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you have to be kidding me
many will have noted that some of their favourite professional riders are apt to have augmented the standard rear derailleurs with what is technically referred to as an ospw, or over sized pulley wheel. this refers to those ungainly looking, enormous jockey wheels replacing the original versions on shimano, campagnolo or sram rear mechs. the reputed advantage of these is to lessen the angle at which the chain travels across a standard jockey wheel, thus lowering friction demands and subsequently the miniscule number of watts required from the rider to overcome this all but non-existent drag. however, if this ospw augmentation is truly as worthy as the manufacturers would have us believe, why have shimano, campagnolo and sram not fitted them as standard?
according to shimano, while a reduction in friction may or may not be possible, the enlarged size of these devices creates greater drag than the far smaller standard jockey wheels, and it therefore is content to leave things as they are. as far as i'm aware, both sram and campagnolo are of similar mind. according to ceramicspeed one of their ospw devices can reduce drag by up to 40%, but that's in comparison to the standard affair, and related purely to the drag engendered by a standard rear derailleur. that figure does not relate to the drag produced by a rider and bicycle. i think we're all well enough educated in the vicissitudes of bicycle matters to realise that two jockey wheels and cage on a rear derailleur is hardly likely to cause a major slowing of the bicycle.
of course, as i learned many years ago, a great many cyclists (and it's a trait that persists amongst other sports too), are apt to find the emperor's new clothes a compulsory part of their accoutrements. in other words, if someone offers free speed and has impressive numbers to purportedly back that up, there's every likelihood that money will change hands. and i have every faith that 200 velocipedinists are already negotiating with their better halves, to acquire a limited edition ceramic speed ospw released earlier this week. in fact, there's a distinct possibility that all 200 have found new homes already.
so what are ceramic speed offering that might be a hard choice to resist, aside from being individually numbered and less than aesthetically pleasing? i'm glad you asked.
the jockey (or pulley) wheels are 3d printed in titanium, ensuring strength and negligible weight, an etched logo on the back of the injection molded cage (which i doubt anyone will see) and a diamond like coating on the wheels. many years past, i reviewed a pair of standard sized sram jockey wheels featuring ceramic bearings which did, in fact, make a noticeable difference to the pedalling sensation when new. however, i'd be fibbing if i promised i could relate that to any observable increase in my speed. ceramic speed are renowned for the quality of their ceramic bearings, so i would surmise that fitting one of their limited edition ospw would at least be noticeable in use, but it's the law of diminishing returns that gives me cause for concern.
a campagnolo super-record wireless rear derailleur retails at around £650. a dura-ace di2 rear derailleur costs a few pounds less, while a sram red wireless rear mech will trouble the cash register for a similar amount. who then, in their right mind, would remove half of any of the above, and replace it with two large titanium jockey wheels in a cage for £1800?
friday 20 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................pick'n'mix
there is no debate over the degree to which i have nailed the colours of my flag to that of ned ludd. some of this revolves around having my tongue placed firmly in my cheek, but i cannot deny a certain affinity with remaining a tad more rustic in our velocipedinal demands. of course, given that i bear some aspirations towards being a modern citizen, that brings its own set of baggage that occasionally is remarkably hard to reconcile with my previously mentioned affiliation with luddidity. for instance, though in direct contravention of the current inexplicable trend for stuffing every available cable inside the frame for no discernibly acceptable reason, i yearn for the days when the brake cables exited the top of the levers, providing a perfectly descfribed curve as they approached the rim brakes of which i am also overly fond.
but as i climbed to the round church at the top of bowmore's main street last weekend, i realised that there is no amount of equitable persuasion that would have me return to gear levers on the down tube. with the current crop of indexed derailleur gears, it is a great boon, not to mention safety consideration, to be able to change gear under load when climbing. this in preference to having to remain in completely the wrong gear as a result of poor judgement at the onset of the gradient. and while grant petersen of rivendell bicycles seems to harbour resentment that shimano outlawed the use of friction shifting by inventing indexed gears and hyperglide ramps on the cassette, in truth, i can see little difference.
when indexed gears were first applied to mountain bikes back in the 1980s, shimano, suntour and (yes) campagnolo offered the option to return to friction shifting should some unforeseen malfeasance prevent the derailleur from cleanly moving from one sprocket to its nearest partner. at the end of a single year of indexing, faults were apparently all but non-existent, so the friction option was dumped. however, indexed shifting is still a mechanical process, actioned by way of notches on the lever's internal shift pulley. america's esteemed journal the new yorker recently published a lengthy feature on mr petersen and rivendell bikes, highlighting the good work he has carried out to maintain not only forgotten standards, but all but forgotten componentry.
yet mr petersen exhibits many of the traits of fanatacism, even if couched in a laid back demeanour; in my humble opinion, fanaticism is something to be avoided, irrespective the strains of existence to which it is attributed. for instance, the rivendell philosophy would appear to include the advice that drop bars are a poor aid to posture, and largely unnecessary for other than the professional peloton. far better, goes the story, to rely upon either flat or gently rearwardly curving bars. i can see mr petersen's point if we consider riding in traffic; drop bars have a distinct propensity to make forward observation less than pragmatic and place a strain on the neck. however, personally, i do not get on well with flat bars, which have given me disturbingly painful wrists (particularly during a 100km ride aboard a borrowed mountain bike while on arran) predominantly as a result of being unable to change hand position, as afforded by a set of drop bars.
however, i fear i may have digressed just a tad, so i will attempt to return to my original point. where once i found great favour with carbon fibre frames, i believe i have come to the (educated?) conclusion that steel may be a more practical frame material. however, though i have undertaken little by way of research into the subject, there's an outside possibility that replacing steel forks with a set made of carbon, might conceivably be a smart idea. in other words, i cannot deny the luxury of the desire to occupy a position where i not only have my cake, but endless opportunities to eat it too. though somewhat of a hebridean isolationist, i think it possible i'm not alone in such circumstances. i still can see no real need for hydraulic disc brakes on a road bike, but it's hard to deny that they seem to work.
and is there really much difference in owning a cyclocross bike with discs, despite little evidence that the bicycle is being used for its avowed purpose?
if i was to have appeared as a character in tv's big bang theory, no doubt i would have been described as quirky, but as a boringly ordinary member of society, i fear i might better fit the description conundrum. and maintaining my earlier stance that i am not alone in my considerations, does the word conundrum have a plural?
thursday 19 september 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................hacking
if asked, i'd be inclined to describe last saturday's bike ride as 'favourable', predominantly due to a helpful tail wind for the majority of my ride home after a filling double-egg roll and a soya latte. however, on the basis that all good things must surely end, the favourable part did so at the coullabus corner, where a 90 degree change in direction placed me in direct contravention to the inevitable headwind. now, short of turning around and heading in the opposite direction, there really is no way of avoiding a headwind or rain at some point in the journey. in other words, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to hack meteorological reality when cycling.
many years ago, when the local leisure centre received grant money to allow purchase of an early version e-bike, i was invited to undertake a reconnaissance ride in the absence of their active travel manager. though possibly lost in the mists of subterfuge, all e-bikes available in the uk are required to adhere to a 25kph speed limit, which, once attained, ought to result in the motor cutting out. in the case of my e-bike trial, the example purchased by the leisure centre paid tacit adherence to this regulation, but the gent who delivered it to islay informed me that, holding down both buttons on the control panel for a minimum of five seconds, would over-ride the restriction and allow the bicycle to achieve 48kph. and though the cycle was ostensibly pedal-assist, it also featured a twist-throttle, controlling the motor whether the rider pedalled or not.
quite obviously, the latter feature was strictly illegal, but, as the deliverer was happy to point out, "who's going to notice?" unfortunately, he was right on the money. while it's well nigh impossible to hack the weather in our favour, when electronics are involved, particularly those controlled by any form of computing power, 'hacking' is not only all but guaranteed, but almost invited. and where there is a perceived lack of enforcement, there's an almost inevitable likelihood of rules being broken. for instance, the scottish government passed legislation in december last year, banning any form of pavement parking, from all four wheels on a pedestrian walkway, to perhaps only one, quite probably blocking access for those on foot.
police scotland are legally absolved from enforcing any notional parking regulations, the power to do so having devolved to local authorities, always assuming the latter has the staff and finance so to do. the council issued a press release earlier this summer, stating that, by the end of this year, they would be enforcing the pavement parking ban throughout the region. given that there is currently no parking enforcement anywhere on islay, i asked how they planned to change that situation in the circumstances described in the press release? presumably not wishing to point out that absolutely nothing was likely to change, they implied that enforcement staff would be periodically deployed around the island. in truth, that probably comes under the heading of myths and legends.
the same is more than likely true with regard to illegally unrestricted e-bikes. though i pay very few visits to the mainland, on my last jaunt to glasgow, i was frequently in danger of being knocked over by delivery cyclists who made no attempt to disguise the fact that their bicycles had no need of pedal assist, as they cycled unfettered throughout sauchiehall street's pedstrian precinct. this behaviour continued unchallenged even on the city's streets, with no visible attempts by the police (who are still responsible for traffic violations) to caution or charge the blatant miscreants. however, it's a situation that ought best be nipped in the bud at a considerably earlier stage of proceedings.
many, if not all, of these unrestricted e-bikes are sourced from countries other than the uk, thus arriving either by sea-going freight or air-cargo. and though i'd imagine customs and excise is overworked and underpaid, presumably the onus for preventing an influx of illegal e-bikes into the country resides in their hands. yes, it would be equitable if the police were to stop and sieze over-powered e-bikes in use, but if they were prevented from entering the country in the first place...
it seems now, however, that the driver and vehicle standards agency (dvsa) is beginning to wake up to the problem, instigating market surveillance and illegal e-bike investigations. one of those investigated (wisper bikes), claims that the dvsa claimed to be satisfied with the mode of their operations and how they were administering their business. however, they were a tad less impressed with the way certain wisper dealers were proceeding.
according to the dvsa, "while more than happy with the way wisper operates in having full-throttle bikes approved and the information that is provided on the wisper website, some of the wisper retailers don't seem to be providing the same amount of information to their customers. the concern is that customers may not be aware of the legalities around full-throttle e-bikes and they just expect to purchase one with the throttle enabled."
uk law currently requires that legal e-bikes (ie, capable of no more than a motor-assisted 25kph) which offer a throttle control capable of over-riding any pedal assist, must be registered with the dvsa and receive an appropriate certificate which persists for the lifetime of the bicycle. wisper's website states that any order for a full-throttle bike is followed by submission to a dvsa test centre for approval, which could take up to eight weeks, before the bicycle is delivered to the retailer.
all well and good you might say, but it still raises the question of just how the police or other authority might distinguish between e-bikes that have gained approval, and those which have not? secondly, if one of those bicycles is ridden in a fashion where the rider is seen to be pedalling, even when the bike is, in fact, under throttle control, how is a traffic constable supposed to know? as i've already shown, government can pass any number of specific laws, but it first ought to figure out just how they might be appropriately enforced.
tuesday 17 september 2024
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