Bicycles
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Not posted here in a while. last thing I added to this thread was a picture of the frame of the Nicolai Geometron I had just bought.
It would be rude not to throw in a finished picture of the bike. 170mm rear travel, Fox 40's wound down to 180mm travel, Renthal 800mm bars, 35mm Renthal Stem, XX1 drivetrain, 160mm Canfield cranks ( Very Low BB on this bike hence the kids cranks! ). Enve 60:40 rims on I9 hubs, Schwalbe Mary and Rock Razor Super Gravity tyres, Fox transfer post, King headset and BB, Time Atac DH pedals, Magura MT7 brakes with 180mm rear and 200mm front rotors. Last but not least my go to saddle a Selle SMP Drakon.
The bike is surprisingly easy to ride. So fast and confidence inspiring, you are centred between the wheels really nicely, no "oh Sh*t, over the bars" moments. I rode it recently at an uplift day and one of my riding pals came along. I had a quick shot on his bike, an old school Intense Uzzi SL. It felt like I had just got onto my 7 year old daughters bike, very strange sensation. Amazing how this muscle memory business works!!
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I need to get some pictures of my most recent build. Joined the Drop Bar Gravel niche ( bandwagon ). I can justify this though as my home are is perfect for multi surface riding. The tarmac roads are crap, there are lots of great bridleway and green lane choices and also the local canal network. Nothing too technical close to me so no real need for a MTB.
The gravel bike with its 700c wheels and 40mm tyres is the perfect all surface bike for making progress.
I picked up a Storck TIX frame from the outgoing UK distributor for a not a lot of money. Stuck some Stans Avion wheels on it. Enve bars and seatpost, Exrtalite stem.
I played around with the Shimano Di2 E-Tube software and have installed a hybrid MTB / Road bike, Single chain ring set up. XT 11-42 cassette, 42t narow wide chainring, Di2 XT rear mech, Drop bar Di2 hydraulic reservoir levers. Battery is installed in the seat tube, Di2 brain is in the drop bar end.
The system works really well. I have configured it to have downshift on the right hand lever and upshifts on the left lever. Simply tap each lever ( either paddle, don't matter ) for dedicated up and down shifts on left and right hand sides of the bar. -
We're going to need a bigger back garden soon!
From front to back
@AdamJ 's new 6KU bike is a wonky front wheel (help needed)
Sam's Tokyo Bike
@Steve 's Stalhasten Dutch town bike
@AdamC 's Mongoose (Cycles a thousand miles each day… Madman!)
@Giles 's Bianchi on loan to @Alex … no puncture yet but it's only been a week or so. -
An exciting (possible) residential venture may have me in the market for s fun single speed bike. Can’t freaking wait!
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Chris Froome - [emoji468]
️ LEGENDSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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An asthma inhaler hanging over him
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If you're a pro-cyclist there is a question mark hanging over you. I agree, Froome is a legend. That stage 19 attack will be talked about for a very long time.
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In my opinion Armstrong fucked up the publics perception of this sport (and many other sports too). He was my hero, now I find it difficult to accept athletic brilliance without suspicion. I hate Armstrong for doing that to me. And, yes, hate is very stong word, and one that I dislike (I was going to say hate
) using, and for that, I will not forgive him either….So this quote from BBC sport website defines my position...
"But in truth it is difficult to consider this race without all that surrounds it.
"His stage win on Friday felt like a throwback to the heroic era of Jacques Anquetil, Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx. It was bike racing the way that people like to remember.
"But the way that people view the sport has changed. There is so much cynicism about bike racing in general.
"That straightforward heroism is much harder for people to accept, given the sport's recent history.
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100% agree. As a fan I loved Armstrong. He did amazing things for the sport…. Then cut it off at the knees with his doping reveal. He was by far the biggest name and for that also had to take the hardest fall, but doping in cycling had been going on well before he came to be what he was when he won 7 Tours in a row.
Not too long after the reveal happened there was an article about who the declared winner would be for each of those 7. You had to go back to 8th or 9th place each of those years to find the first name of a rider that had not tested positive and served a doping suspension.... And that just may have been because they had not been caught (10th in the GC is not tested nearly as frequently as the podium).
Ultimately cycling, the same as my other love Distance Running, will always be scrutinized and if you're a professional it's part of what you sign up for. Being both a participant and a fan of both sports you can't do more than give the benefit of the doubt they are clean even if recent history says otherwise.
Note, I actually do believe that Yates is totally clean. Unfortunately for him his complete implosion is very indicative of an athlete who is not taking any PEDs, as if he was, he most likely would not have cracked in week 3.
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I've known a couple of people who were involved in the amateur leagues of cycling in their youth.
One, an Italian, told me that they'd have team doctors who'd ensure that their hormones would sit at the top end of what was allowed legally under the WADA rules. He didn't sound clear on exactly what they were doing, and I suspect that it was a bit stronger than he was told.
The other was Dutch, and said that he dropped out of the sport when the team suggested he started doping.
The fact is that steroid use in endemic in society. There are up to a million users in the UK. I suspect that spills over into sport.
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What a lot of people don't realize is it is rampant in the lower professional/semi-professional ranks in endurance sports. It even trickles down into the locally competitive ranks. Those athletes are rarely caught because the events they compete in do not test as the winnings collected aren't enough to justify it.
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@der:
^^ That is an extemely high level of pussification, for someone to cheat in the amateur or „enthusiast“ ranks. But it does not surprise me.
Back in the day I was a summertime and for-fun USCF crit rider, and on the very rare occasion that I cracked the top ten (I was a time trialist and lead-out man), I sometimes had to submit a sample. This was in the early 80s. I have no idea what they were testing for, probably speed.
I do not disagree. Some guys are just desperate for a win or to take home a couple hundred bucks. Other guys dope solely to see just how fast they can be, almost like a science experiment on their bodies. Same goes for amateur body builders. Just a pathetic ego stroke.
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Those are stellar [emoji41]
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Got this a week ago, and it's an absolute hoot to ride. I can't believe how well balanced it is and I've sure missed the speed carrying capability of a 29er. So happy!
I've got an enduro race coming up in a week (the most equipment punishing one of the season :)) and I'll do that one with the Capra but after that I'll put it up for sale and I'll do the rest of the races this season on the Instinct. I'll probably have to be a bit more careful with line choices but since I'm racing just for fun I don't mind.
