..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
weather or not
for a period between 1998 and 2003, i was, not to blow my own trumpet, the sole cycling representative in this particular corner of the hebrides, a reign ended by the arrival of the mighty dave-t, promoting my solo efforts to those of a duo. during those five years, any incentive to go riding on a sunday morning had to be self-generated, a situation fraught with dissension when meteorological conditions were less than favourable. despite being in possession of fairly decent waterproofs, i would usually arise of a sunday morning, look out the window, and if it was raining, i would give myself a further hour in bed in the hope that things would change.
following those sixty minutes of irregular slumber, had matterrs not cleared sufficiently, i would arise for breakfast and assure myself and mrs washingmachinepost that no matter what persisted in the next hour, i would go riding, no matter what. except that, when the clock had recorded yet another hour, i would convince myself that matters would likely improve in the next half hour. the upshot of this embarrasing period of procrastination, was that i'd inevitably have left it too late to undertake any meaningful sort of bike ride. this would only result in my continual pacing of the sitting room to look out the window and berate myself for not having grabbed the horns of the dilemma several hours earlier.
i cannot deny that i was all but impossible to live with for the rest of the day.
what changed was making a prior arrangement with the mighty dave to go riding on sunday; when there's the risk of disappointing a friend and colleague by not turning up, incentivisation is once again on the horizon. the deciding factor was ultimately the presence of lord carlos of mercian who had a wholly uncompromising attitude towards cycling, in that he really didn't care (occasionally to his detriment) what the weather was like. given that the two of us worked together in the same office, each weekend's cycling took on an almost competitive air. neither of us wanted to be the complete wimp who bailed out, with precipitation as the only proffered excuse.
on more than a single occasion, the two of us were to be found best compared with a pair of drowned rats, riding the loch gorm perimeter road all because neither wanted the other to gain the moral high ground. i had rather expected the two of us to repeat this state of affairs well into our dotage, neither willing to allow the other to gain the upper hand. despite being only three weeks younger than yours truly, sadly, lord carlos passed away several years ago, but he has left me with an important legacy; i have a reputation locally for being the idiot who will go cycling in pretty much any weather conditions, frequently when i probably shouldn't.
only a few weekends past, one of the sunday morning peloton posted on the velo club's private facebook page, 'it's gusting to 80kph outside with torrential rain. nobody in their right mind would cycle in these conditions. place your bets now.' as it transpired, for once in my life i'd had the good sense to remain indoors at that point, but none of them would have bet against me taking the bicycle from the bike shed.
none of the above is intended as validation of my velocipedinal credentials; i'm far too old to cause any trouble in the sprint for the village sign at bruichladdich, but my abstention from facebook means that, as far as i'm concerned, i have arranged to meet the peloton at springbank at 10am on sunday mornings, an arrangement i prefer to honour, even if the weather is less than clement, but not if we'd be in danger of being blown from our bicycles. as far as i'm concerned, there are no ifs, ands or buts. if the others fail to turn up, as has happened on more than just a few occasions, that's their lookout. essentially all we're doing is riding round in circles, stopping for a coffee aand a toastie before going home for a hot shower and a change of clothes. so if we get wet or blown from one side of the road to the other, so what?
were i to commute to work in such conditions, i'm sure i would have an entirely different point of view.
yesterday morning, far from being the pleasant departure i'd been expecting, low visibility and heavy drizzle were the order of the day, though happily, the wind was considerably lower than had been the case on saturday. i was joined by a sole member of the peloton, before a third joined us just under halfway round, having left home a tad later than intended. twenty years ago, i'd have been inclined to go back to bed and check the weather later. though perhaps a contention that follows a convoluted train of thought, just remember that a bicycle is not just for christmas.
or only for dry sunday mornings.
monday 3 february 2025
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................here we go round the mulberry bush
just over one week ago, i composed thewashingmachinepost from the relative safety of my sitting room while attempting to ignore the hurricane force winds strafing the croft. the upshot of storm éowyn meant that five tiles on the roof became loose and a sixth broke into a lot of small pieces, while on/off powercuts destroyed the control panel on the hall heater. in the grand scheme of things, mrs twmp and i got off really lightly. over in port ellen, the sea breached the laughingly small sea-wall, flooding the averagemarket and several homes sited around the bay. ardbeg distillery lost the roof from its former malt barns and most of the sea wall at the pier, laggan bay distillery had an oil tank blown over, and there are still fallen trees impeding progress at various points of the island. islay airport measured steady winds of over 100kph, and a maximum gust of 150kph.
no ferries sailed on saturday due to storm damage at kennacraig and port ellen.
though the newspapers have captioned éowyn as the storm of the century, we experienced worse at new year 2012, which resulted in serious damage across the island during which the anemometer on the lighthouse at orsay broke at 192kph. thankfully, the majority of gusts blowing across the hebrides tend to settle between 100 and 115kph; too violent in which to cycle, but unlikely to cause any structural damage. which is just as well; while various meteorological departments seemingly delight in applying names to examples of low pressure, the act of doing so seems to have little consistency. in mid-december, we were assailed by storm darragh, the name apparently bestowed by the irish contingent. around a week later, the hebrides once again met with even higher winds, seemingly affecting only the periphery of western scotland, but which received not a mention on the news and suffered from remaining nameless.
thus, as i wended (is that actually a word?) my cheery way to debbie's at lunchtime on saturday, i was alternately pushed and restrained by winds gusting to 70kph, augmented now and then, with a smattering of wind-driven precipitation. xc weather claimed there would be no rain until 3pm, but it was easy to see at 10am, that they were fibbing. the forecast also showed temperatures of eight degrees celcius, amended in the next column to feels like three-degrees. on that score, they were not kidding. i did make life a smidgeon harder for myself by riding the 'cross bike on the dunes at uiskentuie, now more than ever, aware that the shoreline is receding landwards; there is now a gravelly beach where once was grass and machair.
combine the winds with my meagre attempt at emulating wout van aert, and it's easy to see why my average speed was a miserly 17.3kph. but at least i hadn't let the weather beat me. when you're closer to 70 years old than to sixty, it's all to easy to acquiesce. which brings me to the disappointing part.
in an e-mail originating from rouleur magazine, and arriving in my inbox on saturday morning, tech writer for the magazine, simon smythe, trailered an interview he'd conducted with zwift co-founder and ceo, eric min. during the course of that interview, mr min apparently mentioned that the idea for an indoor, online cycling platform had been formed while living in london, despite citing london cyclists as "pretty hardcore". in the following paragraph, mr smythe admitted to not being one of those hardcore londoners, stating that he'd spent many of his winter hours riding the tour de zwift because "the weather has been wall-to-wall awful here in the uk."
though i've no wish to re-frame the situation as some sort of competition, i might suggest to mr smythe that the hebridean portion of the 'wall-to-wall awful weather' has probably been a shade or two more awful here on the outer edge. granted, i demurred from venturing out in 150kph winds, but excluding situations such as those, i'm still riding my bicycle every weekend, and i'd be very loathe to describe myself as hardcore. granted, the manager of a local hostelry was kind enough to describe me as 'brave' for having ventured out on the day after éowyn, when many others would have employed the word stupid, but i think we're in danger of losing sight of what cycling is all about, if a breeze and a bit of rain has us clamouring for the smart trainer.
i'm pretty sure that, if an old fart like me can do it, pretty much anyone can. the problem seems to be a lack of wanting to.
sunday 2 february 2025
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the last mile
islay receives its daily newspapers by ferry each day, where they are transported in the back of an articulated truck operated by the principal glasgow-islay haulier. despite that knowledge, the newspapers themselves are transported to the ferry terminal at kennacraig, by menzies distribution, leaving glasgow around 3am in the morning and travelling via the often stricken a83, rest and be thankful. frequent closures of the latter during winter months and inclement weather often conspire to delay delivery, meaning the daily newspapers frequently arrive at the newsagents after 4pm in the afternoon, if they arrive at all.
it has become notable, however, that the newspapers have a disappointing habit of failing to appear off the morning sailing on tuesdays and thursdays, for a bizarre concoction of reasons. the haulier contends that they do not always have available trucks sailing on the morning ferry on those particular days. when the trucks are full, efforts to place the newspapers in the truck cabs is apparently viewed by calmac as a potential fire risk, an odd observation when the car deck is effectively filled with petrol-driven vehicles, the fuel-tanks of which you would imagine to be a far greater fire risk.
until 2019, it was common practice to load delayed newspapers onto the ferry car deck on a hand-pulled trolley, but that practice was rescinded without explanation by the ferry operator. following complaints from several sources concerning the contemporary delay situation, the haulier suggested reviving the practice of using the trolley, a solution that was initially welcomed by senior calmac staff, who went even so far as to promise the use of one of their own trolleys until such time as the haulier could provide their own. the rejoicing, however, was short-lived, as once again, idiocy reigned supreme and the ferry crew refused to accept the trolley, yet again on the grounds that it might prove a fire-risk.
this latter contention is hard to comprehend, as the newspapers were to be left on the trolley, on the car deck which is out of bounds to passengers throughout each sailing. both i and the haulier are at pains to understand precisely what it is on a secured car deck that might cause a pile of newspapers to conflagrate. the ferry service routinely transports casks and tankers of whisky as well as fuel tankers, presumably constituting a far greater fire risk than a few copies of the guardian. however, so far, they have failed to provide any substance to their reasoning, and delays to daily newspapers continue.
as a humorous aside, the manager of the glagow-islay haulier suggested he might well purchase an electric cargo bike and cycle the newspapers aboard at kennacraig, and disembark by a similar method on islay. were the daily papers to be loaded into a box affixed to the cargo bike, no-one would be any the wiser. after all, motorists driving their vehicles onto the ferries are never queried as to how many newspapers or magazines they might have lying on the back seats of their cars. presumably such items placed on a car seat do not constitute the fire risk they adopt when on the passenger seat of a truck cab? but, his logic may ultimately bequeath an additional benefit: calmac does not charge a fee for carrying bicycles.
always keen to extend any humorous asides, i suggested that perhaps the haulier may wish to purchase a fleet of cargo bikes to install at their depot on the island, offering the opportunity to fulfil last mile deliveries on islay, drivers swapping their overalls and hi-viz vests for bibtights and gore-tex jackets. it seemed an apposite suggestion, as long as i wasn't the one breaking the news to the delivery drivers. use of e-cargo bikes for the final portion of any delivery trajectory is not a new one. there have been several delivery logistics firms employing such methods, including dpd and ups, and though the logic of so doing is hardly unassailable, it does seem a relatively pragmatic and economic means of delivering to inner-city and urban locations. in rural and island situations, not so much.
but it's possible that even the pragmatics of last-mile delivery by e-cargo bike might not be the solution many thought it to be. cycle logistics firm, zedify reckoned to be the largest in the country, with ten locations serving high street retailers, parcel carriers and independent business, announced last week that it had called in the administrators, putting 38 jobs at risk through the closure of seven of those hubs. in what must surely pose a blow to the economic model underpinning e-cargo bike deliveries, the company's directors were apparently "...unable to raise sufficient funding to continue operating". i realise i am but a mere child when it comes to financial matters, but i was always of the understanding that for any business to survive, it had to earn sufficient money to pay the bills. if continued funding is required, perhaps it's not the bright idea we once thought. either that, or while it's definitely the future, the world's not ready for it just yet?
saturday 1 february 2025
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................what water is for
every thursday afternoon (and one or two other days if i'm feeling mischievous), i walk down bowmore main street from the office, to the book and gift shop at the corner of shore street to avail myself of what is technically identified as a ristretto. for the uninitiated, that's an espresso, but at double the strength. ever since i visited a back street coffee shop in london with the gent who, at the time, owned vintage cycling shoe purveyors, dromarti, i have been searching for a coffee that would crinkle my kneecaps and bring tears to my thighs. such was the strength of the tiny coffee obtained in said london outlet which, entirely coincidentally, featured a steel colnago master bicycle in the window.
the daughter of one of my work colleagues once worked in the café above the bookshop on leaving school, passing on the knowledge imparted by the machine installation engineer. when providing basic training in the use of said machine, he mentioned that, should anyone request a ristretto, the simplest means of achieving that was to press the button marked flat white, ensuring that the strong brown liquid poured into a small espresso cup. the trick was not to add the milk part of the flat white. keen to test the veracity of this advice, i ventured out on that initial thursday afternoon.
i'm not too proud to admit that, yes, i am a coffee snob; the very thought of a cup of nescafe instant coffee instills a similar reaction to scraping fingernails down a blackboard, and i despair of those outlets who believe that a double-espresso is simply double the amount of coffee in a single espresso
many years ago, i was sent the necessary access codes to view a documentary online about coffee: its production, sales and economics. this for review on thewashingmachinepost. in that documentary was portrayed a japanese barista who simply would not open his premises to the public until he was satisfied, on a daily basis, that he was able to draw the perfect espresso. this process would sometimes take several hours, with a queue of prospective customers eagerly, yet patiently, awaiting the raising of the shutters. i don't mind stating that i probably do not possess the personality that would allow me the luxury of such a lengthy period, waiting for a tiny coffee that takes considerably more effort to create than to drink.
starbucks has frequently been cited as responsible for the designer coffee explosion that has benefitted/blighted (delete as applicable) britain's high streets over the past few decades, but it's eminently possible that the velocipedinal community might be the true principal behind coffee's wholesale adoption. it may well be that italy has had greater influence than for which it is given credit. it's not so very long ago that almost every cyclist worth his or her salt ultimately aspired to owning a colnago (or perhaps a bianchi, pinarello or gios). in order to better identify with the country that gave us fausto coppi, gino bartali, marco pantani and campagnolo, many a british club cyclist would attempt to more closely identify with the home of milan - sanremo by sipping a tiny yet strong black coffee, while discussing what constituted a truly perfect crema.
with the uci's mondialisation of cycle sport, not only have matters become less euro-centric, but assimilation of italian affectations have been on the wane for many a year. at least, from a cursory glance, that would definitely appear to be the case. but across the pond, in portland, oregon, where not only exists the superlative stumptown coffee, but clive coffee, which offers online barista classes and one-to-one learning about the finer points of creating the best of designer coffees, coffee has taken on more of a pacific northwest identity than necessarily that of rome.
situated within the selfsame oregon city, is the inestimable chris king components, manufacturers and purveyors of quality hubs and headsets. following my second visit to the town in 2012, i returned with a chris king espresso tamper, a precision device modelled on their no-threadset, in the anodised colour (pink) of my choice, presented to aileen at debbie's in bruichladdich, all the better for producing designer coffees with a velocipedinal character. it became a well-used coffee accessory, before it disappeared during building work carried out around ten years ago.
however, it would be naive of us to consider that for chris king, the espresso tamper was a simple marketing device, a mere accessory to their principal purpose in life. designer, jay sycip, once arguably more at home devising bespoke steel frame designs, has not left the tamper on the shelf. "We recognise that a technique used by many exceptional baristas is using their fingertips to gauge the levelness of the tamper piston against the outer edge of the porta-filter and longer handles can get in the way." his new design features a height 15mm shorter than its predecessor, now 70mm tall, with a base diameter of 58mm and a base depth of 10mm, and weighing 420g. "Making this change will allow for better, more precise control for all baristas. It's a small thing, but we felt it was important."
it's always comforting to find a company harbouring similar priorities to those of our own.
friday 31 january 2025
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................now i really am confused
i have always wondered why component manufacturers found it necessary to index the shifting on the front derailleur. on road bikes at least, there are only two rings to consider; i, and presumably many a shop mechanic, have found it endlessly frustrating to adjust shimano (in particular) front mechs and prevent the chain rubbing when in certain sprockets at the rear. when the front was friction shifting only, trimming it while riding to remove the rubbing, was simplicity itself. indexing introduced an on/off state of affairs; you could click up or down, but there was no slack built-in to help avoid chain rub.
the introduction of a single front ring may have removed any front mech concerns, but introduced something of a quandary, based entirely on what we'd probably all been told as youngsters; to wit: never cross-chain - don't have the chain in the outer ring, when it's on the largest rear sprocket, and don't have it on the inner ring, when on the small sprocket. according the old guys in the cycle club and the owners of many a bike shop, so doing would undoubtedly increase the chain wear. but if you have only a single chain ring, both scenarios are theoretically inevitable, though the small-sprocket situation is probably one unlikely to be tested by most of us.
framebuilder, richard sachs, once told me that he refused to fit single ring cranks to any of his team cyclocross bikes, and i think most of us would admit that, when first riding a single front ring, initial confusion reigned until the notion of using the left hand for braking purposes only sank in. like many, i possess both setups; my ritchey road bike features a twelve-speed campagnolo record groupset with a double chainset. the specialized crux has a sram rival 1x eleven-speed setup. however, whichever option you might think is preferable, there's little to deny that both have their merits and both work more or less as designed.
indexing of the front gear mech is considerably less of a problem nowadays with the almost wholesale adoption of electronics. the brain fitted within the control unit is now aware of whichever sprocket the chain occupies at the rear and is able to adjust the front mech accordingly, autonomously avoiding the dreaded chain rub, so you'd think we have finally achieved groupset nirvana; after thousands, if not millions of research and development dollars, everything works pretty much as it did when the gear levers were mounted on the downtube. and, aside from the odd quirk now and again, it's rare to hear any member of the sunday morning peloton complain about finding themselves in the wrong gear through no fault of their own.
in essence, that ought surely to have the likes of shimano, campagnolo and sram focus their inveterate fiddling elsewhere. perhaps there's a self-cleaning, self-lubricating chain currently under development, or work is already underway on an incompatible solution to sram's thru-axle friendly rear dropout. heaven forfend that finally everything has actually begun to work seamlessly with everything else. but no. those all but perfect gear changes are seemingly still being subjected to continued development, presumably because they can, or because a microwatt of energy can be saved.
reputedly at the behest of the latter contention, sram filed a patent in the usa in 2019 featuring a two-ring crankset with an integrated derailleur, operated electronically, with everything attached to the outer ring. i now understand that patent to have been granted - though that still does not guarantee the product will ever reach the market. though i've seen the schematics of the component, i can't say i fully understand the principles, but more to the point, i can't comprehend why they'd even bother. though it has been mentioned that removing a front gear mech from the seat-tube could be seen as a means of reducing drag, given that there are two muscled legs and feet churning away mere millimetres distant, i really can't see how removing the front mech could make any appreciable difference. so where is the point in hours of r&d to achieve that which has never been a particularly weak link in the chain (pun intended) in the first place?
it occurs to me that the bicycle industry resembles that of 'strictly come dancing'. two steps forward and three back.
thursday 30 january 2025
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................a voyage of discovery
mrs washingmachinepost and i last subscribed to skytv over 15 years ago, following their extreme tardiness in reconnecting us to our beloved television programmes following an earlier equivalent of storm éowyn which shifted our satellite dish out of alignment. despite claiming they would be unable to send an enginner for almost two months, they seemed happy to continue collecting our subscription fee during the period of radio silence. to make matters worse, we had also been paying a monthly fee by way of insurance against such a happenstance, the conditions of which reputedly guaranteed a 24 hour call out. of course, cancelling the sky subscription removed access to british eurosport on which i was happy to watch not only the tour de france, but also several of the spring classics.
as a replacement, i subscribed to eurosport player, allowing me online access to all the cycle sport i could handle, and subsequently via apple's airplay, when i innocently purchased a tv with the technology included.
however, following the tour in july 2024, owners of eurosport, warner brothers discovery, opted to close down the eurosport player app at the end of that particular month. yet there was good news on the immediate horizon, when they helpfully pointed out that they were not only transferring my subscription to the discovery+ app, but as compensation for closing down direct eurosport access, i would receive a £3 per month discount on the subscription fee until the end of december 2024. seemingly a win/win situation. unfortunately, my ipod proved too old to install the discovery app and allow airplay to my television set. a modicum of research revealed that a discovery+ app was available for the tv, allowing 42" of clear digital viewing of the current cyclocross season, which, as those of you with little better to do, will well know has occupied pretty much every one of my weekends since november.
my reduced price subscription to discovery+ has lightened my bank balance by a mere £3.99 for the past five months, soon to increase to £6.99, a price i deemed a worthy expense for the excellent cyclocross coverage across the season. however, it seems that the word 'greedy' has become undeniably popular in the boardroom at warner brothers discovery. as of the end of february, not only will they remove eurosport channels from sky's satellite and broadband broadcasts, but they will remove all sports from the discovery+ app (making me wonder what the '+' sign actually signifies?)
according to an e-mail received at the weekend, at the end of february 2025, eurosport and tnt sports channels will be combined into tnt sports. should i wish to continue with my discovery+ subscription, the price will, in fact, diminish to a monthly £2.99, but as advised above, minus any cycling coveerage, the sole reason i chose to continue my subscription in the first place. if that is not of interest, i can cancel my subscription. should i wish to avail myself of live and on-demand cycling coverage, previously broadcast by eurosport/discovery, i can subscribe to tnt premium. while i don't pretend to understand the reasons behind this particular game of musical chairs, and though i dearly love my cyclocross habit, an increase in the monthly subscription to £30.99 seems particularly onerous; four times the current price of a monthly discovery+ subscription.
aside from having been a loyal subscriber, along with probably thousands, if not millions of others, it seems that is of no interest to warner brothers. it's £30.99 or nothing. in my particular case, it will be nothing. i appreciate that tv coverage of cycling can be alarmingly expensive, but i harbour doubts that a cyclocross race costs any more than the average football match. i'm also well aware that the fragmentation of live coverage of the latter sport has often meant that soccer fans are paying hundreds of pounds for live coverage, spread across several broadcasters, but in my defence, they're probably gaining access to at least seven live matches per week. it has also been pointed out that the tnt sports monthly subscription can be activated or cancelled at any time, so for five months of live and on-demand cyclocross, i need pay only £155. but this season, i have paid less than twenty pounds.
it is of pale comfort that cycling has become popular enough to find itself in this situation, but in one fell swoop, live coverage of our favourite sport has all but been placed out of reach. this year will see the final live coverage of the tour de france on itv4 with ned and david, while free-to-air evaporates into the ether. oddly enough, live eurosport coverage will continue to form a part of velocipedinal life in mainland europe, suggesting a form of digital bullying against the uk. one or two folks have already suggested acquiring virtual private network software which might be able to circumvent any geo-restrictions placed on european broadcasts.
the only saving grace, and it's minimal at best, is that warner brothers discovery won't flick the switch until after the 24/25 cyclocross season ends. it was fun while it lasted. i can only hope that eurosport sports fans vote with their wallets and refuse to hand over any subscription fees to this monopoly, perhaps causing serious cause to reconsider.
a plague on their networks as we prepare to return to the dark ages.
wednesday 29 january 2025
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................deep and meaningless
during all the (less than academic) studies i have made into the whys and wherefores of deep -rimmed carbon wheels, the over-riding factor seems to be that those deep rims only kick in at speeds above 35kph, a figure considerably higher than that showing on the gps devices of the majority of sunday morning riders. that being reputedly correct, it is of great wonder that almost every cyclocross rider, without exception, features deep-rimmed wheels trimmed with the regulation 33mm rubber. though i have asked the question often, i have yet to reach any conclusion other than their being there for aesthetic reasons, rather than anything related to speed. apart from mathieu van der poel and wout van aert, the majority of riders end their one hour of mud-infested purgatory with average speeds rarely in excess of 25kph, some ten kph less than than even optimistic marketing would suggest is beneficial.
i think it more than possible that the majority of non-professional riders are to be seen riding deep carbon rims because "it looks good". as one who once rode a ritchey logic road bike with a pair of 45mm campagnolo bora wto wheels, it's a contention with which i find it hard to disagree. however, i very much doubt that the archetypal innocent bystander pays any attention to such matters, restricting appreciative approval to only the members of your particular sunday morning peloton. yet while there are reputedly aerodynamic benefits to be gained from the carbon wheelsets under discussion, where there's an up, there will inevitably be downs. for instance, carbon wheelsets are often heavier than the traditional shallow alloys; that may be of benefit when hoping to conserve momentum, but it will require more effort to reach escape velocity, and ultimately be detrimental when attempting to ride uphill.
and with no apologies to 'storm éowyn', based entirely on personal experience, those deep carbon rims are frequently and not altogether helpfully, affected by crosswinds, a factor rarely encountered by a more traditional wheelset. yet the low-spoke-count rigidity on offer from the popular contemporary choice has become quite ubiquitous in certain circles, quite probably on the basis that "if it's good enough for the pros, it's good enough for me". that conveniently obscures the fact that the latter class of cyclists has the ability to expend watts like there was no tomorrow.
the reason behind their apparent wholesale adoption by the pros is undoubtedly at the behest of their sponsors' marketing departments, but the conspiracy theory states that the rim depth has more to do with visibility than actual aerodynamic gains. it's a transference of the same contention aimed at so-called aero bikes. it is hard to deny that those thin, flat tubes provide a much larger mobile billboard on which to feature the manufacturer's branding. in an increasingly media controlled sport, that should come as little surprise. transfer that to the wheels, and there is now twice the area available; don't tell me you haven't noticed the bright, white enve logos adorning tadej's colnago?
there is, of course, no law against emulating the professional classes, always assuming you have the financial wherewithal to indulge. in its current sale, condor cycles features a relatively shallow set of campagnolo shamal disc-compatible wheels for £999, a 30mm campagnolo levante set for £1300, or the 45mm deep, bora wto disc-compatible wheelset for £1750. those will look particularly good on whichever bike to which they are applied, but at considerably greater cost than the handbuilt, traditional wheelset with campagnolo record hubs and mavic rims that i acquired from the same source a few years ago for marginally more than £400, brand new. and i have yet to experience any grief in a hebridean crosswind.
the only thing preventing yours truly from maintaining pace with my sunday morning colleagues, is a combination of age and (lack of) fitness, for which there is no deep carbon cure.
tuesday 28 january 2025
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