Rapha’s Japanese friend and agent, Daisuke Yano, was in London Town over the weekend for business and some impromptu ice riding. He also dropped this video, a snippet from the forthcoming Rapha Yonretto ride program, which will be an unprecedented documentation of Japanese riding – with a similar manifesto to that of the Rapha Continental.
Via Rapha.
I really don’t know what to say, I mean it looks great and everything but tandems are something I really can’t get my head around. Nevertheless this Specialized is impressive!
Found by Xterra triathlete stud Conrad Stoltz while lurking around Specialized HQ, this one-off carbon fiber tandem is based on Specialized’s 2010 SHIV time trial bike.
Made to be as aero as possible, everything that can be integrated is, including the computer, aero bars, brake and shifter cables and even the front drivetrain. The leader pedals a crankset linked to the stokers’ via an internal shaft drive.
There are a couple of other interesting tidbits worth noting: First, those are SRAM carbon deep V rims laced to Specialized’s Roval Rapid Star hubs (which, interestingly, are no longer shown on their website). Second, the Stoker has no brake levers.
This Lavenham vest is a killer. I can see myself wearing this sometime in spring…. Lovely! If only I could A. Afford it and B. Find it.
Lavenham drops this patchwork vest to celebrate their 40th anniversary. They dig through their fabric archive to bring forth a variety of panels made to show off the company’s heritage. Check the gun patch on the shoulder and the back vest pocket. A beautiful piece.
Via Selectism.
What I wouldn’t do for one of these right now.
This is the Killer San Andreas Mountain Cycle from the early 90s. Everyone I knew back then either wanted one of these or a Foes Fab in red.
I love how Downhill bikes back then still had long ass stems and bar ends. It was all about the multi discipline I guess. What we would call today ‘Freeriding’, go everywhere, do everything riding. The difference being a full suspension bike of old would climb hills like a fat person on a space hopper… Nowadays you could have 5″ of travel all around and still climb effortlessly with absolutely no hinderance from the bike whatsoever.
Just mentioning this subject makes me want to build something. A hardtail SS for sure but watch this space!
This is the worst I have ever seen it as an adult for sure!
My opening eyes this morning were met once again with a snow covered avenue and the commute into work was once again a slippery one to say the least so friends if you do choose to ride in this weather… Be very careful, use your lights and if you have one put on your helmet. It’s treacherous out there.
One of the oldest cycle manufacturers Bianchi is 125 years old this year and The italian cycling journal has a great write up on the history of the brand so if you have a spare few minutes head over and check it out.
I have always sworn by clips and straps. Always. Two sets of nylon straps and a doubler is like a match made in heaven for retainers. Of late however the aforementioned coupling has been giving my plates of meat no end of gyp. It is obviously down to wearing canvas shoes in the cold and wet so now it is time for a change… I need the option to wear a ‘bigger’ more padded and more waterproofed shoe. So I need a retainer solution that is cheap and durable.
In steps my pal Hardy with his sewing skills.
These are going on today so as soon as I have chance to rip them around a bit I’ll update on how I get on but by the looks of them they are going to be just the ticket.
Cheers Hardysan, loving the buckles!
Spotted these amazing scans of vintage cycle related prints while scouting through flickr last night.
All found on Stronglight’s flickr spot… and if you hit the link you will see for yourself that there is so much good stuff on there it is almost impossible to choose! Photographs, prints, scans, catalogues the lot. You will even find a bunch of racist cycling prints/advertisements from the 1900s. Great!
I wondered how long it would take before these came out.
Vans Vault worked for Spring 2010 with Donny Miller on a Slip-On. What might at first appear as an Authentic, is actually a slip-on with a large all-over graphic print. It comes in 2 colorways as part of the Vans Vault Spring 2010 Collection.
I Love!
Via Highsnob.
Read all about the great things that Rapha plans to do this coming year… Here.
Music, a design studio in Manchester got BMX as their nominated sport and created posters by getting BMX riders to ride around in paint in a warehouse. Each bike used started off completely white.
“Music were one of the 30 agencies invited by Grafik to design a poster celebrating an Olympic sport for their exhibition that was part of London Design Festival,” explains Music’s Ali Johnson.
“We were asked to design a poster for BMX, which was a stroke of genius/fate because Manchester is the home of British Cycling and Team GB. We enlisted the help of 3 young members of Manchester BMX Club and their coach Sam Foakes (former World No.1 Flatland BMX Champion) who helped us ‘make the posters’. It’s them on the bikes in the film…not us…we’d have fallen off!
We then persuaded Olympic 2010 BMX hopeful (and Manchester based) Shanaze Reade to sign 100 of them. All proceeds going to the British Paralympic Fund and the charity Right To Play.”
See more here.
… The scheme that is.
My plan is up soon and the Bianchi road bike I got off the scheme last year is almost paid off so it is time to look for something else to spend ( save ) money on in 2010 and not because I have to but because I end up paying so little for a great bicycle and while I can I may as well take advantage.
I thought “another road bike” but no because spending up to a grand on another road bike will only get me the same one again with 010 hardware and what would be the point in that?
“How about another track bike?” I say to myself. Answer – No. I already have two and three would be just greedy!
So I think I am settled. Settled on something like the Specialized Globe Live:
Perfect for cycling to work on a day like today when it is minus 2 degrees and all I want to do is coast and then slow down using a mechanically operated braking system. Comes complete with guards and a rack too which has bonus points on so many levels I can’t even explain!
This is also great for the lady in my life because with the saddle down she too could use this. During the summer her trips to and from the market / park and other things that girls like to do like collect flowers for flower arranging would be just that little bit more… well, more lovely.
So having an option for Amy to use this ‘cycle to work bike’ also means we can do away with her Colnago ( Fauxnago ) thus not adding to the pile of bikes that litter our dining room. This will keep ‘her indoors’ happy no end as it means the bike stash won’t get bigger thus enabling her new sewing machine to remain out and ready to utilise at any given moment.
So there it is. My cycle to work choice for 2010 is the great Specialized Globe Live, because it’s a do everything, for everyone kind of bike and right now that is what I need ( want ).
See more here.
We have all done it and this guy breaks down why we do brilliantly.
Cyclists run red lights not because we consider ourselves to be supreme beings but because of the forces of physics. The nature of the bicycle is that we have to use our own energy to move. Getting going is not simply a matter of disengaging the clutch with the left foot and easing the right foot onto the accelerator. When cyclists stop we have to give up all the kinetic energy we’ve built up and when we start again we have to overcome the inertia of our own body masss and that of the bicycle, the road resistance, wind, and so on. Cyclists running red lights are like people walking in a park who walk in the direction of where they want to go rather than following the paved paths. If enough of them are doing it, the result is a muddy rut in the grass. We don’t blame the walkers, we blame the planner who didn’t think about desire lines when making the paved paths.
Short excerpt taken from ‘The Physics of running red lights’. Read more of this great article here.
Found at The Bike show blog.
Big up John for the linky.
Looking at the base of the poster adorned with Luis Ocana you will see that he is riding a Titalite Speedwell bicycle. I did not know this but Speedwell bicycles were made here in Birmingham and more specifically Witton, only paces from where I spent my early years.
Does anyone have more info on Speedwell? As the scale of this find is massive for me! I would love to find out more on this Birmingham based manufacturer but the trusty net does not yeild great information on this occasion.
The bicycle seen here is:
1977 Speedwell Titanium
Lightweight professional road bike (8.2kg). Titanium framework #67706 equipped with Campagnolo Record/Super Record plus some tuning parts. Early lightweight aero tubular rims from Assos, Switzerland, rear wheel with Campagnolo HiLo hub.
Spotted here.
Big up Joe for the heads.
Also kind of weird don’t you think – Speedwell / Spinwell both from Birmingham. Hmmmm.
Oh my god! I can only imagine ( fantasize ) what this would look like built…. jeeez!
