Regal

I'm trying out a white Selle San Marco Regal saddle at the minute. Quite different to my usual Selle Italia road bike perch penchant- much rounder over the top, but not disagreeable at all. Now all I need to do is grow a foot taller, add a beard and my Tom Boonen 2005 look will be complete.

Bikes and Berluti

Elements Meh

Kon's Cycles Kyoto

View Kyoto in a larger map


Visiting a city such as Kyoto is a visual treat on so many levels, and returning this year to get a bit more of the good stuff, I couldn't resist a return visit to Kon's cycles HQ, tucked away behind Nishiki market in the middle of town. Highlights included the custom graffiti track frame (top), the purple Tange wavey tubed complete bike (middle) and the slightly rusted 3Rensho frame and fork casually hanging from the ceiling. Drop by next time you're in Kyoto!

http://www.konscycle.com/shoplist/takoyakushi/

Testarossa

As seen in a car park near me. 80s Automative shoulder pads.

R.I.P. Oscar

May your coffin be lined with cigars & rum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/dec/06/oscar-niemeyer-obituary

AFGC 2012

The annual Asian Fixed Gear Championship (AFGC) is now an annual event attracting more and more global attention, from the like of hipster heavyweights, such as Prolly and, of course, HK's own flwrider.  You can expect a lot of neon, leopard print, heavy rimmed glasses and hipster / gangnam style.























(My gwuilo in lycra style was a little out of place)






















Luckily Sander was on hand to normalise my riding gear a little...


















But, style pointers aside, you can also expect a whole lot of fun! I missed the tricks competition, but looking at the above photo it must have been a sight to behold.

I didn't miss Asia's first fixed gear cyclo-cross on a random construction site using a borrowed bike with 20" wheels and about a 20" gear!  Funnily enough, I was bobbin' at this, but it was a seriously fun event that brought the best out of everyone.

I was less useless at the event I'd pinpointed as the one I wanted to win- the fixed gear criterium. This sort of racing is right up my street- fast and hard with a bit of tactical nouse required, but hard enough that you can't just sit in and jump for the sprint at the end. I set out to make the race fast from the start, but found myself on the back foot over the first few laps as those with a better knowledge of the corners on this very short course hit them hard, gaining a few lengths on me and opening up gaps.























However, pretty soon we were down to a select group of riders- Sander, a couple of Chinese guys (one working, one happy to sit in) and myself. After a few digs the guy who'd been working got blown out the back and the race was on. After about 20 laps I started putting more attacks in on the straights from the front, trying to snap the elastic. Eventually this worked, and I was then off the front in solo TT mode, trying to stay upright with no pedal strikes in the corners- with about 20km to ride out for the win.


















However, mid flight, I got called in at the pits to pull over- the race was finished. It turns out we had a few administrative difficulties with the boys in blue and that was that- race over. Still, a proper Shenzhen Sunday day out. Thanks to Jan, Sander, Eric & Brian- here's to AFGC 2013!


Check http://vimeo.com/52008072 

Gold Fingers

'Skyfall' may be in cinemas now and entertaining us in the best of Bond fashion. But where are the new Bond villains based on evil Architects? Even if Erno was apparently rather peeved about Auric Goldfinger being based upon him, I'm sure there's no such thing as bad publicity in cases such as these. So, Mr Mendes, how about it for next time? But which baddie to base him on from today's Starchitects??? Anthony Hopkins could play a good role pulling down some listed buildings in a 3 piece suit with aplomb on his way to world domination, I'm quite sure. Or maybe it's time for a plump Iranian female dominatrix? No names now of course... Well, whatever, in case you don't know the Goldfinger history lesson, it's here:

http://blackcablondon.wordpress.com/tag/erno-goldfinger/

Don

A little off piste from the usual topics, but doesn't Don look sharp as a knife in this Jaguar presentation? More bikes/buildings should look like E-Types, and more cyclists/architects should look like Don. Nice blue stripe.

http://www.gq.com/style/blogs/the-gq-eye/2012/05/mad-props.html

In the future

In the future not only will we ALL want to look like Lance (by then retro, surely), but we will also switch our drivetrains from being on the right side of our bikes to our left. Because.

http://www.thecoolist.com/the-future-of-sports-by-tadder-and-campau/

Alila Bali Wow

Good to see my Ultimate Hotel Room feature in Wow Travel's top 5 places to stay in Bali. Take me back!

http://www.kiwicollection.com/wow-travel/destinations/five-fabulous-places-to-stay-in-bali

The Ultimate Hotel Room

Reasons to get married no. 362:- stay in somewhere ridiculously beyond your means and justify it with the phrase "you only get one honeymoon". And so Bali provided what to my mind must be the ultimate hotel room. I've never stayed anywhere quite so perfect and being a bit of a geek, I decided to draw the plan to work out some of the reasons why. Two daybeds, two sinks, two showers, shower jets, integrated Bose ipod sound system & wardrobe, all custom furniture etc. etc. in a perfect package. How will holidays ever be the same again? 

http://www.alilahotels.com/uluwatu

Duck Egg & Orange

Seems a shame to get this muddy.

http://ifbikesblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/crema-steel-cyclocross.html

Style Icon: Richard Sachs

Reading all the 'Tour tech' from this year's tour has left me quite cold- sure there's plenty of nice bikes knocking about but I'm not looking at them in the way I might have looked at some of the bikes of years gone. A Specialized looks like a Trek which looks like a BBox Colnago. And as all the pro-tour bikes become more and more homogeneous I thought it would be a nice opportunity to do a sort of anti-bling style posting on one of the guys from the old school who seems to take from that fashion dictum of black never goes out of fashion. Except with Sachs it's red, white and yellow- in skinny steel. 

Of course, another famous dictum is 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' and so Sach's frames really haven't changed for the past 10+ years, yet his wait time for a frame is rumoured to be 10 years long. This is the sort of formula that doesn't wash with the big boys, but that's what makes him a style icon in my book- this man is the ultimate self styled anti-style icon. His marketing is limited to an obscure cyclocross team, yet when the the Museum of Art and Design decide to do a 'Bespoke' exhibition they call up this man. The below is an example of what they are displaying.

It shouldn't work, but it does. There's nothing flashy about the paint job and he's hardly the only guy out there who can build a nice steel frame. Yet a Richards Sachs just holds a mystique that few other frame builders can match. And when it comes down to the man himself you can't fault the no nonsense philosophy devoid of any BS. This rapha interview is probably most revealing about his personality, and the following are words to live by:

Epic for me is about food and how riding makes me feel. If I know I can eat anything I want and still be ahead of the game, whether it’s weight or calories or good tan lines. Tan lines become important when summer roles around, you come back and take a shower and you can see the difference in the mirror when you’re naked. These things are important. If I go out and come back feeling like I didn’t earn a donut or a pastry, then what’s the point of riding? So epic comes when you drain yourself so completely, somewhere along the line, that you can start eating whatever you can find. Most people wouldn’t understand that, but cycling is a vain sport.

http://www.richardsachs.com/

Pro Bike Pron: Lothar Thom's Cinelli Laser

With all the cyclingnews Giro TT bike coverage, such as Wiggins's Pinarello, Millar's Felt & Pinotti's Scott, I thought I'd do an alternative post on one of the most beautiful TT bikes ever dreamed up- the Cinelli Laser. This was built in 1984, yes, 1984 for East German track sprinter Lothar Thoms, who must have been a pretty big guy looking at this frame. 

The stand out features of this frame are the integrated headset, top tube and stem in-line with the top tube, which is very much an in vogue thing to do in 2010 for TT bikes, such as Pinotti's Scott. Also, de-rigeur is the solid outer chainring and the smoothed off tube junctions. The difference is this frame was all done in steel rather than carbon fibre and the integrated headset was done with a quill stem because Aheadsets hadn't been invented! Check out the below section through the head tube, courtesy of Gilco Design.

So, what I don't get is if they had all these aero features figured out in 1984, why the hell does the bike have bullhorn bars? Oh yes, that's because no one had invented tri bars yet!!! It'd be very interesting to see how this bike stacked up in a wind tunnel against the modern day wonders, and I suspect it'd do quite well with the right set of handlebars. But when one considers that 75% of rider drag is position orientated (according to this study) I'll bet the bullhorn bar choice would negate all these minor gains from smooth tubing shapes etc. making for an aero bike that was a bit like designing the fastest Ducatti the world has ever seen then putting some chopper handlebars on as your finishing touch. Evidently a bike far far ahead of it's time, and a really interesting anomaly when one considers how unadvanced rider positioning was back then. But these anomalies are what makes things interesting from a historical perspective. What is evidently timeless is the beauty of the details and the sheer craftsmanship involved. Italian bike design at it's best. Key images and info sourced from:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2004/g/denny10.htm

Paul Smith vs. Stelton

Kitchen ware for Architects!!! Nice simple forms, shiny and a bit colourful.

http://www.stelton.com/ProductView.aspx?id=388

iBike

Need to get these guys to make an 'iBikeHK' T-shirt.

ttp://www.ibikelondon.com/

Team Sky

 

Must say I'm very impressed with the Team Sky website- they always seem to have classy photos up (even if I can't pinch them), they're synced with facebook (and twitter no doubt) and their rider blogs are actually worth reading. It's nice to see a cycling team really embrace 21st Century media, and though I guess it's all quite predictable given who's behind it, I also hope it makes the other team raise their game. Same goes for team kit. Go Twiggo!

http://www.teamsky.com/

The Upper House

A lovely dinner at The Upper House last night. Decked out by interiors wizzkid Andre Fu this place certainly lived up to expectations. Recommended.

http://www.upperhouse.com

Pro Bike Pron: Pantani's Bianchi

I'm very pleased cyclingnews have run this a storey on il Pirate's Bianchi circa 1998. Check out the link for more but a definate highlight is the a 44x23 lowest gear- that's the equivalent of a 39x21 for the toughest the Tour can throw at you. Guess at the speeds he went up the hills it wasn't an issue!

On a more personal level, this bike reminds me of the first serious road bike I bought back in 2001- a Pantani replica Bianchi frame 2nd hand off a guy in Cambridge. I didn't really know what I was buying but I'd driven so far to get it I thought I may as well buy it. Turned out I'd unearthed a real cracker of a bike that I thoroughly enjoyed building up into something that resembled the above to a remarkable degree. I still think it's the best handling road bike that I've owned. I wrote it off a few years later but that's another story. Maybe I'll do a post on that bike one day.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/marco-pantanis-1998-mercatone-uno-bianchi-mega-pro-xl-reparto-corse

Pro Bike Pron: Boardman's Lotus

Recent posts about UCI hour records, bikes designed by car designers and the Chris Hoy book can only mean one thing:- time to recap on the original 'Superbike':- Chris Boardman's Lotus. There's lots of stuff out there on the story of this bike, which isn't my place to elaborate on. All I'd like to say is that for f*cks sake this photo was taken 18 years ago! And what has changed since? Well the UCI banned it and we went backwards. The latest pursuit / TT bikes might be lighter but, despite Cervelo's claims, I'll bet they're still not as aero as this. And even if the P4 is more aero it really cannot compare with the Lotus in terms of elegance and simplicity. This is something that is often poo-poo'ed by cyclists, as if it shouldn't matter what it looks like, it's only how it performs that matters. I'd agree that performance should always be a priority over aesthetics but to me what is truly beautiful is that which combines both form and function. And the Lotus would seem to have been born out of the modernist dictum of form follows function.

Now I would like to further analyse that form a little further. When you look at the bike there are some obvious innovations such as the monoblade deep section fork, the reduction of frontal area at the cost of any notion of comfort, the mounting of the track cog on the outside rather than the inside of the frame, but most of all it's the sweeping lines that define the frame that give the bike it's distinctive profile. And those curves are born from parabolic geommetry defined as per the below:

It's as if Mike Burrows took a look at the work of Frei Otto and thought hey how can we make that work on a bicycle. On that count it must rank as a 'bikesandbuilding' classic. Design is design whatever the discipline. Frei Otto was inspired by nature and wrote a book on the subject that is also very inspiring. Whatever inspired Burrows to come up with the Lotus, it is a truly awesome machine that will remain a classic and an inspiration to all to always try to think outside the box.