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it's marketing jim, but not as we know it
bbc four are currently mid-series entitled the genius of photography, playing perhaps, to an increased awareness of just how much a part of modern life and recent history the photograph has become. in a digital age, it still provides endless comfort to view beautiful black and white images - almost like preferring vinyl as against cd or download. of course, the bbc are only the tip of the iceberg: photography has cheerfully existed without such recognition for many a long decade. in our modern world of cycling, however, where all is carbon and yet more carbon, there are still those who can see the larger picture (no pun intended) and are keen to present us with an alternative view to that promoted by graham watson, cor vos and the legion of sports photographers who furnish the monthlies with their brightly coloured images. (i intend no disrespect to the gentlemen mentioned).
happily this new-age cycling photography does not exist in isolation. much of it is accompanied by mighty fine contemporary writing, such as matt seaton's two wheels column in the guardian every thursday. all the above is shedding new light, or at least a different angle, on this most beautiful of sports - perhaps re-invention would not be too strong a term.
for those who made it to the host gallery, london for either the vanfleteren exhibition in june, or the rouleur exhibition last month (rumoured to be heading across the atlantic in early 2008), you'll have a good idea of which i speak, but in case you'd like a taster, for the mere price of online registration, rapha will be happy to send you a sample in the form of their latest autumn/winter brochure. changing tack slightly from the straightforward here's what we sell type catalogue, this is the first in a series of rapha rides - the tour of mont aigoual.
the more astute amongst you will recognise this as the scene of the semi-fictitious race in tim krabbe's 'the rider' - in fact, the accompanying text in this miniature masterpiece is by the very same mr krabbe. so to summarise, the words and pictures are inspirational manna for the commited cyclist: what do rapha gain from this? each monochrome photo is accompanied by small print describing the rapha clothing featured in the pics, while the rearmost pages colourfully present the very same products in more detail. if you've seen the light, so to speak, you'll love it.
and for fixed wheel aficionados, cyclists with an urban style all of their own, rapha have revealed their latest contribution in the form of the fixed track top. made in regulation black, with an embroidered denim patch on the left shouler, the top is made from a 2-ply merino and polyester mix (the merino is on the inside, similar to the solo equipe top), with a relaxed fit, two-way zip, single zipped rear pocket and best of all, machine washable.
price is approaching that of the lightweight softshell (reviewed on the post hebridean) at £140 ($235) and available from extra small to extra large.
register at rapha.cc
posted on friday 9 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................two nations, two miles, one language, no chance
clif bars. i have to admit that i've never eaten a clif bar, not because someone said they weren't nice, nor because flavours such as chocolate chip peanut crunch sound like just the very flavour i wouldn't want to have in my back pocket on a long ride (though banana nut bread sounds raher fetching), but just because i am quite happy with my current choice of munchy bar, coupled with a granola bar from bowmore co-op (when they've actually got some in stock).
however, that doesn't stop me wishing to bring to your attention an admirable initiative by the clif bar company called the two mile challenge. the vast majority of car journeys undertaken are two miles or less (just ask my neighbour and the co-op manager) and clif are proposing that these are replaced by bicycle trips - get bike, get there, get fit. there's even a two mile challenge tour bus to point it out in more belligerent terms.
however, it's not a british thing. the bus tour, according to the website finished in oregon on november 3, but this is perhaps not the time of year to propose that non-cyclists leave the car at home - certainly not in portland - all currently seems to favour americashire. and that seems quite ok, except that the website allows you to input your postcode to find the two mile radius from your home. and it uses google maps, which, allegedly, work worldwide.
so how come, when i typed in the postcode relating to washingmachinepost towers, i appear to be living in steinhofmule, near hauzenberg, germany. and i don't recognise any of the village names round about.
this is going to be harder than i thought, even with a clif bar
posted on thursday 8 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................looks like they're here...
it's not uncommon for manufacturers to release demo or preview versions of their products for test or review before they become generally available to the cycling public. book publishers do it all the time, though it's slightly less prevalent with components. however, mavic seem to have extended the concept slightly this year with the r-sys wheels.
they sent me a pair of these revolutionary new wheels at the beginning of august and i've had them on the colnago ever since - they took part in the gran fondo d'ardbeg, they've experienced the purgatory of the fifty kilometre loop during preparatory training for the 2008 london-paris, and we accompanied each other across the water to scotland, to take part in october's braveheart ride. make no mistake, these wheels are luxury on tyres, and it seems that mavic have decided that this is the way to entice prospective buyers: let them try a pair before palms are crossed with silver.
to do so, mavic have thoughfully listed all the dealers throughout the world that are partaking of this promotion, and i'm somewhat relieved at last to be able to give you this indication as to how you can try a pair for yourself. if you are in the market for a new pair of wheels, and particularly if you plan to take part in any of the forthcoming season's cyclo-sportives - the r-sys, while being no slouch in a race situation (just ask mauricio soler) are easily at the head of the comfort table when it comes to road bike wheels.
we asked phil at mosquito bikes how this trial will work: "we have a set of demo r-sys wheels (clinchers) available for demo. customers can take them out for a weekend to give them a proper trial. they need to supply the cassette (which we can swop over for them when they come in) and leave card details for security. thats it. to book, email mail@mosquito-bikes.co.uk. presumably much the same will happen at other r-sys demo dealers. if you normally use campag, you'll probably need a shimano compatible cassette, since most demo wheels these days seem to be fitted with a shimano freehub - check before you try.
read thewashingmachinepost r-sys road test here
posted on thursday 8 november. updated friday 9 november.
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................if you don't shutup about headsets, i'll...
if you've read the current issue of bike-biz, you may have slept through my rant about aheadsets and integrated headsets and the like, which, in my defence, i was invited to write. the fact that i enjoyed every word, really has no bearing on the situation at all. and even worse, i also meant every word of it. but you can garner my substantial standing within the cycle industry by the fact that rather than sit back and think this guy's on the money, they've ignored every word and carried on regardless. i'd expect no less.
displayed in glorious cut-out technicolour at interbike was the next development from look bicycles which consists of a completely integrated headset (the bearings are a press fit in the head-tube - a worry in itself) but topped by a threaded alloy insert which accepts a composite lockring to adjust the headset, independently of the stem.
you could be forgiven for asking isn't that how it used to work before the aheadset came along? and wasn't the whole point of the aheadset to allow tightening of the headset without anything more than an allen key? yes, i too thought the same, though the aheadset impetus came from the mountain bike world, where it is quite conceivable that a headset could loosen while miles from anywhere. on a road bike, this is less likely, but tightening with simply an allen key (wrench) does have its attraction.
presumably the guys at look never ride anywhere without full technical support, because this new method fitted on their 586 doesn't tighten itself. and bizarrely enough, look claim to have saved 40g with this system, but neglected to list the weight of the inevitable tool required to maintain a happy headset. we're mostly at 1.125" at the moment, but don't believe for a minute that it will stay there, since the boffins at trek have endowed tha madone with a 1.5" bottom race.
how long before that migrates to the top, in the name of stiffness? - (and just to digress slightly, a recent bike tester in a prominent magazine claimed he could feel flex in the bicycle's head-tube. oh to have such skill).
photo: cyclingnews.com.
posted on wednesday 7 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................in the pink - again
just a brief reminder that 11th - 17th of november is national pink week in sacramento and, it seems, in a number of other places too. the original organisers would like to think that pink week could spread like wildpink (perhaps unsurprisingly, amsterdam was an early adopter in 1999). definitely a thought.
unfortunately, from a pink point of view, thewashingmachinepost will be on holiday next week so i'll be unable to celebrate the week in pixels, but rest assured that i shall pay heed to the spirit of the week in some small way as i relax poolside during a week of doing absolutely nothing at all.
that's absolutely nothing at all.
posted on wednesday 7 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................power struggle
here in velo club d'ardbeg we adhere to the training methods of the mighty dave t: black alpaca jacket, ron hill training bottoms, leather hairnets and patent leather shoes. and while we pound out the miles, our musettes are augmented with measured portions of dave t's power shallots. and the results are paying off - just ask the professional group as they flew past us at the braveheart ride, not having caught us anywhere near as early as they had hoped. however, believe it or not, there are those who are not convinced about the efficacy of the power shallots, and for them there are more scientific options
a good few months ago, cyclepowermeters were kind enough to supply an srm powermeter to fit to the company colnago, allowing me to watch a whole plethora of numbers flash and change as i crawled my way up some of the hillier bits of islay. while cyclepowermeters.com started out as an affordable means of fitting several thousand pounds worth of measuring equipment to your bicycle frame, as is often the case, this was only the start. having moved premises to mill road in rugby, england, their portfolio has increased and is about to do so again.
if you already know what your power output is, the next step surely, is to figure out how to make better use of what you've got. sure, there's slippery skinsuits and ever more threatening looking tri-bars, but the biggest drawback to moving ever faster in a forward direction is just how much of a windbreak you are on the bike. cyclepowermeters.com can now assist with this, using frontal area analysis, which more or less does what it says on the box. consider it to be the affordable wind tunnel.
using video analysis, high resolution digital slr cameras and the swiss dartfish software it is possible to increase your speed by altering your position on the bike to take advantage of the power figure that started all this in first place. the dartfish software allows minute video analysis of each alteration to position, in real-time or slow motion. this way it can be seen if there are any parts of the body moving during pedalling that shouldn't be - hips or shoulders twisting, knees moving in ways that they shouldn't be...you get the idea.
and as the technology becomes ever more sophisticated, cyclepowermeters are planning to introduce garmin's cycling specific gps unit, the edge 705. these will be compatible with the new wireless srm units (at last) and the quarq wireless powermeters and allow using the same head unit with different powermeters. it also allows the tie-up of distance and altitude with power data.
if this is the bleeding edge of cycling competition that fascinates you out of interest or necessity, contact the folks at cyclepowermeters.com for a level of assistance that it's hard to get, unless you're on a british cycling plan. of course, if you're already really, really fast already.
posted on tuesday 6 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the soft option
several years ago, i had the altogether unfounded notion that when petrol prices rose above a certain notional level, there would be a wholesale move towards the bicycle for personal transport. you probably don't have to be too much of an historian or sociologist to realise just how completely wide of the mark i was/am. if anything, more of the population seem to be in thrall to the motor car - there are youngsters round here who are barely out of the instructor's dual-control vehicle, spending the day's latter hours tearing up and down bowmore main street in corsas with alloy wheels, matt black windscreens and exhaust pipes similar to those attached to the guttering of washingmachinepost towers.
as a confirmed cyclist, without a motor car, i cannot pretend to understand the point of driving up and down the same short stretch of road for hours on end, no matter how many of your pals you wish to impress, but i am even more confounded as to how they can afford it in the first place. many of these jeremy clarkson wannabees are the same that excused themselves from cycling because it was 'too expensive'. obviously expense is not as impartial as i thought it was.
but the screaming irony of the situation described above is that vauxhall are currently advertising their boy racer base camp vehicle - the corsa - with an optional flex-fix integrated rear carrier, which is marketing speak for a bike rack, of sorts, that emerges hidden from behind the rear number plate. granted, this will apparently retain snowboards or skis as well as bicycles, though i think we all know which is the more likely option (as do vauxhall's marketing department). on the safety front, there are a couple of rear light clusters that swing out either side of the number plate as per the oft ignored legal requirements.
so what can we glean from this? does it mean that vauxhall have seen a growing trend for commuters who park and ride, or weekend warriors who prefer two wheels as long as they can use four to get them there? or are the more cynical amongst us allowed to imply a certain degree of propaganda from vauxhall? after all, how detrimental to the environment can the latest corsa be, if it has a built in bike rack?
posted on monday 5 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................it's a dirty job etc.
as perhaps alluded to previously, last weekend's braveheart ride took in a large proportion of mid ayrshire's farming country, much of which was generously endowed with a fine layer of tarmac, paving the way for some fine, smooth cycling. of course, farms have cows, sheep and tractors, none of whom/which have great concern for clearing up behind them. this was therefore a job left to the braveheart participants, who collected lots of the brown stuff all over the bikes, faces, clothing, gold shoes etc. i've seen cleaner riders at the end of paris-roubaix.
so settling back into island life on monday necessitated a bucket and sponge, and much aplenty elbow grease before the carbon and alloy shone once more. however, this weekend, having covered a similar distance round the rhinns, an area also populated by more than its fair share of farms, had a considerably lower muck impact on the company bicycle. and if you've ever travelled round parts of the island, you will be aware that not all the cows and sheep have the courtesy to remain in their fields, where the belgian toothpaste can be safely packaged out of harm's way.
so while it does the heart good to moan incessantly about the sorry state of the road surfaces across the hebridean empire, it seems possible that we fare better than the substantial number of training cyclists espied in ayrshire (for reasons best known to themselves, there were small groups of cyclists pedalling in the opposite direction to the (fragmented) braveheart peloton. you would have thought the opportunity to cycle with smith, mccrossan, yates, kelly, harmon and sunderland would have had more persuasive qualities).
perhaps a team of management consultants could be persuaded to investigate this wide regional variation in agricultural road covering. after all, we pay our council tax too, you know.
and just while the braveheart fund is firmly in sight of your rudy projects, the extravagantly styled team kit as displayed by most of the above mentioned cyclists (though we may never know what sean kelly looks like in tartan) is available in its entirety from impsport. this outwardly seems strange choice of supplier, if you ask me, since impsport are based in lincoln, and there are at least two perfectly capable custom cycle clothing outlets north of the border. and, yet again in my humble opinion, impsport have a very strange way of displaying the garments to their best advantage on the site.
still, i understand so little of this world of incessant pedalling.
posted on sunday 4 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the post hebridean - updated
while there are specific times of year when books are released, the maestros of perren street seem to roll across the months producing quality apparel followed by more of the same. and while their price tags are not everyone's cup of isostar, the quality of the product cannot be faulted.
it's nearing winter everywhere, but the early brunt of wind and rain traditionally reaches the hebrides before filtering across the rest of britainshire, so it makes perfect sense to me that road testing rapha's latest over winter's earliest, ought to be worth a look-see. so at the first sign of wind and rain thewashingmachinepost, lured solely by the promise of a stop at debbie's in bruichladdich, donned a pair of hooydonk inspired 3/4 bib shorts, a sportwool long sleeve jersey topped with a lightweight softshell jacket and headed into the hinterlands.
...but what's the jersey like on its own, and can you wear a lightweight softshell jacket with nothing underneath (well, maybe a merino base) - and are there parts of the island we haven't seen before?
posted on thursday 1 november 2007. updated sunday 4 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................fibre-lyte update - lord of the rings
based entirely on the premise that it seemed like a really stupid idea, a pair of carbon chainrings from british carbon experts, fibre-lyte were initially fitted to a test colnago c50 at the end of may 2007, then transferred to the company c40 when the former went back home. they were good when on the c50, so how has this stupid idea fared since?
islay's had probably just as crap a summer as the rest of the united kingdom, so there was not the cosseting that 53 and 39 chainrings perhaps expected through the months of what would normally be termed 'high season'. still, in accordance with advice from stephen at fibre-lyte, they have been kept suitably lubricated, and i have managed to maintain the presence of mind not to mash my way up and down between the two. and despite being involved in the ride of the falling rain in august, and again last weekend over the agricultural hills of the braveheart ride. and lots more in between, all is well with the world.
you may or may not be surprised to hear that the rings are completely intact - the 53 still has 53 teeth and the 39 likewise. and despite close examination by an admittedly inexperienced eye, there doesn't appear to be any appreciable wear. there haven't been any carbon creaks, and the titanium bolts haven't loosened. in short (you wish), they have done everything that i'd expect from a pair of chainrings. whether you consider it necessary to spend well over £100 on a pair of chainrings that don't do anything that an alloy pair wouldn't do, is entirely your own affair. they weigh about half that of a standard pair, and have undoubtedly offset the additional weight of a brooks saddle (i've had to hand in my weight-weenie card) so if you need to save every gram that you can, this is a highly practical way to do so.
a confident thumbs up for carbon-heads and weightists - they will remain in situ until they die.
posted on saturday 3 november
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................on the rivet
i don't mind admitting that i was nervous about replacing my saddle. the colnago (and my bum) has benefitted from a fizik pave for the past three years or so, but all things must come to an end, and the titanium rails are currently in the process of parting company from the plastic shell. so it was time for a new one. and if you read a few thousand pixels below you will be aware that the fizik's replacement is one of the finest from the stable of brooks, england.
but if you've read all the horror stories about brooks saddles, like mine, your butt cheeks would be clenching in fear. in case you are too young, or too unaware of the intricacies of saddle lore, a brooks saddle is constructed from a single piece of stiffened leather, and generally moulds itself to the contours of the rider's backside, over an indeterminate period of time. and that's the scary bit, because until contouring has taken place, pain and suffering on a scale unthought of by luke, simon or guy, would normally be inflicted on the sitting bit.
so, in the true spirit of the post hebridean, the weight weenie in me was banished, the brooks swallow affixed to the colnago, and a number of wet kilometres undertaken. and it was ok. in fact it was actually comfortable - which makes me even more scared, because i think the saddle is just toying with me, waiting for the first 100km ride before executing the pincer movement.
and then i'll have to walk like john wayne for a week.
posted on friday 2 november 2007.
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