thewashingmachinepost




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flat top with fenders

flat top with fenders

many years ago, far too many to accurately indicate, i was in aberdeen, scotland. i was there spending several years at grays school of art, feverishly (occasionally) working away in that ivory tower with my fellow ivory tower workers, intent on beautifying the world by means of our artistic endeavours. and one of the corollaries of being an art student was that it was incumbent on us, from time to time, to visit aberdeen art gallery and continue our education by means of extra-curricular absorption. it's funny the sort of nonsense that remains lodged in the brain cells after just so many years, but as part of an exhibition glorifying aspects of the nineteen fifties, was an illustration of various american army haircuts (don't ask), including my favourite - flat top with fenders. i should point out that this is not a haircut to which i have any particular affinity, i just liked the illustration and the appellation.

however, as i recall, my reason for being in the art gallery looking at said illustration was not specifically to enlighten my visual artistic senses, but those of an aural nature. a local jazz combo - the brian middleton quintet - were giving a lunchtime recital, and i was wandering round the adjacent exhibition while waiting for the proceedings to start. as i have doubtless mentioned on more occasions than you'd care to remember, i harbour drumming aspirations, and at one time rather fancied myself behind a snazzy gretsch jazz kit. in the nineteen seventies - for it is that particular decade currently under discussion - gretsch had an entire range of whirly/whorly laminate coverings hiding the wood underneath, the sort of thing that your parents used to wallpaper the hall with, having been children of the sixties.

these were particularly hideous in retrospect, but like many fashions, they seemed the bees knees at the time. how i would love to have had one of those in the drum cupboard. but as has been pointed out more than once by those in the percussion arena, why is it that serious intruments such as cellos, violins, guitars, pianos etc, feature a natural wood finish, allowing the wood to breathe and resonate as it probably should, while drummers, having striven for years to escape the showmanship tag appended after the great gene krupa's exploits, seem only to have been supplied with various sparkles, pearls and whorly patterns?

i can see that some of you are becoming restless at the back, and asking each other 'what the heck has all this to do with bicycles?. well, i have just finsihed reviewing the rather fabulous colnago cx-1 which arrived with its angular red and white paint job, similar in fact to the black and white variation featured on its revolution partner, the eps. and i can't be the only one to have noticed the extreme paucity of artistic integrity applied to almost ninety percent of the current offerings that the manufacturers would have us acquire. so while 2008 was designated (by me, that is) the year of the handbuilt wheel, hows about we make 2009 the year of the single, plain colour bicycle frame?

retro colour schemes such as the molteni, saronni and zabel offerings from colnago qualify despite the contrasting stripe bearing the manufacturer's name, because... well, because i say so. and while i rather identify with the airbrushed delight on my colnago c40, nothing beats a beautifully applied, single colour to a frameset of whatever material. surely few will disagree that one of the finest looking bicycles from the past century was the celeste blue bianchi of fausto coppi? and look how bianchi have lost this heritage with their more recent offerings.

and while being accused of ludditeness is not something new to me, this is not what has provoked this notion; no, this is all in the name of style and decorum. i know that most of the world's bike companies have already announced, built and painted their 2009 ranges, so it's somewhat unfeasable that they all spin on a sixpence, and redesign their brochures and websites, having seen the light, so to speak. but it's not outwith the bounds of reality that 2009 could be the year when such realisation takes place.

there are, of course, several frame makers and bicycle companies in this big wide world who have never deviated from the path of one colour: to them, i am truly grateful. ok, so there hasn't been a wholesale move to handbuilt wheels over the past twelve months, but somebody has to stand up and be counted.

twmp

posted on friday 26 december 2008

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the x factor

factor 001

you may recall the occasional updates relating to the factor 001, a state of the art carbon bicycle being constructed by beru systems. the difference between the factor 001 and every other state of the art carbon bicycle to which we are regularly exposed, is that this one is not even considering a racing career. beru systems have their heritage in formula one motor car racing, giving them a head start when it comes to the manipulation of carbon fibre, though why on earth it has taken so long to construct the first bike (as of december 08) is quite beyond me. that's pretty much a year since it was first announced.

superficialities, however, play as much a part in the high end of the market as they do on supermarket bicycles: customer feedback has apparently vetoed plain carbon in favour of paint, so the bike will be offered in white, with other colour options on request. considering the basic machine is expected to retail at around £10,000 ($14,700) a colour option would seem to me to be the very least a prospective customer should be allowed.

and as if to underline its non-use as a racing machine, the factor 001 will arrive with hydraulic disc brakes, a technological feature currently disallowed by the ever perceptive uci. however, not for beru some of the nice shiny fancy shaped discs that have appeared on mountain bikes: the 001 will be using a composite ceramic disc that will, apparently, ensure performance at all temperatures. just how fast are they expecting this machine to ride?

with the expected launch of the bicycle in spring, beru now turn their attention to testing - a very formula one thing to do. the factor 001 is intended be the first truly contemporary training aid for the serious athlete, encompassing a fully integrated, multi-channel ergonometric data recording system providing more athletic performance data than can currently be recorded. riders and their coaches should now be able to collect and analyse laboratory-quality data on and from the bike. their words, not mine.

if you'd like to keep up to date with this somewhat mysterious project, go to factor001.com to sign up for the newsletter.

twmp

posted on thursday 25 december 2008

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come the revolution - colnago cx-1

colnago cx-1

any cycle manufacturer who brings a new model to market is going to hype it to the ceiling, broadcasting the uniqueness of vision and construction that they have brought to the world, and how cycling will never be the same again. but real revolution in the bicycle world has to be handled with care. there is undoubtedly an emerging youthful market that happily believes much of this marketing speak, or who hold it in with some suspicion, but want the products anyway, while there is perhaps a need not to alienate the legacy customer who is, after all, responsible for getting said manufacturer to the status currently enjoyed. as i said, a dangerous place to be.

colnago announced their 2009 revolution in may of 2008, the first model of this apparently to be continued trend being the cx-1. colnago are not entirely misleading in their revolution appellation: the front triangle is a product of the far-east, being mated to the rear end in cambiago where it also receives its coat of paint. the tubing, if such description can be applied to a frame that is effectively one-piece, is like nothing seen on any previous colnago, and it was the first to bring to the surface, perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of a new colnago - a semi-intergated headset, something ernesto had publicly stated would never be seen on one of his bikes.

but this is the new, revitalised colnago, a company becoming more influenced by a younger generation (alessandro colnago), and aware that the traditional will not always see them at the forefront of bicycle technology. i've already tested the second emanation of this revolution, the eps, but if truth were told, it was more evolution than the latter, borrowing the semi-integrated headset feature, and providing one heck of a great bike. so what of the cx-1? how different can it be? will you want one?

read on and find out...

twmp

posted on wednesday 24 december 2008

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quick update

thanks to some deft voting by rotfr devotees, the falling rain has eased through the nominations part of the forargyll awards, and now goes head to head with the easdale world stone skimming championship (you couldn't make this up) for the honour of being best event of 2008. now, nothing against those fine people in easdale whose primary joy is skimming stones across the water (try that at saligo bay), but it's hardly cycling is it? so from christmas day till new year's eve you have the opportunity to vote the rain into the lead.

and in a bizarre twist of fate, thewashingmachinepost has crawled into the best blog category. so while you're their voting for rotfr, spare a thought for the post.

do this people, that we can hold our heads high in debbie's next year.

forargyll.com

twmp

posted on tuesday 23 december 2008

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it's still there after all these years

specialized christmas cassette

the now annual london-paris ride, colloquially known as 'l2p', has come quite a long way in the few years i have been associated with it, none of which, sad to say, has had anything to do with me or thewashingmachinepost. having ridden the past two years' events, i have decided to give the 2009 edition a miss, for reasons that will become apparent as 2009 rolls on. however, since i intend riding the 2010 event if i can, i am keen to keep in touch with sven, moira and jane to see how the river flows (so to speak).

2008 was a change of strategy, in that the ride travelled north to south instead of the previous french starting point of st malo. no versailles this year, but paris instead - well, which would you opt for? in terms of support, subaru came on board to supply the lead cars for the event, and british cycling nominated it as their flagship sportive. 2009 brings messrs roche and smith back as celebrity riders, and along with the regularly supported charities, geoff thomas' leukaemia foundation will be a major beneficiary of the proceeds - geoff will be riding once again. as will the prize fund-raiser and jersey winner of the past three years, anthony burnett scott, who has regularly brought £15,000 to the table on each occasion.

as a serious side-show, and brought together under the moniker u2needyourheadsfixed, david harmon and jez hastings managed to challenge each other, while on the ferry to calais, to ride the 2009 event on fixed gear bicycles; you can see where the title for this endeavour came from. in order to give you all an insight into what drives such twisted minds, both david and jez will be penning a blog of their own in the same webspace as the post hopefully starting next month. both are due to be having custom fixed wheel bicycles assembled for the undertaking, and the process of so doing will form a part of the blog. they're both off their heads, i have told them as much, but i look forward to the process and the result.

but finally, the coup de resistance for next year's 550km to paris is the signing of specialized bicycles as official bike supplier to the ride. having instigated group leaders in 2008, to monitor the progress of all in each of the four groups, this will be continued for 2009, each group leader being supplied with a specialized bicycle and clothing for the event. stephen roche has elected to ride specialized all the way from london to paris.

and the mention of specialized brings me seemlessly into the real point of this whole article, now that it's christmas. i just checked today to see of this gem from specialized was still somewhere in hyperspace, and yes, it still is. so dim the main lights, turn off the television and sit down by the christmas tree - then click here and see how many times you hit the refresh button before it becomes less of a novelty.

for me, it's three chrstmases and counting.

twmp

posted on tuesday 23 december 2008

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votes it all about?

ride of the falling rain

there are places on this earth where begging is not only unseemly, but it's illegal - whether the interweb is one such place, i know not, and to be honest, i doubt i have the time or the inclination to find out. so let's just be clear about this: i'm not begging. just as long as we're singing from the same hymnsheet, so to speak. but asking for just a teensy-weensy wee bit of help is probably just about ok, at least it's ok by me. so that's what i'm about to do.

unbeknownst to me, since no press release was forthcoming to interest, on the website forargyll (nothing whatsoever to do with either jonathan vaughters or garmin chipotle) there is an online poll for a whole phalange of community awards related to stuff in argyll. islay is in argyll - that's why no-one repairs or maintains the roads. one of those nominations, as i was apprised by a correspondent, is for the ride of the falling rain, which is somewhat of a surprise, as regular readers and even rotfr particpants will know, i have expanded almost as much effort in trying not to organise, as i have in doing the converse. that someone should nominate it under the best event in argyll has made me go all red in the face and weak at the knees.

however, one nomination is unlikely to result in a large polished silver trophy on debbie's deli-counter, so therefore i require assistance to vote this into the sort of event that (sir) chris hoy would leap at the chance to flex his quads on. and that means you. if you finish reading (quicker, quicker), click yourself across to the nomination page, and fill in the nominee box with ride of the falling rain stopping long enough to list the associated (and sadly neglected - sorry) website www.rideofthefallingrain.net. i don't think you have to live in argyll to nominate - at least not so far as i can find out, so any number of nominations would be appreciated.

nominations must be in by midnight on christmas eve, and voting will open on christmas day, staying online until midnight on december 31st. you know it makes sense.

by the way, i've just noticed that there's a 'best blog' category. d'you know of any?

i thank you from the heart of my bottom.

twmp

posted on monday 22 december 2008

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winter solstice

winter solstice

the mighty dave t phoned me at 08:45 just as i was munching my way through breakfast. morning was grey, overcast and not just a little windy, though the call was only to advise that he was running a bit late. having been mid-mouthful, i simply nodded assent - not the finest use of telephone communication i've ever managed, but there you go.

breakfast finished, a certain degree of style requires to be maintained, so a quick shave before donning waterproof and overshoes. jez gave me a mini-flashing light a few months ago that elastics to the seatpost allowing a small flashing red light to advise of my presence in adverse light. such was this morning, so i switched it on. actually, since dave t's first call, the weather had closed in considerably and i'd phoned him back to see if port wemyss was similarly affected. hardmen to the core, both of us set out at the same time from opposing parts of the isle, me unfortunately in heavy drizzle verging on rain.

the road follows the shape of the loch, heading out in a very favourable tailwind and gradually moving round into an islay headwind - the very thing that character building is built from. the rain continued a bit round the road, but gradually the skies cleared (almost) and the wetting experience was from passing cars and spray off the tyres. uiskentuie strand is completely flat, but has the distinct feature of pointing into the prevailing wind which, as i may have mentioned, was of a character building nature today. fortunately, the rain remained dormant.

winter solstice

dave t and i had expected to be the only two out this morning, but two others members of our itinerant peloton had decided the weather seemed too good to miss, and i met them pedalling the other way through bruichladdich. earlier in the week, i had been feeling aggrieved at the lack of hours spent on the bike from weekend to weekend, and had even been desperate enough to consider the possibility of a turbo trainer. however, it's wind and rain splashed days like this that put everything into perspective: this is far more humanising. one bike emanated clunking noises, and while stopped to diagnose dave t joined us on debbie's patio.

the two unexpected cyclists were off on the afternoon ferry for christmas visiting, so a lengthy pedal wasn't on the agenda. having turned at bruichladdich to run back up the strand, someone remarked that we'd pay bigtime on the return after such a wind assisted breeze to bridgend. with the number of cars met heading in the opposite direction along the high road, dave t rhetorically inquired as to whether they had 'nowt better to do on a sunday'. the possibility that the return trip would be blighted by that wind were unsurprisingly fulfilled, splitting the four of us all along the strand, as some struggled with the headwind more than others. dave t, ever the wily one, pointed out that i'd be better on the side of the road being unfavourably hit by the crosswind, then immediately moved across to be sheltered by muggins. not for nothing is he aptly entitled the mighty.

carrot cake

debbie's was reached in instalments; hot and sweaty cyclists plonking themselves down on wooden chairs expectantly awaiting remedial coffees. two each, in the case of dave and myself. chris hoy having won the sports personality of the year last week, connie had decided to celebrate christmas after all (the threat was there), wearing a red santa hat and scanning this week's copy of the comic for as many pics of her idol as she could find. for christmas, the coffees were on the house.

isn't life great?

twmp

posted on sunday 21 december 2008

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rapha merino: fixed baselayer, winter socks & winter collar

winter socks

i know you'll think me silly, but when i got my first pair of rapha merino socks, i actually phoned them up to convey my overwhelming joy and surprise that such a relatively small and simple part of the daily cycle dress code, could make such a noticeable difference to comfort on the bike. truth be told, that while rapha may have had every confidence in their merino socks, i'm not sure they were ready for the eccentricity of such enthusiasm over the phone, no matter how well meaning it might have been.

several pairs of left and right marked socks have passed into the tidy (ha,ha,ha) pile in washingmachinepost cottage, and all have imparted the same luxury as noted in the very first pair. but come the cold mid-winter, something that would make these toes even toastier was never too far from thought under the helmet. and lo and behold, the design chaps at rapha have made it so, with their new merino winter socks. sadly not labelled for each individual foot (spent hours working that one out) they do come in thicker, black merino wool, with the sole being perceptibly more cossetting than the top. happily, there is pink striping around the join to maintain that trademark style, while the ankle has length that the originals do not have.

now, in this case, accusations of anquetil or lance are slightly wide of the mark, but in case you hadn't noticed, there is function in this form. winter is the time of waterproof overshoes, even when worn with bib threequarters, and it can't have escaped your notice that the top of the zips on same overshoes, or even the touch of velcro has a habit of boring a little hole in the back of your leg. having socks that extend this far without s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g means that such threats are now empty. however, in the interest of scientific research, i cycled sans overshoes, just to make sure that any cosiness imparted was entirely from the merino footwear, and not through external insulation.

would i have written all this if the answer wasn't a resounding 'these are great'?

obviously created with hebridean weather in mind, rapha have now extended their fixed range to include a heavier weight, long-sleeved baselayer. in middling-cold days, this could be worn under a softshell, missing out the jersey altogether, but on much colder days like today, it can be the foundation along with a winter jersey and softshell gilet. the increased thickness of the merino works really well with this jersey, because while its body is windproofed, the arms aren't (there's a very good reason for this which we'll discuss over an espresso someday).

however, as the rider with no brakes once said 'it doesn't stop there'. not only does perren street get its colour details right when mixing and matching, it has the same perspicacity when it comes to detailing. if you own, or have seen rapha's standard merino baselayers, you'll be aware that there is a rubberised logo affixed front and centre of the collar. not so on the fixed version.

merino neck warmer

but...

along comes the merino winter collar, designed to complement the fixed baselayer, cossetting the neck and marrying sweetly with the latter. and guess what? - the middle of the scalloped overlay has a rubberised logo just where you'd want one to be. of course, if all this is covered by a jersey or jacket, nobody's going to see. but you and i will know, and that's just as important (it really is). so why don't they just make a baselayer with a higher neck, i hear you ask? yes, i'd thought of that one too, but if you recall my article on the layering system, adjustability is the name of the game; it's easy enough to remove or replace even when out surveying the estates.

if you'll pardon the pun, it seems that perren street may have all bases covered.

rapha's merino winter socks are available from small to xl at a cost of £20 ($30); the fixed baselayer can be had in similar sizes for £65 ($110) while the merino winter collar is one size fits all and can be had for £25 ($40)

rapha.cc

twmp

posted on saturday 20 december 2008

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is cycling the new golf?

golf

on occasion, jez and i feel the need to have a strategy meeting, whereby we can discuss all the inevitable imponderables that impinge on daily cycling life. in order to do so, we could just meet up at debbie's and put the world to rights over a couple of double espressos in our personalised mugs, but that wouldn't quite enter into the spirit of our pedalling world. so instead, we meet up on some lonely stretch of singletrack road, and head on over to club headquarters at ardbeg distillery. there, midst being pains in the a** to the staff, and drinking an admittedly not terribly great cafetiere of coffee, we are able to scribble on the back of napkins and sort out everything that needs to be sorted out.

of course, since jez lives in port charlotte, to which one cannot arrive without travelling through bruichladdich, there is always the option of popping into deb's just to check that those personalised cups still sit atop the coffee machine. the foregoing is our way of embracing the very pastime/life that we have adopted, and turning it very much to our advantage. because in a different world, if we were middle executives, or even chief executive officers, we'd be on the golf course, followed by a few drinkies at the bar and more food than is deemed necessary mid-day. that's what my dad did, and there are doubtless many more who follow in his bunker divots.

but the business world may be turning more towards our way of thinking: the uk client director of ibm apparently schedules one business ride a week, and sven thiele, organiser of the annual london-paris ride mentioned that one of the previous participants made his biggest deal while cycling to paris over three days. let's face it, footering about over eighteen holes won't put you in touch with anything like the numbers you could meet on a sportive. britain's successes at beijing, and chris hoy's subsequent winning of the bbc sport personality award, have put cycling in aposition it's never quite managed in my lifetime. and as such, you would have to be a corporate manager in outer mongolia to have missed the growing popularity of cycling, and it is doubtless a fine way of advertising just how much the corporate finger is steadily on the nation's pulse by being au fait with the intrigues of cycling.

and as somewhat of an addictive form of exercise, you really only need to get folks out and about on bicycles, besuited or otherwise, and the deal, as they say, may well be clinched. if you are, or like to think of yourself as a high flier in the corporate world, why not nudge some of your clients, customers, partners to meet you out on the bike?

if you really want their business, you can always let them win the sprint for that 30mph sign.

twmp

posted on friday 19 december 2008

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a wearing process

i have a colnago on test at present about which you will eventually read more than you really want to know, but meantime i am doing my level best to test every feature i can think of - if someone is decent enough to send an expensive bicycle all this way, the very least i can do is make a decent stab at finding out how good it really is. since wheels play rather an important part of any bicycle test, and more than just a miniscule part of any day to day riding, come to that, the ideal way to isolate differing features is to change the wheels and check if anything much changes.

of course, if i receive a bicycle that is sold as a whole bicycle, then it gets tested with the bits that the manufacturer has decreed should be attached, but frame only - anything goes. being midway through an anything goes scenario, this past weekend i had intended removing the factory builts in the dropouts and replacing with my timeworn mavic r-sys. these have been on loan to mr hastings for a number of months due to his campagnolos having been needed elsewhere for a while. yes it's complicated, but that's the way it goes.

prior to conducting this variation in fleet of foot, i negotiated a few of the surrounding paths, only to discover that when the chain found its way into the fifth sprocket, there was a skip, a hop and a jump. since the bicycle groupset is brand new, including the chain, the finger is pointing at the toothed bits on the r-sys. this is not a good time of year for this to happen: in fact there isn't really a good time ever for this to happen. i have a selection of wheels, but not all of us are so lucky.

so let me be pedantic for a moment or two. bicycle chains wear - this can't come as a surprise if you consider the amount of work they do and the conditions in which they do it. a good dose of chain-l no.5 would help, but that's not going to prevent wear forever. there are a number of chain wear gauges on the market that make checking easier, or in the absence of such, a method of measuring a number of links with a ruler. line up the edge of the ruler in the centre of one of the rivets, count along twelve complete links, and the centre of the last rivet should line up perfectly with an inch mark. if it doesn't, then the chain has worn: under the sixteenth of an inch mark, and you're ok for now; over, and it's chain replacement time - if it reaches the eighth mark, then you're going to need to take a look at the cassette too.

or you can do as i do, not as i say: every six months, buy a new chain and throw the old one away. with cassettes definitely not following uk house prices, it makes far more economic sense to spend money on the chain before it becomes necessary to replace a cassette. and the wrong time to discover that the chain skips, is slogging up ardnahoe hill.

nearly.

twmp

posted on thursday 18 december 2008

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