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santini twist gel carbon shorts

santini carbon shorts

if you've ever read the third policeman by flann o'brien, you will be aware of the theory expounded in its pages that continued riding of a bicycle leads to the interchange of molecules; some of the bicycle's atoms transfer themselves to the rider, and vice versa. so logically, you would figure that after riding a carbon c40hp for the last five years, a large portion of my posterior must now be made of the black stuff. sometimes it feels like it.

however, for those of you either without a fine velocipede made from carbon fibre, or without the same number of years astride such a machine, santini have raced to the rescue with their twist gel carbon bib tights. while you would figure these might be a touch on the stiff and rigid side, forcing you to ride standing up, they are, in fact, probably the softest shorts i have ever had the pleasure of covering my nether regions.

while the majority of shorts on the market are unashamedly fabricated from varying qualities of lycra, this offering from santini proffers more of a mesh which, according to the tag attached, is a fabric called resistex carbon. considerably thinner than even my most sophisticated pair, i do have to say that they are a very close fit as a result. the pair under review are a medium size; i'm about 5'10" with a 30" waist, so i'm kind of figuring that santini must size their shorts by height rather than waist. although in the manner of the best shorts, these are designed to be comfortable on the bike, rather than necessarily as you walk about the supermarket in clippy cloppy cleats, i figure if you're much taller than i am, you'd probably be better with a large size, otherwise you could develop a bit of a stoop on the way to the bike shed.

the bib section itself is fashioned from a fine white mesh that refrains from cutting into your shoulders, while the shorts department really is a superb fit. there's elastic at the knee end backed with that gel stuff that manages a fine job of preventing them form creeping up towards your waist. even on such a finely honed pair of muscular thighs as mine (leave me to my dreams, why don't you), movement there was none existent. there seems to be a cosy little pocket on the rear where the white bit joins the black bit, which i see as a fine development, and something that appears on one or two other pairs from other folks. it's fairly unlikely that emanuelle sella will need to take his visa card and the car keys with him on each stage of the giro, but there's lots more of us who aren't sella, and it's nice that santini have considered the proletariat.

this particular pair have covered a few hundered kilometres already, and you really wouldn't know you were wearing a pair of shorts. thankfully, i have yet to become the receiver of jocular stares from passers-by, so i am confident that i have yet to pop out without shorts. the bit that worries me slightly are the claims made on behalf of resistex carbon; apparently the carbon, rather than providing the qualities we have come to expect from bicycle tubing of a similar square on the periodic table, has a different role in life here. the carbon is said to reduce the electrical build-up while we pedal (!), and to lower the amount of lactic acid build-up during exercise. these claims are made with scientific backing, and claims that i would imagine most of us are in no position to refute. they may well be true, and the shorts were certainly amongst the finest i have ever pedalled, but i'd be far happier if they just told me they were the world's finest pair of cycle shorts.

the twist-gel insert is slightly thinner than some, but no less comfortable for that, and very definitely less prone to getting swot and hetty. due to its elastic nature, it is very comfortable in use, not shimmying about between saddle and bum. the best bit, however, is the price: how on earth prendas can sell a pair of shorts that are the equal of anything out there in cycleland for only £79.95 ($158) is quite beyond me. you could almost have two pairs of these for the price of one, from those chaps in switzerland. if i really have to find a downside, it's simply that i don't think i would wear them in winter; they're way to thin for such climes, though they'd be a great pair to wear under those winter tights that arrive with no comfy bits.

santini, i thank you from the heart of my bottom.

prendas.co.uk | santinisms.it

posted on saturday 24th may

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cycle touring in switzerland - a cicerone guide by judith and neil forsyth. 263pp illus. softcover. £14

cicerone cycle guide to switzerland

there's every probability that i'll never make it to switzerland for a tour, if only because there are so many other places on my hypothetical list. but i can rest easy in the knowledge that if i ever took the notion, i have the very book that would ease the burden of cycling in a foreign land. on a visit to new york earlier this decade, it was only my daughter's barked instructions that stopped me walking when it said 'don't walk', and vice versa, so letting me loose on a bike in a strange land without some sort of a guide, is probably not the ideal situation.

and this is definitely the ideal guide; it's small enough to stick in a pannier, or even a jersey rear pocket if it comes to that, and i'm not sure that i've ever seen so much information crammed into such a small space before. and what's even better is that it's perfectly readable and pragmatic in its compression.

judith and neil forsyth are old hands at this, having produced a number of guides to germany and switzerland - this is the best you'll get, short of having the two of them cycle in front of you shouting out directions. in keeping with the cicerone format, the introductory pages cover pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about switzerland: its weather, monetary system, road signs, bike shops, hazards etc.. this is presented in commendably concise prose, never lacking in humour, and well illustrated in colour throughout.

the basis of the book - cycle touring in switzerland - is broken down into manageable chunks which join to form complete routes of several hundred kilometres, such as the rhone route from andermatt to geneva. each chunk can be cycled on its own, or you could do the heroic gesture and cover the whole distance over a period of time, stopping where and when the fancy takes. and such is the comprehensive nature of each stage, and ultimately, route, that an armchair tourist such as myself, could (and did) happily read through, and i was there - only without the attendant exhaustion and propensity for getting lost.

the forsyths apparently favour traversing the region on dahon folding bikes, a smart way of nipping on and off public transport where reason dictates. i admire their sensibility because it's not a form of bike that would have suggested itself to me as a means of cycle touring.

if switzerland is a country you have fancied visiting on two wheels under your own propulsion, do it with a safety net, and buy yourself a copy of this cicerone guide. or be like me and wallow in a warm bath admiring how easily you just read yourself up that last mountain pass.

cicerone.co.uk

posted on friday 23rd may

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real men wear pink socks and carbon fibre shorts

prendas pink socks

it's the tour of italy, the very time when those of you with a lack of confidence in your masculinity can get away with wearing pink, sound in the knowledge that a ready made excuse is at hand. as someone who is past caring about such matters, i have no problem wearing pink at any time of the year. let's face it, if i can go out in tight fitting lycra shorts, a wide variety of sparkly jerseys, endless variations on the humble casquette and a pair of gold shoes, i have little to worry about my colour choice.

and secretly we're all the same, or at least in view of some of the jerseys i have seen, i think we must be. but if you really must keep the area of pink that accompanies the daily pedal to an absolute minimum, socks have to be the easy target. and wouldn't you just know that this desire can be sated by those excellent fellows at prendas ciclismo. a very fine pair of coolmax pink and blue corsa rosa socks can be had for the admirable price of £5.95 ($12).

i figure that the finest compliment that can be paid to a pair of socks is that once on, they go un-noticed. that is exactly the kind of compliment i can pay this pair. the material is commendably soft, with the legend corsa rosa - prendas ciclismo imprinted in pink upon the sole, along with pink toe and heel sections (both are hidden in use, if it still worries you). the sock top is pink, edged with blue and bears the prendas logo; an essay in italian style.

as to the carbon fibre shorts, you'll have to wait a day or two.

prendas.co.uk

posted on thursday 22nd may

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cross pollination

road and off-road

advertising. not the big, full colour, full page, manufacturer's directives showing the flavour of the month in a provocative pose, but the adverts purveyed by the bicycle shops that we all know and love. open the comic on any given week, and you will find a plethora of componentry, wheels, bikes, helmets - pretty much everything you would expect to find. this is because we all have bicycles, and bits break, wear out, or just sit in the bike shed demanding that money is spent on bike-porn that it doesn't really need. not that it wouldn't look utterly desirable if you did. it's preaching to the converted, one function of advertising that works really well if the converted have need and have money.

but, apart from that guy at the back with the mud on his socks, we're all roadies here (aren't we?), so when we open our roadie magazines, we expect to see adverts that pander to our every whim. but what if it didn't always happen that way? suppose you're a mountain biker, and one of your favourite monthlies, midst all the colour ads for farm gates with springs, there was an advert for bikes with skinny wheels and bendy bars. and not just any old skinnies, but quite expensive stuff; not the sort of thing you'd buy as a cheap knockabout.

swinnerton cycles have done just this; not once but twice. just to keep an eye on those of the knobbly tread brigade, i subscribe to singletrack magazine (but keep that a secret - tell no-one) and the last two issues have featured an advert from said bicycle shop, offering the bmw of the road department - cervelo. the cheapest complete bicycle (a soloist fitted with ultegra) costs around £2237, chuntering all the way up to a sram equipped soloist slc at £5287. you'll agree, i hope, that this would prove a substantial investment for the average mountain biker; lots of cyclists have one of each, and the offroad professionals are agreed that they need to train on the road to race on dirt. i'm not trying to be divisive and controversial here, because as far as i'm concerned, cycling is cycling, is cycling - as i've said before, the only reason the post is an mtb free zone is because i don't ride offroad, and there are plenty of websites that do it a whole lot better than i could.

the point here is that somebody has taken the intiative and decided to stop just preaching to the converted, and i think they should be roundly congratulated for having the perspicacity to do so. has it worked? according to swinnertons, yes it has. in common with many of the nation's cycle dealers, they stock both genres of bike, but they're the first ones i've seen displaying a bit of original thinking.

the worrying part is that nobody seems to have followed their example.

posted on thursday 22nd may

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cycling on the wall

cycling art

in the annals of time that are way too far back for my organic database, i sported an article about canadian artist, richard lee who purveyed rather fine looking paintings based on the historical aspect of cycling, in particular, the tour de france. at the time, there was the distinct disadvantage that a number of hoops would have required to be jumped through, should any of us have wished to decorate the walls of the summer house with mr lee's velocipedinal art. but all has now been remedied with the launch of cycling art.

this has brought the purchase of either giclee prints, or card sets of any of richard's substantial output to the world of add to cart. the prints are sold as limited editions, complete with cerificate of authenticity and individually signed by the artist. the giclee printed images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto moab 100 percent 300gsm cotton paper at a size of 19" x 13". the giclee printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction. cards are printed using the same process but onto 5"x7" strathmore card and are supplied with envelopes, so that you can send me one and tell me how much you appreciate me pointing this out in the first place.

and in the extremely slim chance that you are new to this cycling lark, richard has kindly set aside a portion of the website for a cycling glossary. since many of his paintings bear titles such as contre la montre, le maillot a pois, le domestique etc. there's always the possibility that you may wish to comprehend the caption of that you have just charged to your credit card. disappointingly, carriage charges are only currently shown for usa and canada, but if you're somewhere else (like wot i am) it's a simple task to e-mail and ask. prints cost $295 canadian ($297usa - £151) while the cards retail at $42 ($42 - £21) plus postage.

in much the same way that my daughter was led to comment that "cycle people are really nice" (this after a visit to several london-based cycling emporia), cycle people are generally like that, because cycling is more a way of life than something added on to the daily grind - cycling is life - the rest is mere detail. richard's paintings display that inherent love of his subject, because he's an ex-racing cyclist and still a confirmed cyclist, living and working in vancouver, british columbia. the man just knows.

have a look for yourself at cyclingart.ca

posted on wednesday 21st may

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moving on

cyclingedge.com.au

you may remember a swodge of photos and details galleried on the post last year featuring baum bicycles. rather delectable machines they were too, all sent to me by jared bailey, for which i was, and am, very grateful. but much like water finds its own level, people eventually find their own niche, and if that means going it alone, then so be it.

and that's exactly what jared has done. now i know this may not be germane to those of us in the northern hemisphere, but since thewashingmachinepost makes every effort to be all things to as many parts of the world as possible, i have a deal of pleasure in telling my australian and probably new zealand readers too, about cycling edge. fortunately, this involves vast quantities of carbon fibre, as jared has now become the exclusive australian distributor of parlee bicycles (one of these days i'll get round to testing one of these beauties), isaac bicycles and edge composites, with the promise of more to follow. (in a vain attempt to bring this conversation north, bespokecycling, famed for lightweight wheels and parlee cycles is now the uk agent for edge composites; discussions are taking place.)

for those of an antipodean heritage or abode, click over to cyclingedge.com.au, and drop jared an e-mail about whichever of the above takes your fancy. then we can all be one big happy carbon footprint.

cyclingedge.com.au

posted on wednesday 21st may

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in praise of...

fibre-lyte chainring

it seems like only a year ago that i was looking at a pair of carbon fibre chainrings and muttering about what a pointless idea that was. and in fact, it was only a year ago; fibre-lyte were gracious enough to indulge my scepticism and provide me with a 39/53 pair of beautifully made carbon chainrings for a campagnolo pattern chainset. at the time these accompanied a pair of lightweight ventoux wheels affixed to a colnago c50, but the bulk of their working career has been in slightly less exalted company, though not by much.

my initial misgivings about the sanity of carbon chainrings was due to the teeth; there are a number of manufacturers providing carbon time-trial rings on which the main 'disc' is carbon but the teeth are a more logical aluminium alloy, bonded to the outer edge. i was fairly convinced that, the first time the road started to move in a more vertical direction, my pedalling would be accompanied by a cute 'pinging' sound, as the teeth were stripped from the ring. oh how wrong i have proved to be.

having just replaced the chain for the fourth time since the fibre-lytes were originally fitted to a campagnolo chorus chainset (i change the chain every three months, no matter what), the 39 inner ring has now been retired, since the teeth are fairly well 'hooked', something that happens to every chainring in its lifetime, and something i thought would have occurred to these several months ago. i cover around 6000-6500km per year, often in less than salutory weather conditions and over roads that are beginning to make paris-roubaix seem inviting. never once has the front changing failed me; never once have i dropped a chain, and never once have the chains skipped a beat.

i am willing to accept that much the same could be said about the far cheaper aluminium alloy rings that arrive on most chainsets, but my main point is that the carbon versions behaved far better than i had anticipated; many riders will cheerfully fit carbon rings for the once a week time trial. not many ride them every day. they were the icing on the cake when sitting alongside the c50 and the lightweights, since they trouble the scales at about half the weight of their metal counterparts, and while the weight difference on the day to day company colnago is relatively small, their robustness is not in question. and i am also not naive enough to realise that standard rings are likely to last a lot longer - but it's carbon fibre for goodness sake: pride bears no pain.

of course, ever concerned about my cadence (translation; wimp), the outer ring is still comfortably intact, and will probably last another year. i'll let you know.

a 39 tooth fibre-lyte carbon chainring retails at £64.69 ($127) and the matching 53 tooth outer ring is £81.47 ($160)

fibre-lyte.co.uk

posted on tuesday 20th may

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another stage closer to smug

green oil

while colleagues in the office are bemoaning the drastic rise in the cost of fuel, and how much more it's costing them to travel to work, i am content to listen in the corner, surrounded by a plethora of bicycle posters, calendars, photos and other cycling ephemera, with a smile on my face. at some totally inopportune moment, i freely interject that i managed 150km at the weekend, and it cost me the price of a double espresso (well, that and a peanut butter sandwich or two).

and it is undoubtedly true that, having purchased a bicycle of whatever value, travelling is, to all intent and purposes, free. yes, i get blown all over the place, yes i get wet now and again, but heck, i'm on a colnago. of course, what i have been careful to leave unmentioned, is that carbon fibre is a petroleum by-product, as is the spray-lube with which i maintain a squeak free passage through my tiny part of the world. so we can be smug, as long as no-one delves too deeply into the ancillaries.

however, there seems always more avenues to creep towards a capital 's' on that word smug, no less represented by green oil. i suppose we can hardly blame the chaps for keeping the constituent recipe for this a closely guarded secret, otherwise we'd all be out there with mortar and pestle, pounding the liquid out of a variety of plants. for plant extracts are indeed the long chain molecules behind the green stuff, promising to provide a high-performance lubricant that will adhere to the chain with something close to tenacity, and offering to protect from the dreaded rust (a major problem in atlantic coastal regions). and it's not only the oil that's green; the bottle is composed of high density polyethylene, recyling code 2. that's much the same as empty plastic milk-cartons, so if your local recycling repository is happy to take the latter, they should object not to a green oil container.

so how well does it work? at this moment in time, i have no idea; the arrival of the neat little bottle with its recycled paper label, coincided with that of my replacement campagnolo chorus chain. having footered about with that pathetic little alloy guide pin that accompanies every campag ten-speed, i have sparingly dripped a spot of green oil on every link, just like we used to do in the good old days with our little tins of three-in-one. agreed, it's a tad more laborious than the more usual spraying of everything within standing distance, using one of the many teflon aerosols on the market, but the scatter gun approach is hardly eco or wallet friendly.

having done so, i shall be observing how the green oil compares with the spray stuff i've used for the past ten or so years. and, as an added bonus, we might just put some on all the chains in the ardbeg peloton and see how we get on. you'll be the second to know.

proving that you can be green and still retain a healthy sense of humour, i quote from the bottle wrapper: do not drink: though naturally sourced, green oil is a chain lubricant, not a smoothie.

green oil

100ml of green oil can be ordered from their website for an admirable £5.20 ($10) with free uk postage. if your local bike shop doesn't stock the stuff (assuming you have a local bike shop, that is), ask them politely to get some in. green oil aim to have bottles in every uk bike shop by 2009, and every little helps.

green-oil.net

posted on monday 19th may

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fsa k-force compact carbon bars & os-99 csi stem

fsa k-force bars and stem

in bicycle design, there would appear to be three states of being: stagnation, revolution and evolution. stagnation, while it sounds like a derogatory term, can be anything but; lots of us don't like change, and if you're used to a certain component, it's a nice cosy feeling to know that you can buy a replacement that will behave exactly as the original.

revolution is pretty self explanatory; doing something that nobody has done before (or at least having your marketing department convince that it's never been done before) is what keeps the cycling world turning. if everything stagnated, i'd probably have given up doing thewashingmachinepost a long time ago - or, perhaps more likely, you'd have given up reading it. evolution comprises the bulk of the stuff bolted onto what is probably an evolutionary frame in the first place. there's often an overlap here; there are plenty of instances of evolution being promoted as revolution, but we're all clever enough to figure that out anyway. aren't we?

bicycle handlebars, specifically the bendy versions that go with skinny wheels, featured the same classic curve for years and years and days. available in a variety of widths, classic bars were/are straight at the top, curving forward and down before continuing round and back the way they came. the variation was often in the depth of the curve; a u bend if you like. but at some indeterminate time in recent history, the anatomic bar arrived at the front of the peloton. the varieties are seemingly endless, but basically consisting of a flat portion heading slightly backwards after the brake lever. in more recent evolutionary moments, the top of the bar has flattened out somewhat, giving a more ergonomic grasp for those little gloved handies.

fsa k-force bars and stem

now evolution has combined to form a variation of both; the curve has returned, but no longer follows the 'u-bend' format, but has become more parabolic (no, i'm not going to explain it - look it up for yourself and you'll see why). in this case the curve runs away from the brake lever 'faster' than the classic ever did, and never quite flattens out. in last year's london-paris, i rode a modolo aluminium alloy bar that behaved as described.

but, of course, evolution never quite stops, and the advent of 101 things to do with carbon fibre have given cycling engineers masses of scope to fashion new delights that we can bolt to our almost stagnatory carbon frames. such science is practised by the people at fsa, seen here as the k-force compact carbon. the last part of the name gives away its construction method, and i'm assuming that the compact nomenclature refers to the shallow drop, and the fact that the forward curve is less extensive than that of a classic bar.

windwave, uk distributors of fsa produce, sent the bars in a 440mm width as per my asking, and accompanied it with an fsa os-99 carbon wrapped aluminium stem. i'm not awfully sure what the 99 bit stands for, but all the stems in the range feature a six degree rise (or fall, since the stem flip-flops quite happily) and lengths from 80 to 130mm. considering the local climate, i am always concerned for the well-being of the bolts that arrive along with bicycle stems; i'm talking about rust. however, the four face-plate bolts and the two steerer clamp bolts on the os-99 are titanium - oh happy day.

fsa os-99 stem

in one of those many quirks that befall the cycle industry, fsa still offer several one inch headsets, but not a stem that fits a one inch steerer. certainly, they are not alone in this discrimination, but to fit the stem to my colnago c40hp which has a legacy one-inch carbon steerer, i'd to use an aluminium shim; in practice, no big deal, but hardly satisfactory.

harking back to a recent washingmachinepost article, the stem bears torque settings next to each set of bolts - in this case, 6nm (which turned out to be a lot more welly than i'd have given it, had such not been marked at all). in this case, all were done up tight using an effetto mariposa giustaforza torque wrench, probably a good idea since the face plate is also fashioned from carbon (a number of manufacturers will no longer warranty stem or bars unless both are from the same source, due to the possibility of torque mismatch).

lining up the levers on the bars is made excruciatingly easy by the existence of roughened & toughened areas on each curved section to aid grip (the same is applied to the bars' centre section), and the diameter made this the simplest ergo lever fitting i have ever had to perform. just while we're at this bit, the carbon doesn't look as if it could survive a sneeze, let alone a pair of gloved mitts (a point re-iterated by mrs washingmachinepost on lifting them out the box), but carbon can be deceiving - these are every bit as strong as an aluminium set, and then some. you'll not find a lot of flex round these here parts.

the tops of the bars are flattened to give the ideal grabbing position, something that i am much in favour of, not usually being a top of the bars kind of guy. cable routing is handled by a moulded 'dip' on the lower side, effectively disguising the cables' existence when in use, providing adequate space for gear and brake wires with their attendant coverings.

all put together, and covered with light blue colnago bar tape (seems a real shame to cover all that lovely carbon weave) i am much confused, but in a positive way. the stem that the fsa replaced was a zero degree, 130mm jobbie, but because windwave did not have a 130mm in stock, i figured i'd give the 120mm a shot, and you'll believe me when i tell you that the fit is as near perfect as i have any right to expect. how does that happen? and after 150km, i could still walk upright without a hunch.

fsa os-99 stem

if you already have high quality bars and stem on your bicycle, the fsa combination is unlikely to provide much, if any, weight benefit: the bars are a scant 220g, and the stem 118g, but they do feel mighty sturdy. that overused word rigidity springs to mind. but the surprising, yet obvious benefit of the bars is an incredible reduction in road buzz; many of islay's roads have been surfaced using what i believe is known as surface dressing; apple crumble chucked on top of a thin layer of tar. this wears away so quickly, it makes you wonder why they bother in the first place, but it doesn't match well with 100psi, 23mm tyres. since this forms a big part of the sunday bike ride's opening kilometres, my happy wee hands were very grateful for the carbon under palm. the drops also sweep outwards very slightly for a bit more leverage should you meet mark cavendish at the 30mph sign at bruichladdich.

i'm pretty non-plussed with the straight sections purveyed by anatomic bars, and i've already tried three versions of such from fsa. ultimately, my favourite would be the classic bend, but this parabolic curve comes a close second; it's comfy to grip, definitely shiny in the drop depth, and provides adequate leverage and comfort for extended covering of the brakes on sketchy downhills. the flat top is something i really enjoyed on last year's merckx, and something that i have enjoyed and intend to enjoy further on the fsa version.

fsa os-99 stem k-force bars

of course, strength, luxury and carbon fibre don't arrive at budget prices. the bars retail at £160 ($260 at competitivecyclist.com), the stem at £140 ($165 at competitivecyclist.com), but the investment would be well worth it, certainly more so than i had expected.

and i like pleasant surprises.

many thanks to peter nisbet at windwave for assistance with this review/test.

posted on sunday 18th may



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