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flandrien - rouleur five
when i visited rapha in april this year, rouleur editor, guy andrews handed me a small, square, perfectly formed hardback book with a black and white portrait on the cover - a portfolio of works by noted belgian photographer, stephan venfleteren, entitled 'flandrien': cyclisme in belgium. and while i'd love to give me credit for remembering not only the book's title, but the photographer's name, it was only a missive from mr andrews today informing of the contents of rouleur five (due at the end of this month) that brought to light what i had been looking at.
you really will want to see and read this feature, along with dario pegoretti, greg lemond, matt seaton's conversation with andy hampsten, and a revisit to the oft criticised campag delta brakes (a pair of which resides in thewashingmachinepost bike shed - yes really). rouleur is published quarterly at a cost of £9 ($16) and has slowly, but successfully invaded the published world of cycling, due to highly creditable writing and exceptional photography. absolutely nothing at all like cycle sport or procycling, if you haven't already availed yourself of a copy of this well kept secret, pop over to rapha's website and order a copy. or it's possible to buy a four issue subscription for only £34 ($85).
i had the last copy autographed by ernesto colnago, and he asked if i could send him another one - if it's good enough for ernesto, what are you waiting for?
posted wednesday 16 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................it's good to torq
i'm assuming that by now, we're all pretty much agreed that if we're going to cycle a lot of kilometres at one time it's a pretty good idea to replace most, if not all, of the energy that is being expended. or the short version - a guy's gotta eat (or girls, to remain politically correct). and you can read as much as you like about how many calories of carbs, how many of protein and how many salts need to compose this munching, but if it tastes like cr@p, then it will probably remain in the wrapper/bottle instead of fulfilling its life's mission.
in the process of endless research on your behalf, i have drunk some pretty mean tasting powders and chewed manfully through bars that have been only marginally more flavourable than the wrappers surrounding them. granted when the polar shows calorie expenditure into the thousands, there's a good chance you or i would stuff our faces with pretty much anything. but that's hardly the point.
when i was recently contacted by joe gardias about the 'torq-colnago' squad for a brief piece on the societa colnago pages of these pixels, the products of half of the sponsorship were brought to light, namely those produced by matt hart's torq consultancy. matt is a pro-elite mountain biker who holds a bsc honours in sports science and operates a performance consultancy in shropshire. and as a logical progression from teaching sports people how to improve their endurance and fitness, hart developed a variety of powders and munchy bars.
so as a companion piece to, and also as a logical progression from the torq colnago racing squad, matt sent a representative sample of torq products for thewashingmachinepost to field test. however, the fields were ignored and i used them on the road while undertaking a 130km training ride. in the torq bottle (almost a pre-requisite in order for the supplied scoop to fit in the neck) was some lemon and lime energy drink which is quite possibly the most pleasant tasting carbo drink i've had since isostar. and it's not all show and no go, or rather, it is - lots of go. while i should have taken more liquid with me for the ride, the carbo content was a vast improvement over the normal diluted fresh orange of previous rides.
in the back pocket, four munchy bars from the range: sun dried banana, raspberry and apple, tangy apricot, and the really unusual pineapple and ginger. all bars are soft and chewy, and much more teeth friendly than some others i could mention. and they all taste as they should, which makes you look forward to unwrapping the next. in terms of carb replacement i can honestly say they are an excellent alternative to the jam sandwiches i usually take, and a darn sight more effective. planning only to do 100km, i added another 30km because i had torq in pocket and bottle.
and just in case you're of the old school, such as our directeur sportif, and have an aversion to anything other than plain water, torq also offer an unflavoured carbo drink, which doesn't taste of anything (surprisingly enough) other than water. but also unsurprisingly, it replaces carbs a lot more efficiently than plain water.
i loved the stuff, and i may well purchase more bars and secretly stash them for london-paris. it will definitely be lemon and lime in the bottles (plural)
all these products are available to purchase online from the torq website. prices range from £9 for a 500g tub of flavoured energy powder to £50 for a 10kg tub. the natural powder costs from £8 to £45 for 10kg. you can also purchase a five flavour mix of 500g tubs for £30. bottles cost from £4 for one.
the fruit energy bars cost from £27.60 for a box of 24, but if you'd like to try the flavours on offer, then there's a sample pack of eight bars for £10.
posted sunday 13 may 2007
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there's good news - and there's bad news
i am a great believer in letting heart rule head when it comes to cycling or, to be more precise, when it comes to bicycles. if that weren't the case, i'd probably have a carrera from halfords or a saracen road bike - no deference to either brand, but it's not the sort of steed you'd find fausto or eddy riding the last few stages of pavé in paris roubaix. i'd just drag the dirt encrusted machine from thewashingmachinepost bike shed and get on with it.
but i'm not like that, and i'm willing to bet that neither are most of the rest of you out there. we demand something with a bit of character, a bit of history (however brief) and just the faintest whiff of a great palmares. that's why i can be found on a colnago. and a rider who could also have been found on a colnago during his career, was the aforementioned eddy merckx. and here's where the good news starts.
the exclusive uk agent for eddy merckx bikes, fk marketing, have been granted access to the remaining stock of steel frames from the date when merckx ceased steel production (that, in case you almost missed it, was the bad news). despite the droolsworthy pics that accompany this article, the frames are currently 'in the raw', meaning that they still require a special phosphor coating before they are painted. this latter fact means that sales need to be at least twenty frames, since that's the smallest number the phosphorelation plant will take.
sizes are slightly on the erratic side: 51cm mx leader and slx, 52cm strada os and mx leader, 53cm mx leader, 54cm strada os and then nothing at all until we get to the step ladder inducing 62cm slx, tsx, sl, strada and strada os. graeme at fk marketing says that as far as he knows, chrome will not be an option, but he's checking just in case. all are likely to be supplied with a matching painted steel fork (does anyone else have the hairs standing on the back of their neck?) and you have free-range of any classic eddy merckx finishes including molteni (yes, yes, yes), motorola, deutsche telekom, 7-11 (strong possibility), domex, hitachi, kelme, gan etc, or you could settle for just a plain colour.
prices range from £585 
for the corsa 01 and from £735 for the mxl. if you're a merckx aficionado, or someone who knows style and heritage when they see it, contact graeme at
gfk@fk-marketing.co.uk.
but if you want one, contact sooner rather than later, because once they're gone - they're gone. (perhaps if there is a huge demand, eddy will reconsider having stopped making steel frames and join ernesto in offering contemporary steel.)
the current range of merckx frames can be seen at
fk-marketing.co.uk.
posted friday 11 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................i'm sorry, but it's true
we're generally a friendly lot over here, something that has been often remarked upon by visitors to the island. and an interesting custom that seems unique to islay - though i'd be happy to find out it happens elsewhere - is that car drivers, truck drivers, bus drivers, cyclists et al, tend to wave to those passing in the opposite direction. granted, some of this waving has become almost an involuntary action amongst locals (self-included), but many a visitor has bemusedly waved in return, thinking that they have obviously been mistaken for someone else.
as a cyclist, you may find this an almost unremarkable - i mean passing cyclists always wave to each other don't they? well, that's what i though too, but having passed two sets of visiting cyclists last weekend who all but ignored the waving pedallist with the peugeot jersey (and that's verging on blasphemy if you ask me), now i'm not too sure.
even if you pass on the 'we need to maintain solidarity in the face of the scavenging motorist', we are at least united in the perpetual struggle against the wind (if you've been to islay on a bike, you'll know of which i speak). and therefore it would be nice to acknowledge our brotherhood/sisterhood as we float/suffer dependent on direction. and a wave is a nice way to do so if you're too knackered to speak (not that i ever find myself in such a physical state, you understand).
so, buoyed by the feeling of power engendered by my declaration of the robert millar weekend, i am now unilaterally declaring it a bye-law applicable to islay (i'm willing to discuss franchising with interested parties) that visiting cyclists must return or initiate a friendly wave.
and that's my final word on the subject (maybe)
posted thursday 10 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................robert millar bank holiday weekend
it's amazing what you can do if you put your mind (or website) to it. if i had enough interest in politics to know which government department to lobby, i'd give it a try, though i'm not sure on what grounds. i am, of course referring to the robert millar bank holiday weekend which has been officially designated (only by me, i hasten to add) for saturday 26th, sunday 27th and monday 28th of may.
this idea originated during my review of the descente panasonic jersey (see below) from prendas, if only because it meant that i could now wear peugeot on saturday, panasonic on sunday and 'z' on monday and have a robert millar weekend. since i thought there may be others daft enough to join in, but without the time to order a jersey before the bank holiday weekend we've just had (all these holidays apply to the uk, but foreign parts are just as welcome). i simply grabbed the nearest bank holiday i could find.
a chord was obviously struck, since i've had a number of e-mails from across the globe accepting that this may just be a good idea (and how often does one of those come along?) and expressing a desire to join in. so that makes it official. it's fairly easy to get the peugeot and panasonic jerseys, and if you don't have a third, then just wear one twice - but equally, if you have a fagor, le groupement, tvm or such, feel free to wear that instead. if you're feeling really dangerous, you could always take those polka dots out the wardrobe.
you know it doesn't even come close to making sense.
posted tuesday 8 may 2007
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................... >the bees knees
you'll laugh when i tell you, though i would have thought that someone of my cycling years would have known better and been better prepared: while covering every kilometre i could find last weekend, i found myself achieving that 'kilometre too far'. well, actually it was quite a lot of kilometres too far, and i had no food left. i have no wish to underline any failings in the food and provisions department, since i am generally well prepared, but having encountered a headwind somewhat stiffer than anticipated, more energy was used overcoming (now, there's a great title for a cycling movie) and i believe 'pedalling squares' is the generic term for what ensued.
fortunately such sustenance deprivation should now be a thing of the past since jez, he of islay birding/bushcraft and occasional washingmachinepost fame has graciously undertaken to sponsor my nosh requirements both for training and cycling the london paris at the end of next month.
this sponsorship takes the form of the bars and honey sachets pictured above (actually rather a lot more than in the pic, but you get the idea) available in honey/peanut butter or chocolate/peanut butter flavours (energy bars) for £1.35, peanut butter, chocolate cherry almond or coconut almond (protein bars) £2.00 it's the inclusion of honey (hence the stinger moniker) as the main source of carbs. and believe me, not only do they taste good (i love peanut butter) but they work, both for energy while slogging and protein for recovery - though i've opted not to munch the coconut because i don't like it.
however, the sting in the tail (if you'll pardon the glaringly obvious pun) is the honey gel - absaflippinlutely gorgeous. i swear i could manage 100k just fuelled on these alone, and then have another few when i get home. all the above stinger products are available from islaybirding, and jez is currently doing free postage on three or more. if you're on the other side of the atlantic, log on to honeystinger.com, based in steamboat springs, colorado.
no more pedalling squares.
posted monday 7 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................king of the hill
i seem to have inadvertantly proved the point of the following article by having forgotten 
all about it a few hundred pixels further down. i'm a great fan of long-term tests of bicycles and their components because they tend to give a better idea as to the suitability of whatever is being tested. pretty much all new stuff does what it says on the tin, but it's how long it continues to do so that's really what we all want to know.
if you take a gander at one of the previous postings below, you will notice that there are long term reports on tyres and a helmet, but before i had either item on test, i had a chris king 'pretty and strong' headset fitted to the colnago (it matches the rapha stowaway). now seven months is not much of a long-term in the life of a chris king headset - the warranty lasts ten years, but there is quite a difference between it and its predecessor. with good reason.
the original used standard cup and cone bearings were pumelled 
with a vengeance by argyll and bute's total lack of road surface and a good few cattle grids into the bargain. by the time it had been in situ for a couple of years, not only did it not look too good, but it required constant attention having entered the dreaded 'indexed steering' mode. this latter is usually caused by what is technically known as brinelling: the lower set of bearings punch little dents into the crown race. smoothness then becomes a distant memory.
chris king headsets, on the other hand, use pre-installed cartridge bearings, none of which have any contact with the crown race, or the top race for that matter. and the bearings are pretty well sealed against the elements. admittedly, they are not the only ones using this method (colnago's headsets also employ cartridge bearings), but they are generally reckoned to be amongst the best in the world.
and that's pretty much how i proved my own point: i figure that the best compliment you can pay a cycle component is to forget all about it because it does its job without attracting attention. and i forgot all about the chris king headset, even though it's pink and in my face regularly. the headset was adjusted after the first ride last october, and it has not been touched since. and just to put that in perspective, my current training route takes me over a series of 'b' roads (allegedly - they are mostly single track farm roads with grass growing along the middle) and each loop traverses six cattle grids, few of which have much in common with the level of the surrounding tarmac (one of them actually has a sign warning drivers to take it carefully because it's in the process of falling apart). and i usually cover the route at least twice.
the headset moveth not.
posted saturday 5 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................chipping pin
what on earth has happened to standards? i have often heard the accusation levelled at campagnolo for having overbuilt many of their components in the past, an accusation that has always filled me with confidence. but when it comes to installing their latest ultra chains, in the words of droopy, 'that makes me mad.'
for those not familiar, their ten speed chains require to be connected using a special rivet which is fed into the side plate with a guide pin then pushed home with an appropriate rivet tool (although campag would have you believe it should only be done with their very expensive tool, i have managed well with a park workshop tool). so where's the problem?
well, a few years back, the guide pins were made from steel - an eminently suitable choice, given that it's about to undergo considerable force while the rivet breaches the side plate hole. in an ideal world, the force on the pin would be parallel to the direction of the rivet, but in the real world, having to push the rivet from the back of the chain means that it's unlikely to proceed exactly to plan. the last two campag chorus ultra chains i've fitted to the colnago have had the guide pin made of alloy - and not very substantial alloy at that. and you can guess what happened - yes, the insert on the guide pin snapped off the minute any pressure was applied.
now fortunately for moi, i had one of the old steel guide pins stashed in a drawer in thewashingmachinepost bike shed (who'd have thought?), and it has been brought back into service on the last two occasions. the rivet slid into place without so much as a whimper. i'm sure i'll now receive a deluge of e-mails from mechanics up and down the country pointing out how ham fisted i must be and educating me as to how it should be done. but in my defence, i have been working on bicycles professionally for the last seventeen years, and have a reasonably good idea of what i'm doing. it's only since campagnolo replaced the steel guide pin with an alloy version that the problem above has shown face.
so come on campag, give us back the steel pin - no need to save weight on the installation procedure.
posted friday 4 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................just a phase i'm going through
retro is in, as if you hadn't noticed, and i indulged in a bout of it last weekend myself. so encouraged by this was i, that the post has decided to declare a national (or international) weekend of retroness - not sure if there's such a word - but with a specific subject. would it work in any other way? i doubt it.
so, the bank holiday at the end of this month will heretofore be known as the robert millar bank holiday weekend, and it will work in this way: on saturday we'll all wear our peugeot jerseys, on sunday it'll be an homage to bob's panasonic years, and we'll round it off nicely on monday with one of those 'z' jerseys. the only fly in the millar ointment is, if you haven't already got a 'z' jersey, then i don't know where you can get one.
however, the first two i can help you with, or to be more specific, i know a couple of guys who can. andy and mick at prendas ciclismo have peugeot short or long sleeve tops (short sleeve weather at the moment), peugeot shorts, and rounded off with a peugeot cap. they've even got peugeot socks. panasonic jersey and cap are also easily accessible, and we're over half way there. price for peugeot short sleeve is £35 (about $70) while the panasonic is ten pounds more at £45 (around $90).
as you can see from the pic, the panasonic is made by descente, to a remarkably high standard, using one of those clever 'wicking' fabrics. it features a three-quarter length, partially concealed zip (for those hot days) and the ubiquitous three rear pockets. the fit is slim, which suits me just fine, but don't pretend: if you are edging towards 'chunky', it might be better to shift up a size. (prendas have thoughtfully included a size chart on their site).
since the robert millar bank holiday doesn't start until 26th may, that leaves plenty of time to have the necessary items despatched, though you may struggle to grow that ponytail in time.
take a quick peek at the photo above and you may also notice that a musette of a retro nature has squeezed into the picture. closed with a press stud at the top, it's just ideal for all the munchy bars that simply won't fit in the rear pockets. this one's branded faemina (italian makers of coffee machines who sponsored eddy merckx in 1970) and a snip at £6 (about $12) which is also the price for any of the huge range of cycling caps currently stocked by prendas. i have a selection in front of me including eddy merckx, ti raleigh, 7-11, renault (i notice there are renault branded bikes available now), fausto coppi bianchi - you get the idea. buy four and it'll only cost £20 ($40) 7-11 and ti raleigh are £7.50 each or four for £25. postage is free.
then you can have your own retro weekend.
worth pointing out that the robert millar bank holiday weekend will be seven days prior to the launch of richard moore's 'in search of robert millar'. thewashingmachinepost will have a review of the book prior to its release and you can then make your way to the old kiln cafe, ardbeg distillery on sunday june 17th (start of national bike week) for a talk on the writing of the book by richard moore. signed copies will also be available.
posted thursday 3 may 2007
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................have i mentioned this before?
since i'm quite a light person (weight wise, that is), i'm not very heavy on components. i replace my chain at four monthly intervals as a matter of course, and i replace tyres when i think they need replaced, which brings me to my first mention. my regular reader will remember that last october the company colnago was shod with schwalbe ultremos, and while it is eminently possible to pedal about for a few kilometres then type a review (which i did), it's the long term that makes all the difference.
a few months back, the original rear ultremo had to be replaced because islay's roads had put at least one too many pock marks in its hide, threatening the integrity of the casing. that happened at around 1500km, a lot less than i would have hoped or expected to get out of a road tyre, though if you've ever seen the road surfaces over here, it's not too much of a surprise. the front however, is still the same one fitted last october, and despite the occasional surface nick, it seems to be holding up well and it's now well past the 3000km mark.
so if your roads have a smoother surface than paris roubaix, then your mileage/kilometrage should fair better than mine. definitely a thumbs up on the ultremo front. when either wear out, they will be replaced with same. can't say fairer than that.
and the other bit of cycling necessity that has been on long term test has not been put to the use for which it was ultimately designed. and for that i am truly thankful. last year the giro pneumo was retired after years of faithful service, and replaced by a catlike whisper helmet from prendas. that the catlike is an order of magnitude lighter than the giro can be evidenced by the fact that several times after the sunday ride, i have cycled merrily off from debbie's, soundly espressoed, only to have the horrible feeling that i've left the catlike sitting on the velo club d'ardbeg shelf. not so (happily), but anyone who refuses to wear a helmet because of the weight is on very shaky ground with the whisper.
a colleague once remarked that he didn't wear a helmet because overheating of the head was not a state he was willing to endure (on islay?). the whisper has more vents than frank vandenbroucke has excuses, so head-ventilation has never been a problem, and my hair has not yet frozen in the draught, so insulation is not missing either. with the mercury rising month after month, i expect to be very happy with the whisper this coming summer. and a bit like buying a new computer only to discover there's a new one twice as powerful for half the price with a bigger monitor, the 2007 catlike whisper now comes from prendas with a free pod in which to place the helmet when not in use. mine sits in a cupboard. still only £119.95.
posted wednesday 2 may 2007
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