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Live blog: Aqua Blue team manager suggests 3T bikes are “costing results”, Saudi man cycles over 5000km only to see his team lose 5-0, Beirut bike barber, Dave’s 400km epic (+ more)
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Fri, Jun 15, 2018 13:55
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Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn’t especially like cake.
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Pub bike 5 hours ago
If anyone reading this article is looking for reasonable alternatives Decathlon sell a range of bum bags including one with a bottle holder that comes with the bottle all of which are less than £20. I've got a bum bag I bought a few years ago to replace a North Face bum bag that has lasted really well including commuting and cycle touring that was only £10 and that doesn't seem to have any of the drawbacks of the pack on review.
Pub bike 6 hours ago
@Borisface The frameset is similarly priced to e.g. Condor aluminium framesets such as Italia RC Integrato so it doesn't look too far off the mark. Obviously if you dress any old frame up with Campag Record 13 wireless and some decent wheels the final price is going to be somewhere north of £5k.
VecchioJo 6 hours ago
@Freddy56 @hotspanners Hi, just for for starters I didn’t boycott the race, if you read to the end of the article you’d have seen that I decided I was going to attend and try and implement a positive change… Just for clarity, if it helps with the credibility of my words and something I didn’t include in the blog for brevity and fear of willy-waving here’s an incomprehensive list of cycle events I’ve helped organise over the years - all Brighton Big Dog MTB events (about 12 i think), three league CX races and one Singlespeed CX Euro Champs (niche, i know), a few SAMS MTB races - maybe three or four it was a while back now, a Morvelo City Cross, I’ve stood on a corner in a high-vis vest at quite a few MTB, CX and road races too, and just helped wind up tape at last weekend’s CX race. I’ve also had the privilege to design logos, draw images, and create one-off pieces of artwork and give away prints as prizes for enough races and events for me to forget how many, all for free as part of ‘doing my bit’… Also if you made it through to the second half of the article you’ll have read that I have every sympathy for event organisers because of the experience of all the above and also from having conversations with various organisers on a regular basis so I am acutely aware of all the challenges faced. I chatted today with the future local CX race organiser mentioned, face to face in a field, and he has a similar hatred of AI and is more than happy for me to create a hand-drawn image to promote that race and also help out on the ground where possible… Might even draw a duck in there somewhere for giggles…
Rendel Harris 8 hours ago
@Borisface Not entirely sure why some alleged good times set in the last century validate the silliness and ignorance of your rejection on the grounds of materials and weight of a bike that the reviewer (who, if you look at his bio above, has rather a lot of experience himself, not only of riding bikes but of engineering too) describes as "absolute perfection in every aspect". Thanks for the unrequested permission but I'm not actually looking to spend 6k on a bike at the moment; if I was, on the basis of this review and the photographs I'd certainly be putting this on my shortlist and looking for a test ride. But then in this area at least I have an open mind, you see.
hotspanners 8 hours ago
@Freddy56 as the article says, Jo boycotted our race because he thought we’d used AI to design our flyer. I’m with him 100% but he got the facts wrong. People don’t like AI slop. It’s lazy and generic. But you’re right - these grassroots events run off volunteering. I wave flags, design kit and artwork, ferry things to our lockup etc - perhaps Jo could be the change he wants to see. He could volunteer to the London and SE CX league that he races in to help them out with artwork - he created Mint Sauce!
Freddy56 9 hours ago
Currently riding home powered by this for the last 6 months after someone stole my SeeSence beam, LOVE it. super durable and batter life gets me home on full beam for 55 minutes
Freddy56 9 hours ago
Comments and an article by people who organise NOTHING! Promoting an event is mostly by volunteers and an AI poster done at midnight after sorting the British cycling insurance, the toilets, the Marshalls, the council and a landowner is so draining. The effort is massive for usually a small team. Grab a flag and help rather than moaning about a generated image...o look the image is eye catching so it must work .
Freddy56 9 hours ago
I have Wizzard works bag from 2018 (bought for my 30th) and this is a complete rip off it!!
Borisface 9 hours ago
6 times division champion, 1st cat road man, semi-pro for 3 years. Sub 21 min 10 and sub 55 min 25 on a steel road bike. Forty five years riding. Forgotten more about riding bikes than most on here will ever know. If you want to pay £6k for an aluminium road by all means go ahead.
Rendel Harris 10 hours ago
@Borisface Probably for the best, if you're as ignorant about bikes and materials as your comment suggests you wouldn't appreciate it anyway. Go and buy something on the UCI weight limit made out of the latest space age super carbon and wobble around on it looking daft and feeling uncomfortable and to hell with aesthetics, practicality and real-world use cases, at least you'll have the right numbers ("6.85 kg, awesome!") and words ("Yeah, it's UHM 12k carbon, actually") for the cafe. Enjoy!
12 thoughts on “Live blog: Aqua Blue team manager suggests 3T bikes are “costing results”, Saudi man cycles over 5000km only to see his team lose 5-0, Beirut bike barber, Dave’s 400km epic (+ more)”
Not bad for two days, but
Not bad for two days, but probably about average for most UK cities. Riding a bit farther from the kerb might help, the drivers are much more likely to see you.
burtthebike wrote:
Seconded.
A lot of it comes down to motorists not realising the likely speed of a cyclist, and then when they do (finally) notice the oncoming cyclist, thinking “Meh! He’ll avoid me” (OK, some of them probably do think, “Meh! F- ‘im!”…).
And the one with the car turning right through a traffic queue… That comes down to the turning car being flashed or otherwise let through by a queuing motorist and taking their word on it that the road is clear rather than taking the time to check for themselves.
burtthebike wrote:
I love how the comments immediately start giving a professional(?) cyclist cycling advice! With the exception of the very first clip, Matt was well out in primary position, and for that first one I don’t think being a few inches over would have made any difference at all.
A lot of it sadly looks like
A lot of it sadly looks like typical modern traffic… I suffer similar bouts of invisibility in the car!
I am generally quite circumspect approaching junctions in traffic when there is a gap, as it is likely a car may turn across from the opposite way.
And on the P2P topic- Go Dave!
“Mmmmm bread rolls with icing
“Mmmmm bread rolls with icing and cream filling!”
Everyone else calls them cream buns.
“This underground bike
“This underground bike parking station in Utrecht has 6,000 spaces” – my local city centre shopping area (Broadmead, Bristol) has, I think, four multi storey car parks within a five minute walk.
Two are dedicated shopping mall car parks (Galleries 1000 spaces and Cabot Circus 2500 spaces). And there are another two NCP car parks (Rupert Street and ‘under the Holiday Inn’)which must each be over 1000 spaces.
At the same time, there’s probably bike parking (ie. sheffield stands) for no more than a couple of hundred bikes.
And the bike parking is always rammed full – why don’t these places consider posh bike parking? I’m sure we’d even be willing to pay if we weren’t treated like second-class citizens and got proper indoor secure parking…
What exactly was the
What exactly was the mechanical, I wonder?
I can’t say I’m surprised they are possibly underwhelmed by the practical use of 1x for pro racing. GCN showed the 3T builds and they looked a little bodged, with headset dust caps not properly covering the bearings, various cable ties holding cables out the way etc, etc.
Canyon48 wrote:
I read he dropped a chain.
Sniffer wrote:
Ouch!
Boss Hogg wrote:
That’s rather disappointing! 2x drops chains too, but I wonder if 1x is more prone to. If so, it’s interesting they aren’t using chain catchers.
Canyon48 wrote:
Not really the proneness of dropping of the chain being the problem, it shouldn’t be more prone. The problem is having to get off the bike to get it back on the chainwheel.
Canyon48 wrote:
I read he dropped a chain.