Innholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2022 i Bicycling Australia

ONLINE COMMENTS, THEY ARE THE LATTER DAY LETTER TO THE editor, and lately we’ve been inundated by them. Of all the issues in the extremely fluid sport of cycling over the past five years, three articles have attracted around a quarter of all the comments on the Bicycling Australia website. These were ‘Changing Of The Guard’ – Phil Liggett and the late Paul Sherwen being replaced as lead Tour de France commentators. The second was Mike Tomalaris being suddenly sacked by SBS, and the third – you guessed it – Robbie McEwen’s recent unexplained axing from the network. Sadly our requests for an interview, comment or explanation from the network went unanswered. Other journalists and outlets have been met with similar stonewall silence. So we took a quick look at…

TO GET THIS FEATURE ROLLING, I asked three mechanics to detail the three main issues they see. After some consideration, I chose three mechanics who once worked together in the same bike shop and have since gone in very different directions. As I’m Canberra-based, so are the mechanics I spoke with, but it would be safe to say many of the issues they see are mirrored around Australia. Mechanic one was Brent Miller, owner and chief problem solver at Bike Culture bike shop. The second mechanic was Peter Taylor, a former long-time bike shop wrench-twirler and now one of many home-based bike mechanics in the city. Mechanic three is me. After working in several bike shops (in Canberra and Canada) I now do work mostly for my coaching clients and…

THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF options when it comes to upgrading your bike. Towards the top of the list is a new set of performance wheels—and at the top of that list, or very close to it, you’ll find the superb TLO 45 tubeless-ready disc wheelset from German components brand, Schmolke Carbon. Fantastically light, fast and agile, they don’t come cheap. With an RRP of $4,990 per set, the big question is ‘are they worth it?’ FIRST IMPRESSIONS “…It’s a set of ultra-lightweight carbon weapons, IDEAL FOR RIDERS WHO DEMAND THE HIGHEST OF SPECS AND PERFORMANCE…” TLO stands for ‘The Lightest One’, and there’s no denying these wheels are feathery light. They almost floated out of the box. Claimed weight is 1,360g for the tubeless-ready model reviewed, while the measured weight…

“…Cruising or racing, dry or wet, they provide a WONDERFULLY SMOOTH YET LIVELY RIDE…” “IF ONLY THEY WERE EASIER TO fit…” It’s been over a year since I typed those words. But they are, verbatim, how I ended my review of Continental’s first generation of tubeless GP 5000 tyres, the TL. Well, I am delighted to report that, even if you read nothing else of this review, I found the all-new GP 5000S TR to be light years ahead of their predecessors when it comes to installing. Still a tight fit, to be sure, but nothing like the infernal arm wrestle of 12 months ago that saw me break two tyre levers and take the skin off my knuckles. The even better news is the GP 5000S TR takes what…

BROADCASTING THE TOUR DE France in Australia since 1991, SBS Television, in the space of three months, threw away more than 50 years of cycling experience by jettisoning two of their most cherished personalities. On October 12 last year, Michael Tomalaris’ 34-year career at SBS ended abruptly when, for reasons still unknown to the public, he was told to leave the building. No prior warning; no farewell; no time to say goodbye to his beloved colleagues; no official ‘thank you for your outstanding contribution and putting cycling front and centre in people’s minds every July for the past three decades’. “No nothing,” Tomalaris, when I first spoke to him about his departure a week after it happened, told me, his voice bristling with anger and contempt. “Not the way I…

“…Another DEFINING FACTOR OF OUR TIMES ARE THE DISRUPTED SUPPLY CHAINS affecting the availability of not only bike components but just about everything!” AS WE ROAR INTO 2022, WE CAN look forward to more challenges and hurdles to jump over, but certainly more freedoms—which, let’s face it, our sport delivers in spades. “Are we out of the woods?” you might ask. I certainly feel optimistic and believe living with COVID is achievable. Heck, who knows, it might even be time to consider international cycling tours again. I really hope so! That said, significant challenges remain on the horizon and, although not all are pandemic specific, they’re definitely linked. International tensions are high—we need to adjust to extreme volatility and fluctuations on the financial markets. Another defining factor of our times…

FINANCIAL SECURITY, THE FULL SUPPORT OF A close-knit team, a flawless track record and the comfort and stability of a contract would have to be up there as just about everything an aspiring professional cyclist could ever want. Throw in some of the world’s best riders as teammates, appearances at the biggest races of the year and regular selection for Grand Tours, Classics and the World Championships and you’d be living every pro riders’ dream. Over the past decade or so this has been the life of popular Aussie pro rider Nathan Haas, who’s ridden 7 grand Tours, 12 Classics, countless other events and amassed thousands of race days. Comfortably contracted to French WorldTour outfit Team Cofidis, Haas had it all, but was itching for more. Disillusioned, to a degree,…

THE BLISTERING, DRY HEAT AND RELENTLESS SUN take its toll as I approach my tenth hour of riding off-road for the day—bumping along corrugations, scanning for somewhere suitable in these vast plains to set up my tent and stealth camp for the night. I feel a sense of pride in my mental strength and in my body for riding my longest day ever on a fully loaded bike. I’m looking forward to sunset and to completing a challenging day of my mission. I live on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland and, keen to visit friends in Longreach—the “Capital of Outback Queensland”—I dreamed up the idea to ride my bike there. Without sufficient time to ride the entire 1,500km and with temperatures rising, I used a combination of my van and the…

C LIPLESS PEDALS GO BACK TO the mid-80s, and Speedplay got into the game around 1990. So, they’ve been doing the road pedal thing for more than 30 years and longer than most. And in all that time, through several evolutions of the product, they have always looked the same from afar: like a lollipop. The first model was the X-pedal. I had these for perhaps three years and loved them. Around 20 years ago the second generation—the Zero—was released. I liked the new features, so I swapped immediately and have been on Zeroes ever since. Variations of the Zero have cropped up over the years. They were the Zero Track (same cleat, different pedal with more resistance to unclipping) and the Light Action (different cleat, different pedal with less…

“…the tyres ride VERY SIMILARLY TO THEIR JUNIOR TUBELESS SIBLINGS, the 25 through to 32mm Pro Ones...” FROM THE HIGH TEENS, THROUGH the twenties, with a few slight stops along the way (like 23, 25 and 28), road tyre widths have been steadily increasing. From 28 it went to 30, then 32’s—which have become surprisingly popular—and now German tyre giant Schwalbe have further upped the ante with the release of a 34mm version of their premium tubeless road tyre, the Pro One TLE. Great news, especially for converts to ‘allroad’-style bikes (endurance platforms that retain performance characteristics but typically feature a more comfortable geometry and the space to fit wider, higher-volume, more comfortable and more forgiving tyres). Sadly, there’s also some not such great news that comes with the launch…

THE WORLD IS CONSTANTLY evolving, and so too is the array of bikes available to satisfy our never-ending desire to have ‘just one more’ noble steed. Call me old but I remember the time when the choice was pretty simple: road or mountain bike. Now, however, when looking at road bikes you can pick from categories such as aero, race, climbing, time trial and endurance, and that’s before you even start on the sliding scale of cost within each category. Perhaps it’s down to my love of longer days in the saddle, or maybe it’s due to the desire for a more comfortable ride as the years tick by, but the sort of bike that has steadily grown on me in recent years is the so-called endurance bike. These are…

NEW CANNONDALE SYNAPSE Cannondale have launched the 5th incarnation of their popular endurance platform, the Synapse. The 2022 model features a range of unique safety inclusions under the ‘SmartSense’ moniker. In a nutshell, the headline is an integrated rear-facing radar system, front headlight and power/control box integrated into the lower section of the downtube. To the frameset, and Cannondale say they have increased comfort, added the capacity for 35mm tyres, and shaved weight off the bike. The company describe the bike as their ‘most versatile, comfortable, all-around, up-for-anything, pure road machine’. RRPs range from $3,999 for the entry level Carbon 4 model (without SmartSense) through to $8,499 for the Carbon 2 with Shimano Ultegra 12speed Di2. More at www.cannondale.com/en-au REVOLOOP RACE LIGHTWEIGHT TUBES We’ve been lucky enough to test a…

On becoming a privateer, Nathan will not just be the only rider in the team, but will also manage every aspect of it as well. We asked him how the business side of Team Haas may pan out? “It will be tricky,” he said with his usual raw honesty. “I’m on the phone everyday on the business side. There’s a lot of planning and agreeing with partners on expectations. The business side never stops—I have a lot of things I have to deliver. It’s a lot of work, but at the same time it’s a lot of fun because it’s your work, your plan—it’s not hard to wake up in the morning when it’s something you want to do. It doesn’t feel like a task, but it is a lot…

The Curve GMX+ is an oversized frame with numerous bosses, designed to carry gear. My bikepacking bags are primarily from Revelate Designs and include a harness and bar roll; a full-frame bag; 2 x feed bags and a Vole saddle bag. I carried gear on the front forks with a Blackburn Outpost Cargo Cage and King Cage Titanium ManyThing Cage plus Voile Straps. I also mounted Curve Titanium cages and Rocket Pooches. Aside from the logistics of planning water resupply, adventuring in this climate in the shoulder season certainly posed challenges temperature wise with 4C to 40C. My gear needed to allow for this. My sleep system included a Big Agnes Copper Spur HLUV 1 tent, Sea to Summit Spark 0 sleeping bag and Thermarest Neo Air mat. I also…

SOME 30-PLUS YEARS AGO I SOMEHOW FIGURED out that by carrying a basic point-and-shoot film camera on my rides and bike trips that I could actually capture some pretty decent images, which, when laced together with a few hand-written words, turned into a living. Strangely, things have come more or less full-circle for me, photographically: from progressing to carrying 15kg backpacks of pro DSLR gear on my back, to a return to photographic minimalism—which is in part due to the massive improvements in tiny digital cameras. When it comes to choosing the best camera for carrying on rides and bike trips it can be very confusing. There is a great deal of hype and misinformation out there, often proliferated by YouTubers looking to earn a buck or two. Hopefully my…

Cycling engineer extraordinaire Richard Bryne and his wife Sharon Worman are founders and former owners of Speedplay, the couple selling the company to Wahoo in 2019. The Speedplay success story started well before the release of a small number of version one of their dual-sided clipless pedals in 1991. A pioneer of aerodynamics and efficiency through the 1980’s, Bryne’s early creative designs included the first aero bars, a fully adjustable bike fit / frame size jig, and the first Turbo Trainer. Other than the Speedplay system, one of his standout designs was a time trial bike he built in 1984 – the steeply-angled frame being the genesis of what we now see as modern day aero. A keen rider and enthusiastic racer, Bryne described his TT design as the “granddaddy…

DESCRIBED AS ‘THE SWISS Army knife of the Gravel genre’, the AO (Maori for ‘Earth’) is the the gravel offering from New Zealand based frameset company Chapter2 bikes. A relative latecomer to the booming gravel market, Chapter2 designers have had time to closely look at what ‘allroad’ riders want. Bicycling Australia have recently taken delivery of an AO frameset in the new ‘Earth Tones’ colourway. Like all new Chapter2 bikes, it’s ‘frameset only’, allowing the rider to customise the bike to their exact liking. The intention with this build is to fit it out with 1x SRAM Force AXS with a 36T chainring and 10-36 cassette. Wheel-wise, we’ve selected Foil’s G-35 gravel-specific wheelset that weighs in at just over 1500gr with DT Swiss 350 hubs. Other components include a new…

IT WASN’T THAT LONG AGO THAT crank arms were up there as some of the heftiest and heaviest components of a bike. Those old-school, cotter-pinned steel cranks sure did look good with their mirror polish finish, but gee they packed some weight. The Easton EC90SL crank arms are at the complete other end of the spectrum to the steel brutes of yesteryear. With high-tech carbon and a hollow construction created using the company’s proprietary manufacturing technology, the crankset is one of the lightest available. The unit we are testing today weighs in at a shade over 500g fitted with the company’s 42T chainring. Installation and setup is literally a cinch, with the EC90SL system using Easton’s ‘Cinch’ crank / chainring interface system. One of the easiest crankset fishing methods we’ve…