nowadays, there's a cogent argument for keeping one's cleated feet free from waterproof overshoes. that might seem an odd statement from one whose prevailing weather conditions feature an annual rainfall of around 1200mm, but bear with me on this.
i recall an e-mail reply from a company representative for whom i had just reviewed a pair of neoprene, waterproof overshoes. while the fabric made an excellent job of fending off precipitation from on high, as well as that engendered by splashy roads, my contention was that these items could not truly be considered 100% waterproof, due to the two holes in the soles for the cleats and the heels. the e-mail laid out how the fabric in question had been extensively tested to hitherto un-thought of depths and were thus several points above the competition. my continually pointing out that the two large holes rather mitigated against 100% waterproofing, seemed not to curry any favour or, indeed, recognition.
but in hindsight, any pair of waterproof overshoes are actually possessed of three holes, if you include the one into which one places those cleated feet. it can hardly have escaped your notice that, in perpetual rain, eventually, that water will run down both calves and shins, ending up in socks and shoes. even when wearing bibtights, once they receive a thorough soaking, gravity will eventually relieve the overflow, once again, into both socks and shoes. but then, you already knew that.
therefore, over the past two seasons, i have taken to wearing waterproof socks, items, the veracity of which i can competently vouch. while out riding in wet weather, once the rain has poured inside, the socks are sufficiently waterproof to prevent the rain getting back out again. in short, if it's raining heavily, there's not much that will keep your feet dry, no matter the protestations of company representatives.
however, pragmatism is not all it's cracked up to be, which is presumably why many of us keep alive the belgian tradition of wearing what can only be referred to as oversocks. the latter nomenclature can, of course, be somewhat misleading; having presented number one son with a pair, so that he too could join the heritage trail, he mistakenly attempted to wear them as socks, unsurprisingly confused when his feet appeared through the large, frontmost hole. you live and learn.
the original versions of such footwear apparel, were originally bereft of any pre-made holes to accommodate cleats and heels. in truth, they were indeed, simply thick woollen socks. the intrepid belgian had to rely on the kitchen scissors to cut the necessary openings. nowadays, we don't know we're born, given that the majority of oversock purveyors, such as the esteemed folks at prendas ciclismo, offer their foot garmentage with holes pre-cut. with prendas' reputation for alarmingly speedy delivery (next day, even to the hebrides), becoming belgian is simply a matter of awaiting delivery, removing from the cellophane packing and immediately impersonating tom boonen or johan museeuw.
having eschewed the original wool construction, the prendas editions (in this case, in bordeaux-paris guise) are fashioned from sturdier cordura, a material that offers not only a decent level of breathability, but is relatively quick to dry, should it happen to rain while practising your boonen persona. the prendas versions offer a higher ankle than usual to obviate the potential sartorial faux pas of showing the tops of your regular socks in the heat of battle. while many of you may not have need of such items, purely to prevent subsequently scraping of mud from leather footwear, with the advent of hydraulic disc brakes and electronic gear systems, keeping cycling's rich heritage alive and kicking (quite literally, in this case) is one surely not to be avoided?
should my current persuasions outlined above be insufficient to persuade you, not only is the prendas range made in italy, but also subject to their famous multi-saver offer: buy three and save almost £3. my own enticement consists of a yellow oversock featuring the lion of flanders; by now, everyone knows that hebrideans are the flandriens of the west.
prendas oversocks retail at £8.99 per pair (or £24 for three) and are available in small, medium or large in six different designs.
monday 10 june 2019
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................there are two common jokes amongst the peloton at present, both concerning the visiting motoring public. the first concerns a motorhome and an audi four-wheel-drive, still stuck on the singletrack, loch gorm road, facing each other, because neither of them can reverse. legend has it that they've been there since last year. the second whimsy, related in a fashion, is that audi and bmw actually sell white estate cars with two bikes affixed to the roof rack. the reasoning behind this is to convince both neighbours and those met while on islay, that the owners are off on an 'activity' holiday. in point of fact, those bicycles cannot be removed from the top of the car, no matter what. they left on the ferry with the bicycles in situ.
the latter has some basis in truth. a colleague of mine owns a holiday cottage on islay's west coast and a couple of years ago, a young couple, driving a white audi estate, arrived with two bicycles strapped to the roof rack. those bicycles never moved from that position, neither having turned a wheel in anger throughout the entire week.
in the process of perambulating the estates on saturday of this weekend, given that we are now into the month of june, i had good cause to think i had happened upon national idiot driving day, a day on which the many passing places across the island's west coast became mysteriously invisible to motorists. i lost count of the number of times i had to lean precariously towards the roadside ditch in order to avoid the substantial size of many vehicular wing mirrors, after their drivers insouciantly ignored a passing place considerably closer to them than to me.
i am, to a fault, as courteous as i can be; i well know that i am slower than the majority of motor traffic and in truth, i am simply going round in circles for fun. if i have to stop more frequently than i'd hoped, so what? however, the basis of my irritation mostly concerns the implication that i ought to stop for motor traffic, no matter how inconvenient or even potentially dangerous, that might be. it's less than an onerous task at this time of year, but in winter and early spring, running 28mm smooth rubber on wet grass is scarcely an advisable manoeuvre, particularly if simply to prevent a range rover from getting its wheel-trims dirty.
but my confusion, which continues to add credence to the second of our purportedly humorous pelotonic guffaws, concerns a silver volkswagen golf, which passed me a total of three times during my saturday outing. given the nature of the island's road infrastructure (if you've ridden the ride of the falling rain, you'll know well of which i speak), it is not unusual to continuously meet the same vehicles at different points of one's trajectory. in fact, at the risk of being accused of ufology, i was twice passed by a spaceship during the morning, the latter being the name emblazoned in orange, diagonally along the side of a sizeable motorhome.
the silver volkswagen in question, however, carried two road bicycles on a rear-mounted rack, presumably in order that the hypothetical activity break, might be partaken of. despite meeting this vehicle on roads that most of us would deem amongst the finest on which to cycle, the bicycles remained steadfastly attached to the rear of the car, showing no signs of being employed as that for which they were designed. this is not an isolated case. in the process of conducting the weekly sunday ride, the peloton continually comes across all manner of vehicles carrying bicycles, but at locations where it well behoved the owners to have parked the car and participated in the activity for which they presumably visited the island.
to quote a well-worn cliché, 'there's nowt so queer as folk.'
sunday 9 june 2019
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................most of the time, new stuff works in precisely the manner expected. i seriously doubt that there is a manufacturer in the world of cycling, who brings a new product to market, without first having flogged it to death in conditions similar to those that life will surely throw in its direction. ostensibly, that's one of the purposes of team sponsorship. though the author of the recently reviewed 'secret cyclist' warned against seeking independent product advice from a professional rider, there's no doubting that the most remunerative realm of cycling will offer the hardest and most pragmatic testing of any product. and if it fails at this particular hurdle, someone is surely going to hear all about it.
the interim stage, without wishing to appear too narcissistic, are folks like me. though i am frequently the recipient of items of velocipedinity, ultimately entailing a published review, this is more for reasons of publicity than the expectation that i will discover a hitherto unforeseen glitch in the firmament. in very few cases, do i receive other than an item already on retail sale; were i to find, for example, that the latest tubeless tyre constantly rolled off the wheel rim, many research and development heads would no doubt be on the block.
the implication, occasionally stated, is that they (whoever 'they' are at any given time) are eager to hear my opinion of their new product, with future development of said product, depending on my every word. in truth, that's often not the case. pragmatic and independent recommendations i may have made several years past, are often conspicuous by their absence on the very latest model. in this , i am very definitely not alone; the majority of print and online magazines, suffer the same slings and arrows of complacent content. there are, however, several more conscientious manufacturers who do actually pay attention to the words of the reviewer, though personally i'm aware of only one set of circumstances where this definitely happened.
that, however, is extraneous to the demands of any review. as far as i understand it, the idea is not necessarily to go looking for potential flaws, but to find out how well any product performs under 'normal' conditions, with the occasional foray into untrammelled circumstances. i'm sure, however, that the majority of cycle reviewers would agree with me, that pretty much everything works ideally under ideal conditions. a short-sleeve jersey will be just ginger-peachy in warm sunny conditions and a 28mm tyre with minimal tread will rarely disappoint on dry roads.
the gist of this dissertation was engendered by a recent tweet from a well-known reviewer employed by one of the higher profile cycling websites. the essence of his message was that he was attempting to take advantage of the currently clement weather conditions, to complete a current review. my perhaps less than well-considered riposte was that the ideal conditions for any review procedure were wet and windy. as advised above, most stuff works well in decent weather, but not everything acquits itself with aplomb in less equitable weather.
by way of a specific example, perhaps verging on the trivial, was my experience with a wind-jacket from one of the world's foremost apparel purveyors. while its windproofing qualities were beyond reproach, made all the more appreciable by a fabric that was probably no thicker than the average sheet of toilet paper, pragmatism poked a single hole in its overall efficacy, one brought about by its featherweight constitution. given that said jacket was of a size that allowed it to be scrunched up and stuffed in a rear pocket, this also lent it the potential to be hastily worn when caught in unexpectedly draughty conditions. unfortunately, though it was possible to get one arm into a sleeve, the sort of wind for which it was designed to fend off, blew its paper-thinness hither and thither, preventing any likelihood of getting the other arm into sleeve number two. eventually, i gave up trying.
inclement weather is my birthright and rarely do i have to wait long for such conditions to prevail. across just over two decades of writing thewashingmachinepost, i have found crappy weather to be far more appropriate to gauge the efficacy of any given cycling product.
namby-pamby, sunny stuff, though rare in these here parts, simply doesn't cut the mustard. dessication is rarely a factor i have within my reviewer's reach. and by some devious extrapolation, this means that you, too, ought to cast aside notions of fair-weather cycling and go out riding in the above tried-and-tested conditions. not for nothing do i have weather report's heavy weather on my ipod.
saturday 8 june 2019
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................some of us, of a certain age, took to skinny wheels and bendy bars when the epitome of sophistication was still fausto coppi. that is not to say that il campionissimo's savoir faire is any less worthy than in those days, nor, indeed, that it has been matched or superseded by any contemporary rider. but lugged steel bicycles were considered state of the art (some of us still hold true to that apprehension), brake cables still exited the top of the levers and gears were negotiated via shiny levers affixed to the anorexic (by modern standards) and round down tubes.
personally, the way of the road offered an attraction that had rapidly vanished from the world of the recently introduced and subsequently ubiquitous, mountain bike. as the latter strived for maturity, stuff became anodised in a wide variety of colours, widgets proliferated like bacteria and the cantilever brake seemingly morphed on a weekly basis. by comparison, the road bike remained satisfyingly unmoved; simplicity was its watchword and any thoughts of altering the spec year on year, were yet to broach the offices of the all but non-existent marketing department. in fact, if examined a tad more closely, the advent of selling complete, quality road bikes was still persona non-grata.
i have waxed lyrical at length over the disappearance of shiny hubs, brakes, spokes, rims et al, and i do not intend to revisit the paradigm once again. but, despite the options available, when it came to speccing wheels for one's simplistic road machine, the word on the tip of the majority of tongues, was mavic. though the french wheel supremos stopped short at offering spokes (dt swiss were probably mavic's equivalent at the time), not only was a variety of rims available to personal riding choice, but these could be thematically matched to a compatible pair of mavic hubs.
then ksyrium happened, and the latter and former slowly melted into a velocipedinal background obscurity, not disappearing entirely, but quickly falling from their own podium. ksyrium begat the me too generation, long before it became a hashtag, with campagnolo, shimano, fulcrum and a whole slew of others fighting for a portion of the factory-build wheel market. and none of the foregoing stopped short at retail; the big bucks were to be had form supplying wheels as original equipment to the folks who had taken a leaf from their offroad ranges and begun to offer complete bicycles to an eager, yet arguably less-well informed road-going market.
by this, i do not mean to infer that mountain bikers were more perspicacious when time came to choose a bicycle, but relative to the road cyclists of coppi's era and a few decades beyond, there appeared to be less need to comprehend the mixing and matching of componentry. look to a price point and the manufacturer had already chosen a competent set of bits compatible with the sales tag. the budding eddy merckx could now concentrate on riding as fast as possible, freed of the need to deliberate over handlebar/stem combos or appropriate crank length. i believe the modern term would be 'ubiquity'.
pockets of intrepid individuals, intent on maintaining the tradition of wheelbuilding, still existed throughout the western world. folks such as wheelsmith's derek mclay, or portland's jude gerace, still espoused that handbuilt wheels were better for a road-going diet than factory builds, despite the likes of mavic having reduced the need to spec their still desirable range of rims, if not necessarily hubs. but much like the pop music charts, if you hang around long enough, a new boy or girl band will record that favourite song from yesteryear. and mavic have once again become that band.
newly available from july this year to wheelbuilders throughout the world, are four new rims and four new hubs bearing the mavic logo. it would be too much to hope, however, that these newbies would imitate the shine of their ancestors, when carbon and black are now in plentiful supply. mavic offer the new tubeless compatible carbon fibre rims in two models per flavour: rim brake and disc. the cxp pro carbon ust disc edition 'out depths' its rim brake companion by 5mm, while the open pro carbon ust disc version outdoes its rim-brake sibling by 7mm. all can be acquired in 20,24,28 and 32 hole drillings at a retail price of €600 (£533).
the mr801 hubs, the legacy of their 501 and 571 antecedents, are available in both standard and disc versions, featuring cnc machined aluminium shells, and both feature an auto preload system on the bearings to maintain even pressure and obviate any need to adjust for play. the disc versions are compatible with 12mm thru-axles, but can be easily converted to quick-release mode.
i can but suppose that mavic are either party to analytical information regarding a return to a desire for handbuilt wheels, or, much like their kickstarting the factory build, would like to catalyse the nascent wheel build market. for i can see little alternative reasoning that would bring such hub and rim superbness to the dining table. it seems doubtful that fausto's era is about to dawn upon us once again (more's the pity), but it strikes me as a step in the right direction.
thursday 6 june 2019
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................there's a strong probability that my attention to detail, when it comes to chain cleaning, is well renowned by now, considering the incessant number of mentions made in these very pixels on more occasions than is seemly in polite company. despite having a genuine mechanical reason for cleaning the chain after the majority of bike rides, particularly when the weather is less than clement, there are those who have poo-poo-ed my compulsive attention to detail. but for one more time, let me re-iterate the subsequent ability to keep an eye on any insidous malfeasance that may be about to undermine the integrity of one of the bicycle's most important components, cannot be overemphasised.
of course, it's not solely the chain that ought to be the subject of regular checks. considering the ever-increasing amount of traffic on our roads, and the less than pristine conditions in which many of those exist, there are several other components upon which the average cyclist depends in order to remain safely mobile. brakes would perhaps be uppermost in most riders' minds, one factor that, along with many others, that has become more complex of late.
caliper brakes offer only two principal causes of malfunction: cables and brake shoes. both of these can be relatively easily checked visually at the end of each ride, or even mid perambulation. discs are another animal altogether. though i have no statistics or even hearsay to confirm, it's possible for the pistons acting upon the disc pads to stick, while the pads themselves are also hidden from plain view. leaving renewal of the latter until the bicycle fails to stop, is probably not such a great idea. and though changing disc brake shoes is not yet rocket science, there's a deal more faff involved than that applicable to regular caliper brakes.
it is this growing technicality of modern bicycles that surely persuades more owners to drop them in at the shop? aside from the often specialist knowledge or training required, there's the not inconsiderable cost of acquiring specialist tools. i have three bicycles featuring either campagnolo eleven or twelve-speed chains, so i judged it appropriate to purchase vicenza's expensive chain-tool, given my ocd with regard to the component. i'm inclined to change my chain after three or four months of use, but i doubt i'm the only one who finds it hard to keep track of how many kilometres each individual bicycle has covered, so there may be a bit of statistical variance at play.
however, with the recent introduction by cannondale of their 'grab-and-go' treadwell model, comes the possibility of a solution to a distinctly 21st century problem. this apparently fun commuter model features a built-in sensor developed in conjunction with garmin, one which automatically registers the bicycle for warranty at the first turn of the wheels. that same sensor records data in the manner of most handlebar-mounted devices, but without any user intervention. it will record up to 30 rides before there's need to sync it with the freely downloadable cannondale app.
but, perhaps the most pragmatic feature of this new connectedness, is an ability to record the data necessary to recommend when it's time for a service. as a non-mobile phone owner, i have little truck with apps of any flavour, but i think i can see the potential of this particular instance. when i was in the business of repairing and servicing bicycles, the majority of owners either avoided the problem until something broke, or brought it in long past the point of economic repair. of course, having an app inform you when the bicycle might be due a smidgeon of tlc, is not quite the same as making it compulsory to take it along to the bike shop.
perhaps that ought to be the next upgrade: when a service us due, the wheel sensor locks itself to the spokes and extends a stainless steel rod through the vent holes on the front disc rotor, the password to which is only made available to the bike shop mechanic. in the light of this development, it now seems almost remiss of shimano, sram and campagnolo, not to build similar tracking features into their electronic units. it shouldn't be that hard to record the number of gear changes made and extrapolate those into a service recommendation, while the optional extra espresso unit eases the waiting game while the bike is fixed.
if that actually happens, remember where you read it first.
thursday 6 june 2019
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................as i may have mentioned on more than a singular occasion, numbers and i do ot get on well. at all. unfotunately, this is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; the more i figure i'm not good with numbers, the worse i am when dealing with numbers. give me pen and paper, or canvas, paint and brush and i am the proverbial pig in brown stuff; numbers, however, will only cause grief and anguish.
fortunately, thanks to the wonders of the interweb, i no longer have to suffer the embarrassment felt, on trying to count the loose change when attempting to pay for my daily newspaper. conversion from euros to sterling (and vice versa), miles to kilometres or grams to ounces, requires only that i type the appropriate query into google and bob is, indeed, your uncle. thus, my daily constructs within these black and yellow pixels would scarcely advise my reader that digits are my bête noire.
after the recent giro d'italia victory by movistar's richard carapaz, his standing and popularity in his home country have escalated considerably. it seems highly unlikely that, assuming he is fond of spending friday evening in a local ecuadorian hostelry, he will ever have to buy a round of drinks ever again. according to the country's president lenin moreno, "There are 17 million hearts that have been cheered by Richard Carapaz, who has shown us we can do great things."
but far from that simply being political rhetoric, in order to place himself in a favourable position, come the next election campaign, president moreno has put his presidential coffers where his mouth is. obviously keen to associate himself with the ecuadorian velocipedinal cognoscenti, he has announced that import taxes on bicycles will forthwith, be removed. additionally, the state has committed to go further in supporting its athletes. to place this in some form of context, british riders have won the tour de france a total of six times, yet the price of a bicycle in the uk has not decreased one pence, due to government intervention.
and here, as if you didn't see it coming, come the numbers. in order not to turn this article into a surrogate mathematics lesson, i have chosen my numerical information from the website simplyduty.com. i haven't a scooby as to the import duty once paid by ecuadorians on their bicycles, but the example from simplyduty.com gives credence to the regime currently in place in the uk. it offers perhaps one of the most perfect examples of a government agency both having its cake and eating it.
any items entering great britain from a country outside the european union attract both vat and import duty. however, though simple, the calculation is not quite as clear cut as you might hope. to use the website example, let's assume that i'm buying a bicycle to the value of £5000 from the usa, the carriage and insurance on which is £500. you would think that, since the carriage has been arranged and paid for across the pond, it would keep it immune from british vat regulations; but you'd be wrong. in this example, the sub total of £5,500 is subject to 3.5% import duty, providing a second sub total of £5692.50. it is this total on which vat is applied.
yes, the uk government not only charges duty on the combined price of item and carriage, it then applies vat on the lot. in this case, £1138. thus, when my £5,000 bicycle arrives in the fedex depot at glasgow airport, the total cost to my now depleted bank balance would be £6831
imagine how much cheaper cycling life could have been if, in celebration of thomas's victory in last year's tour, westminster had obliterated the import duty, specifically in our favour? or, along with prince bradley's knighthood, thought had been given to encouraging a future tour and olympic winner.
is it far to cycle to ecuador from here?
wednesday 5 june 2019
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................as self-appointed president of the luddite society (velocipedinal branch), aside from the many other things i am prone to moan about, i occasionally like to bemoan the passing of the quill stem. brought about by the introduction of the a-headset, a situation i blame entirely on the offroad community, in my humble opinion, there has yet to be an example of the a-head stem that equals the aesthetic appeal of a cinelli xe quill stem (for example). i have no idea whether the latter was indeed hewn from a single billet of alloy, but its appearance would suggest that i am none too far from the truth.
of course, though the emergence of the a-headset - a component, we were unreliably assured, that offered fewer grams to which gravity might apply itself - signalled the demise of the height-adjustable quill stem, in fact, the subsequent emergence of carbon fibre steerers would have ultimately achieved the same result. thus the world of the svelte road bicycle, was interrupted by two external bolts, clamping stem to steerer; functional rather than beautiful. now that tubing has morphed from round to any number of geometrical profiles, perhaps a chunky stem is better camouflaged, but the accumulation of four bolts holding the face-plate in situ, surely did little other than add insult to injury?
the latter may be less of a problem for those of you constrained to a single bicycle, but for those of us involved in the reviewing of quality machinery, the word faff has had good cause to rear its irritating head. the majority of review bicycles arrive in substantially-sized card boxes, usually with the bars not in place to allow said container to remain as narrow as possible. during final assembly, this invariably means holding the bars in place, while trying valiantly to thread the first of those four bolts in place. after a lengthy slew of bad words, the end result can be no more attractive than the clamp at the steerer end.
i have often thought that a hinged clamp on the face plate would be at least something of a remedy for my dubious language, but not being an engineer, i figured it may be a less than pragmatic solution. tom ritchey, however, owns an engineering prowess that any cyclist would be proud to possess and even while ignorant of my situation, he has offered the new ritchey chicane stem to assuage my faff infected pain.
for those apt to consider the handlebar stem as a purely functional item, possessed of mechanical worthiness, but utterly devoid of aesthetic appeal, the chicane stem might well change your mind. that ritchey fellow is a clever chap.
if i might start at the steerer end of the equation, totally missing are the usual two clamp bolts, replaced by a wedge that presses manfully against the frontmost side of the steerer, tightened by means of an allen bolt, hiding under the ritchey logo'd top plate. that top plate also conceals the steerer bolt that holds the entire assembly comfortably to the wedge fitted to the interior of the carbon. the underside of the top plate features a round magnet, providing a firm grasp on the tension bolt washer. the removal of the more usual rounded top cap and the clamp bolts, has agreeably smoothed a once chunky appearance.
the only minor problem is an inability to comply with the unwritten rule requiring a spacer between the stem and the steerer cap. in my case, that spacer had to be relegated between stem and headset.
at the front end of the stem world, not only have two of the faceplate bolts disappeared entirely, the remaining two face inwards instead of outwards. i do question the choice of torx bolt heads, when the tension and wedge bolts are still of the allen variety, but inward facing bolts are far less likely to suffer from the endemically corrosive atmosphere that pervades every last square centimetre of islay. with a top-hinged faceplate, holding the bars in place while affixing the first bolt was, admittedly, a tad faffy to begin with, but nothing like the frustrating exercise usually experienced at this point.
overall, the removal and replacement of bolts has appreciably smoothed the component to the closest it's likely to come to the late-lamented quill stem. and any fears that the magnet in the steerer cap would prove to be a token gesture, have so far been proved wrong.
form-over-function is a phrase that has featured highly in many a velocipedinal discussion; there would be little point in producing a pretty stem if (literally) it fell at the first hurdle, so in order to check that tom ritchey had done his homework properly (after two years of development and more prototypes than you could count on two hands worth of fingers), i headed out onto tarmac purgatory. not only did i do my level best to hammer along the roads we keep for special occasions, but i let up not one whit when crossing several cattle grids.
budge, those handlebars did not.
available for only 1.125" steerers, the ritchey chicane stem can be obtained in lengths ranging from 90mm - 130mm in 10mm increments. price is just above £97 (€109.95). if only there was a shiny version.
tuesday 4 june 2019
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