As a once-relevant bike blogger whose e-mail deal with remains to be lingering on the mailing lists of sure PR individuals who haven’t gotten round to eradicating it but, I often obtain discover of EXCITING NEW BICYCLES which are SO EXCITING they’re UNDER MEDIA EMBARGO. Now, I’d by no means run afoul of somebody’s media embargo, even when it’s a little obnoxious (“Hey, right here’s a shitload of data from a whole stranger you didn’t even ask for within the first place. Now don’t inform anyone about it!”), however typically they’re simply SO EXCITING I can hardly preserve my mouth shut. However I do anyway, although what I can share about this newest one I simply obtained is that the bike is for “journey” driving and it has:
- Drop bars
- Disc brakes
- A suspension fork
- Fats tires
So in different phrases it’s EXACTLY LIKE EVERY OTHER NEW BIKE MADE IN THE LAST FEW YEARS IN EVERY WAY. However I can’t let you know any extra till the embargo is lifted, by which level I promise I’ll have forgotten all about it. As a substitute, being the resolute contrarian I’m, you will discover me driving a intentionally bizarre bike, like a front-shifted multi-gear singlespeed with rim brakes and a Biopace chainring:
For those who ask me, which you didn’t, the most effective issues about singlespeeds is that they’re really easy to tinker with, although for those who’re a tinkerer the very best and worst factor about this one is that it’s particularly straightforward to tinker with due to the potential for front-shiftability, which makes it laborious to cease. I’ve already ridden it as a singlespeed with the Choco bars:
And as a two-speed with the Choco bars:
And as a two-speed with drop bars:
After which with a triple as an alternative of a double:
And now it’s again to a singlespeed once more…which I actually get pleasure from, and arguably each bicycle owner ought to have not less than one singlespeed, besides as I rassled it up a steep climb the opposite day I assumed to myself, “Perhaps I’ll flip it again right into a dinglespeed once more.” I haven’t but, however sooner or later I’m positive I’ll, which is why I haven’t even bothered to take away the artisanal chainring protector:
It’s produced from reclaimed internal tubes and it value me $150 (not together with $35 for set up), which seems like lots, however you actually can’t put a worth on sustainability.
Talking of tubes, along with having one wrapped across the chainstay the Roaduno additionally has one in every tire, although possibly I ought to go “fake tubeless:”
This mainly includes gluing your internal tube to your tire, or one thing, although you possibly can nonetheless get pinch flats:
The minuses are that fake tubeless remains to be susceptible to pinch flats, as with a regular tubed setup, and you may nonetheless get punctures that the sealant or a tyre plug gained’t seal.
Clearly we will take fake tubeless one step additional by stitching the tube up inside of the tire after which gluing the entire thing to the rim.
Wait–
Goddamn it, I believe we might lastly be working out of ideas to reinvent–although right here’s one thing new and thrilling:
Apparently they selected aluminum because of the excessive desert warmth:
Most out of doors tracks use concrete for development to face up to varied climate situations. In southern Arizona the place typical summer time temperatures exceed 100°F (37°C), aluminum was chosen because the monitor floor to endure the excessive warmth and permit for year-round use, which was famous by Canadian Biking Journal earlier this 12 months.
It’ll even be coated in a non-stick floor, and there will probably be an omelette station at flip three the place they’ll be made to order and cooked instantly on the monitor floor. Or, after the race, you possibly can merely eat your tires:
That’s assuming your tires are produced from soybean oil and rice husk, after all:
On show was a pale-tan T50 prototype, for folk to see, really feel and, sure, scent. Gone is carbon black, the compound that offers most tyres their darkish color, in addition to artificial rubbers and chemical compounds. Of their place are pure rubber, natural cotton, soybean oils, rice husk silica, pure latex and recycled nylon yarn spun from discarded fishing nets.
By the top of an omnium on a sizzling aluminum monitor they need to be seared to perfection, simply season to style and revel in!
However sure, the aluminum velodrome does sound fairly cool…although in a season or two they’ll one way or the other rationalize upgrading it to carbon fiber.
