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colnago super
colnago have had a frame called the super in the past (around 1980, i believe), but at that time there wasn't the current craze for riding with only one gear, and that particular super had all the fittings for a set of proper gears. but colnago does have a bit of an undeserved reputation (in my prejudiced opinion) for being an old man's bike, which, in recent years it has strenuously attempted to belie with the introduction of some decidedly modern frames. but these have been designed to appeal to the competitive or sportive rider, rather than the commuter, or the hip and cool.
a couple of years ago, colnago displayed a saronni painted fixed frame with leather brooks saddle and a pair of very handsome mustache bars at the milan show. that may well have been the precursor, or inspiration behind the rather unexpected inclusion of a fixed/singlespeed steel bicycle in the 2010 collection. such machines are generally the province of the urban or city rider, where stop/start riding, relatively flat terrain and the absence of gale force headwinds are very accepting of such gearing limitations. but how well would the colnago super adapt to wide-open spaces, and how would its rider adapt to a form of cycle that didn't have his best interests at heart from the get go?
posted sunday 28 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................hincapie sportswear tour lt jacket
i like my food; i'm not obsessed by it, and i'm hardly passionate about it, but nice stuff is nice stuff, and if i want to keep riding my bike (and doing other things), ingesting a decent amount is a pre-requisite. what i don't understand is why chefs have become celebrities to the extent that they have their own television programmes, and more to the point, why there are entire tv channels devoted to cooking food. most of us, incorrectly, according to nutritionists, eat pretty much the same things day after day, week after week, probably because we're that busy filling our spare hours with riding the bike, that there's no time to cook properly. so we buy frozen supermarket meals and processed food.
mrs washingmachinepost delights in watching as many of the food programmes as time will allow, but i can assure you that most of the extravagances prepared in those trendy kitchens never see the light of day on my dinner table.
surely, however, with so many hours of tv, and so many pages devoted to 101 things to do with an egg, or forty more ways to cook tagliatelle, there has to be an overlap? just like the bbc, there's bound to be at least a few repeats. does every michelin star chef spend time desperately trying to think of something that hasn't been thought of before? ragout of spinach with sour cream and creme caramel perhaps? sadly, television hasn't cottoned on to the world of cycle clothing, and those whose job it is to provide our unquenchable desire for more and varied clothing in colours that are not black or fluorescent yellow with scotchlite.
large corporates such as du pont have research and development departments beavering feverishly to mix ever more disparate oil based derivatives in the hope of making polyester and lycra into fabrics that will be remembered with affection, but stored in a darkened corner. meanwhile big barns in new zealand work from the opposite end of the candle, squirreling strands of merino into fabrics hitherto unheard of. and to them all, we must be eternally thankful; cycle clothing has come a long way since alpaca jackets and ron hill track bottoms.
if evidence of this were required, you need only grab a hincapie sportswear tour lt jacket off the peg, or at least you almost could if it came with a loop with which to hang it on. it's uncanny how something that weighs less than a few sheets of toilet paper can be offered to the great unwashed in an effort to protect their skinny little bodies from the cold wind that constantly blows around this island. it was howling today as i headed off to port charlotte for the first port mor wheelers session of 2010. the contradiction of wheelers on a saturday is the art of dressing comfortably for the 20km ride, but warm enough to stand around on the coast of loch indaal on a cold, windy march saturday morning. i will not conceal my surprise at just how well such an incredibly thin and oh so soft jacket repelled the wind. while the blurb that goes with these things doesn't mention any sort of waterproofing, the brief shower that threw at me on the way out the village just sat in droplets on the sleeves.
there's a full length zip fastening all the way up to a high collar, bolstered by an inner flap to aid windproofing behind the closure. it's really not enough nowadays to be protective alone; a refined degree of style is almost mandatory. but do you really think that a figure with the poise and, dare i say it, grace of big george would let a ruffled heap leave hincapie headquarters? you're darned toot'n he wouldn't. the tour lt jacket, despite the on the bike cut, would not look out of place in the coffee bar. in fact, it didn't: a fortunate by-product of coaching youngsters on a saturday morn is that debbie's cafe is on the way home, perfectly poised for a cheese and pickle sandwich, a soya cappuccino and a rather large slice of toffee sponge cake (a guy has to keep his strength up).
lounging about on the sofa in the corner with a foam top lip, the stretchy fabric has no restrictions, and though i opted for the bright red (it is also available in blue, black and yellow), i doubt that i stood out in polite company any more than usual. the underside of the sleeves and the lower back is coloured in a soft, dark grey, culminating in two rear pockets positioned left and right; an unusual solution. the pockets are of a mesh fabric, reflectively stamped with the hincapie logo. if i was going to be picky (and i am), it would have been nice to see a zipped pocket somewhere abouts; in the days of credit cards, debbie cards, digital cameras and mobile phones, i feel a zipped repository ought to be mandatory.
i figure it's possible to scrunch the lt jacket up small enough to shove in a back pocket, if the temperature rises more than expected, but in true senior moment style, i forgot to try. we're just entering the seasons when this jacket comes into its own; today was cold when relatively inactive, but we're all aware of just how warm it is possible to become when pedalling hard. the tour lt jacket keeps the wind at bay, and has the great good fortune to be highly breathable. i wore it over a long-sleeve merino baselayer and long-sleeve merino cycle jersey; the stretch of the fabric removes any restriction of movement. it's of admirable constitution to be of solid use until the really cold global warming bites back again next november.
stylishly cool and warm both at the same time.
the hincapie sportswear tour lt jacket retails at £79.99 ($119.99) and is available in sizes from xs to xxl. size tested was medium. thanks to david at bromley video for the review sample.
bromley video | hincapie sportswear
posted saturday 27 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................rouleur 17
it has been an interesting phenomenon to watch. if your twitter colleagues are of a cycling persuasion, the arrival of a new issue of rouleur keeps some amused, and others dismayed. it really is a disappointing situation to have someone post that their copy of the magazine has arrived, hastening an evening in front of the central heating with slippers and a tipple for a good evening's read, when the same is not applicable to self. i cannot say i have observed similar excitement or interest in the arrival of any of the more traditional cycling press (why do future insist on releasing c+ and procycling simultaneously?), so what is it that pertains especially to rouleur?
as someone who possesses a complete set of rouleurs from issue one (in fact, i have more than one issue of some of the earlier volumes that now command bizarre prices on ebay. mine are staying put), it's a magazine that has improved immeasurably with age, and one that seems intent on re-inventing the genre; just when you think it has peaked, the next issue proves you wrong. as of issue sixteen, rouleur moved from a quarterly journal to bi-monthly, a situation that allowed me the luxury of reiterating my taunt to guy andrews about the possibility of it going weekly. he had previously affirmed that the magazine would not expand from its quarterly home.
however, rouleur industries are apparently not content with sticking to regular magazine issues and an annual photo book. arriving in the fullness of time, and sooner rather than later, is metier, a collaboration between former lance domestique, michael barry, and rouleur photographer and editor at large, camille j macmillan. the book's title is explained by barry; "le metier was a phrase i heard every day as i worked toward being a pro. to me, it is the essence of cycling: devotion, work ethic, savoir-faire. an identity developed through experience". rouleur seventeen provides an excerpt from the book.
of course, that's not all: currently in italy with writer herbie sykes, photographer ben ingham is following up part two of their collaborative story of rider jan hirt. part one appears in the forthcoming issue. part two of guy andrews and taz darling's excursion to the inner sanctum of shimano, japan, herbie sykes portrays the late lamented gino bartali, while the famed mr ingham teams with editor guy andrews to profile italian steel supremos, columbus.
if you've not already experienced the joy that is the thud of a copy of rouleur dropping onto the doormat, now is as good a time as any to start with a subscription, or perhaps just the single issue if you're not too sure. it makes the regular monthlies seem pale by comparison.
just ask those on twitter.
rouleur seventeen should be with those who ordered within the week
posted friday 26 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................house industries rich roat interview
i'm sure at least one or two of you must have seen gary hustwit's film helvetica, a surprisingly cogent and interesting film about possibly the western world's most ubiquitous typeface, but mostly underlining just how much we all rely on type to make the world a more recognisable place in which to live. it's a situation that is universal to pretty much every country in the developed world: road signs, shop signs, bank statements, brochures, magazines, all trying to educate, enlighten, and identify themselves from the crowd. theoretically, none of us should notice this at all; typefaces, by and large, are supposed to be all but transparent in use, providing information without getting in the way of our reading.
of course, there are always exceptions to this, and there are umpteen cases of typefaces (or fonts, as we in the trade are wont to call them) being used as graphical devices. check the lettering on the downtubes of some of today's frame builders; the wonderful script used by sacha white at vanilla, the almost charles rennie mackintosh lettering employed by tony pereira, the compactness of the word cielo from northwest nela street, and the sturdy, often bright yellow lettering on a richard sachs frame.
which brings me rather neatly, if a little contrived, to the subject of house industries, an independent type foundry (a word carried over from the days when fonts were cast in metal) living in delaware, usa who, last cross season, had their name clearly emblazoned on the jerseys of the richard sachs racing team. we are all used to companies with no real connection to the cycling world being involved in sponsorship, but as far as i know, this is the first time a digital type foundry has entered the fray. an intriguing situation, though totally in keeping with the eccentricity that comes along with richard sachs (and i mean that in a very good way).
so i asked rich roat, one of the originators of house industries, how this happened.
posted friday 26 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................ergonomics
tambourines are nowadays often associated with rock singers who have nothing else to do while the guitar solo is in progress, or perhaps more readily with the outer fringes of the salvation army band. some, such as phil collins in the heyday of genesis as a live band, go to great lengths to involve acrobatics with the instrument (i know what i like on seconds out), but it's probably not fully recognised for one of its major features. it's very awkward to play.
because the instrument is round, and requires to be held somewhere about its circumference, the leverage induced eventually provides the player with either a sore hand, sore wrist or both. however, not so many years ago, an unknown musician, likely fed up with aching upper limbs, had the very clever idea of inverting one half of the circle, thus re-shaping the tambourine as a crescent moon shape. with the principal point of leverage now effectively moved inside the circle, the balance point became more tenable and subsequently more comfortable.
ergonomics
it's a word that can often be used in parallel with anatomics, the latter more specifically applied to use by human beings, and it is this that has shaped a number of the contact points on the modern day bicycle. take our saddles for instance. many of the minimalistic and futuristically shaped currently available, elicit a watering of the eyes in those more used to shopping bikes with wicker baskets, but for the purpose for which they were designed, such minimalism has anatomical precedence. when in a stretched out position along that lengthy top tube, the absence of wings for want of a better analogy, allows the thigh muscles to operate unfettered. if you've ever tried unfettered acceleration on a brooks b135, you will likely still have the chafing to prove it. but those of a more sedate and upright position will welcome the additional support of the helicopter landing pad and sturdy springs.
assuming the quest for the ultimate in ergonomics/anatomics on the modern day bicycle to be spread uniformly across the whole, one then has to wonder what happened at the front end. i'm talking about handlebars. for years these described a natural and consistent curve from top to bottom, and while i have heard little in the way of complaint from those devoid of options, that may well have been the reason for their silence. at some point, someone within the handlebar industry seems to have realised that the palms of human hands do not describe an inverted bend when grasping the lower part of a drop handlebar, and decided to flatten this out, later adding a significant bump to increase the apparent anatomical benefit. view one of these bars in profile, however, and it is noticeable that the flat part is angled away from the brake lever, giving rise to an increase in the stretch required by the fingers to reach the lever blade.
this came very much to light a few years back when riding a test bike back from jura distillery. the road from craighouse to the ferry at feolin has a lengthy downhill section populated by wandering sheep and cattle, and not an inconsiderable amount of gravel. it is prudent to proceed in the drops with fingers on the levers should an unpredictable sheep decide to be unpredictable in front of the bike. by the time i reached the ferry, i had remarkably sore thumbs, the reason for which escaped me at the time, but was subsequently recognised as being due to the stretch of keeping tabs on the bars while feathering the brakes. this is not an ailment i have noticed on my classic bend oval concept bars.
i know many who swear by anatomics, even though, from a style point of view, they have little to recommend themselves, but it is entirely possible that those who remain supportive do not have gravelly roads with sheep that venture downhill. but i do not find the ergonomics of the classic bend to be in any way objectionable. there is, i know, a sort of half-way house, with bars that emulate the smooth bend by executing a parabola on their way to the end plugs, but since this, by its very nature is an ever increasing curve, a similar discrepancy occurs between bars and levers.
so is there any possibility we could be a bit more sparing in the spread of anatomica? my thumbs would thank you for it.
posted thursday 25 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................wire we waiting?
actually, that title would be more accurately phrased as whatever happened to campagnolo's electronics?, since their much lauded and tested system seems to have disappeared without trace. i should qualify all of the following by clearly stating that i don't find myself unquestionably in favour of fly-by-wire, but it seems that the possible dawn of a new age has fizzled before the pop. shimano's di2 seems to have been quite successful, despite the rather high price of admission, with more than just a few of the big people producing frames capable of hiding the wiry bits. i will confess that testing the groupset on a focus last year was quite good fun, particularly endlessly changing the front gear just for the pure amusement of so doing. very star wars.
worrying about whether the battery would last the distance turned out to be a misplaced fear, but did somewhat colour the initial outings, until i realised it had more life than that of my ipod. even after the novelty wears off, and di2 becomes just another gearset, it continued to undertake its given tasks with no fuss and no fol-de-rol. in fact, probably the most disappointing aspect of the whole shebang was that it worked almost faultlessly, even through initial setup. i can't hide the fact that, as a confirmed campyphile, there would have been just a smidgeon of satisfaction had it faltered even just a couple of times. but it didn't. not once.
spy photos of campagnolo's similar system which, if common knowledge is to be believed, actually pre-dates shimano's parallel development, showed an arguably more stylish set of gears. there was certainly a touch more carbon fibre, but then we've come to expect that from vicenza anyway. but you do have to wonder about the wisdom of spending so many research and development euros building various editions of an electronic system only to put it back in the cupboard when that eleventh sprocket came along.
i have no idea how many man hours were spent at campagnolo engineering another sprocket into the same space as ten, and making the chain thinner to shoe-horn it in between the increased number of revolving teeth, both front and back, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, that in full knowledge of this development, which i doubt was a spur of the moment decision, the electronic programme didn't take account of that spinal tap moment. i'm accustomed to plying my keyboard over facts of which i know little, but surely all that required to be done to bring it up to speed (did you see what i did there?) was add an extra notch in the solenoid that actuates the rear derailleur? let's face it, the front hasn't effectively changed in any meaningful way. that would have doubly upstaged osaka by adding a gear and offering it with switches.
but in the time that shimano has offered effortlessness, however their marketing people wish to defend that, nobody else seems to be climbing aboard the bandwagon. unless they're being very very secret squirrel, it doesn't look like sram are heading in the same direction, campagnolo will apparently not discuss the electronics (i know, i tried), and i don't see anyone from outside heading inwards. of course, i have no idea of the economics: in the uk the retail price, heavily discounted against shimano's recommended numbers, seems to be just south of £2500, over £1000 more than standard dura-ace. what i don't know is the markup, and whether all the work involved actually makes shimano any money. perhaps if an ultegra version appears, we'll know whether there's life in the old girl yet.
i mention all this because i thought that perhaps those of us of a velocipedinal nature were about to become the next conquest in the iphone app syndrome. shimano's di2 relies entirely on tactile switches on the brake levers, though i believe they have rather expensively introduced a switch kit that allows the rider to position switches in a second, perhaps more convenient location. but a switch is a switch is a switch, however it is actuated, and while i appreciate that shimano are attempting to replicate the touch and feel of the cable system, theoretically, attaching the wires to an iphone (or similar) would allow change simply by touch. i can't think of any situation where this would be a pertinent solution, but then i don't own an iphone and nor have i any desperate need to acquire di2. when you have folks such as garmin involved in producing little boxes of electronics to stick on the top of the stem, the connection and interface possibilities become somewhat endless.
but it's not my idea of cycling, a philosophy that doubtless coincides with many others. that, however, is unlikely ultimately to stop progress in an electronic direction. but you have to admit, it does seem to have stalled for the time being, and i'm keen to see if something comes in from left field.
what say you campagnolo (or sram, or garmin)?
posted wednesday 24 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................new life for old threads
around autumn time last year, a bicycle shaped object turned up in the garden behind washingmachinepost cottage, entirely unannounced, un-named and with no forwarding address. this, i should point out, is not that unusual, since many such machines have done so over the years, and their respective owners are often met during saturday morning shopping, enquiring after their repairs. in this case, however, the machine (and i use the word advisedly), still sits there forlornly, still a hapless orphan.
working on the basis that this would not have been the case for so long, i had given the bso the once over and decided that it needed a new rear wheel, since the one with which it arrived resembled one of those pringle crisps and had precious little chance of passing the brake pads on either side. the necessary was ordered and fitted, but in the process of checking all was correctly adjusted, the chainset was found to be only just nudging the description of round. the mechanical efficiency of the bicycle was not assisted by the fact that the forks had been fitted the wrong way round; in short, a bit of a wreck. it's an unfortunate fact, indicative of the current methodology of building bicycles, that carrying out the necessary repairs, would have cost more than the whole shebang cost in the first place.
and so the bicycle shaped object is still sitting behind the house, because the minute i decide it should go to the great landfill at gartbreck, someone will appear at the front door, asking if their bicycle has been repaired. you may laugh, but it's happened on two previous occasions. but wouldn't it be rather fitting if this heap were able to be upcycled, a term applied to that of re-using something to create a value greater than that of the original?
what i'm suggesting is that, for instance, i place the offending article into a box, and send it off to colnago in italy, where they work their magic with brazing rods and chrome, returning it only a few weeks later as a fully-fledged colnago master x-light. of course, chance would be a fine thing, but you get the general idea. fortunately, the guys at faction cycling in chicago illinois, have taken this very principle to heart and upcycled a, by now, sold out range of cycling caps. named after favoured streets (balmoral, belmont, lyndale etc.) in chicago, these have been created from clothing salvaged from thrift stores around the town, and carefully hand-washed before assembly. because the caps are made from a variety of salvaged material, the numbers of each style vary between one only, and perhaps five. by the very nature of the beast, when they're gone, they're gone.
however, in order to provide an alternative to a candlelight vigil by the faction website, eager to nab an upcycled cap the second they become available, you can sign up for faction's newsletter which will, in the fulness of time, provide first dibs to those connected, before the pics and sales go live on the website. this has to be one of those enterprises that was designed to fit the epithet a very good idea. these are exciting and individualistic times in regions of the cycling world, from a flurry of resurgence in the world of fanzines (more later) to this current opportunity to acquire unique and stylish headwear.
at the time of writing, all the first range of faction upcycled caps have sold out ($29 each), but in the words of the infamous jiminy cricket 'there's more'. if you'd like to be advised of the availabliity of round two, take a clip over to the website and sign up for the newsletter. rumour has it that future editions may feature embroidered upcyclery, and you really wouldn't want to be missing out on those.
would you?
posted tuesday 23 march 2010
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the athlete's plate - adam kelinson velopress 282pp illus. £17.95
i can remember a particular school holiday in my very early teens, when cycling was only something i did to deliver papers of a morning, being somewhat at a loose end for however many days schoolkids got for holidays then. i was too young to get a job anywhere, but too old to accompany parents to the supermarket or other mundane daily chores, so i turned to television, the very object that is currently partly blamed for the obesity epidemic much written and talked about nowadays. except rather than watching so-called trash, i found a daily dose of yoga expounded by the late richard hittleman. not quite so high up the popularity stakes as it is now (velopress have published at least a couple of volumes on the subject in recent years), this stuff was intriguing; it coincided with that eager to learn phase that i was (and still am) going through, and it looked very much like you could get yourself fit without much in the way of physical action.
over the holiday period, this was eagerly watched and practised everyday; i can't remember whether it actually made me fitter and more flexible or not, though i suffer from few ailments all these years later, having continued the practise up until the early nineties, coincidentally when richard hittleman passed away. it is strange, to me at least, that the only part of that series that i can confidently recall was mr hittleman's contention that, the more yoga was practised, the less the body would rely on meat as a part of the daily diet. i do remember thinking that this couldn't possibly be true, since i couldn't see the connection. but only a year or so later, i became, and have remained a vegetarian. i have no truck with the posters seen in butcher shop windows that proudly and dogmatically state meat to live. because i'm proving otherwise.
the practising of yoga, pilates and other alternative forms of exercise is now well documented even within the pages of such as cycling weekly, but in the real world are still often viewed with a degree of suspicion. it wouldn't be the first time i've been referred to as a 'hippy', though i don't suppose the shoulder length hair does much to countermand. yet despite this being an epithet aimed in my direction, i can't help passing this along in the direction of mr kelinson, author of this fine book on healthy eating for those with more on their mind than watching yoga programmes on telly. it may well be that his enthusiasm for proper eating, for fresh ingredients, proper nutrients and the like are well intentioned, but he does tend to go on a bit.
the early, opening chapters mention farmers' markets a bit more often than is necessarily prudent in my opinion, and i can't help thinking that his case may have been helped a tad if the writing were a bit more down to earth. there can be little doubt that kelinson undertsands the contribution that each particular food group makes to our daily wellbeing, and it is also possible that he lives not a wheel's throw away from an entire city of farmers' markets. this may be more of a north american thing than that of the uk, but having notionally investigated the possibility of making a short movie pertaining to one of the recipes to accompany this review, i found it well nigh impossible to complete the ingredient list for even one of the recipes. islay is likely a special case in this respect, since farmers' markets are somewhat thin on the ground over here; farmers there are by the dozen, but it's all beef and sheep and no veg.
that said, the recipes, all eighty five of them, are more than likely to aid and abet not only your health and vitality, but also the workings of your digestion. there are easy (if you can find the ingredients) recipes for dressings, dips and toppings, soups, grains, seafoood, meat, pasta; all the usual suspects, so if you find your current nutritional training regime to be a bit heavy going, and you're willing to put up with a bit of excessively earnest and precious writing, this might just be the book for you. it's certainly worth the price of admission for the recipes alone.
the athlete's plate by adam kelinson, is available from cordee books for £17.95
posted monday 22 march 2010
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