13 October, 2009
New pedals
Uh, I'm a dolt. I got these pedals ages ago and couldn't fit them because I didn't have a pedal spanner. I was just about to go to the LBS and pay to have them fitted when I noticed my Icetool which I use to remove the rear wheel. A lightbulb went on in my head, wasn't that really a pedal tool? I tried it, and:
Cycle Show 2009
So the Cycle Show this year in Earls Court. Apparently the bike market seems to have benefited rather than suffered from the recession, so trebles-all round! Even so, when I visited, it was constantly busy, rather than packed out. I went on Sunday to see my favourite author Josie Dew speak about her cycling, and left shortly after to wander the stands and look for small wheel and unusual things. I only took a few photos.
This was the Qoroz Freedom Won prototype titanium travel bike. I didn't hear the price but I reckon well over £1k. Anyway that's a monster stem!
This is the Bixi-based cycle hire bike for London. It's a comfy ride with rather high gearing (hill-free Zone 1 only, I think). If you look at the bottom of the rear triangle, you can see red LEDs built into the frame. 2 red LEDs flash constantly. There is a white LED on the front (a regular screwed on light). Both are powered by a Shimano hub dynamo in the front wheel while at the back is a Shimano 3-speed, which is very smooth and shifts easily under load.
No Oyster compatabilty though, no cycle stations at rail stations, no new cycle routes and nothing next to where I work in High Holborn. Best wishes all the same. This however angered me, it's just a cycle lane, some of it inside a bus lane. Where is the improvement?
This on the new designers stand is a cow shaped bike rack. No mention of Milton Keynes.
Lots of E-bikes at this show (sigh). Maybe I'd consider one if I moved somewhere hilly like Bristol. This thing is a monster. Surely no longer a bicycle.
This was the SevenStar Birdstar. I only just noticed the massive battery (sigh).
I think this was on the Cooper stand. This is the chunky paddle shifter for the new wide 5-speed hub from Sturmey Archer, built in to a tourer here and on the Pashley stand.
I didn't know if this was about the Bike or the unusual bike stand.
The National Cycle Collection had a stand which lots of artefacts like this. No Moulton though.
Another Titianium bike. This new one is called Sabbath Emperor and I heard the man say £6,000.
This is the S3X, 3 speed fixie. I saw it fitted to a few bikes around the show, it being the new hotness. I don't like the exposed gear mechanism though. Feels old-fahioned and vulnerable to me.
Some hubs that I don't have. I wish I did though, as on the way back home my old-style 8-speed fell out of alignment, bloody stupid barrel adjusters. I need to look up the manual to figure out what screws where. Gah!
This crazy is the Jango Flik, full suspension folder. I rode a rear-only suspended model with wonderful Alfine hub gear around the test track. It's smooth and controllable, but the pedals scraped when going around bends at speed, while the deraillier model above has the cage ridiculously close to the ground (just a few cms away).
This year I tried out the Tirol mountain bike experience and the Wattbike 500m challenge. I think I'm proficient, but that little wooden test track was the hardest thing I have done with a bike. I fell off onto my arse once, and had to tiptoe in fear around. I had picked a radical looking full suspension carbon wow bike and it was almost impossible to maneurve. Someone told me later that it was a down-hill bike, which maybe explained it. I felt like a total idiot.
I only just recovered in time for the Wattbike challenge. It all seemed simple, it's just a cycle trainer, you set the resistance to medium, and watch on the screen as it measures the pressure on each foot to draw a circle. If the circle is round then that most efficient, most even between feet. But when we raced, all this disappeared in a blur as I put more effort than I feel I've ever produced into cycling as hard as I could. I must have gone off too hard because by 300m I was struggling to keep going and just got slower and slower (at which point they tell me 'you're in the lead, come on, sprint finish'). Sprint finish? I limped over the line, but it make me wonder what if I hadn't conked out? The card I got said 31.70 sconds. So that's nearly 60km/h on average. Gosh.
I didn't spend long on the Moulton stand (a bit too busy), except to have a good look a the new TSR 2. Hmm, shouldn't those anti-turn nuts be facing backwards? Maybe there is less risk of freak damage from this S2C hub compared to the 8-speed?
And this is the key to the belt drive, a neat looking separation on the rear triangle. Very seductive.
And that was it, apart from buying stuff. I bought Green Clean bike wash, 4 sets of thin line KoolStops straight off their stand (they were disposing of display items), I got Black, Silver, Salmon and Black/Salmon. I have yet to find cycle gloves big enough for me, but I got some Seal Skins waterpoof socks, which I can try out this winter.
Finally, I got this today from Germany. This wasn't at the cycle show, but it was my choice for a Dynamo charger, and here's the obvious reason why:
This was the Qoroz Freedom Won prototype titanium travel bike. I didn't hear the price but I reckon well over £1k. Anyway that's a monster stem!
This is the Bixi-based cycle hire bike for London. It's a comfy ride with rather high gearing (hill-free Zone 1 only, I think). If you look at the bottom of the rear triangle, you can see red LEDs built into the frame. 2 red LEDs flash constantly. There is a white LED on the front (a regular screwed on light). Both are powered by a Shimano hub dynamo in the front wheel while at the back is a Shimano 3-speed, which is very smooth and shifts easily under load.
No Oyster compatabilty though, no cycle stations at rail stations, no new cycle routes and nothing next to where I work in High Holborn. Best wishes all the same. This however angered me, it's just a cycle lane, some of it inside a bus lane. Where is the improvement?
This on the new designers stand is a cow shaped bike rack. No mention of Milton Keynes.
Lots of E-bikes at this show (sigh). Maybe I'd consider one if I moved somewhere hilly like Bristol. This thing is a monster. Surely no longer a bicycle.
This was the SevenStar Birdstar. I only just noticed the massive battery (sigh).
I think this was on the Cooper stand. This is the chunky paddle shifter for the new wide 5-speed hub from Sturmey Archer, built in to a tourer here and on the Pashley stand.
I didn't know if this was about the Bike or the unusual bike stand.
The National Cycle Collection had a stand which lots of artefacts like this. No Moulton though.
Another Titianium bike. This new one is called Sabbath Emperor and I heard the man say £6,000.
This is the S3X, 3 speed fixie. I saw it fitted to a few bikes around the show, it being the new hotness. I don't like the exposed gear mechanism though. Feels old-fahioned and vulnerable to me.
Some hubs that I don't have. I wish I did though, as on the way back home my old-style 8-speed fell out of alignment, bloody stupid barrel adjusters. I need to look up the manual to figure out what screws where. Gah!
This crazy is the Jango Flik, full suspension folder. I rode a rear-only suspended model with wonderful Alfine hub gear around the test track. It's smooth and controllable, but the pedals scraped when going around bends at speed, while the deraillier model above has the cage ridiculously close to the ground (just a few cms away).
This year I tried out the Tirol mountain bike experience and the Wattbike 500m challenge. I think I'm proficient, but that little wooden test track was the hardest thing I have done with a bike. I fell off onto my arse once, and had to tiptoe in fear around. I had picked a radical looking full suspension carbon wow bike and it was almost impossible to maneurve. Someone told me later that it was a down-hill bike, which maybe explained it. I felt like a total idiot.
I only just recovered in time for the Wattbike challenge. It all seemed simple, it's just a cycle trainer, you set the resistance to medium, and watch on the screen as it measures the pressure on each foot to draw a circle. If the circle is round then that most efficient, most even between feet. But when we raced, all this disappeared in a blur as I put more effort than I feel I've ever produced into cycling as hard as I could. I must have gone off too hard because by 300m I was struggling to keep going and just got slower and slower (at which point they tell me 'you're in the lead, come on, sprint finish'). Sprint finish? I limped over the line, but it make me wonder what if I hadn't conked out? The card I got said 31.70 sconds. So that's nearly 60km/h on average. Gosh.
I didn't spend long on the Moulton stand (a bit too busy), except to have a good look a the new TSR 2. Hmm, shouldn't those anti-turn nuts be facing backwards? Maybe there is less risk of freak damage from this S2C hub compared to the 8-speed?
And this is the key to the belt drive, a neat looking separation on the rear triangle. Very seductive.
And that was it, apart from buying stuff. I bought Green Clean bike wash, 4 sets of thin line KoolStops straight off their stand (they were disposing of display items), I got Black, Silver, Salmon and Black/Salmon. I have yet to find cycle gloves big enough for me, but I got some Seal Skins waterpoof socks, which I can try out this winter.
Finally, I got this today from Germany. This wasn't at the cycle show, but it was my choice for a Dynamo charger, and here's the obvious reason why:
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