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a question of standards
imagine the following situation: you pop down to your local friendly bikeshop (or maybe even one of the unfriendly ones) to buy a new chain. the only one they have in stock is made by shimano, and the bike sitting in the shed is fitted with campagnolo. however, you need a chain, so you buy it anyway and nip back home, with fingers crossed, in the hope that it will fit. which indeed it does. and that's because shimano, campagnolo, sram, wipperman, kmc, and pretty much anyone else who makes bicycle chains adheres to a standard. ok, a nine speed isn't going to fit a ten, and vice versa, but while i'm sure any component manufacturer will have the marketing department assure you that everything really only works at its optimum with their own bits, truth is, that's not entirely true.
of course, the reason that different chains fit different groupsets is because not only are the chains all made to similar specs, so are the teeth on the chainrings, irrespective of compact or standard, and so are the teeth on the rear sprockets. of course here's where it all falls apart: the spacing between sprockets is not the same between campag and shimano, though i believe it's pretty darned close on sram and shimano. and most of you will be well aware that campag cassettes do not match the splines on shimano freehubs, while the converse is also true.
but a 1.125" headset will fit any frame with a head-tube to match, the difference being external, or internal; integrated or semi-integrated. and of course you'd be just a little more than tee'd off if that 700 x 23c tyre only fitted mavic rims, that you had to buy a slightly different size to fit drc rims, a different one again if your bike wears campagnolo rims, while serious despair would set in if the presta valve on a schwalbe tube didn't fit any of those, but managed a dt swiss rim just fine thank you very much. similarly, when shimano design their latest ultegra groupset, they rather figure that the front and rear calipers will fit a colnago, a specialized, a richard sachs or an ira ryan. and we pretty much take it for granted that if we owned one of the above mentioned frames, whichever groupset our heart and bank balance desired will be a perfect match and fit.
everybody's wheels fit everyone's frames; all saddles fit a huge variety of seatposts (sadly, there is a positive infestation of micro-minimally different seatpost diameters), a set of oval concept handlebars will fit an fsa stem (assuming both are standard or both oversize), and my nice new shiny mavic pedals not only fitted an ageing pair of chorus cranks, but gave no cause for concern in a set of fsa.
so in spite of my continual moaning about folks like cannondale trying to re-define the bottom bracket standard (don't get me started), it's worth a reflective thought now and again as to just how much shiny new stuff still works with grubby old stuff. and the best/worst part of this realisation is that we pretty much take it all for granted.
and so we should: if it's not all about the bike, it certainly has to be all about riding it without worrying about the interface.
posted on monday april 6 2009
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................a transition stage
after three pleasant days during the week, when at least part of the time i was tied to a desk (metaphorically speaking) and the other hours were spent repairing bicycles (ten of them) and truing a pair of wheels, friday evening saw the beginning of heavy precipitation which comfortably continued through all of saturday morning and into the beginning of saturday pm. while evidence for the existence of sod's law has never been in doubt, since the beginning of this year, the law of averages concerning this has been severely tested; probably global warming, doubtless the fault of all those four-wheel-drives that nobody actually needs.
anyway, honour not only has to be upheld, but has to be seen to be upheld, so at the very least, a pedal from bowmore to debbie's for a double espresso soya cappuccino (these are the biz - ask for one at your local starbucks, but make sure they don't use sweetened soya) is the very least that can be attempted. although i haven't so far mentioned that it's quite cold outside, it is actually quite cold outside, so bib threequarters and simply a long-sleeve jersey would seem to be frighteningly close to less than the minimum, and to be honest, though there is a smattering of blue sky, there's still a heck of a lot more rain bearing cloud. so waterproof bib-tights and a softshell jacket didn't seem too over the top, and you can't be too careful these days.
well, actually it sems that you can be too careful: despite a flurry of rain as i left the house, that was pretty much the last of it until sod's law kicked in again a few hundred yards from returning home, when a heavy shower of hailstones rattled off the catlike. four seasons in one day. since we're on the cusp of a change, now that british summertime has moved the clocks forward an hour, it becomes that much harder to choose one's wardrobe, and there can be little worse than a) wearing waterproofs when all is sun and impending warmth, and b) meeting up with mr hastings who is not only going like a train, but wearing far more appropriate apparel.
wearing waterproofs when when it's not raining has much the same psychological effect as riding with panniers (when was the last time you saw cavendish do that?), and while jez has covered more kilometres on fixed than i can even think of, i'm struggling to keep up - even more so inside my mobile, fleece-lined sauna.
last year, i too was training for london-paris and at this point in the spring classics, resembled the ready-brek advert, with a surrounding glow that positively exuded health and fitness. this year it's been an uphill struggle to fit cycling in around what seems to be an increased workload (perceptions are everything) and i'm working awfully hard to hold a wheel. so if you too anguish over appropriate apparel for ever-changing weather, and forward motion doesn't seem to come as naturally as it did last season, there's really only one concrete solution...
...spend longer thinking of adequate excuses.
posted on sunday april 5 2009
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................atmo
what is it about richard sachs? could it be the sleekness of his all but unobtainable bicycles, or perhaps the ferrari red clothing that most of his one-man output seems to appear in? i have no desire to own a motor car, least of all a ferrari, but the latter in any colour other than red almost seems like blasphemy. and much the same could be said about a sachs bicycle (though you need not stick to red if you find yourself in disagreement with my point of view). if you have taken a look at the bikeradar movie on the construction of the colnago eps carbon frame, you cannot fail to have noticed the diameter of those tubes, particularly as all heads south towards the bottom bracket area. compare this with the positively spindly steel tubing making up both the road and cross variations of a sachs frame. i'm not sure that richard is trying to make a point with frames such as these, but as far as i'm concerned, he's made it. and when you consider that the sachs cross team hasn't exactly been filling the lower places in the north american series, we have to accept that there may indeed be a point hiding in there somewhere.
following smartly on from a review of tim paterek's framebuilding manual, it seems comfortingly thematic that a substantial selection of photographs from jeff weir in greenwich, usa should have been brought to my attention. both selections of pictures are of the bicycles richard exhibited at this year's north american handbuilt bike show in indianapolis. last year i reviewed the rather excellent dvd imperfection is perfection showcasing the talent of the man at work in his workshop in connecticut, a talent that seems all but untouched by the trends taking place all around. it's unlikely that a sachs frame will ever vye with a cervelo to see who can build the chunkiest downtube and seattube junction, and the words integrated and headset seem destined to remain in their respective locations in the dictionary.
so while we are 'treated' to the latest dose of bicycle marketing by those who judge more by the spreadsheet, than those who anguish over fork crowns, it is of perennial comfort that one man and his brazing rod offer succour to the passionate, but disheartened. in much the same way that a saturday or sunday ride can offer freedom to the deskbound, either re-watching the dvd (you do have a copy don't you?) or popping over to richard's website offers the same opportunity to retain a degree of perspective. i'm not pozzato, cavendish or boonen, and unless you are any of those gentlemen, there's just an outside chance that the craftsmanship bordering on artistry displayed in a richard sachs road or cross frame will not only suffice, but inspire.
of course, if you have the envious luxury of owning one of these frames, you really don't need me telling you this. should you require further persuasion, listen to the man himself:
"i firmly believe that my high standards have been a bit easier to achieve because I do work alone. I have no apprentice and employ no outside help, either in my workroom, or in the form of subcontractors. from beginning to end, i do it all. and that includes answering the telephone. if you want to know more about my bicycle frames and how they are made... if you have a question about frame design or construction, proper fit, acceptable alignment, tolerances... anything at all, call me. i will be the one answering your call, and i would be very pleased to tell you more."
so just before the road season begins in earnest at flanders tomorrow, and each sequence of moving pictures displays the corporate outpourings of carbon fibre, computer designed and wind-tunnel tested to the point of anonymity, check the links below to see what a real bike used to look like, and to all intents and purposes at the end of a five year waiting list, still does.
atmo.
richard sachs road bike | richard sachs cross bike
posted on saturday april 4 2009
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................klunkerz - dvd: urban hunter £22.50
when it finally dawned on me more years ago than i'm likely to list here, that it was costing me rather a lot of money for the petrol in my citroen to drive to and from work only three miles away, i bought myself a bike. a pretty crappy, solid steel ten-speed racer from one of those mail order catalogues. fortunately, the road from home to work (and obviously vice-versa) was pretty flat, so a 52/42 set of rings married to what was probably a 14-19 freewheel wasn't quite the leg breaker i would likely find it to be now. still, it wasn't that this was a specific choice of bicycle: i had no idea people raced these things, despite the bike having arrived with a poster of the team, who likely weren't on exactly the same frame material that i was.
after a few years, another type of bike arrived on the market - the mountain bike, which, as we all now know, was pretty much the saviour of the bicycle industry. with hindsight, it may not have been the all-singing, all-dancing bicycle that the magazines and advertisements would have had us believe, but then its origins were a bit different than the dual carriageway between troon road-end and prestwick airport. allegedly there were people in the known world that rode these things down the side of mountains, and had obviously lived to tell the tale and build more bikes to sell to those of us who couldn't even see a mountain from our bedroom window, let alone ride up and down one.
in the early seventies, a bunch of hippies (no disrespect intended) took heavy steel schwinns - the bikes that american kids delivered newspapers from - and pushed them to the top of mount tamalpais in marin county, california, then hung on for grim death till the helter-skelter ride over loose gravel ended at the bottom. then, always assuming punctures or fractures (frames or bodies) hadn't intervened, they did it all over again. as is human nature, one always said that they were the fastest, the litmus test of which became a race down the mountain over the repack ride. this latter gained its name because these bikes relied on rear coaster brakes to slow their gravitational descent; by the time the bottom was reached, these brakes had grossly overheated through extended use and evaporation of the internal grease. so then they'd all to traipse home and repack the hub.
all this is now as much a part of our heritage as coppi winning the giro and tour in the same year, because it's happened to all of us, and in some cases, may well still be happening. many of the guys who created what we now know as the mountain bike (the exact origin of which is clearly explained by gary fisher in the movie) were roadies either at heart or by designation, but throwing themselves off mount tam on heavy klunkerz was a different type of, and less straight-laced, fun. of course, you can't just blame fisher, joe breeze, tom ritchey, charlie kelly et al for the outcome: somebody else had the idea of sticking a derailleur on the back.
this dvd by billy savage is a masterclass in editing, weaving interviews with all the principal characters into a chronological story that not only makes sense, but would appear to be historically as accurate as is ever likely to be assembled from a bunch of hippies over thirty years from the event. there is some excellent super 8 footage from back in the day where hurtling at speed round blind bends edged with unruly undergrowth while wearing denims, t-shirts and baseball caps, compares laughingly with the astronauts who practise today's sport of downhill mountain biking.
some of these guys are still hippies today including, it seems, the film's director, but all seem aware of the positive effect they have had on the world of cycling; tom ritchey and otis guy seem the most lucid and self aware, while a bearded and ponytailed charlie kelly is now out of the business and sat behind a fender stratocaster. there's no happy ending by way of an appreciation of where mountain biking is today, other than an acknowledgment of its inclusion in the olympics from 1996. but that would rather undermine the premise of this movie. it verges on unashamed nostalgia, and is all the better for it. thewashingmachinepost may not do mountain biking, but in this case i'm very happy to have made an exception.
klunkerz - a film about mountain bikes is available from urbanhunter.biz for the princely sum of £22.50 and lasts just under ninety minutes. remove yourself from the world of the spring classics for a brief moment in time, sit back and just enjoy a different kind of cycling from an entirely different era.
posted on friday april 3 2009
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................colombo cycle clothing italian tricolor long-sleeve jersey
the chap in bridgend who owns the islay woollen mill comes from yorkshire, probably a fine location from which to hail if you're into weaving and wools and stuff. so perhaps little suprise to find the new kids on the block arriving on the sportwool cycle clothing scene from richmond in north yorkshire with a small but comfortably formed range of jerseys. the colomba cycle company has been in existence since 2am one saturday morning in 2007 when they figured it would be a fine notion to be clothed in their very own jerseys. the intervening period was spent studying fabrics and sizing before trading started early in 2009.
according to the introductory text on the colomba.cc website, their inspiration comes from golden era of cycling when cycling jerseys were wool and designs were simple but stylish. this has manifested itself in a peloton of four initial offerings: the peace race jersey, based on the design of the leader's jersey from the very same race; an italian tricolor jersey which does exactly as it says on the tin, and two variations on their club jersey - a dark blue version with white hoops on the short sleeves and the colomba logo on the back, or an all black, short sleeve alternative.
all four are produced from sportwool, a 52 percent merino/48 percent polyester mix, which is a pleasant change from endless dye sublimation printed polyester. chris at colomba was kind enough to send through a long sleeve version of the italian tricolor jersey (currently the only one with a long sleeve option) partly because of my undying love of long-sleeve jerseys, and partly because it's still ruddy freezing up here.
this latter fact, while not deterring me from road testing the jersey, played havoc with the photos, not least because it was too cold and too windy to be seen in the saddle without further exterior warmth. this rather spoiled the look of a fine jersey. in keeping with features we have come to expect from our cyclewear these days, the colomba jersey features scalloped outer pockets at the rear, a mandatory fourth zipped pocket, and the small turnover at the top of the collar to prevent the zip removing sections of your neck. it almost goes without saying that the three colours are separate pieces of sportwool sewn together to resemble the italian flag, and the sewing appears to be of a substantial nature.
the long sleeves, while being my jersey delight, were also this item's minor downfall; too short. not by much i'll admit, but on the bike, there was a couple of centimetres gap between cuffs and gloves. i may be longer armed than the average domestique, but i still feel these could do with the extra length. i tested the medium size jersey which was generally a good fit: the tail, which would also benefit from just a smidgeon more length, is held in place by grippy tape stuff, something that fulfilled its function rather well. the pockets have loads of space for loads of stuff, and the scalloping on the outer pockets made it easy to remove and replace bits and bobs.
so all in all, an impressive debut for a cycle clothing company with no tradition of their own, but an appreciation of the tradition that cycling has to offer.
plans are afoot to progress into other items of bikewear, particularly colomba shorts, since the alternative is their customers always wearing someone else's name on their legs.
and it's not all just sportives and mont ventoux: at the start of the year, following the demise of the local cycling club, they set up the colomba cycle club to get kids interested in becoming a part of our future heritage (i know, i know, but you know what i mean) - not all just a one way velodrome.
the colomba tricolor jersey is available with long sleeves in small through to extra large at a cost of £64. the short sleeve version is £5 less at £59.
posted on thursday april 2 2009
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................rapha continental jersey
thank you to all those who fell for my april fool, and i apologise not at all to those who were caught out by their overzealousness to buy a new rapha jersey. some e-mailed to admit they'd been caught out, but i'll bet that there are many more who didn't. i could probably check the web stats to see how many clicked through to the april fool page but i'm not that much of an anorak.
many thanks to simon mottram and slate olson of rapha uk and usa respectively for playing along with the spoof - sometimes business is fun. and just to underline and re-state the obvious, there is no such thing as a rapha continental jersey. at least not yet, there isn't.
posted on wednesday april 1 2009
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the paterek manual for bicycle framebuilding - tim paterek. 440pp + appendices. illus. $75.
when i was at school, i was utterly crap at metalwork (and woodwork, technical drawing and geography): when making a coathook, i was required to heat and bend a thick rod of metal for the hook then due to be rivetted to a polished steel backplate. logically enough the two holes on the hook should have matched up with two holes drilled on the backplate, only mine didn't. due to a minor controversy over the difference between quarter and half an inch. an easy mistake to make, but hardly the convincing start to a career in framebuilding - which is pretty much why i never started just such a career. an attack of mechanical conscience midway through my (continuing) cycling obsessiveness led me to investigate zen and the art of wheelbuilding, so that i could at least claim some semblance of mechanical competence. but every year, when the north american handbuilt show comes around, i have this hankering after joining metal tubes to cast lugs and entering the age of usefulness. happily for those considering the purchase of a new, handbuilt steel frame, it has never moved past this sense of longing, and it's not really very likely to either.
however, should the career path of framebuilder present itself in the near future, i wouldn't begin to consider doing anything without this studiously comprehensive manual by tim paterek. were i to undertake to assemble a washingmachinepost machine shop with a view to diversifying from just writing about bicycles, you would be forming an orderly queue at the door even as we speak. tim paterek is/was a north american framebuilder of some repute, having retired, as far as i can gather, in 2004. the bulk of his business was assumed by michael terraferma in miami, florida and the remainder by joseph ahearne in portland, oregon. he is very much of the old skool of framebuilding, where steel tubes slot into cast steel lugs then brazed into place. paterek has even gone so far as to predict that the art/craft/science of steel framebuilding will never die. having watched the bikeradar movie on the construction of colnago's top-of-the-range eps, it seems that many of the skills espoused by mr paterek have transferred through to the modern era.
of course, if you intend to offer custom frames, oft times the solo framebuilder's unique selling point, you need to know just which parts of the customer's anatomy to measure, and subsequently how to convert those measurements into something resembling a bicycle frame. chapter two supplies every minute detail required. and even if the idea is not to offer custom build, but to create your own off-the-shelf steel delights, measurements will still be required, so it's very handy to know just what those measurements should be. it is perhaps an obvious statement that those tubes and lugs won't assemble themselves, and in order for that to happen, a veritable plethora of common and specialist tools are required, many i've not only not come across before, but wouldn't have known what to do with them if mr paterek had not been astute enough to point out how, by way of some strategically taken photographs.
it's not much of a secret that assembling all these tools, machines and necessary expertise do not come cheaply, so it is unlikely that any of the foregoing will be come by easily. it's doubtful that the prospective framebuilder will have the finance and knowledge to dive in at the deep-end: an apprenticeship of sorts would be ideal, or perhaps one of the framebuilding courses that are available both sides of the atlantic. but once a degree of experience has been gained, it would be ideal to have a safety net when pedalling into the big, bad world alone. this manual is it.
a normal sequence of events these days, upon acquiring a shiny new gadget, is to ignore the manual altogether in an excited need to get to grips with such contemporary gadgetness. the same goes for framebuilding: knowing about tools and measurements and jigs is all very well, and very necesary, but what we really want to know is how to slide tubes into lugs, smother them with white flux and put phasers on braze. chapter five begins the true framebuilders' initiation into building the sub-assemblies, before moving swiftly on to the front triangle, the forks, the rear triangle and finally those little detail touches that oft times distinguish one builder from the next by way of bridges, braze-ons and the final flourishes.
if i am allowed one criticism of a manual that i feel sadly unqualified to critique from a technical point of view (not that i found any holes that needed poking) it is the placing of the chapter on getting started as the first of the appendices. to my mind this would have been better situated at the very beginning of the manual. however, in it's current position, it does lead on to a comprehensive glossary of framebuilding terms, a further reading list, a thoughtful set of copyable pages detailing just how the novice might charge for his/her new found labours, and a large selection of detailed schematics for constructing those fittings required to enable bits of frames to hang together in perfect harmony and stillness, while you get that phaser out again.
not unnaturally, having built a frame, you may just find it desirable or necessary to colour it in some decorative way with paint - all covered in a fine chapter just before constructing custom stems, building custom racks, tandem construction and the all too necessary chapter on frame repair. a veritable treasure trove.
all in all, and i'm saying this very quietly in case tim is reading, $75 for this depth of knowledge is the equivalent of giving it away free; barnetts bicycle manual weighs in at almost twice as many dollars (and it's on a cd now), while sutherland's handbook costs at least another $20. if you are considering/have considered the possibility of building bicycle frames at weekends, in the evenings, or are just intrigued by the processes that create a whole greater than the sum of its parts, i cannot reccommend this manual highly enough. it may resemble the london telephone directory in heft and size, but it imparts a great deal more information.an education in itself.
posted on tuesday 31 march 2009
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