thewashingmachinepost




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scrummy

torq gel

i promise i'll be brief. during my fitness stint on an exercise bike while on holiday, i sampled three of the four flavours of carbo gel recently launched by torq, but hadn't yet indulged in the orange and banana variety. well, at our passing place stop when mid-way round the mulindry ride today, that was the very item retrieved from the back pocket of my rapha softshell.

flavoursome only just begins to describe it, and its reason for existence was well justified too, since i covered the 70km surprisingly comfortably and brighter and shinier than when i left the house. highly recommended (along with the other flavours).

posted on sunday 25 november

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progressing backwards

windows media player

if you're one of the majority who read the post using a windows pc, then you can either go and do something more interesting instead, or hang around long enough to plaster a smug grin across your face.

macusers are not best served when it comes to watching cycling.tv - not really because of anything that the chaps and chapesses at this worthy broadband channel have or haven't done, but because of something that neither microsoft nor narrowstep have done. if you're a regular viewer, you will be aware that all coverage is displayed in your pixels by means of microsloth's windows media player. so far so good, except microsloth stopped development of the mac version almost three years ago (the latest version for macusers is 9). this worked in limited fashion (it was not possible to gain full screen) prior to apple's change to intel processors, but when this move in technology occured, the windows media player browser plug-in no longer worked in any intel compatible browser on the mac.

however, with the flip4mac utility installed, logging on to cycling.tv would show the missing plug-in icon, but a dialogue box informed that while the browser couldn't handle the streaming media, the standalone player probably could. clicking ok would launch the player and all was well with the world. however, last week, apple updated its pre-osx 10.5 operating system to 10.4.11, which i duly installed - and everything broke again. in fact safari, apple's own browser gives no indication of any media at all on the cycling.tv website - no live coverage and no video on demand. it is possible to achieve live coverage using flip4mac and the firefox browser, but this is just too much faffing about. and as time goes on, this situation is unlikely to get any better: microsloth have no intention of doing anything with their media player for mac, and i doubt apple care that much.

alternatives? well, not really, but since apple keep their windows version of quicktime up to date (it's an integral part of itunes) and adobe have developed a flash streaming server allowing live streamed video to be played in the cross platform flash player browser plug-in, i have sent several e-mails both to narrowstep and cycling.tv to point this out and entreat them to re-consider there adherence to windows media player. so far with no positive result. in mitigation, narrowstep have responded well to my support questions but basically it's sticking plaster and blue tac, and i don't really think that macusers subscribing to cycling.tv should end up being second class citizens. our subscriptions cost just as much as everyone elses.

and yes, this is supposed to be a cycling website - sorry. and today's cyclocross coverage from koksijde was excellent, when i finally got it to play.

posted on saturday 24 november

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tour de france - the history, the legend, the riders by graeme fife. mainstream publishing 423pp illus. £10.99

graeme fife's tour de france

the best bit about this book is not the tour de france, nor those who take part year on year. the best aspect of the book is its author. i last reviewed this volume, or at least one of its predecessors, in 2005, this being the current incarnation. previously i mentioned that i wished i had reviewed the original version pre-lance - not because it was lance, but because each successive edition has been a really good book with endless bits stuck on the end. the first modern tour that mr fife has concerned himself with is that of 1998, when the late marco pantani stood atop the podium - and a large amount of drugs were found in a festina car.

well yes, we've heard it all before, watched it all before, and read it all before, so why, oh why would you wish to relieve yourself of £10.99 (actually a rather decent price) to do so all again? well, as i said in my opening statement, the difference is graeme fife. the early chapters find him on his bicycle, grinding his way up the major climbs of the tour while regaling us with stories from yesteryear. this bit i could read several times (in fact, i did), but in the chapters about each year's tour, the difference is mr fife's personal interaction with the tour itself:

'the goon on the door wouldn't let us through, of course, but, as i strolled back from the loo, i noticed a side door standing ajar and strolled in.'

if it had been me, i wouldn't have dared let on that i couldn't get into a press conference, but it's snippets like this that add the human touch and prevent the book becoming simply a blow by blow account of each stage and its major combatants. however, if you already have one of the previous editions of this book, should you feel compelled to rush out and buy this one? well, i can't really answer that one for you, but they have changed the cover to depict contador on the champs elysees, and added a chapter about the last victory by a discovery channel rider. and it is written by the inimitable graeme fife. possibly reason enough if you're a tour fanatic.

sad to say, i probably would.

the 2007 edition of graeme fife's tour de france is published on november 29th and available through the usual channels. mainstream-publishing.com

posted on saturday 24 november

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christmas lists - or does it just lean to one side?

christmas list

like it or not, it's darned near christmas, and whether you've got prezzies to buy for friends (of the cycling variety) or have been asked what you fancy for yourself, it's the sort of situation that demands a list. because lists can solve most of the world's known problems. obviously the list for your own presents can contain far more exclusive and expensive items than the 'other' list for third parties, but i shall leave that to your own discretion.

it would be unfair, not to mention ruddy hard work, to make an exhaustive list - and would leave me open to the accusation of repetition, bearing in mind the list of items tested at the foot of this page from which you are more than welcome to make your choice. sadly, most of the peaople i know have little or no interest in cycling, at least not to the degree where a year's subscription to cycling.tv would be a welcome start to the day on 25th december. and in a secluded from the world kind of situation, that's where the nub of the problem lies.

if, like me, you are besotted with cycling to the point where your answer to everyone's problems (including your own) is 'lack of cycling' then your knowledge of what constitutes a half-decent christmas present may be verging on the minimal. mrs washingmachinepost sees cycling as an instrument of the devil, and has currently refused to watch the flying scotsman dvd from the comfort of the couch. so a brooks leather courier bag is unlikely to be high on her list of expected gifts for chrimbo. likewise a copy of ernesto colnago's autobiography. trouble is, what do civilians expect, because i'm stuffed if i know?

so, instead of buying the december issues of the monthlies full of all that is great and good in the world of cycling accessories, we really need several pages of features on what so-called 'normal' people expect at christmas. it's really the one time of the year when i wouldn't mind too much if procycling resembled wired's gadget test issue (interestingly the current issue of said wired supplement features an absolute doozy of a washingmachine - this is not obsession, honest). oh, and it would be a great help if the cycling monthlies' december accessory reviews were in loose leaf format. that way they can be strategically strewn around the house or, dare i say it, work, so that the unbelievers will have an adequate idea of where and on what to spend their hard-earned pennies.

it would help them make a list.

posted on friday 23 november

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good at stuff

the flying scotsman

i have no interest in football. not even at international status, so when the scottish national football team lost to italy last weekend, i'm probably not really supposed to say that it didn't really bother me at all. but when it comes to cycling - well, that's a whole 'nuther packet of torq bars.

these days, the scots have much to cheer - david millar, chris hoy, craig maclean... but the greatest of them all (aside from robert) is the flying scotsman - and, along with many of you, having seen the movie, thanks to the chaps at prendas, i now have the dvd of the movie. and it's just as good now as it was in the (admittedly luxurious and private) cinema.

if you've seen it on the big screen, buy the dvd - if you haven't seen it at all, what the heck are you reading this for? click over to prendas and order a copy now.

that wasn't just a suggestion

posted on thursday 22 november

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why we've all gone woolly

merino wool, green

most of the cycling world - certainly at the professional end - spends its cycling days encased in polyester, lycra or some such, usually of a brighter hue than would be deemed absolutely necessary in polite company. and, if you're one of those avid wearers of team clothing, chances are you've always worn fabrics such as these. but it has not always been so and, it seems, a little bit of it might still not be today or in the future.

if you, like me (and les woodland), have at least a partial addiction to the nostalgic days of yesteryear, when the world existed only in grainy black and white, you may just have noticed that jacques anquetil, fausto coppi et al were strangers to du pont's lycra - probably because it hadn't been invented at the time. cyclists of those days wore wool, top and bottom. if, however, you've seen photos of the two aforementioned pedallists in the rain, that the back pockets are trailing on the rear wheel would probably have been one of the more notable points of the pic. so when the opportunity to ditch saggy bottoms (let's face it, who wouldn't?) the new man-made fabrics were welcomed with open tri-bars.

aside from the trumpeted benefits of encompassing the new, in this emerging world-wide sport of cycling, was the fact that scary sounding processes such as dye sublimation, allowed sponsors to create the appalling mess that was team polti (remember them?). there were also side benefits in that even during the monsoon season, the jersey remained in a jersey shape, well clear of tyre tread, and you could chuck it in thewashingmachine on any cycle (am i being too obvious here?) and not only was it dry in seconds but it was exactly the same size as when it went in.

merino sheep

but, such is the way of the world, things have changed. lycra and polyester are derived from oil, which undermines just a little bit of our cyclists' smugness (that carbon fibre is too should obviously be kept quiet for now) and the fact is that merino wool is a lot better at some stuff than man-made fibres ever will be. for starters, it's natural, recyclable, it's naturally hydrophilic (it likes water) and it both absorbs and desorbs - never knew such a word existed. and merino fibres react chemically when absorbing water - if you pop on your merino earth wind and rider jersey and step out into the cold, damp exterior world, as the wool absorbs the moisture, it gives off heat. don't tell me you've never noticed - that's why woolly jumpers are cosy. it also absorbs water molecules chemically into the fibres preventing merino from feeling wet and clammy. wearers of rapha's merino base layer will happily accept that as a truth. in a seemingly contrary fashion though, scientific tests not carried out by me, show that merino wool transfers heat away from the body far more efficiently than such as a double knit polyester jersey. who would have known?

man-made fibres, particularly in the guise of base layer, next to the skin garments, suffer, often badly, from becoming clammy very quickly, but more importantly, from a social point of view, they have a tendency to become aromatic. and not in a good way. a merino base layer - and i have extensive first hand experience of this - can remain odourless for days without washing. this is because the chemical structure of merino fibres prevents adherence by the bacteria that, to put not too fine a point on it, make you smelly.

it's almost a given that a jersey design such as that worn by liquigas may be a tad difficult to reproduce in merino wool (though why the heck you'd want to...), but it is perhaps a saving grace that the profferers of merino products tend to err on the more pastel side of colour, though earth wind and rider are not short of a bright colour or two. that research and development of wool products has continued apace, is much to our advantage as stylish sportspeople, resulting in sportwool as evinced by rapha, and mapp as employed by solo down under. both products use a merino wool merino inner, melded to a polyester outer, though not in quite the same way. with the merino on the inside, this gives us all the benefits of wool next to the skin, with the harder wearing and more washer friendly benefits of the man-made outer. fabrics such as these, subjectively seem to provide a higher degree of comfort than the standard jersey, and do seem to be less prone to ageing (how cool does your motorola top look these days - and how well has it worn?)

i have a rapha club jersey purchased at the same time as my velo club d'ardbeg team jersey, and there is little doubt that the former is faring better than the latter.

just shows you can't pull the wool over my eyes.

posted on thursday 22 november

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the show must go on

don walker cycles

taking place in portland, oregon, from february 8th til 10th next year, is the north american handmade bicycle show where, rather unsurprisingly, a substantial proportion of north america's bicycle builders will be exhibiting their handiwork and wares. and it's not just a bunch of booths with wall to wall lugged steel, if last year's is anything to go by. some of the frames verged on the outlandish and others would have brought tears to your thighs due to their grace, style and luxurious paintwork.

and sometimes its possible to see future trends from these individuals, if only because it's often easier for one bloke in a basement to try something different, without worrying whether it'll fit into a 2009 marketing strategy, or whether danny pate might not like it.

and it's not just bikes (well it is really) - there is also a series of seminars planned, the first of which include my way of doing the shiny stuff, the business of professional framebuilding, product liability insurance (keeping it real), and decals and graphic treatments for bicycles. for pro builders (is there any other kind?) nick crumpton will expound on carbon tube construction.

i lost count of the exhibitors when i got past forty, (this includes rapha north america) and there was at least the same number again stretching to the bottom of the web page, so this is a sizeable follow-on from the recently held portland hand-built cycle show. yes indeed, they have enough cycle builders in portland alone, to hold a show of their own - shouldn't we all be living there?

now, strangely enough, i'm not actually telling you this to turn you green with envy, or to encourage a high level of travel agent bookings to oregon next february. north america is a much bigger place than britainshire, but surely if portland can hold it's own bicycle builders' show on a population of just over half a million, britain could do the same? with no disrespect to the uk's custom framebuilders, traditional wouldn't seem to be an unfair epithet to apply.

sure, i'm generalising, but wouldn't it be great for prospective customers as well as the builders themselves to gather in the biggest scout-hut they can find and hold seminars, exhibit their wares, chat to each other, and maybe even encourage some wannabees to become will-dos? heck, after seeing photos from last year's show in the states, i went looking for a long lost book on how to build a steel frame (never did find it - the bicycle industry breathes a collective sigh of relief). there doesn't seem to be a bicycle builders' association that got everything together across the pond - the nahbs was founded and is organised by don walker (it's his legs in the kilt above - an honorary scotsman if ever i saw one) of don walker cycles. entrepreneurship.

i can't build a bike to save myself (though i'm a dab hand at wheels), but wouldn't it be really nice if a british bikebuilder was inspired to put something together over here?

but i'm still thinking of going to portland in 2009.

posted on wednesday 21 november

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mutual admiration society

matt seaton

i just thought i'd get that in before anyone else did. if you've read matt seaton's two wheels, including the acknowledgments bit, you will have seen that my friend matt was kind enough to mention yours truly as well as thewashingmachinepost - a surprise to me, but a very pleasant one at that. maybe you think that those of us who profess to be 'in the trade' are all on nodding terms with each other. if only that were true. but while matt is very definitely better connected in this sense than i (ok, let's be truthful here, pretty much everyone is better connected than i am), there are some lovely coincidences that happen along the way that keep loops within loops.

you cannot have failed to notice the mosquito bikes ad between the top article and the mighty dave t, and those fine chaps at mosquito have sponsored mr seaton for the current cyclocross season, where he is racing on an independent fabrication titanium cross bike. and, excellent wordsmith that he is, we are being treated to regular race reports on the mosquito bikes blog - easily worth their weight in pixels.

so really all i'm doing, for non-guardian readers, is inadequately returning the favour conferred in two wheels. some people just deserve to be in every cyclist's loop. enjoy the read.

posted on tuesday 20 november

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a cherry bite second the at

witcomb cycles

rearrange the above heading into a well known phrase. flicking back through some of the pixels over the past few years, months, days (delete as applicable) i have noticed occasional lapses where i've repeated myself. not word for word, mind, just sort of in principal. i'm sure there's an avid reader somewhere with a large piece of paper pinned to a bike shed wall, listing all these occasions and which will doubtless come back to haunt me when i'm rich and famous. however, in this instance, due to a lack of forethought on my part, and paths not crossing at the time they were meant to, a feature on witcomb cycles that should have been more than adequately illustrated wasn't.

however, due to the power of the internet, and a degree of persistence on behalf of the above mentioned cycle builder, the beauty of witcomb's brazing and mitering, as well as the paint shop, deserves to be seen in all its glory. turning up at their deptford palace would be a fine start, but since that's not possible for all of us, maybe this will persuade you to make the effort.

have a look...

posted on tuesday 20 november

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new torq carbo gels

torq carbo gels

now there's nothing that says the post can't be even a wee bit scientific about product testing, and still nothing that says i have to put on all the winter gear i own and slog around islay's roads on the colnago. and because of that, torq's new carbo gels were tested differently. ok, so i did have one on the road before it was holiday-time, but that was principally for flavoursome reasons - and yes, the strawberry yogurt flavour tasted just as if it had come from a plastic pot with a foil lid.

so, instead of clambering aboard some italian carbon fibre, legs were much more uncomfortably astride an exercise bike in a gym at center parcs. and purely for the purposes of the scientificness of the test, particular attention was paid to the power reading generated by said exercise bike. on day one, i pedalled for one hour, seated on a saddle that would have allowed helicopter landings, attached to a 'bicycle' that bore no relation whatsoever to a real bike, either in looks, comfort or positioning. however, since i did use the same machine on two consecutive days, i will desist from a lengthy diatribe questioning who, apart from thewashingmachinepost, actually cycles these things.

day one exercise was undertaken on pure water only, and at the end of my alloted time the machine gave my average power output at 173 watts (that'll make chris hoy train a bit harder). not the very best i've ever seen (using an srm on the colnago, average was considerably higher), but adequate for the purposes of science - if i say it often enough, someone might believe it.

on day two, i indulged in a torq black cherry yogurt gel before exercising, as well as the ubiquitous bottle of water. torq do, in fact suggest that partaking of their gels is better done along with at least a modicum of water - so i complied. at the end of test part two, my power output had risen by six watts. not an enormous increase, but having followed the same pedalling pattern while finding the bicycle even more uncomfortable than on the previous day, i think it says it all. and just to round off the recovery period, i indulged in a forest fruits.

so, if we accept the tenuousness of the post's scientific methodology, a torq gel does have a provable degree of efficacy. they certainly have the edge on flavour in comparison to other carbo gels i have used, though i have yet to try the orange and banana flavour (i'm saving that till last, because it sounds scrummy).

exercise bikes

you can purchase boxes of twenty of each flavour for £23 (£28 for the forest fruits), or to find your favourite, order a pack of eight for only £10.50. torq gels contain a maltodextrin-fructose formula, all natural flavours, no artificial sweeteners, no colours, they're dairy and wheat-free and also suitable for vegetarians. the forest fruits flavour contains guarana and has a rather high level of natural caffeine - just so as you know.

and i'm still looking forward to the orange and banana on a proper bicycle - outdoors with layers of winter gear.

posted on monday 19 november

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the birth of cool

iceberg

how do you know? how do you know how cool is cool? after examining the extensive array of cycle clothing in thewashingmachinepost cycle wardrobe, the choice pretty much has to be based on what the weather looks like through a steamed-up window. and if the day before was cold, well nobody can blame me for dressing for warmth. choice is also based (often mistakenly) on the ambient experience outside and inside the bike shed, despite the area being quite sheltered.

and of course, the conscientious cyclist always has a contingency plan in case of a puncture or breakdown which, according to the law of sod, will always happen at the most exposed, remote and distant part of the island from home. bearing in mind laphroaig's 1980's advertising four seasons in one day, which has often proved to be startlingly true, it would be a bit naive to travel light, so to speak.

but of course, puffing and panting cyclists such as myself probably exude more hot air than a party political broadcast, and after only a few kilometres, it's saunas'r'us. unfortunately, trying to learn from this, usually means being underdressed on the next expedition. i think i may just be a slow learner. my neighbour has a weather-vane atop his shed which reasonably accurately provides an indication of wind direction and ferocity, but despite several explanations, i still have not managed to get the wind direction right before leaving on the colnago. wind strength is easy - over a certain speed, our wheelie bin blows over.

being cool means a sight more than wearing the latest goodies from rapha, solo or prendas. it means making an educated guess as to how many, or how few layers to wear, depending on distance to be cycled, wind strength (stronger headwind, more energy expended = more internal heat) and projected atmospheric temperature. because there is little to be gained from hard pedalling if you're too hot...

...and it's cool to be cool.

posted on saturday 10 november

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an easy target?

ride to work

shoestring doesn't quite begin to describe thewashingmachinepost budget - i'm certainly not in this for the money, and i think the same could be said for many involved in the world of cycling journalism (just leave me to my wee island world). while a team of management consultants and an office full of researchers probably wouldn't make that much difference to the pixels you see, it's nice to know that there are folks out there happy to pass on stuff that they come across when they're trying to avoid work.

so major thanks to jl for pointing me in the direction of the website agotob where, aside from the lovingly crafted web graphics, there are some fine t-shirts too with a comparable level of graphic on the front. yes, it's one of those websites that feels comfortably at ease taking pot shots at the car owning public, and despite being an easy target, why the heck shouldn't they?

on a more serious note, the website has more to do with sensible transport options, which the motor car most definitely is not - at least not on a personal level. and sometimes the t-shirt slogan is the best first step. and irony is something they have not missed: london 1909: average speed of horse and cart 7mph. london 1999: average speed of motorists 6mph. i'm sure you've got the general idea.

so if you'd like to aid them in their stated mission to educate and facilitate change in britain's myopic transport initiatives, why not buy a t-shirt for yourself, and another one as a christmas prezzie for your nearest and dearest...

...or even your local mp

posted on friday 9 november

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