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a word from our correspondent
in answer to the self-made man - it's nice of you to take the blame and in certain circumstances i am happy to do so. many of the items of clothing, components and bicycles tested on thewashingmachinepost arrive because i asked someone if they would be kind enough to allow such to be tested and the results pixellated for your reading pleasure (or the opposite, depending on your point of view). and as such, not only the purveyor of said goods, but also those of you reading, are more than at liberty to agree or disagree with my conclusions. that's the very nature of the post; it worries me greatly at times, that perhaps i have been too opinionated in my choice of product or the review which inevitably follows.
such was the case with my initial reviews of sportique products: in this case, i was asked if i would be willing to review what subsequently turned out to be rather fine oils and creams geared towards the racing and obsessive cyclist. however, one of my readers, david seaman, who was happy enough to read the technicalities that concern themselves with bits and bobs and the occasional item of apparel, e-mailed several months ago to effectively, ask what the heck i was playing at, diluting my content with cosmetics and snake oils. which, of course, he is/was perfectly entitled to do. since i had found the entire range of sportique red and white tubes or bottles to do more than it said on the tin, i sent david a selection of samples provided by sportique and invited him to try them for himself, then let me know how he got on. it would be highly unfair of me to keep his reply to myself, so here it is in its entirety.
back in late summer the wmp covered a review on sportique products (sp)- white bottle with the swiss flag which is a great logo - telling us all in the usual fascinating style about the use of these pre or post his velo adventures. Whilst not being averse to the application of a handcream and the use of a massage oil when the time is right, i fired off an e-mail entitled 'cosmetics and balms/snakeoil' or somesuch, generally questioning the departure from all this campag, colnago, rapha et al hardcore stuff, that certainly is a part of my weekly reading in the blogosphere. by return came an invite to try them out, hence these paragraphs four months later, halfway through a scottish winter, that has turned from wet n'mild to - blasting north east wind baltic freezing. unlike most pseudo science, here are the constants and variables:
commute 20 miles one way over the forth road bridge from fife to edinburgh and back, at least three days a week.
leisure miles in audax, touring and just cycling about, takes the annual up to 4000 odd.
me, fairly fit 44.
clothing, all the usual base layers, overshoes, bib longs etc., that we all have in the three season section of the wardrobe that stays out longer than the summer stuff.
bikes: mostly a flat bar thorn raven sport tour with hub gear - very practical, and sometimes a circa mid 80s peugeot with campag nouvo record, downtube levers, retro heaven.
by far the outstanding product is mothers little helper; i only had little one use packets of this, but as a moisturiser after a ride it is superb, as a hand cream after the dishes its really good. the best moisturising hand cream stuff i have experienced. next in line is the warming up cream. bradley wiggins this year espoused his warm up regime as being a slow first couple of miles and no stretching, limbering type behaviour - whether in reality he does follow that regime, i have no idea, but this endorsement of from bed to bike gets my approval, at 6:30am. with a bit of warm up cream on the legs it certainly works. as the weather closes in and the toes start to feel numb, despite the overshoes and whatever hosiery you chose that morning, some on the toes works superbly. finally the massage oil smells sweet, leaves a tingle and is fine even with the non-shaven limbs look i sport.
would I buy them? yes, and that's as good an endorsement as i can give. did i do a with and without comparison? no. slapping it on became part of getting dressed. are they snake oil? remember the snake oil salesmen from westerns - recall little house on the prairie? these are not it, whatever was in their bottles it wasn't sportique.
don't you just love it when a plan comes together? many thanks to david for being man enough to admit his change of opinion
sportique products are sold in the uk through sigma sport, london-paris and c3 products
posted on wednesday 3 december 2008
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................making an exhibition of themselves
you may have noticed the recent banner ad on the post for the rouleur photographic exhibition currently running at the space next door to condor cycles in london. it ill behoves me to throw in your face the elevated circles which i almost inhabit, but rouleur were kind enough to have invited me to the preview held the evening before opening day. sadly, (depending on your point of view) i was on holiday last week and unable to attend. and while i think it unlikely that many of the rest of you would have been also invited to the preview (no disrespect intended), the opportunity to attend the daily openings exists until 23rd december.
however, either to tempt you along to grays inn road, all the way down to the big smoke or just to satisy the curiousity of what it's all about, i have a few pictures of what we're all missing. yes, i know it's not much, but fulfils the maxim of leave them wanting more. i feel i may have to have words with mr andrews about the possibility of this exhibition making the trudge north of the border. after all, it's been to nyc and portland. but good news is good news, and as an adjunct to this fine looking exhibition, rouleur number eleven landed on my door mat this afternoon - initial perusal suggests no exclusive interview with lance, so all is well with the world. grab yourself a copy very soon, but meanwhile survey the pictures from an exhibition and promise yourself that you'll attend the next one.
posted on tuesday 2 december 2008
the rouleur photographic exhibition is at 49 gray's inn road, next door to condor cycles, and runs until december 23rd. entry is free.
rouleur.cc
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................my secret identity
i'm sure some of you (all of you?) have received, at some time in your careers, that e-mail that starts ten things that let you know you're a cyclist - you know, the one that includes when you fall off, the first question is 'is my bike alright?'. that sort of thing. it's definitely a bit of a cliche, even though most of us can identify with the sentiment. and i'm happy to admit it, i find it quite comforting to think of myself as a cyclist. even though it's not my full-time job (mrs washingmachinepost might have something to say about the last bit). because i could sit, travelling on a ferry, with my practiced 'self-satisfied grin' and be a black belt in photoshop. or even a drummer. it's much the same situation as the guys in hollywood who work tables most days of the year, but consider themselves actors.
being a cyclist, however, rather transcends any of the above; i am actually a black belt in photoshop, because that's what people pay me to do, but somehow that doesn't quite cut it. and i'm not really that great a drummer, though my kit would belie the latter. but if we apply the same logic to my cycling ability... : exactly. but while in photoshop i can, quite literally, change the world, being a cyclist means i'm doing it for real, and in a different way to the professionals; they all seem to drive lamborghinis (well, to be more precise, crash lamborghinis) so their affection for the bike may well be physical and financial, but it doesn't seem to be moral. i'm not suggesting that quiet reflection on our collective cycling status will lead all to join the world carfree movement - let's face it, sometimes cars are quite handy because you can put bike racks on them (maybe not a lamborghini) - but i can climb hills unaided, i can terrorise myself by staying off the brakes on the subsequent downhill, i can masquerade as an expert on all things colnago, i can sleep easy in my bed at night because i'm on a mission to keep all the robert millar articles in the world in a safe place. you know the sort of thing i mean.
it's also nice to be fit, whatever it is you or i define as fit; we might be having to acquire a larger pair of bibshorts that we'd like to admit, but imagine what size they'd be if we didn't cycle (leave aside the philosophical argument as to why we'd want to buy a pair of bibshorts if we weren't cyclists). and while we're on the subject of philosophy (tenuous, i know, but bear with me) i was reading, during my week of laziness, an interview with a well known philosopher's promotion of the hypothesis that such as an iphone could be considered as much a part of the extended mind as the mind itself. i shan't bother you with the ins and outs of what was a very convincing argument, but more the fact that such hypothesis could be slanted in the direction of the happy cyclist.
it's a fairly obvious statement to make, that a cyclist without his bike(s) can't really be considered a cyclist; a bit like, what will we call postman pat when he retires?*, so therefore it follows logical thought that a bicycle is a necessary accoutrement for a cyclist. and in a corollary to the iphone posit, all the kilometres, hills, descents are stored in that metal, carbon and aluminium (delete as applicable) and there to be called upon when needed. and it's the knowledge that all this can be done, as and when required, that forms the basis of our secret identity; appearing completely normal on the outside, while wearing a merino baselayer underneath. or dumping the thermalite woolly gloves for a pair of winter cycle mitts - who'd notice? well, actually, someone like me would notice, and probably someone like you - and that identifies us as cyclists.
good, isn't it?
*pat
posted on tuesday 2 december 2008
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................mum, he's moaning again
i have a very nice t-shirt which you yourselves can purchase from urban hunter, depicting the first names of all the five time winners of the tour de france: fausto, jacques, eddy, bernard, miguel and - well, the last one is a bit of a giveaway to all those who have no idea who the first five are. in fact, the sixth name is the only guy to win seven tours, so now you know who i'm talking about.
and when lance was around the first time, winning his seven tours, i know for a fact that i posted at least one article moaning myself silly about the coverage given to lance in the mainstream cycling press. lance is a great cyclist, whether his domination of the tour has been a good thing for cycling is a moot point, and depends on whether you like buying treks and that sort of thing, but after having endured even more column inches when he announced his retirement, it was a pleasure to return to relative sanity in recent years. because, strange to tell, there are a lot of other professional cyclists in the world, many just as deserving of their fifteen minutes of fame as the bottom name on my t-shirt.
but, unless you have been residing in a treetop house in the southern borneo rainforest, it cannot have escaped your attention that mr armstrong has decided that enough is not enough, and here we go round the mulberry bush at least once more. it's a return that is full of interesting possibilities, even moaning gits like me would be naive to pretend otherwise, but unfortunately, at least from my point of view, there are now no more cyclists in the world apart from lance - at least if you based your cycling world on the comic and its monthly sibling, cycle sport, both of which are carrying exclusive interviews (possibly the very same one - i've been away, so i haven't read both) with the man himself, pictures of whom are plastered all over the covers.
during the previous lance incarnation, i may just have e-mailed comic and cs editor robert garbutt on more than one occasion to ask if there would be alternative versions of his papers for those of us who really didn't want to know anymore about lance than we already did. now it's just a bridge too far. robert seemingly never replies to e-mails, or at least, he's never replied to any of mine, but it seems more than likely that this sort of thing will be on the weekly and monthly menu at least until the giro d'italia - and that's not till may.
might i suggest to mr garbutt, and any other publication or website that feels the inclination to fill its pages or pixels with la, that we declare a moratorium either until the giro itself, or until such time as lance actually does something worthy of reporting this time round. it reminds me greatly of the audiences who cheer and stand wholeheartedly for performers as they take the stage, not actually having presented anything of note since their last performance a few years back.
in fact, exactly like that.
posted on monday 1 december 2008
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................more merino
i've droned on and on about how pleasant it is to have cycle related clothing that can be worn during cycling down time. most of the time this relates to stuff like t-shirts, embroidered shirts, team jackets, the sort of stuff that advertises shaved legs, but on a less than subtle level. but around the time that rapha was still in shorts (if you see what i mean) they produced a merino shirt in both long and short sleeve that mimicked those worn by the stylish greats of pain and suffering. men like hugo koblet, fausto coppi, charly gaul; shirts with collars and two button down front pockets. style that we can acquire (well, some of us can) and comfortably wear at any formal function, while still remaining a cyclist on the inside.sadly, when these were gone, they were gone, and nothing similar has surfaced anywhere near in the intervening period. but, we are now saved, and saved by the originators - rapha have just announced merino shirt ii, created from extra fine italian merino and knitted in scotland by hawick knitwear (scotland and italy - how can you go wrong?) the parts of the shirt are knitted together rather than stitched, giving particularly robust seams and that classic vintage style. go for it now before it disappears for a second time. £150 ($220)
also from rapha, arriving at a highly appropriate time of year, when the temperature and windchill mean either freezing, or pedalling like the devil to keep warm, is the all new fixed merino baselayer. it's possible that you already own one or two of their existing baselayers, but the fixed differs in that, it is constructed from more densely woven merino than the original. this offers a higher degree of stretch, long sleeves, and the possibility of acting as a mid-layer in not so warm conditions. layering has long been seen as the way to keep warm, rather than a couple of thick outers, so anything that enhances this for cyclists is to be roundly applauded. and just so that you know it's rapha, there's a cover stitched arm band on the left sleeve, while all other seams are flatlock stitched to keep you comfortable as well as warm. £65
posted on friday 21 november 2008
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................lightweight carbon rear derailleur
i can buy, at wholesale, a rear derailleur for only £5.99 which, with a 30 percent markup (i'm being generous to myself) and the addition of tax means a retail price of around ten pounds. admittedly, this particular derailleur resembles just so much bent tin, with two plastic jockey wheels stuck on the back. and it's only designed to work with five sprockets on the rear wheel. so what's my point? well, the gear mech currently affixed to the company colnago costs sixty times as much, and though designed to work with twice as many sprockets, it is essentially carrying out the same function as the ten quid job. which one would you rather have bolted on to your rear dropout? i know which one i'm plumping for.
carbonsports are the german manufacturers of lightweight carbon wheels, those ultra high end and indescribably light wheels with carbon wrapped hubs and carbon/kevlar spokes, as ridden by erik zabel and others. not content with providing very possibly the best wheels in the world, carbonsports turned their carbon expertise to that of the rear derailleur (we'll call it the rd from now on, because my fingers are tying in knots continually typing derailleur). doing so is not quite as simple a procedure as it sounds; if you've ever tried running campag sprockets with a shimano rear mech or vice versa, you'll be aware that they have their own distinct 'pull' characteristics - a euphemism for it doesn't work very well.
carbonsports claim to have solved this problem; unfortunately i can't verify the non-campagnolo part of this statement, but it sure works with vicenza. it does so by the relatively simple premise of which side of the pinch bolt the cable runs: behind the bolt for italy, in front for japan. while this is beautifully detailed in the instruction and fitting manual, it's almost too simple a solution to work. i'm not silly, i know it took a lot more thought, research and development to make it so, but you have to admit, it's a stunningly simple way to go about it. perhaps carbonsports have become the apple computer of the cycle world.
naturally enough the little book that teaches you how to fit the rd to your bicycle has many a flagged warning that such a delicate and -let's face it - frighteningly expensive way to change gear, would be best carried out by a qualified bicycle mechanic. with wiggle taking over as the uk lightweight distributor, this might be harder than it sounds. the angle adjustment screw at the back of the mech is considerably longer than that fitted to most, and it would be so easy to fit the titanium bolt into the dropout, turn the 6mm allen key/wrench and snap the darned thing off. you have to be very, very careful;
i was.
secondly, those of us who wear glasses are on a head start with the tool necessary to work it all. the two stop screws - happily fitted to the front of the rd, and not confusingly at the rear a la shimano - and the angle screw, require one of those tiny little screwdrivers used to stop the lens falling out a pair of spectacles. throughout the duration of the test, i carried one of those with my multi-tool, and i didn't need to use it once. perhaps just as well - the two bump stop screws were easy enough to screw in or out, but the angle screw really need more leverage than i was able to apply with such a nimble screwdriver.in fact, i can give you all the insight and technical banter you like, but the bottom line is that the lightweight rd just plain worked, straight out out the box. i carefully fitted it, making sure nothing got broken in the process (can you imagine the phone call to carbonsports 'hi stefan - you'll laugh when i tell you...' no, me neither.) having recently re-cabled the entire bike using nokon cables, i figured shifting was unlikely to be a problem, and i was indeed correct. the titanium barrel adjuster at the rear of the rd was, unfortunately, incredibly stiff, and i couldn't turn it with my fingers no matter how i tried. so i had to resort to a pair of pliers over some cloth, so as not to mark the knurling. i have a sense that the stiffness may disappear in use, and it did appear to be promoted by the use of a locking compound on the threads. nonetheless, with a modest degree of adjustment, the rd clicked through all ten sprockets with no hesitation at all - very crisp.
while you're down there, take a look at the craftsmanship: each pivot is held in place by a small screw - serviceability - while the jockey spring is held in place by a titanium bolt, a method that used to apply to all rear mechs until relatively recently when they became encased in a long bullet of aluminium alloy. carbonsports have done all this to allow for complete serviceability and repair, though preferably not by the end user: the little book states quite clearly that it should be returned for any of the above. and at a time when the availability of carbon jockey wheels is an option, it is interesting to see the lightweight fitted with kcnc slotted pulleys, while both front and rear jockey guide plates are made from woven carbon.
beautiful.
so having spent your £782 and carefully fitted its 120g to the bicycle, can you actually notice the difference? in an odd way, yes you can. most of us climb aboard the bike and head off into the sunset without giving a further thought to the gears - always provided that they work. it's possible that my regular chorus mech has become a bit long in the tooth, and i have done so alongside, but the crisp changing of the lightweight brought a smile to my frozen face more than once, and i like it when that happens. there is a distinct and noticeable lack of friction applicable to the pedal stroke, which could only have come from the lightweight rd, since the cassette and chain were both in use prior to this. because of the inherent stiffness of carbon fibre, any movement is confined to where it should be, and the fact that the mech can be rebuilt, means that the price may be looked upon as an investment rather than an indulgence.
and it looks ruddy amazing on the bike.
carbonsports advise that the lightweight rd is compatible with shimano ten speed, and campagnolo ten and eleven speed, but not with sram
carbonsports.com | wiggle.co.uk
posted on friday 21 november 2008
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