..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
disrespect
though it could be regarded as a sweeping generalisation, cyclocross was once a genre of cycle-sport that existed unto itself, more or less. in other words, you were either a cyclocross rider, or you weren't. it's a sport that legend states began in the early 20th century, when racing cyclists who competed in the likes of the tour de france, would keep themselves fit in the off-season by challenging each other to race from one town to the next, by any possible route, including across fields, drystone walls, rivers; you name it, they'd race across it. photos of cyclocross events in the 1950s and 60s show riders descending steep, grassy slopes heading inexorably towards a raging stream.
present day events are a tad more manicured than that, for today's cyclocross racing is a far more commercial state of affairs, with sponsorship banners proclaiming willy nasessens (chicken farming and swimming pools), boverhoff sloopwerken (industrial demolition) and red brick (safety sneakers). in several events, there are two sets of pits, where riders can swap their bicycles for clean, shiny versions as often as they like. and instead of racing each other from one township to another, races are arranged around deliberately convoluted circuits, crafted as such for the benefit of spectators and television.
there are still riders for whom cyclocross is the be all and end all; belgian champion, eli iserbyt, former european champion, michael vantourenhout, and on the women's side, ceylin de alverado and belgian champion sanne cant. those riders compete against those who have shown promise in the sport of 'cross and successfully transitioned to the road. son of once dominant 'cross champion, sven nys, recently crowned european champion, thibeau nys, has gathered a number of victories on the road, riding for lidl trek, following in the tyre tracks of mathieu van der poel, wout van aert and tom pidcock.
the former two began their careers in cyclocross, locking horns with each other while still in the junior ranks, winning both national (dutch and belgian) and world cyclocross championships across several seasons. however, there's little doubt that success in a world tour road team is considerably more remunerative than remaining a pure cyclocross racer. yet it seems that once a 'cross rider, always a 'cross rider; 21 year-old thibau nys came straight from a successful road season to be on the start line of the first cyclocross trophy race of the season and has featured in the majority of exact, superprestige and x2o badkamers trofee series events (the uci world cup has yet to begin for this season). similarly, in the women's peloton, current world champion, fem van empel, has continued where she left off last season, retaining her european title only a week ago in pointeverde, spain.
van empel rides for visma lease-a-bike, and took advantage of this to race on the road over the past season, presumably hoping to emulate the success of her male team-mate, wout van aert. it appears, however, that she bucked the trend of a seamless transition, failing to replicate her off-road dominance within the visma road team. but as with all uci sanctioned series of events, there is a world championship to be won towards the end of the season, a jersey currently owned and worn by van empel. on the men's side of things, the all-conquering mathieu van der poel is the current holder of the championship title and wearer of the rainbow jersey. or at least, he would be if he deigned to be on the start-line of any of this year's events.
for the 2023/24 season, both mvdp and van aert dropped in and out of trofee races at will, with van der poel entering several more than did van aert, the latter concentrating on a pre-determined strategy towards success in the spring classics, and opting not to compete in the world championship race in february of this year. that effectively left the door wide open for van der poel to grab hold of the rainbow stripes.
there is much talk of how the winning of rainbow stripes in any discipline can be seen as the pinnacle of a rider's career, allowing him or her, to wear the jersey in all events relating to the genre in which the jersey was won. mvdp, was concurrent owner of both road and cross championship jerseys until tadej relieved him of the former in september. until that point, van der poel was to be seen in all road races dressed in the rainbow stripes, but despite being world cyclocross champion, he has yet to be seen in a cyclocross event this season, and there's no intimation so far that his presence at any event is guaranteed. similarly, tom pidcock has given no indication that he will compete, while wout van aert has announced his 'cross season will include only a handful events beginning january, following a visma training camp.
van der poel is also current holder of the word gravel championship jersey.
i can understand why professional riders harbour designs on collecting as many rainbow jerseys as they can, but it surely shows scant regard for the sport to subsequently disrespect the honour of wearing the jersey during the season? there is every possibility that van der poel may decide not to ride any cyclocross events this season, meaning the jersey will never be seen in the heat of battle. and there's a strong probability that van der poel will not be seen in any uci sanctioned gravel races next season.
it can't be much fun for riders such as iserbyt, vantourenhout, sweek, van der haar et al, to compete feverishly against each other all season, only to have the 'big guns' sweep in at the last minute and ride off with a jersey that will then scarcely be seen for the next year. the uci hinted last year that those who failed to regularly appear on the start-line of world cup 'cross events, would be disbarred from competing at the world championships. i think it might be time to invoke that particular rule.
monday 11 november 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................pointless
in almost every case, when studying training methods and regimes available to the aspiring athlete, there has been as much emphasis, if not more, placed upon the resting aspect, as upon the exercise portion. reputedly, as we bust a gut attempting to maintain or even reach escape velocity, or, perchance, tame a particularly demanding gradient, we create minute tears in our muscles, which repair themselves to be stronger next time round, and so on, and so on. however, in order for the repair process to succeed, those muscles need to rest. having very little in the way of physiological learning, but keen to comply with the training advice espoused above, every second saturday, i stay in my bed for way longer than is seemly in polite society.
it's important that i mention this, because the lateness of arising colours the rest of the day as far as velocipedinal activity is concerned, given the restrictive amount of time left before it becomes desirable to order a soya latte and a double-egg roll.
on the saturdays when i have need of arising at stupid o'clock, there is subsequently more time to undertake the specified parcours, offering a 30km ride before lunchtime. embarrassingly, however, yesterday's opening gambit (and not for the first time) consisted of a mere 14km, though it did include several kilometres across the grassy portion of uiskentuie strand. what i like to call my cyclocross moment. those particular moments are becoming harder to accomplish; as mentioned probably too often, now that there are no sheep grazing on this side of the strand, the sheep tracks have all but grassed over, making forward progress a smidgeon harder than was originally the case, creating more minute tears in the few muscles i possess.
yesterday, in an attempt to prolong the resting period, i opted to retrace my tyre tracks along the strand and head more or less directly homewards to watch cyclocross on discovery+ (spoiler alert - there was no cyclocross on discovery+ yesterday. i misread the date). having struggled manfully through the thicker grass of the northern section of the strand, which culminates in having to rejoin the road and ascend the short, sharp climb at blackrock, i found myself dawdling as i passed the large house at glenburn. at that particular point in proceedings, i was passed by a quartet of either swedes or danes aboard e-bikes from islay e-wheels, travelling at the machines' upper limit of 25kph.
with a northwesterly headwind, this seemed too good an opportunity to let pass, so i jumped on the back, allowing them to provide shelter and tow me along in their wake, easily achieving 25kph, while frequently having to freewheel. there is little doubt that the majority of visitors who hire e-bikes are less than well-versed in the ways of the velocipede, a contention reinforced by a quick look at all four cassettes rolling in front of me. i admit i didn't count quite how many sprockets were available to each of them, but what i did note was that in all four instances, the chain was on the smallest sprocket, the riders apparently using the pedal assist to get them up the hills, content to leave the gear levers well alone. it's a state of affairs that seems remarkably common amongst e-bike riders.
in which case, why bother? why not simply fit the bicycles with a single-speed freewheel, and let them get on with it? from the hirer's point of view, it would offer less maintenance and less to go wrong. or, if the manufacturer wishes to offer gearing options, fit a sturmey-archer three-speed hub gear, offering the opportunity to fit a 1/8" chain which would probably last the lifetime of the bicycle. whereas on my bicycles, it's the small sprockets that remain shiny throughout the life of the cassette, based on visual evidence of the four in front of me yesterday, it was the larger sprockets which were receiving the least chain engagement.
i'm sure there's an appropriate reason as to why e-bikes regularly feature eight or nine speed cassettes, but i really can't think of one at the moment.
however, the crowning glory of the ineptitude displayed by my unexpected colleagues rested on two incidents. on the descent from the hydro generating station outside bowmore, one fellow pulled to the front, collided with one of his friends and almost took the two of them out of commission on a main road. they then put themselves in serious danger as we entered the village of bowmore. main street stretches from the round church at the top, all the way to the harbour, but curves round into shore street a few hundred metres before that. traffic descending and turning into shore street has right of way. to the left, is bowmore distillery on school street, but while traffic exiting shore street can see the distillery ahead of them, they are required to give way to traffic turning from main street. i'd agree that this is not signposted in any way, but given that there are no road markings demanding that any party give way, if intending to carry on to school street, it makes a great deal of sense to check for vehicles arriving from your left.
the quartet of e-bikers, having already demonstrated a lack of road and gear-sense, simply cruised into main street and headed towards the distillery. had there been anything driving down main street (like a 40ft pot-ale tanker, for instance), they would, by now, be eating hospital food, if they survived at all. it may be seen as an excellent idea to hire an e-bike while on holiday, but paying attention to traffic and road conditions might be an even better idea. hiring a car is, thankfully, a tad more onerous.
sunday 10 november 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................dilution
though perfectly common nowadays, i recall when eurosport first broadcast a tour de france stage in its entirety. i'm never too clever with dates (always admiring the professionals, like mark cavendish and robert millar, who seem to have almost perfect career recall), so i'd be fibbing if i said i remembered the year, but at the time, i purchased a baguette from the local averagemarket's french-themed, in-house bakery range, along with a sizeable wedge of brie, intent on sampling the finer aspects of le cuisine while observing literally hours of competitive cycling.
if memory serves correctly, the all-day coverage was confined to three mountain stages, arguably the type of stage that best represented the common cliché chess on wheels, clearly demonstrating the strategy behind getting domestiques with professed climbing abilities into the break, ensuring (or hoping) that they'd be able to offer assistance to the team leaders as they headed steeply upwards in the later kilometres of a mountain-top finish. in effect, this solved the quandary engendered by channel four's ground-breaking half-hour daily show from the 1980s, where the mountain goats would frequently lead across the early high points, yet be totally missing in action come the grand finale. as somewhat of an apprentice in such matters, i could never quite understand where they'd got to at the end.
mountain stages of le grand boucle were ripe for end to end tv coverage, laced with intrigue from the very start, the major players keen to keep their cards in a jersey pocket, providing a slow-burn drama stretched over four or five hours of prime-time television. it was no doubt considered, at the time, that few, if many, would watch all day, live footage of a flat sprint stage. the usual recipe showing an eight-man break gaining several minutes in the early part, before being inevitably reeled in and caught within 15 kilometres of the finish line, thus confining any velocipedinal action to far less than a half hour, was probably, and sensibly considered to be beyond the pale.
of course, nowadays it's quite common for the hapless commentary team to hold earnest discussions regarding the comestibles produced within the region over which the relative boredom is played out, while the more astute members of the tv audience simply await the evening highlights.
it would not be unseemly to categorise the spring classics in similar manner, were it not for the unpredictability of the parcours and the weather, regularly ensuring that the script more closely resembles improvisation than a scored performance. i might offer paris-roubaix as the perfect example of an anything-can-happen event where, quite literally, anything can happen. rarely does the out and out pre-race favourite collect his cobble stone atop the podium in roubaix velodrome. just ask gilbert duclos-lasalle.
perhaps such lengthy circumstances might explain the attraction of track cycling or cyclocross, and not only from the viewpoint of a television audience. cyclocross is governed by the hour; at the end of lap two, the adjudicators decide how many laps of a convoluted, yet often compact and bijou circuit will be ridden. this is based on an average of the opening lap times. those of us who religiously sit down to watch each weekend's races, know full well that an hour from the start, the winner will be revealed. and because of that relatively brief period of time, the racing will be eyeballs out from start to finish. and the more individual nature of the competition, even though there are teams involved, usually engages close attention from start to finish.
and at the best circuits, it's generally possible to see fans rushing en-masse from one set of barriers to another in order to prolong the excitement. several events offer clear views of impending and departing action. track racing perhaps offers the best approach of all, with even the inscrutable madison or points race ending well within the hour and providing clear visibility from every point of the velodrome.
there have been ruminations in previous years, none of which seem to have achieved critical mass, to shorten the two lesser grand tours by an unspecified number of days (heaven forfend that anyone should tamper with le tour). whether the prospective changes are based on attempts to instill greater interest, or simply a means of alleviating an already over-subscribed season, is clearly open to debate. however, what may or may not be held up as an example of the latter, is the uci's recent declaration that track-based six-day events can be extended or contracted at the whim of the organisers. thus an archetypal six-day race can last a mere two-days, or even broach seven, if so doing seems like a wizard wheeze.
according to organiser of the recent london three-day event, tony gibb, the rule change seems coincidental to an observable decrease in interest for track-cycling, so it is eminently possible that shorter is a possibility being actively pursued by the blazers at aigle, to help guarantee an attentive audience. perhaps enforcing a further regulation requiring suitable quantities of belgian beer and generous helpings of frites and mayo to be available, would seal the deal?
saturday 9 november 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................impaired vision?
as part of a long-running thread on the post, perhaps one that is every bit as obscure as many other monologues, we have previously discussed the iniquities operating within the cycling industry that leaves many of its component parts at the mercy of owners who, with no disrespect intended, are not exactly involved in the velocipedinal realm, other than having placed large amounts of their cash by way of investment. in other words, they've bought into the cycling market on the understanding that it might provide a welcome return on investment. those who have done so will be well-versed in the intricacies of economics and are thus unlikely to withdraw their cash at the first sign of a downturn, but there's little doubt that continued perceptions that the cycle market is in the doldrums, will have them move the money elsewhere.
by general consensus, the cycle market is either in, or approaching those doldrums even as we speak. if evidence were required, i might mention rapha's recently admitted £21 million loss, its seventh year of losses in a row. and there have been constant reminders that the market has, effectively, too much inventory in the pipeline, frequently used as a justifiable reason for lowered sales. i am insufficiently well informed to test the veracity of that contention; it could simply be that the 'too much inventory' meme has become so frequently repeated, that it has become a substitute for the truth. could it be that sales have remained static or declined because prices are too high, or because the 'new stuff' is simply the 'old stuff' but in a different colour?
just as endless economic growth is as much of a fairy tale as is hansel and gretel, perpetual technological development either comes to a complete halt for a period of time, or there has to be a convenient set of smoke and mirrors to convince us otherwise. the most recent examples have arguably arisen in the corner which produces breathable waterproof apparel, if only as a result of governmental restrictions on the chemicals used to produce the original goretex. it has, to a particular degree, allowed those responsible to promote a range of reputedly new products, even if they're effectively the same as their predecessors, but using a necessarily different means of production.
however, irrespective of our own enthusiasms for cycling as a means of fulfilment, whether that be physical, mental or a combination of both, economics will continue to play a major part in the availability of desirable products. when rapha were clothing sponsor of team sky, they had developed an 'electric blanket, post-race/ride jacket, enabling riders to regain a sensible level of warmth at the end of a cold, wet and windy one-day spring classic. when enquiring as to its potential availability to the rest of us, i was advised that the costs of production would pretty much ensure it never made it as far as the catalogue.
but could it be that incurred financial losses have a different cause and effect, other than 'too much inventory in the pipeline'? as scottish cycle-clothing practitioners, endura announce a £7 million loss, hot on the heels of rapha's £21 million, might there be a commonality other than a lack of profits?
in august 2017, rapha was bought by rzc investments for the princely sum of £200 million, despite, if i recall correctly, annual profits of £10 million. a year later, endura was purchased by pentland brands for an undisclosed sum. in both instances, the purchasers did indeed harbour sporting enthusiasms; rzc's steuart and tim walton, heirs to the walmart fortune, are confirmed mountain bike enthusiasts, while pentland brands already owned speedo, mitre and canterbury. in both cases, the founders of each company intially remained in directorial roles. however, that soon changed.
in 2021, rapha's simon mottram opted to stand down as ceo of the company, retaining a token position as company founder, while one year later, jim mcfarlane and pamela barclay renounced their positions at endura, leaving it under the guidance of pentland brands and its new ceo. rapha is well-known for its enthusiasm for road cycling, and in the halcyon days of yore, endura almost followed suit, proclaiming that they'd still be cycling even 'when it's no longer cool'. and in a moment of inspiration, their take on the gabba jacket featured an inner label stating 'if you think the spring classics are bad, try scotland'. before commencing this monologue, i took a look at endura's website, one of the least inspiring cycling experiences i've recently encountered. could it be that the corporate approach is at least partly responsible for the lack of profitability? i agree that's a harder sell in the case of rapha, even though none of the staff from the early years remain.
of course, all this is pure supposition on my part, but can it be entirely coincidental (and it's not exclusive to the two companies mentioned here - shand cycles springs to mind) that following the disentanglement of the guiding lights from the big decisions, the word downhill has taken on another meaning?
friday 8 november 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................a different sort of shiny
much has been made of campagnolo's complete disappearance from the world tour peloton, to many, signalling the beginning of the end for the italian component maker. until lord voldemort commenced his seven year trail of destruction over those three weeks in july, tours de france had been historically won by riders using componentry from vicenza. the arrival of sram muddied the waters just a tad more, with now three major players competing for tour victories, and campagnolo finidng themselves 'at the coo's tail' to use a common scottish cliché.
i suspect one of two things in terms of vicenza's non-reaction to the public consternation and industry forebodings. either they are in the deep brown stuff critics and analysts tend to suggest they are, but are determined to hang on as long as they can, ever hopeful for a mis-step from the other two, or they have a cunning plan that will hit us all in the face sooner than you might like to think. with good reason, i am rarely considered to be a competent analyst of velocipedinal machinations; the number of innovations on the receiving end of washingmachinepost disparagement is legion, but even more legion is the knowledge that not only do i surmise that nobody actually cares, but that my ludditic approach has borne no effect on their continued existence. a-headsets, external bottom brackets, integrated headsets and disc-brakes have all received the full force of the post's wrath, but have not only survived intact, but mostly prospered in the process.
the economic fortunes of all three of the above mentioned component purveyors could, of course, find themselves under attack from the new kids on the chinese bloc, but if you believe the naysayers, that would be likely to harm campagnolo most of all. the clever money is predicated on vicenza's apparent lack of innovation, simply playing catch-up with shimano and sram, a contention with which it is hard to argue; though they may have been first to eleven and then twelve rear sprockets, in truth, that's very similar to rapha changing the colour of a jersey; nice, but hardly groundbreaking.
shimano, on the other hand, were the commercial originators of the freehub, the cassette, indexed gear shifting, and the combining of brake and gear levers into a single device. sram, perhaps less frenetic in their scrabblings, were first to wireless and arguably first to adopt the single front sprocket. even the patent they own on the replaceable batteries for their wireless technology effectively forced campagnolo to install two differently formatted batteries for their own super-record wireless groupset. and none of this is helped by the fact that vicenza has a tendency to hang rather large price tags on their componentry excellence.
presenters for the cade media youtube podcast recently borrowed a super-record wireless groupset in order to compare it with the competition. though it received a healthy level of plaudits for simply being campagnolo, it didn't really win itself any brownie points. and while modern bicycles and their associated componentry frequently push the boundaries of aesthetics, compared to campagnolo's heyday of jewel-like groupsets, that wireless groupset really does not want to see itself in the mirror.
however, perhaps campagnolo's future strategy is designed to head in a different direction that that viewed from the far east? vicenza has remained true to european manufacture, not only for the metal and carbon bits, but the soft goods manufactured in neighbouring countries, a factor that played very much to their wheelhouse, post-covid, when supply lines from europe experienced considerably less restriction than those from china and taiwan. and the recent winning of a red dot award for the latest iteration of its mycampy smartphone app might just prove that campagnolo's mind is in a far better place than its detractors would have us believe. the latter reputedly gives cyclists "...total control over the cycling experience, making it possible to monitor the super record wireless groupset and the power meter, enabling simple and intuitive management of all aspects of performance and maintenance."
the mycampy 3.0 app was selected by a jury of industry experts during an award ceremony held at the konzerthaus in berlin at the beginning of the month. a red dot award celebrates excellence in design and, apparently, for campagnolo, winning is seen as validating its vision. perhaps it's this vision that will ultimately separate campagnolo from its peers. granted, most of us would prefer vicenza to provide us with modern jewel-like components, that functioned with bullet-proof, tried and tested accuracy, all the while, enhancing the aesthetic value of our bicycles with its mere presence.
unfortunately, a smartphone app developed by a company named crispy bacom is really no substitute.
thursday 7 november 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................huh?
one of the purported advantages of the present-day subscription model operated by adobe software and many of its peers, is the ability to receive regular updates as they become available, instead of the previous 18-monthly update cycle. having once been a part of adobe's pre-release testing programme, i doubt that it's giving away too many secrets to state that whatever is in beta at present, is at least two iterations ahead of that being used by adobe's customer-base. however, not only have the updates become more frequent, it seems that these reputed advances come with a penalty; one that has always existed, but seems now to warrant a tad more concern.
obsolescence.
by way of the creative cloud app, it's simple to not only manage your adobe account, but view pending updates - unless, of course, you have foolishly opted for the auto-update feature. i am in the habit of infrequently checking for the latest updates to the software that comes as part of the particular subscription for which my employers pay a monthly fee. and while the imac on which i practise my rudimentary digital skills is a little over two years old, i noticed late last week that the latrest version of adobe lightroom sports an 'incompatible' warning. as it happens, lightroom is a product i very rarely use, so this professed incompatibility poses no immediate problem. however, on clicking the update button adjacent to the latest edition of photoshop, i received an intimation that said version would possibly prove problematical if installed.
i'm assuming that to be the interim statement midway between 'everything's fine' and 'i wouldn't do that if i were you'.
it transpires that the remedy to my potential disappointment would be to update the macintosh operating system to the latest version, following which everything will be just ginger peachy. the downside to that advice, and i'm sure many of you will sympathise, is the amount of time it takes to download and install any operating system update, time that, sadly, is in remarkably short supply. as we are probably all aware, no system update is completely free of unforeseen bugs or incompatibilities; and though i have no real wish to portray myself as a workaholic, i'd struggle to find the time. therefore, a bit like handing in homework at the last minute, the chances are that the system update will lie in abeyance until i am left with no option but to install in order to remain as productive as i'm employed to be.
to be honest, a similar situation exists with my macbook air, a device that has been in my possession for only a few months, and on which the system settings app features a little red dot on the top right corner, forcibly and perenially pointing out that a system update is waiting impatiently in the wings.
though i hope i'd be the last person to turn situations such as this into more of a melodrama than i have already achieved, i tend to class the above mentioned state of affairs alongside the salient advice to refrain from scrolling and step away from the iphone. granted, i do not possess any type of mobile phone, smart or otherwise, but that scarcely changes my point that every now and again, it is prudent to alienate oneself from technology and go for a bike ride. except, in an increasing number of cases, that is becoming harder and harder to do.
in the world of the acoustic road-bike, the most with which the escaping velocipedinist has to cope, is the inviting opportunity to programme whichever brand of electronic gear levers happen to sit nonchalantly on the handlebars. but spare a thought for the hapless e-biker; not the civilian commuter, you understand, but the more competitive individual, currently (pun intended), besotted with thundering through the undergrowth on an electron-enhanced springy farm-gate with knobbly tyres. i do genuinely wonder if those who have availed themselves of shimano's snappily-named ep801 e-bike drive unit, lie awake at night ruminating over whether or not to take advantage of the recently offered firmware update. and as if that were not of inconsiderable concern to the committed e-mountain biker, shimano has announced that the firmware update can be applied via its e-tube project cyclist app
as if that in itself were deemed insufficient to strike terror into the heart of ep801 owners, once installed, the update "...includes the ability to deliver an even higher assist level that will easily achieve the maximum 400% assist ratio for boost mode; a customisable maximum speed cut off progression, and extended carry-over assist when riders stop pedalling. i see that one or two are still possessed of an apparently unshakeable stoicism, leaving me no choice but to invoke the final blow. "...additionally, auto-shift will pause when the rider overrides the automatic shifting with a manual shift on a descent. this is crucial for setting up scenarios like g-outs and rapid braking into tight corners with hard pedalling out of them where only the rider can choose the perfect gear. auto-shift then resumes on its own for the rest of the descent.
remember when we used to just go for a bike ride?
wednesday 6 november 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................and then again, maybe not
when signs of the alleged e-bike revolution first arrived, despite being convinced that the genre was not aimed at the cognoscenti, i was relatively surprised that it appeared to be a slow-burn. while reports indicated that sales were promising in the likes of germany and denmark, it wasn't an innovation that showed signs of world domination. in the uk in particular, e-bike sales were considerably lower, and originally confined to specialist retailers, perhaps indicating the industry's view at the time, that e-bikes and acoustic bikes were not exactly of the same family. though my initial experience of e-bikes had been confined to a few short rides on early models, i was sure that they would be better marketed to those who may have originally been considering the purchase of a moped or scooter.
real cyclists would surely remain faithful to human-powered machinery?
the latter contention was due mainly to perceived reservations by the cognoscenti of what had been once advertised as a means of the elderly and infirm joining the ranks of the velocipedinally active. i'm unsure at what point those perceptions changed, bringing with them high-value carbon fibre road bikes featuring an electric motor in the rear wheel. surely, i reasoned, those of us who maintained a diet of pain and suffering would scarcely stoop so low? yet bianchi, pinarello and colnago were all to be seen offering battery-powered equivalents of their finest carbon; and surely they were better informed on market trends and opportunities than was i?
i'm sure we're now all well aware of the dramatic upsurge in sales of e-bikes, not only to carbon loving roadies, but to commuters and even downhill mountain bikers. and far from being manna from heaven for only the senior members of the population, i have complained often enough of witnessing teenagers riding hired e-bikes on islay, when even the eighty-something, mighty dave-t still rides an acosutic road bike, even up the 14% ascent at kilchiaran. if nothing else, growing sales of e-bikes demonstrated that, for the majority, anything that might save a bit of effort should be grasped as tightly as possible. in the face of such unnecessary transportational excess, one has to seriously fear for the next generation of aspirational tour de france cyclists.
much like the mountain bike boom of the early 1980s, the e-bike was once seen as the saviour of the bicycle industry, with the electrons having spread wider than e-bike only retailers to populate the shop floors of halfords, evans and proabably the majority of independent bike shops. government backed grants and loans to ease the price of ownership, principally on the basis of purported environmental credibility, paid scant attention the even more environmentally sound acoustic bike. however, if you'll pardon the pun, bicycle trends often come and go in repetitive cycles, and though once the sole cycling genre demonstrating post-covid economic growth, there are already signs that the market may be cooling, possibly in parallel with the electric vehicle market.
though currently not affecting european and asian markets, yamaha has only recently announced the cessation of north-american sales of its e-bike range, ending wholesale supplies by the end of the year. though yamaha is a major supplier of e-bike motors (specced by giant bicycles, for example) a letter to usa yamaha e-bike dealers stated that the decision was based on an industry-wide oversupply and poor demand, resulting in an economically unsustainable business model. all yamaha e-bikes arrive with a five-year factory warranty, covering the frame, rigid forks, motor and battery, which the company has clearly stated it will continue to honour.
of course, the fact that yamaha has opted to make this decision does not indicate that others will follow. nonetheless, there have been predictions made by industry analysts that many of the non-acoustic cycle manufacturers who entered what they viewed as an opportune market, may have subsequently learned that operating in the bicycle arena was not as straightforward as they'd imagined. yamaha is a very large company (revenue of over £13 billion in 2023) with substantial manufacturing experience, but what it possibly doesn't have, however, is the cycle industry experience of merida, giant, trek, or specialized, to name but a few.
it will be interesting to observe whether this is simply a one-off situation, or the first of many. the smart money will be in deriving whether this is due to a cooling of the e-bike market, or merely an isolated case.
tuesday 5 november 2024
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