine through and through. in fact, the title may just be a bit of a misnomer: i have no roundabouts, no traffic lights, no cycle paths and no labyrinth of traffic calmed streets with parking on both sides, yet much of city cycling is just as relevant to me as those in the cities.
so what does the book say? well unsurprisingly, it has much on cycling safely midst motorised traffic, the various types of bicycle and which may be the most appropriate for you, and how to make sure it fits, as well as basic maintenance techniques. the subject is too large to expect its author to more than scratch the surface of some subjects, while remaining all things to all people. in short, it is a wonderful little book, at a very encouraging price, and just like richard's bicycle book of yore, it's the sort of volume that can be left around the house to be dipped in and out of as your fancy, or need, takes you. both ballantine and snowbooks are to be congratulated on releasing this to the world.
if only i could remember who borrowed my bicycle book.
richard ballantine's 'city cycling' is available from cordee books for £9.99 - usa price is quoted as $19.95, but i've no idea where it can be purchased across the pond.
posted on friday 14 september 2007.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................a date with brintoni
proudly hanging in the master bedroom of washingmachinepost towers is a copy of the 2007 heros du velo calendar beautifully illustrated by david brinton, or brintoni as he is more colloquially known. unlike frank patterson, brinton has been a lifelong cyclist and began illustrating for velonews in 1989, and in 2006 collected his drawings of cycling heroes and combined them into a very desirable calendar.
my copy was very kindly sent by velopress in colorado, because the british market apparently required their stocks ludicrously early in the year, but the calendar was successfully welcomed in the american market to allow for heroes du velo part two - in other words, the 2008 version. this brings us another twelve cycling heroes in brintoni's admirable style, including big mig, julio jimenez, rik van looy, ottavia bottechia and eight others.
the 2008 brintoni calendar will be available in the uk through local bookstores and probably by mail order from cordee. those of you in americashire can order a copy for a mere $14.95 from velopress. don't dither, just buy.
more pics here
posted on wednesday 12 september 2007. if you listen to the commentary on mountain stages of the grand tours, or hilly bits in the classics, you can often pick up that those who are ascending more successfully are said to have attained their climbing rhythm. while it is true that the great climbers have a rather unnerving ability to vary this rhythm at will, thereby shelling out those who can't, it's the rhythm part that we're interested in, since it may not be wholly confined to the bicycle. unfortunately, for the purposes of this article, we're on fairly shaky ground, because the climbing bit doesn't necessarily feature a lot further, (but it was a helpful device to get us this far) though the rhythm part does. in a conversation with andy from prendas, not only did he discover that i play drums (allegedly), but so does his brother - who is also a cyclist. it turns out that craig maclean, winner of medals galore on the track is also a drummer, and i have memory of an interview with danilo di luca in a cycle sport of yesteryear, where he was photographed behind a rather large sonor drum kit (disturbingly, without any cymbals as i recall) and if we return to the original posit, danilo actually can climb. eddy merckx importer and mechanic extraordinaire, graeme freestone king, is also identified as a batteur, though if his choice of music in the support van at london-paris is anything to go by, subtlety may not be his strong point. and on the forum of a new york drumming friend of mine, there is at least one devout cyclist. can this be simple coincidence?
probably. posted on tuesday 11 september 2007. the lettering may be reminiscent of space 1999 (before your time) but it's kind of hard to argue with the wording clearly emblazoned fore and aft. you will probably never know how amazingly obscure it would be to walk laconically (actually, i'm not even sure that's possible) down bowmore main street (walking up bowmore main street cannot be achieved with any degree of style), almost carelessly wheeling the colnago by the stem, wearing this black jacket/sweater with italia on the left sleeve, and those magical words squadra corse italia both front and back. and i don't doubt this experience is infinitely transferable to any location you care to think of - even italy. and, of course, since it is the very same jacket as being worn by the italian team at stuttgart, eating pasta and scattering the occasional italian phrase to anyone within earshot can only enhance the effect. or not, as the case may be. the handsome gents at prendas have this very item, manufactured by sportful, available for pre-order at prendas.co.uk for the surprisingly paltry sum of £49.95. delivery is expected within the week. go on, you know you want to. posted on monday 10 september 2007. you may not be surprised to learn that, in the process of putting these pixels together over the last ten or so years, i have learned a great deal about bicycles, their related components and some of the more notable personalities involved in the cycling world. it has been, and continues to be, great fun, but one of the more pleasant side-effects has been the information heading my way about the drink most associated with cycling, namely, coffee. we're not talking instant granules here but the real thing emanating from wonderful machines such as those made by gaggia: espresso, cappuccino, ristretto - you get the general idea. now as someone who doesn't drink milk, i have less interest in the frothy stuff favoured by the mighty dave t - real men such as jez and myself confine ourselves to espressos, double espressos and, on rare occasions, a ristretto. delighfully, the chaps at baum cycles down under have the same fascination - you will doubtless remember their very fine titanium and steel frames featured on the post only a matter of weeks hence. at that time they had appended the epithet 'cubano' to one of their shinier models, referring to an espresso sullied with rum (alcohol is not to my liking either). well, these guys are even more obsessed with the dark stuff than myself, having released a titanium and carbon 'corretto' into our field of desire. corretto is an espresso prepared with a shot of grappa, the latter being a distillation of the skins, stems and seeds left over from the wine making process. fortunately, the bicycle of the same name is immeasurably more attractive than the description of its namesake, being effectively a baum cycles ristretto with a time helix carbon wishbone, lightening the frame (compared to the cubano) by 30g. if you look closely at the photo above, aside from the more obvious lightweight carbon wheels, the frame bears a clavicula chainset and scapula fork - the manna of which dreams are made. the downside is that a corretto frame will lighten your bank account by £3050 ($6150 usa) but custom titanium has never come cheap and the styling of all the baum offerings have that air of timelessness, coupled with the fact that one of these or its siblings, will undoubtedly outlast its owner. if you're persuaded, contact jared at baum cycles, victoria and ask him if you can drop by for a coffee. posted on monday 10 september 2007. judging by last year's braveheart ride round stewarton and kilmarnock and the like, i'm not the only one who lives in a predominantly agricultural area. it's very pleasant to cycle round single track roads (with grass growing along the middle) and see sheep, cows and, round by kilchoman distillery, barley growing in the fields. and contrary to the opinions of most car drivers who get stuck behind tractors - which seem to be getting larger every year - i find them very accommodating, since it is less than fun to put treadless schwalbes onto wet grass. however, there are times of the year when it is prudent to watch what you're getting into. this is silage time which, by way of explanation for those of you in a more urban setting, is the cutting of grass, chucking it in the back of a whopping great trailer and placing it in a silage pit to provide winter feed for the cows and sheep i mentioned earlier. since this usually involves at least two tractors, there is much to-ing and fro-ing along rural roads. the more rural or more astute reader will realise that prodigious amounts of earth, mud and the stuff that cows produce, start to form a covering on the roads - or at least, the most unexpected portions of it. i happened upon upon a stretch of this yesterday while pootling along my 50km loop, which would have had a less pronounced effect on my whizzing had i not met a land-rover heading in the opposite direction. slidey wheels ensued, and not from the land-rover. why have i bothered to tell you this? well, normally i would have kept it to myself, but having met a couple of cycle tourists at debbie's today, it dawned on me that there may be a significant number of you out in the sticks at this time of year, blissfully unaware of impending doom (dramatic stuff this) and no idea what silage is, nor a desperate need to find out at close quarters. you have been warned - sort of posted on sunday 9 september 2007. i've just spent part of my saturday evening watching the univest grand prix bicycle race from souderton, pennsylvania, which was won by tom frischkorn (i think i've spelt that correctly) of the slipstream chipotle team, and i must say that i hope it's not the last american race we get to see on cycling.tv. however, just to qualify that statement, the style of commentary might take a bit of getting used to - i don't know who the two chaps were, but they continually referred to the chasing group being 'down on the canvas' and to the slipstream breakaway as being 'like a body blow: bang, bang, bang'. if you've ever watched the superbowl you'll have a good idea of what i mean. the finishing circuit, apparently reached after a big long cycle round the pennsylvanian countryside in very hot weather, consisted of cycling past lots of very nice real estate, surrounded by very threatening kerbs, though all the spectators seemed to be concentrated at the start/finish line. tv coverage was pretty good, though i did get the impression that they had only one camera motorbike since the sprint for second and third was only shown from the helicopter (yes, they had a helicopter). it now turns out that the so-called sprint for 2nd and 3rd was for 3rd and 4th since another rider had passed parra and duggan, and our superbowl commentators and tv cameras completely missed this, not realising even after the finish had been show. anthony and brian would never have let that happen. i know nothing of american bicycle racing (and i doubt i'm alone in that, this side of the pond) so i don't know at what level this race is run, though one of the commentators mentioned more than once, that this would be the greatest victory of frischkorn's career (he was 3rd in the 2003 u23 tour of flanders). yes, more of this please. oh and... every now and then we'd have an advert from one of the sponsors - that of the best young rider jersey certainly raised a laugh in the washingmachinepost headquarters - see right. as to the slipstream sponsor - it's pronounced chip-oat-lay posted on saturday 8 september 2007. i believe that september 1 was the first day of autumn, so we now have doom and gloom to look forward to - in varying degrees, depending on your particular latitude. and when doom and gloom descends, it is incumbent on the conscientious cyclist to do exactly the opposite, and brighten up. yes, even on this relatively sparsely motorised isle, it makes ideal sense to be shiny bright for at least a portion of head to toe - you just never know when those tractor drivers may come hurtling round a corner. dressing thus will achieve a higher priority in the corridors of congestion charge, and the lack of this visibility was an argument levelled at rapha over their last softshell jacket, which fulfilled the pain and suffering aspect, but may not have saved you from it on a dark rainy night. so, in time for those autumnal/wintery nights of commuting to and from the palace de travail, rapha have brightened their approach with a new softshell jacket in three colours that aren't black. made from hytrel, a highly water resistant, breathable and windproof fabric, the jacket has three large cargo pockets, a zipped pocket on the back and the almost rapha trademark of a non central zip. since rapha products are not noted for their cheapness, either in quality or cost, if you add the word 'only' in front of the £175 price tag, it's a bargain. posted on friday 7 september 2007.the rhythm method
italian style with sleeves
coffee time again
bullshit
so that's how you pronounce it
uninvisible
it all stems from this
it's amazing what you notice when you're not actually looking. month after month goes by with advertisements appearing for handlebars and stems, and unless you're actually looking to replace same, they are just so much eye candy. but the appearance of an oval concepts advert for their r700 stem clicked past the eye candy level because they looked different. now different doesn't always equal good but the difference here was the four bolts threading in from the back of the stem. you will perhaps agree that most, if not all, the other stems you may have witnessed have the bolts at the front.
if you live near salt sea air that precipitates in a horizontal vector (driving rain) then the two or four bolts holding the faceplate and consequently the handlebars in place, have quite likely rusted - unless they are of the stainless or titanium variety. and probably just as importantly, if you are clumsy oafed enough to strip a thread during the affixation process, it's not the whole stem that needs replacing.
oval concepts are a swiss company manufacturing a wide range of bars and stems from both alloy and the ubiquitous carbon as well as producing aero bars that look as if they were originally made for the american military, and some nifty aero brakes. the uk importers are upgradebikes, who very kindly responded to my request to road test not only one of these delectable stems, but a matching pair of bars with the highly desirable 'classic bend'. those who may have read my colnago road tests will be aware that i am not at all in favour of the so-called anatomic variety.
but the quality of service doesn't stop there. if you can find a decent pair of classic bend bars these days they seem to have unfailingly inherited oversizeness. oval provide the r710 in both old fashioned 26mm diameter as well as the contemporary 31.8mm. guess which one i asked for? they're available in four widths: 380/400/420 and 440mm as well as two drops (135/144mm). handlebar heaven as far as i'm concerned. the undersizing complements the narrow carbon tubes of the c40 - if you own a cannondale you may want to think big. these would not look at all out of place on a saronni master x-lite.
the stem that started it all offers even more to the discerning roadie - you can have the old fashioned 26mm clamp or the uber trendy 31.8mm, but obviously you would need the appropriately sized bars to fit. there are also two angles available 84 degree or 73 degree. the latter, placed 'down' the way gives a horizontal stem - the 84 degree would point slightly skywards: not so much my idea of fun. and then there's the length: the 26mm/84 degree is available in a stumpy 50mm to a tom boonen 150mm, while the other two varieties reach from 80mm to 130mm.
despite endlessly droning on about the lack of one inch steerer compatibility, nothing's going to, or has changed in this area of mass manufacture. all the oval stems are built for a 28.6mm steerer (one and an eighth inch) so if, like the c40, your steerer is the more than adequate one inch (25.4mm) then you need the 'weighs nothing at all' alloy shim to ensue compatibility. c'est la vie.
to make our way back to the reason that the stem was noticeable in the first place - those four bolts - it didn't dawn on me that they might form the basis for an interesting mechanical wrangle. now before you get disappointed, this does have a happy ending based on my honours degree in hindsight. allen bolts i would normally wind into place using my trusty park multi-tool, except the stem gets in the way. employing another park tool with a 4mm angled allen key, all was exasperatingly bolted into place. of course, those sniggering at the back of the class are saying 'why didn't you use a standard l shaped allen key?' yes that occurred to me the morning after, but using joined up thinking, it might be as well to clamp the bars approximately into position before attaching stem to bike. of course if you're having the local shop fit them then that would explain the yawns.
fitting levers to bars was easy peasy, but disappointment reigned briefly on discovering only one nation under a groove. my existing bars had cable grooves front and back, but the ovals only indented on the front. the guides on campag levers allow routing for both eventualities, and after cabling up, wrapping new colnago ribbon over the top, has presented itself as a godsend - hand comfort joy. a negative has proved to be positive.
so how has this improved cycling life. well, if truth be told, i really wasn't expecting any change at all, and was rather gobsmackingly surprised to discover that there was quite a substantial difference (and after around 200km, i'm still aware of it). i don't have a lot of faith in the current trend for stiffness everywhere (usually at the expense of comfort), but the oval bar stem combination exudes stiffness of a magnitude higher than the combo it replaced. yet there is no loss of comfort at all. some of this was to be expected when moving from a two bolt clamp to a four bolt offering. two bolts each side can clamp the bars over a wider area which can't help but be stiffer and ultimately stronger. the two steerer clamp bolts oppose one another with a diagonal vertical split that is echoed in the alloy shim to fit the one inch steerer on the colnago. the shim has a flat top that lets the headset cap exert a suitable amount of pressure on the lower regions of the chris king headset - tightened at time of fitting, the headset has shown no signs of play, despite bouncing over islay's roads and more than a few cattle grids.
it turns out that the four backward bolts are stainless steel which leads me to question why these are not mandatory on every stem in the whole world. we haven't entered the season of horizontal rain up here yet, but happiness is mine that when it does and i emerge at the other side, these four will still be shiny. despite measuring at 130mm, the oval stem is a tad longer than my previous handlebar holder which, it turns out, may have been a smidgeon shorter than the advertised length. this is a good thing.
i assume i must have been experiencing some flex with the previous incumbents, because the ovals (i can call them that, can't i?) have made me realise what i was missing. lifting butt from saddle and wellying it up bowmore main street and flex becomes the cable on a bedside light. nobody of that name here. as stiff and light (stem 120g/bars 219g) as your mitted hands desired. i don't know if it's sad to relate that new bars and stem can brighten thewashingmachinepost day to day cycling life, but these have. oh, and they're stylish too, in a way that anatomic bars just aren't (opinions expressed in this column are mine and undoubtedly correct:-)
dealer availability can be found on upgradebikes website, and expect to pay around £55 for the bars and about £5 less for the stem. there is an optional carbon front plate and titanium bolt kit available if you'd like to be super special. it may be worth mentioning that oval concepts only warranty their bars when used with an oval concepts stem. perhaps unfair, but i really can't think of a good reason not to match both components - the price seems more than reasonable and the quality is unimpeachable.
you can download this review as a pdf here.
posted on thursday 6 september 2007.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................round and round we go
david millar's comments about the mavic carbons notwithstanding, still considered to be the ultimate in bicycle hoops, the lightweight range by carbon sports, contains a couple of surprises for 2008.
carbonsports have developed new spokes making its 3rd generation of kevlar spoked, carbon rimmed, featherweight wheels, some 30 percent stiffer than those currently available (honestly, where will all this quest for stiffness end?). in doing so, the weight, or lack of it, remains unchanged.
in my original review of lightweight's standard wheels in may 2006, i mentioned that carbonsports were rumoured to be working on a clincher version of their carbon rims. well, it turns out i was right, since just such a wheelset will be introduced for 2008 ( march). this ought to make a pair of lightweights more practical for those of us who don't have a following team car when out training - alloy tyre levers not recommended.
and last, but certainly not least, since it's not a wheel, comes the lightweight rd: rear derailleur. this has been in development for quite some time and is constructed from carbon fibre and titanium with 'drilled' alloy jockey wheels. in keeping with all its carbonsports brethren, it'll blow away if you close the bike shed door too quickly - less than 120g. price is rumoured at £750. if i'm a very lucky boy, i may just have one of these on test in the foreseeable future.
start conversations with the bank manager tomorrow - mortgage rather than loan.
posted on wednesday 5 september 2007.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................cosmic man
i'l not go through all the rigmarole of pointing out how much of a wheelaholic i am, and while this used to be restricted to standard steel spokes and alloy rims, this has expanded to encompass the incredible developments made to the humble wheel over the past few years. while i currently roll on the amazing mavic r-sys wheels, it's to them that we turn yet again for the cosmic carbon ultimate.
both ada and lightweight developed wheels using deep carbon rims laced with kevlar bonded to both carbon flanged hub and to the rim itself. lightweight have progressed to utilising the same build process but with a more regular (26mm) depth carbon rim. however, the downside to these wheels (aside from the price) is the lack of ability of the owner to true them should their roundness deviate from true. granted, in thewashingmachinepost tests of both types of lightweight, even very crappy roads and cattle grids failed to have any effect on lateral trueness. but still...
with the cosmic carbon ultimate, mavic have at least implemented the ability to true the rear wheel, since the non-drive side carbon spokes have brass inserts threading into the hub. admittedly the front escapes this feature but to be honest, i'm not sure this will prove a real world problem. weight is only 1185g per pair, tubular only and likely to need a visit to the bank manager if you fancy acquiring a pair, since the projected price is around £1500 (€2300). as yet, i'm unsure of their availability on the retail market, but they did win a bronze award at the recent eurobike show in friedrichshafen, so it shouldn't be long before we can compete with simoni and millar (well, at least as far as wheel choice is concerned).
mavic let me see a video (19.7mb quicktime) of a david millar presentation relating to these wheels, a rider who has ridden almost every wheel on the market and is not known for being backwards in coming forwards. his advice to the gathered multitude when riding these wheels (if only) was to leave the chain in the small ring and in the middle of the cassette at the rear, then launch into a chris hoy type standing start. now i don't have the opportunity to try this at home, but millar said that the incredible thing that he noticed was the lack of vertical or lateral movement of the front wheel. apparently those with sufficient power to give this a real go, would normal incur serious rear wheel flex, causing the front wheel to skite all over the shop. not so with the carbon cosmics.
according to millar, these were/are quite simply the finest wheels he'd ever ridden. can't say fairer than that.
posted on tuesday 4 september 2007. updated wednesday 5 september
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................what's spanish for oops?
i have now realised that photos from each stage of la vuelta are available on their website (shows what happens when you don't pay attention), though in considerably lower resolution than those made available to the media. so rather than re-invent the wheel and continue with the gallery, you need only pop across to lavuelta.com and look at the pics there. cutting out the middle man so to speak.
photographs ©unipublic 2007.
updated on tuesday 4 september 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................where did we go wrong?
almost everything depends on sponsorship these days - we wouldn't have cycling on television, half the movies on tv seem to be sponsored by someone or other, marathons and bike rides depend on sponsors. it's pretty much a fact of life. and in the early days of cycle sponsorship, the names on the jerseys belonged to either cycle companies or component firms, before nivea happened along and everything changed forever.
and it has been customary for many a long year for the official cars in the tour de france to be supplied by fiat or more recently skoda (who at least have the saving grace of having been a cycle manufacturer before adding the other two wheels), while every professional team has managed to secure some sort of deal to have the team cars supplied by one manufacturer or another.
the motor car and its involvement with cycling can be viewed as a necessary evil, but now that green-ness and global warming are upon us, vehicular involvement seems to have taken a rather insidious turn. firstly, despite my remarks re skoda above, the company has taken over as the title sponsor of the tour down under, an event that used to be sponsored by jacobs creek wines. skoda's reasoning is based largely on the fact that they are about to introduce the marque to the land of the kangaroo. doesn't it strike you as strange that a car company chooses cycling to advertise its shiny new range.?
and as if to add insult to injury, october's cycle show in london is ... absolutely delighted that volvo has come onboard as a co-sponsor for the mountain bike test track. it's not a comforting thought that volvo will be showcasing two of its range (see the chunkiest one above) at a cycle show, especially since i'm travelling rather a long way to look at bicycles and components and not all wheel drive vehicles that cost around £33,000. do you realise just how many colnagos i could get for that sort of money? to quote volvo's events and sponsorship (there's that word again) manager, lesley milne, " the all-new volvo v70 and xc70 premium estates are perfect for those with an active lifestyle". did nobody from the cycle show point out that cycling more than fits that description, and that was supposed to be the point of the show in the first place?
how incredibly convenient that the bicycle happened along to green the infernal combustion image.
posted on monday 3 september 2007
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