thewashingmachinepost



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thewashingmachinepost reviews are often linked to from prendas, bromley video and cicerone press (thanks guys). to find what you're looking for, click the 'review and podcast section' above.

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gran fondo ardbeg

gran fondo

the gran fondo ardbeg takes place on 5 august 2007, and i've popped a link here to the info on the ardbeg page for those who may have missed the original posting. with bealach na ba apparently sold out (not without good cause) you might fancy a bop round islay - nowhere near as challenging nor as well organised, but good fun nonetheless. it would be nice to raise some money for the braveheart fund so if you intend to take part please consider downloading the sponsor form here.

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carbon has its place - whither alloy?

centaur chainset

tom boonen is famous for, apart from beating lots of other guys to the finish line, riding his 2005/2006 seasons using campagnolo's record alloy chainset while most of the remainder of the campagnolo equipped peloton were using the sleek and fashionable carbon fibre. story goes that campag didn't make a carbon chainset in the crank length that he preferred, while the conspiracy theorists implied that maybe the carbon wasn't as rigid as its metal counterpart.

tornado tom's proclivity for alloy helped out those of us who couldn't actually afford carbon ('i'm from the boonen school of thought'), but with the introduction of the ultra torque range and an increase in the range of crank lengths, that excuse has disappeared like liberty seguros. but it's brought along another problem.

if you have a high quality frame, bearing high quality italian components, just exactly what are you going to do for a chainset if alloy really is all you strive for (and there are many such aficionados)? with the introduction of campagnolo's ultra torque, the highest spec alloy chainset is in the centaur range - both its big brothers are now exclusively in carbon. would you happily fit a centaur chainset to your £7,500 colnago forever limited edition? or even an extreme c? i mean no disrespect to the centaur chainset, but maybe you can see what i'm getting at.

how about it campag?

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rant, rant, rant

i was going to start this by saying that i don't often feel the need to rant, but after realising that i have articles about the efficacy of ceramic bearings, one inch headsets, and procycling's re-design, i realised that i do rant rather a lot. so now i'm going to do it again

many of islay's roads are single track and to enable traffic to pass on these roads, we have the more than aptly named 'passing places'. the general idea behind these is that the vehicle nearest to a passing place will pull in to allow the vehicle travelling in the opposite direction to continue so to do. and by and large, this seems to work just as you would hope - unless, it appears, one of the two vehicles happens to be a bicycle. in this case, me.

for some reason (and it's pretty much always cars, very rarely trucks) drivers will calmly drive past a glaringly obvious passing place and either don't slow down at all (i hope they enjoyed their parents' wedding) or slow to a virtual halt with the nearside wheels on the verge in order to let me past. why, oh why do they not just pull in at the passing place that they have just driven by? i'm just as entitled to a bit of worn tarmac as they are - and quite often my bicycle is worth more than the car that's hell bent on driving me off the road. (yes, i know - that has nothing to do with it)

at this time of year, the grass verges are wet and soggy, and some are merely a precursor to a ditch. i doubt it will be too long before two wheels get stuck in the mud, or disappear altogether. no matter where you are, if you're a car driver on a single track road, and you happen to be closer to a passing place than an oncoming cyclist, do the decent thing and pull in long enough to let them past. i know i'm preaching to the converted, but by golly i feel better now that i've got that off my merino base layer.

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losing my bearings (again)

bearings

since i appear to have acquired somewhat of an obsession with ceramic bearings - obsession, because i don't actually own anything with ceramic bearings in it - fascination was partially sated by an article in road bike rider's newsletter

uncle al (hmmm) has seemingly spent about as much time as yours truly, trying to find out some facts about these little round spinny things, though i'm happy to accept that he had more luck than i did. here's what uncle al found out:

ceramic bearings are harder than standard bearings. and that helps us how, exactly? they are sixty percent lighter, and according to al that would equate to a saving of 7.2 grams in a dura-ace rear hub. in real money, that is about a quarter of an ounce. a decent haircut would save me a lot more than that.

ceramic bearings will withstand heat up to 1,302 degrees centigrade and believe me, this would not have been a problem on islay today. and they are rounder than the shiny balls used by campag and the big 's' by around two hundred thousands of an inch. i would figure that in a blindfold test none of us would know the difference, and neither would your hub or headset. friction is supposedly reduced by a factor of 40 percent, but there appears to be no data to support this, only manufacturers' claims, and they are expected to last three to five times longer. however, similarly to bicycle chains, if you replace it/them regularly, will we ever find out? and if we don't replace it/them regularly, again, will we ever find out?

and just to supply a final fragment of information to assist you in making up your mind, ceramic bearings cost 48 times more than standard chromo-steel bearings.

subject closed.

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the six day bicycle races - america's jazz-age sport. peter joffre nye. van den plas publications hardback 224pp illus $39.95 £22.50 (prendas.)

six day bicycle races

i really wish i had a coffee table, because if i did, this book would sit permanently on the top 9just beside a nice cup of espresso) for all to see. the cover's great, the typefaces are great, the writing's insightful with an excellent economy of style and the photographs are... well, just look at the illustrations here and imagine them larger - i have spent hours of coffee time just looking at the photos. bicycle history at its best.

six day races were a major feature of madison square gardens in the twenties and thirties, when top cyclists could expect to earn considerably more than their counterparts in the sports of baseball and football, even attracting riders from europe and australia. six day racing began at madison square in the late nineteenth century (on penny farthings, believe it or not) eventually giving name to the 'madison', expressly due to the now customary handsling between the team's two riders. this concise and comprehensive history of the races and riders runs through to (almost) the present day, and mr nye has certainly been paying attention in class, but the stars of the publication are undoubtedly the black and white and sepia photographs (from the liner notes it appears we may have jeff groman to thank for these), liberally punctuating the pages.

six day bicycle races

it's even possible to forgive the occasional repetition of some images - this is more than made up for by their uniqueness. during the summer off-season, many of the cyclists earned a seasonal crust by making attempts on various speed records. page 191 shows an unforgettable image of alfred letourner sitting behind a midget racing car on a bike with a chainring almost the size of the cycle's wheels. on this he achieved 108.9mph in may 1941 (i can't even manage that with two magnets on the front wheel). the tyres had to be seriously pumped up to keep the chainring off the ground.

this volume, along with the velopress publication 'cycling's golden age' should be compulsory purchases for every cyclist. oh, and did you know that madison square gardens was named after president james madison? me neither.

the six day bicycle races is available online in the uk from prendas at £22.50 or from cycle publishing in the usa at $39.95

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strange, but true

base building for cyclists

now, i'm not sure if this has ever happened to you, but do you ever go out for a bike ride intent on just dawdling, because, well, there's no real point in grinding yourself into the potholes every day? and when you've finished the ride, not only do you feel fresher than usual, but the average heart rate is lower, the speed is faster, and consequently the time is shorter.

if you're saying no, then either you are one of those nose to the stem cyclists, or you're telling fibs. the above has happened to me before, but i put it down to favourable weather conditions, a heart rate monitor that's simply in an excessively good mood, or a rupture in the space time continuum (happens in star trek all the time).

but then along came thomas chapple's 'base building for cyclists' from velopress. and before i've even made it past the first few pages, the good thomas tells me that too many cyclists go out hard all the time and never give their aerobic system a fighting chance. apparently the australian national team had their finest (training) hours at heart rates below 120. there are even charts showing how cyclists who go out hard, gradually deteriorate in effort and finish considerably more slowly, whereas us snails tend to stay at the same level from a to b.

ok, so i'm simplifying somewhat, but it all makes perfect sense (at least, dave trendler from velopress and i agree that it does - we like chapple's style). in order to complete our tornado tom impressions after one hundred or so kilometres, first we have to arrive at the final kilometres with enough carbs to complete the impression. and by far the best (read:only) way to do this is to burn more fat. i hope you're beginning to see a pattern here, but by going out slower and steadier, keeping the heart rate under control, this fine figure of a human being can educate itself to be powered more by fat than by carbohydrate.

now i intend employing mr chapple's methods in my own training and hope to complete a more full review of 'base building' after i've hopefully joined the milram team as lead out man for alessandro. or was that a different dream?

if you fancy joining in with this research and development, thomas chapple's 'base building for cyclists' is available in united kingdomshire from cordee (£15), or in american places from velopress ($18.95). (and interestingly, the colours on my review copy match the velopress pic, but not the british one. hmmm).

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prendas ciclismo


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tell them we sent you

quick mention for those intending to visit islay's shores on a bike during what's left of this summer. velo club d'ardbeg recommended coffee/tea stops - in no particular order.

club headquarters at the old kiln cafe, ardbeg distillery. excellent food and good coffee, though strangely (and disappointingly) still no espresso or cappucino. the single malt is apparently just ginger peachy.

bruichladdich mini market (debbie's cafe), a few hundred yards from the distillery. minimal eatery, but highly commended designer coffees with outside tables. we like.

the croft kitchen, port charlotte. longest established of the threesome with everything from full four course meals to the vca recommended carrot cake and designer coffees.

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as always, if you have any comments on this nonsense, please feel free to e-mail and thanks for reading.

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