20.3.09

ที่ 09:17

Despite all the reputation that Thomson has in making reliable cycling components, this person's Elite seatpost (popular) broke off at the tip like a chalk piece after a fall. I don't have the information to judge the severity of the fall. What we do know is that the seatpost broke and the user wasn't too happy. The post and head is integral machined so its all one piece.

Compare this to Thomson's marketing literature online. Among several other things, the company happens to generously regard itself as producing the only seatpost in the market incorporating a "bending fuse" against catastrophic failure.

Their website says :

"The Thomson seatpost design incorporates a bending fuse to prevent catastrophic failure. All brand-x seatposts we tested - every one of them - failed in catastrophic failure with the seat and clamp components - and sometimes pieces of the tube and head - flying off in all directions. This type of failure would dump the rider."

And something about impact absorbing clamps :

"Impact absorbing clamps - clamps, head, and assembly will spread and flex on impact to protect seat, rails, seatpost and rider. Easy on seats - allows seat to survive heavy impact loads without bending rails."
The owner of the seatpost, however, had a contrasting experience. He wrote on his blog after the incident :

"Forget the hype! Despite the claim that their seatposts are over "40% stronger" on ultimate strength test than the strongest production seatposts on the market, the Thomson Elite seatpost is not tough enough to withstand even a simple fall. And here's proof of that! This four-year-old post on my GT broke in the upper tube area, which is apparently 'strong enough to withstand 350 foot-lbs of torque', when the bike took a tumble sideways while it was stationary. It didn't "bend slightly" on impact like what the Thomson folks had you believe would happen but just crumbled like a cookie at the top. Actually, the OEM seatpost that I was using before I got the Thomson in a moment of weight-weenie lunacy seemed to take much harder knocks! And it looks like it could take plenty more! So, if you've got an Elite seatpost on your bike, watch out mate! It could be a disaster waiting to happen. "

I'm not sure what went wrong at Thomson's end to cause the seatpost to be brittle, but I'm just going to have to drop this one in the "Marketing Mishaps" section for now. This doesn't mean your Elite seatpost has the same problem. But it won't hurt to be informed. Out of 1000 apples, its likely that 2 end up being bad and that's the nature of manufacturing. When those bad apples that dont meet the standards turn into the customer's hands, that's where the issue reveals its uglier side. If Thomson stands by their word, they should delve into this incident and redress the issue (i.e If they are responsible. Corrosion, or user over tightening cannot be ruled out at this stage).

Take note that the lighter weight Masterpiece seatpost is essentially a machined out Elite.

19.3.09

ที่ 06:18

Tour de France organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) announced the final teams that will take part in the 2009 race, from 4-26 July.

Professional Continental teams Cervélo TestTeam, Skil-Shimano and Agritubel are on the list, but ProTour team Fuji-Servetto was not invited.

Fuji-Servetto is the 2009 version of Saunier Duval, the 2008 team of Riccardo Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli. Both riders tested positive at the Tour last year for erythropoietin CERA. The team subsequently withdrew from the race.

Cervélo TestTeam is a brand new team but it contains 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre, an obvious drawcard for the race and the organisers. The Switzerland-based team joined Dutch Skil Skil-Shimano (with Jonathan Hivert, who finished eighth in ASO's Paris-Nice last week) and French Agritubel (team of French favourite Christophe Moreau).

There will be 20 teams in total for the French Grand Tour. Three Professional Continental teams (listed above) and 17 of the 18 ProTour teams: Milram, Quick Step, Silence-Lotto, Saxo Bank, Caisse d'Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Garmin-Slipstream, Columbia-Highroad, AG2R La Mondiale, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Française des Jeux, Lampre-NGC, Liquigas, Astana, Rabobank and Katusha.

ที่ 06:16

We’ve just returned from a visit to MET’s headquarters in Italy, and managed to score a production version of the company’s long-awaited new road helmet, the Sine Thesis for testing.

According to Matteo Tenni, MET’s product manager, the goal of the £179 Sine Thesis wasn’t simply to create an expensive lightweight helmet, but to “have a very ventilated helmet with very few points of contact between the head and the helmet.”

The key to the new design is the integrated composite exoskeleton (ICE). It's made out of semi-flexible nylon based plastic and MET claims it will help carry air inside and through the helmet, thus keeping the rider’s head cool.

Matteo Tenni says the vents are optimised to draw in as much air across the head as possible, no matter how fast you're going: “The helmet will help to keep the rider’s head cool when riding fast, and also when the rider is climbing at low speed."

MET have done away with the ubiquitous ‘cloth’ or Coolmax helmet padding and have opted for a gel strip/spot padding system, which we can see other helmet manufacturers jumping on very quickly.

The gel-based spotting system reduces the contact between the head and helmet to 20% (compared to 60% on the current Stradivarius road helmet, for example), and doesn’t retain heat so it’s more comfortable to wear too. Unlike cloth-based padding, the gel doesn’t retain sweat either, so no more rides putting back on a soggy, smelly helmet.

At first we wondered about the gel strip which covers the forehead section of the lid - surely the sweat would run down into the riders’ eyes? Nope, once on the head, the strip forms one line which carries sweat around the forehead, away from the eyes.

ที่ 06:13

The Specialized Factory Racing team have announced they are to use Rotor's elliptical chainrings on their mountain bikes this year.

The egg-shaped Q-Rings are said to offer easier climbing, faster acceleration and smoother pedalling, with reduced joint and tendon loads thanks to better muscle strain distribution.

Oval chainrings haven't been seen on mountain bikes since Shimano's ill-fated BioPace rings, which the Japanese firm stopped making in the early Nineties.

But team member and marathon world champion Christoph Sauser has already given the Q-Rings his seal of approval. As we exclusively revealed in November, he has had a set on test for several months.

Sauser said: “I immediately felt the difference in the traction and instantly knew I wanted to use them in competition. This is likely one of the most technologically advanced bicycle components I've ever tested.”

Rotor will supply the team, which also includes Rebecca Rusch, Conrad Stoltz, Lene Byberg and Todd Wells, with special edition red 2x9 Q-Rings (40-27) designed to fit Specialized's S-Works mountain bike crankset.

Specialized's Bobby Behan said: “We’re really excited to work with Rotor this year, and the feedback from all of our athletes has been nothing but positive. They all agree that Q-Rings are a real performance advantage. Between our Epic/Era Brain technology and Rotor’s Q-Ring innovation, we’re in a great position to win this year."

Spanish brand Rotor claim their Q-Rings increase your power by maximising use of the efficient zones of the pedal stroke and reducing the intensity of the “dead” zones.

Riders using the egg-shaped rings have already earned multiple UCI World Championship titles in road, cyclo-cross and duathlon.

17.3.09

ที่ 06:26

Lance Armstrong will return to the first one-day classic of the season, Milan-San Remo, this weekend backed by a largely eastern European contingent of Astana riders.

The seven-time Tour de France champion last competed at San Remo in 2002 and his participation in one of cycling's five one-day "monuments" is likely to prompt huge interest in what will be his return to European roads for the first time since 2005.

On Saturday Armstrong will be flanked by three Kazakhs - Assan Bazayev, Maxim Iglinskiy and Dmitriy Muravyev - one Ukrainian, Yaroslav Popovych, and one Lithuanian in Tomas Vaitkus.

But just what the 37-year-old American's aims are for the race, which regularly approaches the 300km mark, are unknown.

In each of his participations Armstrong has always finished but has never managed to get near the podium. On his first real comeback year, in 1999 - shortly after he had battled cancer - he finished 117th. In 2000 he finished 108th and in 2002 Armstrong finished 44th in the same time as Italian winner Mario Cipollini.

Armstrong is also scheduled to race next week at the Tour of Castilla y Leon in Spain, where he will line up alongside Levi Leipheimer and defending two-time champion Alberto Contador.

Astana team for Milan-San Remo:

Lance Armstrong (USA), Assan Bazayev (Kaz), Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz), Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz), Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Gregory Rast (Swi), Michael Schär (Swi), Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu).