Ice Bike 2018 & Other Developments

Took a midweek meander to Milton Keynes and the 12^th Ice Bike (trade) show. All told, worth the 200 mile round trip. Gravel is a very big deal and, justly so in my opinion. Uber wide tyres, cassettes 1x11 transmissions…

I was particularly taken with Ridgeback’s Ramble and M part bike packing luggage. Had a nice chat with Ridgeback’s brand manager, so hoping to swing a leg over a medium ramble, very soon… 

Shimano’s mixed terrain shoes look another tasty treat and I’ve also been impressed with Madison’s in house clothing range. Working bikes are another “fetish” of mine. I’m talking 4130 framesets for a solid, yet engaging ride and fully dressed for the foulest weather. Cyclo cross, or mountain biking aside, rider and machines plastered in wet, gritty, corrosive slime isn’t desirable.

Full length guards (fenders) four point rack, hub dynamo, cable operated disc brakes...

Though fixed/single speeds are close to my heart, I’m fond of modern hub gearing too. Little surprise that I was equally taken with the Genesis day one series. 

Superficially, I’m not sold on the CST tyres and some folks won’t warm to the old school, square taper cranks. At 70 kilos, I’m unlikely to find flex an issue. Decent, fit n’ forget cartridge bottom brackets such as the UN53 are still plentiful and easily upgraded, as and when the OEM unit gets the grumbles.  

Remaining the rightful owner, of any bicycle, is a blend of savvy, luck and solid locks. Thankfully, Kryptonite and Finish line were similarly receptive to Seven day Cyclist’s testing MO.  

Back with the fleet, I’d just run a certain wax lube bare in 100 miles, which was longer than I’d expect from a dry waxy type through February. It’s worth noting these tend to last longer on a derailleur geared transmission.

Something I’ve attributed to residual wax being deposited across the cassette and subsequently reclaimed by the chain. Contrast that with a more moderate 76 miles with fixed and single-speed builds.

That’s a standard helping, left curing overnight.  Waxy stuff more or less dismissed, this was an optimal time to wash the tubby tourer of a week or so’s accumulated grot. I’d treated it to Crankalicious enduro frame sealant, which acts as protective barrier.

The Univega’s frameset, unlike the others, doesn’t have a clear acrylic top-coat, for reasons explained, here https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/after-the-gritters-went-home . While the chainstays and forks were sporting a thin, watery layer of grime, mud and similarly substantial organic stuff failed to stick. A quick, cool water rinse, everything slithered away. Stroking the tubes, plenty of enduro remained, so no need to replenish.

Some SKS lube your chain, arrived. It’s a waxy looking PTFE infused blend, which is reckoned good for up to 75 applications. The bottle incorporates an integral dropper head. Pressed against the chain rollers, the orange dropper releases lubricant, supposedly optimising delivery and eliminating waste.

Keep applying for fifteen revolutions of the cranks. No wastage, no hanging around waiting for it to cure either, which is another definite draw. Just a matter of seeing how durable it is, especially since the UK is “bracing itself” for another weather front in the coming days.  

Finish line no drip chain luber kit works to the same principle.

Finish line’s employs a gauze type filter and claims you’ll recoup time and 50% less product per application. Not the most exotic of test goodies perhaps but anything that saves time and waste has to be a winner.

Pour 60ml of your chosen tipple (roughly half a typical bottle) into the reservoir. Press against the chains rollers, while turning the cranks-voila!  

Speaking of winners, Seven day Cyclist has joined forces with the caravan club. We’re offering two-free entries to Cycle fest 2018 https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/win-sportive-tickets-with-cyclefest  

Reverting to those Ritchey pattern SPDs, so I could ride the fixed in my Lake booties is paying off. Warm, dry feet. Well, save for the neoprene cuffs but at least these remain warm, even when saturated. Personally, rinsing and treating the uppers, with a decent quality leather food beats overshoes, hands down. 

Core, smoothly does it!

Had the privilege of attending this year’s Core Bike Show and there was a fair bit to see. 1x11 configurations continue to rule the roost, especially when it comes to Gravel/Adventure and backpacking builds. Cassettes too were getting wider, dare I say bigger.

Keeping a wide-range touring/mtb triple happy and obedient year round is something of a chore. These from hope certainly caught my eye. Finish aside, there’s even a 42 tooth-something I’d more commonly associate with tandems, recumbents and similarly specialist builds. Enough grunt for winching heavy laden touring trailers (or young tag-along pilots) up silly gradients without popping knees-Yay!

Cyclo cross bikes, at least those with less specialist personas, have long made excellent all-rounders, from winter trainers to light tourers. However, this has given rise to two tribes. The first, civilian, domesticated and extremely practical daily drivers and at the other extreme, gravel/bike packing. That said front mechs and belt drives haven’t disappeared.

Retro remains popular. I personally like it when older fashioned concepts return with a modern twist and less “classic” pricing. If you can drag yourself away from pencil thin stays, dripping in chrome you’ll also notice a centre-pull brakeset on this tourer.

Back in the South…

With the nasty lube Siberian reduced to a filmy state, it was time to strip the remnants from Univega and cross inspired fixed’s chains. This also coincided with the arrival of Duck Smart the black stuff chain cleaner.

In common with Green Oil degreaser jelly https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/green-oil-degreaser-jelly its’ a gel, so has the potential to double rather nicely as a generic degreaser. There’s also less wastage compared with a traditional solvent based stripper, although demands 5minutes marinating time before rinsing (and in some instances, reapplication).

A minor point, since I was giving my working fixed a good sudsy bucket pampering. This was followed by a liberal helping of some Crankalicious Enduro frame sealant.

Next came the Smoove universal chain lube. Now, this, like many others requires a curing period. Ideally, overnight but Smoove says it can be ride ready in an hour.

Potentially music to the ears of commuters prone to manic Mondays- drizzle some on first thing, don togs and be out the door after breakfast. With this in mind, I went said route with the Univega, to see if I could call Smoove’s bluff.

First impressions were similar to that of Motorex dry and my hunch that, curing aside, both work to the same principle. Unlike the wax/emulsion types that flake away, taking accumulated contaminant along with them, these trap grime in the top layer. It may assume a scuzzy grey/black but crap cannot work into the chain and become a fearsomely efficient grinding paste. So goes the theory at least.

I was expecting a slick, low friction middleweight and that’s how it’s behaved, several rides in. However, our maiden voyage coincided with fierce crosswinds and the Univega’s rear Kenda succumbing to a slow puncture. The sort where you reckon something’s a bit off, into the bend, so you stop pinch the casing…

Yup, suspicions confirmed. Time to swap the tube. Wheel out, last spare tube primed, I whipped out the wounded butyl. Sweeping the Kenda’s casing for foreign objects, expecting to find a thorn/hedge clipping-nothing…

During this period, groups of riders, including couples on tandems called over as they passed- I confirmed all was well and thanked them. Tube in, wishing I’d a CO2 inflator and cartridges handy, I was just grateful for the Lezyne mini pump’s smooth, predictable delivery.

Another rider stopped, apparently for a yarn.

Ten minutes in, I was getting progressively colder, despite long sleeve base layer, winter weight jersey cum jacket, waterproof breathable shell, thermal bib tights, gloves and booties. Seems he was a newbie. I was stunned to learn that his new top tube bag was bare-he was out without any means of rescuing himself, which seemed foolhardy at best.

Chill biting harder than ever, I suggested he invest in at least two spare tubes, multi tool, patch kit, pump and tyre levers. This way, he’d stand a sporting chance of getting going again. Strangely enough, my Cat-Eye blinky had jettisoned, although I was able to retrieve before it was crushed under the wheels of a Nissan Duke.

40psi (or thereabouts) and wheel reinstated, I span a lower gear to warm up. Infinitely preferable to a long walk home and a reminder to replenish the wedge pack. Budget tubes are generally speaking, fine for roadside rescue duty but branded butyl respond better to patching.    

Elsewhere, my patience finally evaporated with a well-known car insurer. Their abysmal customer service and palpable disinterest (in pursuing a case involving a foreign haulier), saw me turn to Chris Knott’s Car insurance 4 cyclists’ https://www.carinsurance4cyclists.com/  Even in light of the pending claim, my premium was still less than half that quoted by my original insurer. Decision made.   

Gravitating Toward Fixed Gear Gravel...

 

No great surprise really given my love of ‘cross inspired bikes and escaping metalled roads on them. Yes, I’m leaning toward an endurance event, similar to the dirty reiver https://www.dirtyreiver.co.uk/ . I pondered this, while exploring some long forgotten lanes-the sort just wide enough for a very small car and zero wriggle room.

Shod with those 30mm Vee rubber, ‘cross inspired fixed and I took the centre-strip-an impacted mound of mud, silt and grit in our stride, albeit at a more cautious 15mph-in case a John Deere, or similar behemoth be winding uphill.

At 105psi or so, they’re really quite capable on softer surfaces, though more of a tyre that give a taste of gravel, rather than something I’d deliberately set out to tackle a big event with. Neither, for that matter, is a fixed gear of 79 inches but it was perfectly manageable in these contexts.

Hmm, I feel another reconfiguration coming on. Received wisdom says a gear of 63 inches is optimal for trail biased fixed gear fun but I’m erring on the taller end of 60. We are talking a 700c build and I don’t want to be spinning myself into another dimension, or whipping the wheel around when I come to long stretches of metalled road.

The MK2 Ilpompino’s frame and Kinesis cross fork permits tyres up to 32 and 42mm respectively, without clearance hassles but ideally, a gravel build’s rear triangle will entertain 38mm with room to spare but we’ll see.

Talking of frames, Seven Day Cyclist has a feature on refinishing aluminium alloy, complete with a step by step renovation of a Specialized https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/aluminium-frame-refurbishment   

Back in 2008 I toyed with going the two speed Sturmey Archer route. Frankly, though it has some obvious appeal, especially in the scenarios outlined here, in practice the system was short-lived first time round. It also adds unnecessary cost and complication to proceedings.

Some, scrappy, note pad doodling points towards a 19tooth sprocket. I’d like a decent CNC machined unit. Cheaper elliptical types with bevelled teeth hail from the days when racers would retire an old road frameset from competitive duties and convert it to fixed for winter training.

These sprockets compensate for chain-line imperfections and certainly have their place but below par for a purpose build. Ideally, I’d have another EAI Gold Medal premium (CNC machined unit with straight cut teeth).

A truly beautiful piece of precision engineering but to my knowledge, 18 teeth is tops. More likely that I will opt for a cheaper but extremely cheerful Halo, which is also CNC machined, offered in the magical 19. Think that’s a done deal, for now at least…

Generally speaking, living in a house completely devoid of heat during the winter of 1992, coupled with 30 winters on two wheels has left me with a high tolerance for cold.

That said; I’ve been taken aback by how chilly April and May have been-psychologically, I’m anticipating 15-18 degrees and on many morning’s its barely crept to 7 degrees, less when wind chill is factored in.

For the most part, I’ve been comfortable enough wearing mitts, as has Steve https://www.sevendaycyclist.com/santini-micro-mesh-gel-mitt  but on Wednesday, I resurrected these full-finger Endura Strike from my gloves drawer.

Revisiting them 8 years in, I’m still impressed by the standards of warmth and wicking. Even in relatively mild temperatures they wick much better than padding density and overall design might suggest. I’ve added Respro retroreflective stickers to accentuate hand signals on dark nights and unlit roads.

Elsewhere, I was called in to cover an event the Indian Community Centre in Coventry on Saturday. I’d also like to take this opportunity to introduce some creative wrapping and card making services from Dolly Blue-Blue.

Like what you see? Don’t be shy, get in touch and I’ll pass your enquiry over.

 

 

 

Showtime!

I am of course referring to the 2016 Cycle show in Birmingham’s NEC (National exhibition centre), which though lacking the outright spectacle of Eurobike, still had plenty on offer.

A nasty bout of food poisoning the night before and a very fraught commute wasn’t the most auspicious start. However, I arrived at the NEC on time with trusty Sony NEX CSC, assorted lenses and some sugary sustenance to keep me from flagging at crucial points.

A few minutes later, Steve Dyster (Seven Day Cyclist’s co-editor) appeared and we convened for coffee and to strategise. Piping hot Americano coursing through my veins and colossal croissant consumed; we started with the year’s biggest trend-Gravel/adventure and disc braked road bikes. Most big brands had several models on offer and at various price points.

Of the most enticing to me was this titanium Boardman and several from Bombtrack; a German brand being introduced to the UK later this year. A big fan of cyclo crossers and their derivatives, I was particularly taken with their hook 2 and this drop bar 1x11 mountain bike, which is arguably the closest I’ve come to my ideal drop bar mountain bike build.

My passion for this particular breed was ignited by a “news in brief” piece, in the now defunct “Bicycle” magazine way back in 1987. This featured a Muddy Fox “Trailblazer”; which sported big drops, bar end shifters and 26x1.75 tyres. I’ve never seen one in the flesh and rumour suggests it was a prototype. Fast forward 29 years and I am very keen to put this Columbus tubed trail beast through its paces. 

Through axles have migrated from motorcycles to mountain bikes and now, disc braked skinny tyre road-biased builds. Increased front end stiffness is their main appeal over standard quick releases and there’s little trade-off in terms of removal speed; say when fixing a flat. We firmly believe that every stable should have a four seasons’ bike as car daily driver.

Enter this favourably priced Radman Urban. 6061 aluminium frame with stealth black finish and dressed perfectly for riding in all weathers. Alfine 11speed hub transmission, hub dynamo, hydraulic disc brakes, full length guards and a four point rack. Drops are my preference but the sensible flats and gear range are perfect for trailer/tagalong tugging duties.

With as little jiggling, I reckon you’d be able to sneak a set of 700x35 spikes in for the harsher months too…Suffice to say, I was quick to swap business cards and express interest in testing one. Another quietly popular trend was for hub gears and belt drives. Belts were all the rage back in 2009/10 but somewhat divisive.    

Clean, maintenance free riding is an obvious plus but debate always raged about their true efficiency. I have an open mind and haven’t heard too many horror stories regarding durability. Critics may cite Kawasaki’s belt final drive on their Z305 motorcycle back in the mid 80s, which was super smooth but vulnerable to collecting stones and similar sharps, which would sever it irreparably.

Others would justly pint out that powerfully built riders turning a cadence of 100/120rpm are hardly comparable with a high revving four stroke motorcycle. Shand cycles run this on their Rohloff stoater, which can also be converted at the drop out to run single speed or traditional derailleur setups. We chatted about frame building practice, which culminated in an open invitation to stop by their workshops, next time we were in Livingston.  

Fixed and other retro flavours also lingered, with Condor and Bianchi offering some very nice examples. I’m strangely taken with the former’s somewhat iconic Pista fixed, although less endeared to its electroplated finish. The iconic London marque has also taken a retro theme but given it a contemporary, practical twist. Their Cassico oozes continental charm with paint and polish but thankfully, those shiny tubes are stainless, not electroplated.

Their Pista and Paris Path models were also very appealing to yours truly, although personally I would’ve preferred mudguard eyelets on a machine following the road/path tradition. The Fatello was another enticing machine. 

A lightweight tourer cum Audax/day bike, its’ made from Columbus spirit tubing, features discs and sufficient clearance for 700x28 and full length guards. £799.99 as a frameset only, should you fancy going a’la carte. 

Bike shop shelves literally groan under the weight of bike washes and similar labour saving potions. Most work reasonably well, although I’m always intrigued by something genuinely different.

Stopping for a chat with Pro Green MX www.Pro-GreenMX.co.uk provided just that. Originally devised as a one-off formula for a moto-cross riding friend, they developed their formulas into three different products. 

One for transmission components, another for all-over use and finally a wax polish preserve. We are assured all are devised and brewed in house, contain no salts, or similar nasties and were sent home with a pack to review. Watch this space…

Last but not least, being something of a clothes horse and MAMIL (Middle aged man in Lycra) I was very drawn to these designs…Well, if the jersey fits….