Cycling

chava

Well-known member
My dad cycled semi-pro and worked at a bike shop for a decade when he was younger. Last summer we restored an old frame I had found and turned in into a sexy retro looking thing. It was a nice time, sitting there taking apart all those small parts and cleaning them and seeing it come together.

I fucked up my ancles so I can't run but I like exercise. I borrowed his racing bike the other day and felt really dumb with all that lycra gear. But fuck me they go fast those ones. Weigh nothing at all.

Weight doesn't mean a thing when its flat. You can basically still win Paris-Roubaix on a steel frame bike. Not that along go they stopped using them.
 

jenks

thread death
Weight doesn't mean a thing when its flat. You can basically still win Paris-Roubaix on a steel frame bike. Not that along go they stopped using them.
Roubaix has seen lots of innovations to counteract the pave - most high end carbon bikes now have dampners with degrees of adjustment to cope. I wouldnt imagine anyone has raced a steel bike there for a very long time.
Indurain won the TdF in 95 on a steel Pinarello - i think that was pretty much the end, i know they had a flirtation with high end aluminium - especially for climbing but carbon has been king for the 21st C. a few years ago a domestic team - Madison - rode 953 steel bikes in Prems but it was an experiment which failed pretty spectacularly.
I ride both steel and carbon and i know which one i'd want to use to go fast on. The stiffness along with modern design of forks/BB/seat posts mean steel may well be real carbon is quicker. However, nothing beats the beauty of a decent steel bike.
 

chava

Well-known member
Roubaix has seen lots of innovations to counteract the pave - most high end carbon bikes now have dampners with degrees of adjustment to cope. I wouldnt imagine anyone has raced a steel bike there for a very long time.
Indurain won the TdF in 95 on a steel Pinarello - i think that was pretty much the end, i know they had a flirtation with high end aluminium - especially for climbing but carbon has been king for the 21st C. a few years ago a domestic team - Madison - rode 953 steel bikes in Prems but it was an experiment which failed pretty spectacularly.
I ride both steel and carbon and i know which one i'd want to use to go fast on. The stiffness along with modern design of forks/BB/seat posts mean steel may well be real carbon is quicker. However, nothing beats the beauty of a decent steel bike.

Yeah, I exaggerated a bit there. The carbon obsession among amateur cyclists is just a bit silly in my view. A 10g reduction does not make such big a difference on the weekend circuit.
 

luka

Well-known member
i think i was saying on the wheelies thread cycling videos are a nice way to travel round a foreign city
 
i think i was saying on the wheelies thread cycling videos are a nice way to travel round a foreign city

I went on a stag weekend in Berlin some years back and The Lads had arranged to go on the bike bar. Some tragic pedal powered pub. I wasn't up for that and fucked it off. Hired a bike instead and spent the entire day cycling around the whole city. It was very eventful. Saw a genuine car chase, cycled into a huge beer street festival on Karl Marx strasse and then into a huge occupy/cannabis march to the Reichstag. It left me sober and energised for an all nighter at tresor later.

I always hire bikes in cities - vienna, Groningen, San Sebastian, Tokyo, New York, Amsterdam. No better way to get a feel for a city. Berlin was up there with the best though, it's a very open plan place, plenty of parks and not too much traffic.
 
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jenks

thread death
Big result in the Giro today when Essex legend Alex Dowsett spent most of the day in a six man break before time trialling away for a historic victory. He doesn’t win road stages so it’s properly remarkable.
Genuinely emotional day in Jenks Towers.
 

jenks

thread death
Giro today - Tao from East London could possibly take the Maglia Rosa. This is a big fucking deal.
 

jenks

thread death
Tao is now only tenths of a second off the lead with a time trial tomorrow as the final stage. Time trials are often seen as the duller end of road racing but there’s a reason they’re known as the race of truth (also I’ve got a special interest as TTs are my discipline) and this will be the second Grand Tour this year determined by a TT.
He’s a product of Hackney CC, only 24 and had come to the Giro to support Thomas. If he wins tomorrow it will totally unprecedented. Like I said...it’s a big fucking deal.
 

Leo

Well-known member
cautionary tale.

a close friend had a bike accident yesterday on the Brooklyn Bridge, rushed unconscious to the emergency ICU at Bellevue. unable to move her hands, currently in the midst of a six-hour spinal surgery. in her early 50s, strong and in good shape, so hopefully that helps.

she's been an avid cyclist for over 30 years, often goes on 25-, 50- and even 100-mile rides. you never know what can happen, even for an experienced rider. be careful out there.
 

jenks

thread death
cautionary tale.

a close friend had a bike accident yesterday on the Brooklyn Bridge, rushed unconscious to the emergency ICU at Bellevue. unable to move her hands, currently in the midst of a six-hour spinal surgery. in her early 50s, strong and in good shape, so hopefully that helps.

she's been an avid cyclist for over 30 years, often goes on 25-, 50- and even 100-mile rides. you never know what can happen, even for an experienced rider. be careful out there.
Really sorry to hear this. I hope she makes a full recovery
 

jenks

thread death
I am not surprised - like Clarkson he inhabits that golf club bore space which allows Express readers to feel validated. The vilification of cycle lanes this year is just opening up another front in their attack on common sense. Fuckwits.
 

jenks

thread death
Loving the Tour this year - some great individual stories in there but Cav is the greatest. I just hope he can hold on over the mountains to finish things off on the Champs.
 

jenks

thread death
Mountain stage today. I once rode up the Tourmalet and it was amongst the hardest days I’ve ever had on a bike. They’ve just rolled up it like it’s nothing.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I’ve been trying to keep up with it, it has been quite an exciting and ravishing looking tour. Cavendish’s interviews are hilarious.
 

catalog

Well-known member
I watched yesterday's highlights this lunchtime. Nice race at the end with the Chilean (?) guy taking leader and Dutch guy on.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I watched yesterday's highlights this lunchtime. Nice race at the end with the Chilean (?) guy taking leader and Dutch guy on.
Carapaz is Ecuadorian, bit of a 2nd-rate GC contender - p bad time trialist, a la Quintana - tho he did win the Giro a couple years back. Vingegaard is Danish, not Dutch, young guy getting chance to shine bc his team leader (Roglic, serious GC contender) had to abandon after crash-related injuries.

I've found the GC race boring bc Pogacar is just crushing people. Cav's completely unexpected, storybook resurgence and pursuit of Merckx has been by far the most compelling story, already amazing, and if he wins on the Champs it will be one of the greatest cycling moments in recent memory. Everything did fall perfectly into place for him - Bennett's mysterious injury/contract dispute, Ewan crashing out, etc, but otoh he persevered for years when everyone thought he was totally done, and he came in last-minute w/basically no Tour prep and both everyone in front of him, and made it over all the mountains within the time cuts. I'm struggling to think of a comparable turn back the clock story in any sport recently. Tom Brady I guess, but he never stopped being very good, he just continues to defy aging against all logic.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
The Vuelta should be potentially good, the current top 3 GC contenders - Pogacar, Roglic, and Egan Bernal - going to head to head to head for the first time ever. Assuming they all race, never a sure thing in cycling.
 
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