thewashingmachinepost




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i owe my soul to the company store

chris king original headset

in 1976, when i was thinking about what second year at art college might contain, chris king was somewhere in the united states inventing the first cartridge bearing headset. now happily ensconced in portland, oregon, chris king components still make wonderful headsets from aluminium alloy, steel and titanium with such confidence in their product that each headset arrives with a ten year warranty. and as the recent washingmachinepost review will attest, chris king hubs provide the same degree of quality, reliability and colour as the headsets have done for quite a number of years. still holding fast to the external headset due to technical misgivings over the integrated trend (and i wholeheartedly agree), chris king components are still manufactured in-house at the portland facility, using medical grade steel bearings they also manufacture in portland. so why the sales promotion, other than the fact that i rather like the product?

well, we can pop into our local bike shop and buy or ignore as the fancy takes us. nobody's pretending that chris king stuff is cheap, but with a ten year warranty, the yearly cost makes perfect economic sense. but what about the folks who work there? well you might ask.

portland has two main cycle to work months: in may it's national bike month (why do we in the uk only get a week?) and each september, the bicycle transportation alliance hosts the bike commute challenge. chris king components decided to actively support both efforts. the following facilities are in place year round at the portland factory:

secure, indoor parking for every employee as well as a dedicated entry way for bikes.
contemporary locker room facilities for men and women with private shower stalls and changing areas.
full size lockers for every employee. these lockers were salvaged from an older building and reconfigured with their own custom designed ventilation system. air is constantly circulated and drawn from the lockers to keep clothes and towels dry and smelling fresh.
loaner bicycles, locks and lights available for checkout by any employee.
route mapping advice and instruction from the commuting co-ordinator.
one-on-one meetings with all new hires to discuss transportation options and commuting strategies.

are we in the wrong job, or what? but that's not all. for each of the months of participation, chris king employees are presented with the following incentives. a prize raffle for completing eight or more trips and two paid days off for commuting 100 percent of trips, one and a half days for commuting 75 percent and one for commuting half the time. so if a ck employee has managed 100 percent during both months, he/she gains four paid days off over and above their regular holiday entitlement. now there's something to bring up with the boss at your next appraisal.

perhaps rather obviously, this costs ck a load of money, but you can bet that the workers are darned happy. to quote:'this isn't about money or awards - it's about influencing change.'

and as edinburgh bicycle are fond of saying:'the revolution will not be motorised'

chrisking.com

posted on wednesday 18th june

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endura fs260 pro prolite jersey, bib shorts and socks

endura fs260

one of my graphic tasks in civilian life, is to provide swing-tags for islay woollen mill. these are credit card sized bits of card bearing the mill's logo and details on one side, with space to write product details on the reverse, one of which is the product code relating to a particular weave or design of material. however, this will eventually end up as part of a gamekeeper's suit, or cap, or jacket - i'm sure you get the general idea. so, for the sake of example, if gordon at the mill decides that a particular piece of cloth is to be stock-listed as abc123, that's what is written on the card. when you or i (probably not me, but we are talking hypothetically here) takes a step inside our bespoke tailor to improve our sartorial elegance in a particularly elegant manner, we are likely to be offered a suit in prince something-or-other tweed or houndstooth whatever. we are extremely unlikely to be offered an abc123 patterned jacket.

so why then did endura find it necessary to name their latest quality range of road-style clothing fs260 pro? and perhaps more to the point, why did this alpha-numeric designation have to be sublimation printed on each sleeve of the jersey? this part is a total mystery to me. i'm not even sure what it means

however...

endura fs260

...none of the above prevents this combination of essentials being one of the finest on the market. the jersey supplied (medium) is a particularly snappy fit, figure hugging in all the right places and not a smidgeon too tight in any of the others. i did have slight misgivings in the chest area because the fabric/fit seemed slightly baggy, and not something that would be filled had i the upper body of schwarnold arzennegger. however, cycle clothing being cycle clothing, the really good stuff is designed to be ultimate perfection when on the bike, rather than slopping about at debbie's with a soya milk cappuccino on the table in front. this was one of those moments.

the bulk of (or rather, lack of) the jersey is constructed of a sort of waffle pattern fabric which you can see through if you hold it up to the light. as a spring/summer jersey this is quite a fine thing to have; the jersey demonstrates no windproofing at all (that's what gilets are for) but a fine standard of what i believe is referred to as wicking. unfortunately, while islay provided many hours of sunshine over the 200km of testing, it provided very little heat, so the full benefits to be had were never quite achieved, but there seems very little reason to believe it would be deficient in this area.

as you would expect on a road jersey, there are three pockets at the rear, culminating in a vertically zipped fourth which, as i will never tire of pointing out, should be mandatory on every jersey of whatever flavour. what i didn't have reason to expect on a summer weight jersey was a full length ykk front zip. i'm not sure if this feature is one of the alluded to pro features, but it is a very welcome one at that. few indeed are the days when unzipped to the waist in sweltering heat can be experienced in the hebrides, but it does make the jersey a darned sight easier to remove in the roubaix showers, and gives the rider a bit more control over just how much is unzipped.. the hem has a substantial helping of that clear gloopy stuff that stops the jersey from riding up. the collar is reinforced at the seam, and all the other seams are flatlocked - pragmatic as well as stylish. sizing extends from small all the way up to xxl

endura fs260

the fs260 pro bib shorts also suffer from inexplicable alpha numerics, but thankfully in much smaller characters below a reflective endura logo. the most critical factor in any pair of cycle shorts is the comfy bit on which your important bits reside. this is supplied by cytech, an increasingly common and thoroughly welcome bit of padding. i am aware that there are various designations of cytech pad, but all that is of concern is how comfortable is it?. in this case, very; in keeping with much of the market, this pad uses elastic interface technology meaning that it moves as you do, thereby preventing the chafing (ouch) that shorts of yesteryear were inclined to inflict.

i have no comprehensive understanding of how the various cycle clothing manufacturers work out their shorts sizing these days; while i have remained pretty much the same height and waist size for many a long year, i own pairs of small, medium and large bibshorts, all of which fit. the endura fs260 pair on test are a size small, based entirely on having been sent a pair of small waterproof bib tights earlier this year. and they fit absolutely brilliantly. as can perhaps be figured all by yourselves, shorts that are slightly too large tend to move about more than necessary, and i find that uncomfortable. along with most other cyclists, i like a pair of shorts that take a bit of effort to put on; if they're a doddle to get into, you've maybe bought too large.

in comparison to to other shorts on the market, these are slightly shorter in the leg; not quite into sean yates territory, but sufficiently brief to allow appreciation of those chris hoy thigh muscles. again the insides have lashings of clear gloop at the hem to keep the legs where legs are supposed to be kept - they stayed put during all those kilometres and refrained from shredding skin while doing so. the bib shoulder straps are of the same mesh as the back panel, a comforting thought if you have to wear these under padless tights at any point. again, in keeping with the pro designation, these are designed to work well in the riding position rather than wandering about bowmore co-op. however, what is missing from the pro feature set, is a rear pocket at the base of the spine. where else is the race radio to go?

endura fs260

socks are socks, are socks. i still figure that the best compliment that can be paid to inner footwear, is that it remains un-noticeable. at least, in a tactile rather than visual sense. these are grey, and despite blending in with the colours of the supplied gear (the jersey can also be had in yellow, blue, red and white), i'm not sure grey is the best colour choice. white somehow has a more sporting approach. still, they are good and cost only £9.99 for three pairs - a veritable bargain.

the fs260 pro pro-lite jersey retails for £44.99 ($90) and the shorts are mind-bendingly priced at a mere £64.99 ($130). a trip to your nearest endura dealer might be a smart idea before that long hot summer arrives (does anyone else believe that last bit?). but as a personal note to endura's think tank see if you can come up with a snappier name than fs260 - please?

endura.co.uk

posted on tuesday 17th june - updated 19 june

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rapha nocturne series cap

rapha nocturne cap

i my youth, i used to take the train from prestwick up to glasgow of an occasional evening to watch some of my favourite bands (i shall not bore you with just exactly what was on my turntable (yes, turntable) in those days) at the apollo theatre, previously known as green's playhouse. some will remember same, others of a more youthful nature will have no idea of which i speak. no matter, for that is rather incidental to the principal purpose of discussion. in order to lord it over and impress the peer group who had made it not to the apollo, it was entirely necessary to acquire a programme (which cost a small fortune and amounted to little by way of intriguing content) or, if pound notes were aplenty, a t-shirt.

wearing the latter on the following day conferred superior status on the wearer - or, to be honest, it didn't really, i only thought it did. strange how we all go through periods of delusion; i just wish i knew when it'll end. and i have no doubt that the same procedure and accessories are as much a part of concert going nowadays, as they were back in the day - only the prices have changed to protect the guilty.

a t-shirt, however, bears not the same weight in the world of skinny wheels and bendy bars; something more affectatious is demanded. and has been provided. last year's smithfield nocturne was obviously the first step - success breeds success and what appeared to be a one-off rapha cycling exposition has blossomed into a series, and the series has produced its own means of status; the humble cycling cap.

well, perhaps not so humble. breaking with an almost fixed rapha tradition, the rapha condor nocturne series cap has eschewed the three panel construction and opted for the more traditional eight panel, italian made, cotton casquette. black, with a pink diagonal stripe on top and bottom of the peak, shiny nocturne series on the left, white rapha condor on the right. one size fits all, with a decent chunk of elastic to hold it in place in an islay wind. all this for only ten pounds.

sadly, i didn't make it to the smithfield nocturne this year, and i have the cap to prove it.

rapha.cc

posted on monday 16th june

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hudz - pink hudz

hudz replacement lever hoods

it probably had to happen eventually, and actually did in this year's giro d'italia, when alberto contador sported pink brake lever hoods the day after he acquired the pink jersey. we have the great good fortune to kit out our pride and joy with colour co-ordinated tyres, pedals, saddles, bar tape, so why the heck shouldn't we have lever hoods too? that was a rhetorical question; some of you may be dyed in the wool purists, eager to maintain the dignity and sanctity of road racing heritage, and happy to stick with any colour as long as it's black.

and before you screw up your eyes at the pic above, hudz are available in colours other than british racing pink: bastogne blue, bordeaux gold, brugge black, eroica celeste, ghent grey, lombardia orange, paris pink (i was only kidding about the british racing bit), roubaix red, san remo green, vlaanderen yellow, and wallonne white, with lausanne clear apparently on its way. if you read through the list and wondered what would be the point of replacing your black campag/sram/shimano hoods with brugge black, all is not as unclear as it seems.

hudz replacements feature a more sculpted top part to the hood, at least they do on the campag version tested. i will admit to being doubtful at the point of contact after carefully (and quite easily) fitting them in place of the originals. since the edge is very much an edge, the view from the cockpit didn't lend itself to anatomics, a great boon at any point of contact with the bike. however, 70km later, what was i worrying about? the curve from bar to top is slightly enhanced, but let's be quite blunt: you'd fit a pair of these because you fancy the colour. if none of the above fit with your present colour scheme, it's time to buy a new bike.

the pink ones on the company colnago were chosen to complement the chris king pretty and strong headset and hubs - you can come up with your own reasons. of course, if you have a bit of a mechanical, as i did on sunday afternoon on the way home, they do get mucky very quickly. might be worth bearing in mind at paris roubaix. recommended retail is £19.99 (about the same as the retail for campag's replacements), and if you have any difficulty finding them, contact moore large for dealer info. standard shimano and campag are currently available, and new ultegra and sram should be available around now.

just one point; why did they call it paris pink? surely it should be milan pink?

posted on monday 16th june

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a proper bike shop

mosquito bikes

unlike your nearest motor dealer, your nearest bike shop probably stocks everything from bright pink barbie bikes, all the way up to an alloy raleigh mountain bike, and perhaps a token road bike in the corner. of course i'm being rather unfair, but most of us have probably set foot in a bike shop that resembles the above. the problem is that there's not a lot of real money in selling bikes, and it's quite difficult to specialise in the type of bicycle the owner would really like to sell.

but there are, of course, pockets of civilisation where the population allows for a degree of specialisation, either all top off-road or high class skinny wheels and bendy bars. unsurprisingly, london is likely the major conurbation that supports a considerable number of such specialist retail outlets. hopefully it's hard to miss the banner ad at the top of the page proclaiming the versatility in this respect, of mosquito bikes in essex road. while i generally do my very best to place reviews or articles in timely fashion, in this case, the fault is not mine; here is a selection of photos from mosquito's open day on april 10th which should have arrived a lot earlier, but selling bicycles (and rather lovely bicycles at that) takes precedence over supplying pics to thewashingmachinepost.

if nothing else, it should provide you with a glimpse of the maestro, dario pegoretti, looking in fine fettle after his illness last year. for those of us living out in the sticks, it's a wonderful chance to see just what a real bike shop can look like. and if you're ever in london...

the gallery

posted on sunday 15th june

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opsal t-shirts

opsal sports t-shirt

the community of cyclists in the uk is relatively small, at least in comparison to followers of other more popular sports, so it's that much harder to identify oneself to the public at large, as a cyclist in civvies. the secret password to relate to other cyclists is probably the cyclist's tan; those oval patches of magnificently brown skin on the back of the hands where the track mitts have a similarly shaped gap. hand over some cash in the newsagent and you immediately give the game away, always assuming there's a cyclist behind the counter. but if you wish this identification to extend to sartorial expression, there's always the i 'headset' portland, park tools or perchance a rapha condor shirt. in all the previous examples, the password only works if the viewer has an interest in the bicycle at large.

but, of course, many of us would like to take this a stage further and proclaim our delight in the bicycling world to all and sundry, cyclists or not. here, there's perhaps less choice. i have a lampre caffita team jacket which has lampre writ large across the front in felt lettering, and caffita in similarly large white lettering down the left sleeve. yet the appearance of an italian flag on the right sleeve has led several to inquire as to my preference for italian football (silent scream). thankfully, some artistically and tastefully designed t-shirts by californian artist, brian opsal, have recently made their way to these shores to relieve us in our hour of need.

opsal produced his first cycling art screenprint in 2004 with an image based on the hell of the north, following that with a series of prints inspired by some of the world's finest bicycle races, all of which are available from opsal-sport in the usa. it was sort of a logical step, given the medium in which he works, to add his design and graphic expertise to wearable clothing, and here we arrive at water-based ink prints on organic cotton. there are six designs that will appeal to cyclists, including the eddy merckx mourenx 1969 design above, and the bernard hinault 'as long as i breathe, i attack design shown below.

(in 1969 merckx won the sprint for the mountains prize on the tourmalet, then shot off down the mountainside with still 130km to go. nobody bothered to chase but when they realised he wasn't going to stop, it was too late. merckx won at mourenx by eight minutes from pingeon and poulidor; gimondi and janssen trailed in quarter of an hour down. merckx won the 1969 tour by just under 18 minutes from roger pingeon.)

aside from the superb colour layering arriving from smart screen-printing, opsal sport's other claim to fame is the lack of one of those annoying brand/size tags at the neck. since these things usually irritate the heck out of the wearer, here they're screen-printed. hurrah. the merckx shirt sent from uk distributors aftermarket is size medium, as requested, and fits beautifully; not baggy, not tight, just smooth. i'm 5'10" with a 39" chest, if it helps you choose opsal sports t-shirt the size for your own sartorial excellence; sizes are small through to xl. they can be purchased for the excellent price of £24.99 form a variety of retailers including post advertiser mosquito bikes. check the aftermarket website for a list of retailers. american readers can also avail themselves of some rather stylish polo shirts and cycle jerseys, while the t-shirts retail at $26 from the opsal sports website.

oh, and there's a lion of flanders type emblem on the left sleeve - the ultimate in cool, even if it does revert to the secret password.

it's worth mentioning, considering the moaning we normally do at he expense of the postal delivery service in the uk, that the t-shirt reviewed was posted at 4pm in london on friday 13th june. this review was posted at 18:25 on saturday on islay. that's service.

posted on saturday 14th june

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national bike week - saturday 14th june - sunday 22nd june

national bike week

i suppose we really ought to be grateful that there is such a things as national bike week, but is it just me that feels patronised by the whole affair? the corporate sponsor this year is mobile phone company, nokia who are touting their nokia maps and sportstracker software which i may be able to tell you more about sometime soon. suffice to say, for the moment, that it looks quite intriguing, though quite how the colnago will look with a mobile phone strapped to the stem is open to debate. however, back to my feelings of being patronised, how come there isn't an annual pedestrians' week or rowing boat week, because in my mind, and undoubtedly that of others on two self-propelled wheels, cycling is just as valid a method of transport as the motor car (perhaps more so)?

the idea of a bike week seems rather to position the bicycle as a novelty act that should be brought out of the shed for one week of the year, just to prevent total rusting up. argyll and bute council, in which the island of islay resides, issued a press release this week inviting its loyal subjects to take a photo with bicycle during the forthcoming week. these will be placed on a page of its website and every entrant will receive a prize and a certificate (those of us in the velo club d'ardbeg peloton will, of course, be complying with this directive). and a certain councillor macintyre urges all those in argyll and bute to get on their bikes and join in the fun. i made a call to their press office, and asked if councillor macintyre would be joining his constituents, and thus filling argyll & bute's corporate car park with one less car, but one more bicycle. perhaps unsurprisingly, they were unable to contact the councillor, but he apparently lives in oban (30 miles away from headquarters) and cycling would necessitate a 60 mile round trip. i need not inform you of the nature of my reply.

but therein lies what i see as the problem; there are, by all accounts, many legions of well-meaning councillors and the like, extolling the virtues of cycling during the national week, provided it means that they don't have to join in. do as i say, not as i do. and in much the same way as dieting has proved, you can't really opt in for a week to achieve the minimum, then revert to the old ways once it's past. we really need a national cycling year or decade to encourage folks off the car and onto the bike (where practical), and follow it through. the national bike week website gives access to all sorts of cycling events throughout the week, all across the country; some of them are plainly novelty events, others are designed to promote responsible, enjoyable cycling. but once the week has gone, how many of those bicycles will remain in daily, or even weekly use?

so all credit to nokia for mobilising their brand in conjunction with bicycles, and for the software that transforms their phones into something other than text purveyors; credit too to the stalwarts across the united kingdom who have put endless efforts into promoting bicycle use both in and out of national bike week, but perhaps higher profile should be given to those organisations, commercial and otherwise, who do their best on behalf of cyclists and would-be cyclists on a regular basis.

still, if petrol costs continue in their current upward trajectory, there may be more folks than usual who use next week as a cover for trying out a more economic method of getting about.

bikeweek.org

nokia.com

posted on friday 13th june

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the tour is won on the alpe by jean-paul vespini (translated by david v herlihy). velopress softback 208pp illus. $21.95

the tour is won on the alpe

we're heading inexorably towards july, and for those of us with cycling aspirations of whatever hue, july really only means one thing, much as it did for lance over a period of seven years. and it's a testament to something or other, that certain stages, or at least their very bumpy end-points have almost entered the public lexicon. in the uk, mont ventoux will be forever associated with the demise of tommy simpson, but the mountain that has become almost as common as brighton or new york, is the alpe d'huez. even jez hastings of the velo club d'ardbeg peloton has left his tyre marks on its twenty one corners.

both the july issue of cycle sport and rouleur nine feature the mountain in their respective issues, while the popularity or omnipresence of its persona can be little better illustrated by the title of this book. mention 'the alpe' to any cyclist with a modicum of awareness, and confusion is unlikely to reign. the alpe was first introduced in the 1952 tour de france, almost entirely through the machinations of georges rajon, the owner of the christina hotel at the foot of the mountains ski trails. il campionissimo, fausto coppi, triumphed in this first ascent on July 4th. but while the stage finish proved immensely popular, although evidently eminently forgettable, it was another 24 years before the tour returned to the summit of l'alpe.

since then, alpe d'huez has been rarely missing from the route of each year's tour de france since 1976 (up to 2006, it has been omitted a total of eight times), and the current record holder for the fastest ascent, is the late marco pantani, who climbed in a time of 36:50; interestingly faster than lance armstrong in 2004's mountain time trial, considering pantani climbed at the end of a 162.5km stage.

any mountain in the panoply of le tour will have its own book of statistics, and this book would be of little real interest if that were all it supplied. so while the notion of pages and pages recounting the epic and not so epic battles that took place on the way to the summit would generally require the stifling of a yawn (yes, even about the alpe), it is testament to the author's skill and enthusiasm that reading places you right there, amongst the sea of orange that constitutes the annual dutch army, and just as excited to find the victor as was the case at the time. i was well into the nineteen eighties before i realised just how much i'd read. there are some great photos (including one of joop zoetemelk on his kwantum colnago) and an appendix that the trainspotting cyclist would sell his/her grandmother for.

author jean-paul vespini was correspondent for le cycle and cyclisme international and as such, covered le tour for nineteen years; he has done a grand job here that honours the cycling history of the alpe in the finest fashion. at present, i believe this book is only available in north america from velopress, but will probably be available on this side of the pond in the fullness of time, via uk velopress distributors cordee.

it goes well with my alpe d'huez cycle jersey.

velopress.com

posted on thursday 12th june

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popular guy this andy hampsten fellow

andy hampsten's bike

i have no wish to re-iterate ad-finitum my recent postings regarding andy hampsten's ride over the gavia in atrocious conditions, to take the pink jersey in the 1988 giro d'italia; last month's monthlies (can i say that?) all seemed to have 'exclusives' as to just what happened that day in italy, and the rapha chaps in portland held their il passo di larch in seemingly similar weather conditions last thursday by way of celebration. i've not noticed any prologue time trials to celebrate chris boardman's first yellow jersey in the tour de france, and with next year being the 25th anniversary since robert millar came home with the polka dot jersey, it seems perilously unlikely that large hordes will ascend to guzet-neige.

the latest tribute to andy hampsten (who, by all accounts, is a decent chap) comes from brooklyn artist taliah lempert, though her tribute has taken a lot longer than hampsten's day in the snow. having started in april, taliah has been painting and drawing the actual bike ridden by hampsten on the very day. badged as a huffy (!), taliah told me that the bike was built by john slawta (landshark bicycles) - the rest of the team apparently rode serotta's; if you've ever seen a real huffy, you'll know why. quite incredible that the bike has remained in such good nick for twenty years, but andy hampsten's bike even better that taliah has had the opportunity to immortalise it in pencil, ink, oils and acrylics. as she's posted on her website 'working with andy hampsten's giro bike, while listening to this year's race feels like the coolest thing ever.'; and i'm tempted to agree with her, having viewed the various editions ms lempert has drawn and painted. can't think of a better combination than painting and bicycles.

if you're one of the many who who continues to admire andy hampsten, and would just love to have an original image from that era, taliah would likely be more than happy to provide a giclee print (or even an original) from as little as $50 (£25).

of course, every 5th of june you'll have to admire it in the snow.

jeremy rauch of tearsforgears has photos and details on his blog

posted on wednesday 11th june

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i promise i will not e-mail eurosport in anger again

moto one

it's 2:30pm on a sunday afternoon; switch on british eurosport for the criterium de something important. there's motorcycle racing on, but it's due to finish in five minutes, so there's just time to grab a baguette and brie plus an orange juice and settle down to watch. except, according to the commentary, there's still five laps to go. ah, well - it's live sport, and not everything happens according to tv schedules, so sit back and relax, because the cycling's bound to be on soon. only it isn't; the five laps of motorcycling take an age despite the apparent speed of bikes with engines, then you've to sit through much aplenty back-slapping between riders, mechanics, team directors etc. this is followed by an ad break then interviews with all of the top three finishers, before we again move outside and sit through a national anthem and lots of fizzing of champagne. and just to add insult to injury, before the cycling starts half an hour late, there's another ad break for a whole host of sporting events that any self-respecting cycling fan would never even consider watching.

but lest you think this is another warranted, or unwarranted attack on that easiest of targets - british eurosport - this is quite the opposite. well, almost. lets put all this in perspective; cycling is, in the grand scheme of things, a minority sport, like it or not. but bringing it to our television sets involves a serious amount of work and squadrillions of people who possibly could care less whether robert gesink is on an extreme c or extreme power. think back to the motorcycle race that i was just moaning about; i've no idea how many laps these things take, but they are laps, and each one covers the same distance, goes through the same corners, and passes the same grandstand each time. figure out how many cameras you need to cover a lap, stick them in place, and bob's your uncle.

a cycle race, however, is a very different proposition. for starters, classic or stage race, the distance is generally between 150 - 300km, and except for the occasional finishing lap, the same piece of road isn't covered more than once. and these cycling chaps have the most inconsiderate habit of not all sticking together, so we need motos one, two and three, plus at least one helicopter. the camera signals from the motos are beamed up to the helicopter, which beams them further up to a small aircraft circling overhead. the latter is responsible for bouncing the collected signals back to broadcast headquarters in whichever country broadcast headquarters is based (probably). and somewhere in amongst all this, captions have to be posted on-screen letting us know who's in the breakaway, how many minutes/seconds they have on the chasing group, which town they just cycled through, and how many kilometres are left to the finish.

when you put it like that, it doesn't take a lot of ingenuity to figure out that this costs serious money, and somebody has to pay it. even if the race isn't being shown on british eurosport, but on cycling.tv, you and i aren't the ones paying anything like what it ultimately costs - yes cycling.tv has a subscription, but that wouldn't even pay for the cameraman's helmet. so cycling is pretty much free at point of viewing. yet we've just had three weeks of the giro d'italia, euskatel bizikleta, currently the dauphine libere, and ultimately the tour de france. all we have to do is walk in the house, throw the newspaper on the floor and watch for hours, while some poor sods sit on the back of motorbikes for several hours in the pouring rain, just so that we can send 'angry of bowmore' type e-mails to david harmon because the cycling started late, or to anthony mccrossan because the video streaming keeps stuttering.

some days, we just don't know we're born.

posted on tuesday 10th june

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heroes, villains and velodromes - chris hoy and britain's track cycling revolution by richard moore. harpersport 320pp hardback illus. £15.99

heroes, villains and velodromes

there's soon to be a new volume on fausto coppi by will fotheringham published by jonathan cape, and we've not long had the eagle of the canavese, featuring franco balmamion; two books about italian cyclists in one year. not that surprising really - there may have been others that slipped in under the radar, but given italy's obsession with the bicycle, still hardly a remarkable event. however, two books, almost a year apart, by the same scottish author and both featuring scottish cyclists - that is highly remarkable. even more so is the fact that the first offering from richard moore, in search of robert millar, has just been released in paperback.

this second of richard's books is principally concerned with scots track supremo, chris hoy, though the overall theme is the build up of the british track team towards the beijing olympics in august of this year. and we really must hope that there's another waiting in the wings for 2010, because richard moore's style, while superbly fluent throughout the millar book, has moved up a notch in heroes. i recall pointing out that moore had the ability to have his subject (robert millar) transcend its intended audience; you wouldn't need to be a cycling obsessive to enjoy the book. the intricacies of certain aspects of track cycling would generally alienate even hardened roadies, but yet again, the author has triumphed, an achievement in itself. moore is one of scotland's finest wordsmiths.

chris hoy became involved in cycling through the bmx silhouette scene from e.t. his first bike was a raleigh burner, bought at a jumble sale for £10. his dad (who posts on one of the cycle forums as the old man of hoy - excellent) did the parental thing and drove him to races, rebuilt the bike during the week, generally providing the support that great parents do. it was apparently chris' reaction to defeat that prepared the way for the athlete he has become. instead of throwing tantrums and bursting into tears, he would try to figure out why he hadn't won.

many of today's track stars, of whichever nationality, started their careers in bmx - shanaze read has eschewed the track at beijing to compete in bmx's first entry into the olympics - but the abrupt ending of the bmx boom left a lot of great cyclists all dressed up and with nowhere to go. now we know where some of them went. bmx was replaced, in the sporting eye at least, by mountain biking at which hoy less than excelled; all roads and sports eventually led to track cycling at edinburgh's meadowbank velodrome (now to be demolished by edinburgh city council -anywhere else but scotland, they'd have placed a gold plaque on the wall)

the rest, as they say, is history, and a history that is still taking place. moore seems to have had unparalleled access to the british track team setup; there are interviews with dave brailsford, chris boardman, hoy, craig maclean et al, - this is where he scores big; through all fourteen chapters of this book the text and narrative is fascinating. i've still no idea why british cycling found the need to spend hundreds of thousands developing their own carbon track bikes, but i know virtually everything else.

chris hoy is portrayed as a genuine bloke (also by those other than moore), with little in the way of ego, and far more interested in the why's and wherefores of performance improvement than self-congratulation. moore travelled ahead of hoy to bolivia for the latter's attempt on the world kilometre record (misssed by a few thousandths of a second) and to the recent manchester world track championships to witness the largest haul of medals by any one country, and to watch chris hoy become the first world sprint champion since reg harris in the 1950s. everything within the british cycling performance plan is geared towards achieving as many gold medals as possible in beijing, through examining every minute detail of performance. richard moore believes the difference between hoy and his competitors ultimately comes down to one aspect of his character; persistence.

of course, we won't know who dun it until sometime in august, but reading how britain and chris hoy reached the point where they are seen as the very best in the world, is a journey well worth travelling.

heroes villains and velodromes is published by harpersport on monday 16th june - a launch event will feature in edinburgh's filmhouse on thursday 12th june, along with three films to commence the edinburgh cycling film festival. graeme obree will also be in attendance. telephone 0131 228 2688 for tickets.

posted on monday 9th june

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the year of the handbuilt wheel - chris king classic cross handbuilt wheels

chris king cross classics

now before you get all excited, these handbuilt hoops from chris king components are, unfortunately, not available in the uk. as far as i know, i have the only pair in britain. (and they're not even on the mainland). chris king uk importers, evolution imports, told me that by the time they had paid the necessary uk customs duties, they would be unfavourably priced against homegrown offerings. however, there seems nothing in the way of ordering your own pair from the usa, if you're willing to take the financial hit.

chris king components of portland, oregon, first offered handbult wheels for road or off-road use in march of 2007. as with lots of best laid plans, things didn't go quite according to plan, mostly because ck suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder, and unless things were perfect, nothing was leaving the factory. which is pretty much the way it should be.

the handbuilt wheels finally started leaving the factory around the end of the year, almost coincidentally when they offered up their new cyclo-cross hubs. the latter don't actually have to be used exclusively for cyclo-cross; they're similar to the quality road hubs that have been offered for many a long year, but just that wee bit more substantial, particularly in the flanges. the ideal set of hubs for the current state of islay's roads, in fact. you could, of course, buy yourself a pair of hubs and either build them into wheels all by your little self, or have your favoured wheelbuilder do likewise. but bearing in mind the fastidious attention to detail that pervades all chris king components, you have to suppose that wheels built in-house at ck are likely to be that wee bit more special.

chris king cross classics

unlike almost everybody else in the hub world, chris king eschew the use of those little spring loaded pawls in the freehub to allow drive and freewheel on the rear. i must give credit to chris distefano at chris king for not laughing too much at my limited technical knowledge of the principles behind the freewheel function of the chris king patented ring drive, because i just couldn't get my head round its operation; so here goes. the internal end of the freehub has helical splines that are a slide fit into a matching outer ring, which is relatively free to move within the hub. when pressure is applied by the rider, the splines slide into the outer ring, forcing it against a toothed ring attached to the hubshell thus providing forward motion. cease pedalling, and a spring forces the the moveable ring away from the toothed ring, allowing freewheeling. simplicity itself (!) because all these components are in close proximity to each other, forward drive is almost instantaneous, and certainly unlikely to malfunction as can happen with the more usual pawl arrangement, if those stick in the down position.

chris king road hubs are fitted with medical grade bearings made in-house, rotating on two part axles (19.5mm diameter). aside from the special tool required to remove the freehub, chris king cross classics disassembly is a simple matter of placing a five millimetre allen key/wrench in each end and unscrewing. this is also the method by which adjustment can be made; having loosened the axle, there is an adjustment cone that can be easily turned by hand, taking up any play in the bearings before re-tightening the two parts of the axle to complete the process.

the minor irritation, if you're a campagnolo aficionado, is any freehub you like as long as it's shimano. this used to be quite an expensive irritation, but there has been a gratifying increase in the availability of campag compatible, shimano splined cassettes (as long as you need ten speed). to match the supplied pretty and strong pink hubs, i fitted an american classic 12-25 steel cassette (made in malaysia); the top four sprockets are affixed to two separate alloy carriers, with the remaining six sprockets fitted individually. the rear hub is supplied with two lockrings: a titanium version for a twelve sprocket, and an aluminium version for the smaller eleven sprocket.

chris king cross classics

of course, hubs are only a part of the wheelbuilding world; there are other just as important bits, that allow the fitting of tyres and tubes, in this case both supplied by dt swiss. the rims are their highly popular rr1.1 rims, and double butted, stainless steel competition spokes. surprisingly, these rims are only single eyeletted, possibly providing a slight weight advantage, but not what i expected. however, the folks at dt know a heck of a lot more about wheel componentry than i ever will, ditto those at chris king, so if single eyelets it should be, then single eyelets it is. both wheels are thirty two spokes built three cross, pretty much the standard build before the arrival of the wide array of boutique wheels from the likes of fulcrum, shimano, mavic, campagnolo and others. chris king claim 1741g per pair (802 front; 939 rear); the pair tested were so darned close to this number (slightly under, by a few grams) that i would be unlikely to quibble.

chris king cross classics

so now you know what they're made of and sort of how they work, how good are they really? quite incredible actually; the company colnago had been running on a pair of cutting edge technology, boutique wheels since last august, and the difference when switching to the ck classic cross wheelset was palpable first time out. the nearest comparison i can manage would be the difference between a luxury car and a sports model. the boutique wheels (mavic r-sys) provided oodles of comfort, but were a bit isolationist; real feel wasn't quite there. now in certain circumstances, this could very definitely be seen as a good thing, but the classic cross wheelset restored the screaming delight of being totally in control. probably like the difference between a full-suspension bike and a hardtail (i'm guessing here). aside from that, i'm a big fan of proper wheels.

a quick flick through the chris king website might have you wondering what the heck's the story with buzzing bees. one of their current t-shirt offerings is the angry bee t-shirt featuring a caption from a japanese customer 'it rolls good with angry bee sound'. now i know exactly what they mean. because the ring drive never totally disengages, the sound coming from the rear hub sounds like a small motorbike or lawnmower in the distance; as microsoft would say,'it's a feature, not a bug', and you either love it, or hate it. i think it's rather cool; there's no denying that your local peloton will always know who's on the ck wheels.

chris king cross classics

so far, i've ridden 1500km plus on this pair, over some of the most appallingly surfaced roads northwest of the border, and the rims haven't moved a millimetre; the spoke key has remained fastened to its peg board. and in the manner of the finest handbuilt wheels, not only have they restored a finer degree of rider control, they've managed it without shattering the legs and posterior. the classic cross wheelset retails in north america for $699 (£350), in road and off-road flavours and nine colours. in my opinion they're worth every dollar. contact your nearest chris king dealer or contact chris king components direct for more info.

and, of course, the hubs are a magnificent shade of shiny pink.

i am entirely indebted to chris distefano of chris king components for technical assistance with this review, and for sending the classic cross wheels to a wee island in the inner hebrides in the first place.

chrisking.com

posted on sunday 8th june

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