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we shouldn't laugh, but...

shimano electronic

i hope i'm correct in saying that it is fabian wegmann of the gerolsteiner team who is riding his specialized bicycle outfitted with shimano's electronic groupset (if i have the wrong rider, please accept my apologies - sometimes i don't pay as much attention as i should do), and on monday's stage to hautacam, what we all feared might happen, appears to have done so. again, i may well be guilty of conjecture here, but it seems that the unfortunate mr wegmann became stuck in the big ring and one of the smaller sprockets, and no amount of expletives and flicking of levers would extricate him from his predicament.in this case, in the heat of competition, the easy option was for the faulty machine to be unceremoniously discarded (there was, unfortunately, no barrier over which it could be thrown) and a replacement bicycle provided from the roof of the gerolsteiner team car. if my observations were correct, this too featured shimano's electronic gruppo. wegmann is nothing if not fearless. however, plunge forward a few years, and imagine your own bicycle lovingly kitted out with the production version of this groupset; as you launch yourself up the finest climbing your locale can provide, the gearing decides that big ring/small sprocket is just exactly what you need.

with no following car, and the evening class in electronics still with several weeks to go, it could be a long walk home. granted, a cable break would put you in a similar situation, but it's unlikely that front and rear cables would go at the same time. in which case, are you starting to think the same as i, that perhaps electronic shifting is just a stage too far?

i am, of course, being very unfair to shimano. i have no idea what caused monday's estrangement, and in any case fabian has assumed the mantle of guinea pig during the tour, so that when we finally get our mitted paws on our very own (well, your very own - i'm not buying one), everything will work to perfection. and let's not forget that campagnolo are forging ahead with development of their own electronic version, though not in this year's tour as far as i know - and i'll bet they're watching each other like hawks.

just while we're on the subject of campagnolo, i have made further enquiries regarding the availability of eleven speed cassettes that will fit shimano freehubs, and it is not good news. it seems that the difference in length between shimano freehubs and vicenza's does indeed make it all but a technical impossibility to fit eleven sprockets. so unless we all shift wholesale to campag wheels, it's ten speed for the foreseeable future for a sizeable proportion of us.

you can see why folks ride fixed.

posted on wednesday 16 july

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the robert millar interview

robert millar

one of the very best aspects of writing thewashingmachinepost is the huge increase in my prospective peer group; there are many of you out there that i have been privileged to meet, either in person or via e-mail contact. and in so doing, i learn more about cycling and the people who are as obsessed with it all as i am. and as in pretty much all walks of life, this meeting of people leads to meeting people who know people. and that leads to all sort of exciting results in oh so many ways.one such thread is now ensconced in its place of honour on robertmillar.net, but in my humble opinion, it's an important enough series of pixels to flag up on thewashingmachinepost main page. and before any of you ask, i have no idea where robert is; the interview was conducted through the auspices of a respected third party. i like what i've read, and i hope you'll enjoy it too.

read the interview here

posted on tuesday 15 july

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in the eye of the beholder

cycling art

it is certainly true that art is in the eye of the beholder, and it's also true that art takes different forms. i have just spent a thoroughly pleasant monday afternoon watching the tour de france stage to hautacam; leonardo piepoli must be one of the finest contemporary practitioners of the art of going up mountains very quickly, and making it look a lot easier than it actually is. it's also true that someone like david harmon, commentating for around five and a half hours, has turned commentating itself into a bit of an art.

however, nab any civilian at random off the street (not literally, you understand - there are laws against that sort of thing) and point them at the word art, and we're probably talking drawings and paintings. i have been known to mention on at least one previous occasion, that cycling seems to benefit from the output of more than just a few extremely fine artists, from the photographers that show rapha to the world, to the pencil drawings of cicli su carta, and on to the rather wonderful experiments and oil paintings of brooklyn's taliah lempert. but we should not exclude the paintings and subsequent monotype prints of richard lee which have been featured on the post in previous pixels.

as i have always admired richard's work, it was a very pleasant surprise when a jiffy bag containing three greetings cards from richard's idiosyncratic output arrived from canada over the weekend. while it's possible to purchase large giclee prints of each painting, for those of more limited means, they can also be purchased in card format. the prints are quite superb, individually packed in cellophane, printed on acid free paper, and with a poignant description of the subject matter included on the back.

each limited edition 13 x19 print arrives at $295 canadian (£150) plus shipping, while cards and envelopes are $14 each (£7), again plus shipping (minimum order: three cards). since there are no messages printed inside, these are not only ideal for sending to the cyclist in your life, but simply ideal for the uninitiated too. you can view a rather fine range of richard's paintings at cyclingart.ca and, if the fancy takes you, you can have a read at his blog too.ah, the art of persuasion

posted on monday 14 july

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the eagle has landed (a while ago)

franco balmamion & herbie sykes

i'm gradually ticking off the boxes against the things that i'm not; i'm definitely not an investigative journalist, although it does happen accidentally once in a while, and i'm not phenomenally up to date - though again sometimes it just happens. in this case it hasn't, but in the grand scheme of things, what's a few months between friends?

may 2008 saw the official launch of herbie sykes' the eagle of the canavese at viva verdi, canvey street, london with a guest list that read like a whose who of the movers and shakers in the cycling world, as well as david harmon (i'm going to suffer for that one:-). if you check your map of islay, it may just cross your attention that this is very far away, and despite having been invited, i was unable to attend. (a great pity, since i would have loved to have met the great man himself).

however, mr tarrant of prendas ciclismo was in attendance, as was photographer enrico saccatore, and just this past week, along with bic & del tongo colnago casquettes, the jiffy bag contained a cd of photographs from the evening's festivities. since the book is one of the finest to appear this year (if you missed it, read the review here) i have no qualms whatsoever about presenting a second bite at the cherry by linking to this gallery of pics from viva verdi. enjoy.

photo above: franco balmamion & author herbie sykes.

thanks to mick tarrant and enrico seccatore for sending and granting permission to reproduce these photos.

seccatore.com

posted on sunday 13 july

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the ten(der) trap

american classic cassette

there are parallels between the world of personal computers and the world of cycling; in the planet of windows and macs, the latter has had to take great steps to become compatible with the domination of microsoft. in the velocipedal universe, it's a slightly saddening fact that many of those producing high quality hubs fit only shimano freehubs. i have gone on record as querying why shimano and campagnolo can't just kiss and make up and agree on a standard spline pattern for the freehub. then compatibility would be ours and we could interchange sprockets willy nilly. sadly, since this is such an excellent idea, it will probably never happen.

in the meantime, those of us who crave the likes of hope or, perchance, chris king, must rely on third party cassettes that bear campagnolo pattern sprockets and are happy to slide along shimano's splines. currently the chris king cross classic wheels fitted to the company colnago have a ten speed american classic cassette to make me compatible with the chorus gear mech hanging from the dropout.

however, with seven members of the pro peloton currently running vicenza's new super record eleven speed groupset in the tour de france, and that extra sprocket due to reach the world's bicycle shops in september, how are those of us with shimano hubs going to fare in the race to upgrade? well, so far, not very well it seems. i contacted american classic to enquire how far advanced they were with an eleven speed campag cassette suitable for the pink chris king hubs. the surprising answer was 'we probably will not be doing one. sorry'. so that's a super record knocked on the head for the moment. yes, i do have a pair of campagnolo wheels, but i rather like my chris kings, or even the mavic r-sys which also have a shimano pattern freehub.

and it's the latter that may just save some people. i also contacted clemenzo.com about marchisio to ask if they thought the latter were likely to be filling the gap, and the answer was very enlightening.

as the shimano cassette body is shorter than the campagnolo one, there will be no chance for campag eleven on shimano hubs. however, there is an exception. mavic's cassette body for shimano can take a special marchisio cassette for campag ten speed. I think, as soon as we can offer eleven speed there will be something for mavic hubs.

actually, in my case, it's probably a rather moot point, since an extra sprocket would have no effect whatsoever - any upgrade is likely to be centaur, but with a super record rear mech (drool). but there will be a sizeable number to whom compatibility is a more serious affair. maybe it's time that campagnolo started offering cassettes of their own to fit shimano freehubs; after all it is possible to buy their wheels with shimano freehubs.

macs and windows.

posted on saturday 12 july

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leopard, spots, and colnago

colnago eps

ernesto colnago has never been one to shy away from being right, or at least being right as seen from cambiago. so pronouncements such as colnagos will never be made anywhere other than italy took a bit of a beating when the arte, primavera and carbon clx arrived on containers from taiwan. of course, as with all such things, it's not the location of manufacture that causes problems, provided one eye is kept firmly on the quality control. in this respect, i've not found any of the taiwanese machines to be at all lacking in comparison to their italian born brethren. and at the top of the tree, colnago has continued to construct quality carbon frames using the tried and trusted tubes and lugs.

however, out of all the major cycle protagonists, colnago has been a bastion of relief for lovers of the standard format, external headset; another tower that ernesto was reluctant to relinquish. but earlier this summer, colnago blew that one out of the water by releasing details of the cx-1, the first frame to see light from colnagorevolution, their 2009 project. this, aside from a monocoque main triangle, featured the chs-1, colnago's semi-integrated headset. as i have been at pains to point out, i can see little wrong with the external version, but colnago were beginning to look a bit behind the times due to their refusal to equip their top notch machines with same. and nowadays conformity and marketing are everything.

but the real revelation (revolution?) has appeared in the first week of this year's tour de france, when milram sprinter erik zabel was spotted on a blue colnago eps, which sported not only rather large carbon tubes (still fitted to lugs) but another version of the semi-integrated headset. this one, however, tapers from 1.125" at the top to a 1.25" at the fork crown. there are plenty of other bicycles in the pro peloton featuring same, but to see it on a colnago...

i agree that such a bicycle deserves to be on the societa colnago pages; it is - i posted a whole lump of stuff about it earlier today. if you're as fascinated as i am, or you're one of the prospective customers who has been badgering colnago dealers about when these features would arrive from cambiago, take a look now.

your colnago dealer won't have any until september, but pre-ordering isn't frowned on in these parts.

posted on friday 11 july

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the not so humble casquette

del tongo colnago cap

admit it. you took one look at the photo and immediately wondered what on earth guiseppe saronni was doing on thewashingmachinepost. didn't you? ok, it maybe wasn't that immediate, but now that the uniform is all but complete, there's nothing that a swarthy complexion and a decent haircut that might not make this a possibility. colnago have already proffered the saronni coloured master x-lite (or if modernity and carbon are more to your taste, have an extreme power in the same colour scheme), the del tongo colnago jersey has been featured here around a month ago, and now you can have the casquette and a pair of quality santini shorts with the del tongo moniker on the legs. the only bits missing are the socks. hmmmm.

200 kilometres is quite a long disance by anyone's standards, and always presuming you're pedalling at a velocity that allows at least a modicum of chat, conversation will vary over the hours. i had the great good fortune to ride some of such distances with david harmon recently, and at least a portion of the day was involved in the mutual admiration society that is the habitual wearing of the not so humble casquette. jez, the mighty dave t, and myself are never without such apparel under our helmets, and even occasionally in our leisure moments too. mr harmon has great sympathy with this item of cycle wear, and was pleased to observe a possible revival in both the professional and decidedly amateur peloton. how fine it is to find like minded commentators in this day and age.

bic casquette

and should you have inadvertantly allowed this fashion accessory/necessity to have passed you by, prendas are undoubtedly one of the finest bastions of the casquette in this modern day and age, continually reproducing those from cycling's great eras, as well as from the modern age. aside from the del tongo shown above, mick and andy have also released the stupendously trendy bic casquette (oh that one of those jerseys should re-appear) as worn by luis ocana, and the rather fabulously named leif mortensen. the simplicity of design and iconic status of this must surely vie with that of the merckx molteni - which incidentally, can also be had from prendas.

the del tongo cap costs a not unreasonable £7.50 ($14), while the bic version retails at a stunning £6 ($12), though if you're cleverly selective, you can have four magnificent casquettes from the prendas range for only £20.

like shooting fish in a barrel.

just while i'm here and we're discussing the rather sooper things you can get from prendas, mick has just informed me that they have been selected as the official uk distributor 'the road to roubaix' dvd that i mentioned only a few days ago. as mick says 'the prendas r&d department never sleeps'

prendas.co.uk

posted on thursday 10 july

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the unified field theory

garmin chipotle

i always think of woody allen when ants are mentioned (though that should really be antz, in that case), because he provided the voice for the main character in the animation of the same name. but in the world of cycling, ant+ sport has a much more important role that is already providing data recording benefits, and reducing the amount of thingies attached to the handlebars of your bicycle(s). anything that makes it seem less like i'm piloting an airbus is generally fine by me.

ant is an acronym, the solution for which i know not, but represents a short range wireless technology that works in a similar manner to bluetooth -which most mobile phone users will likely be familiar with - but uses a lot less power. a battery powered ant enabled device will run for months, rather than the hours or days a comparable bluetooth device would manage on a similarlly sized battery. started as a project by datastream, it was purchased by gps supremos and chipotle title sponsors, garmin. you don't really need to know that, but i've done the research, and i want to make sure you know what a diligent chap i can be.

garmin chipotle ride their felt bikes on zipp wheels, most of which roll on saris powertap rear hubs, the readouts for which could be seen on a biggish handlebar computer unit. but with the application of ant+sport technology to the powertaps, coupled with garmin edge 705 units which are also ant+ aware, means that the saris units can be left in the box, and only the garmin stuck on the stem or bars. the 705 arrives with a heart rate chest strap which (you've already guessed this) also communicates with the garmin unit via ant+ sport. saris are currently working on the possibility of enabling existing customers to upgrade their hubs to ant+sport technology and hook into the future of cycling electronics. deatils are due to be released in the autumn.

it's not totally inconceivable that those clever boffins at shimano and campagnolo could employ this digital wireless networking technology and link their groupsets into just such a garmin or similar unit. not being a man with white coat, i have no idea how this might benefit the greater cycling world, but i've no doubt that someone is already working on that.

and how is this similar to bluetooth? well, with that technology, two or more bluetooth enable devices are 'paired' in order for each to see each other. ant+sport works in a similar fashion - fit a saris powertap hubbed wheel, it's a simple case of pairing the hub with the head unit. that's also how the heart rate chest strap works, though it's advised that you don't attempt to carry out this pairing while hanging about in the peloton prior to the start of a stage (we've all been there), because the poor wee garmin might have a hard time figuring out which powertap is yours.

and not that there is likely to be a powertap finding its way into the dropouts of the company c40 anytime soon, but i should shortly be testing a garmin edge 705 gps unit, the manufacturers of which have already earned themselves brownie points by providing an entire suite of mac osx software to make better use of the edge unit.

not a lot of people know that (well, maybe jonathan vaughters).

powertap hubs | garmin.com

posted on wednesday 9 july

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more cobbles

road to roubaix dvd

despite this being the first week of the tour, there's no denying that i am the biggest fan of paris roubaix in the whole world and bowmore. yet for some obscure reason, i missed out on the announcement of a new film by masterlink films, entitled 'the road to roubaix'. that the announcement of the initiation of this documentary was originally made in january of 2007 makes it all the harder to swallow. i can see a few of you at the back murmuring amongst yourselves about how inefficient can one be, but honest it didn't feature on the washingmachine radar at all. even when they announced the premiere at this year's bicycle film festival in new york on june 1st, i must have been looking the other way - how can this happen?

however, now that i know it exists, it's even better news to discover that it can be pre-ordered from the film's website on a double-sided dvd with the ntsc version on one side and the pal version on the other ( a nice thought, but since most uk dvd players will quite happily play ntsc, perhaps an unnecessary step), life has simply become better and better.the bulk of the footage covers the 2007 edition of the race, but, according to the blurb, the true stars of the movie are the cobbles; just what i wanted to hear. and all this for only $27.95.

"road to roubaix tells the story of the riders, mechanics, fans, and the brutal, unpredictable landscape that is the stage for paris-roubaix. the film combines rare, behind-the-scenes footage, stunning panoramic views of the race, and a collection of contemporary photographs, as well as rare historic archival photographs that most people never see."

road to roubaix is directed by david deal and dave cooper, with soundtrack by london-based musician, paul obrien.

however, you need not take my word for all this. pop over to the website and watch a short quicktime teaser, as you slide the credit card from the wallet and proceed to the checkout. but if you'd rather wait and see, there will be a full review on thewashingmachinepost as soon as i hold a copy in my gel mitted hands (well, actually as soon as it's in the dvd player).

masterlinkfilms.com

posted on tuesday 8 july

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