Friday WTF: Construction Site edition

Alternative titles included: "Cyclist impales unsuspecting pedestrian" and "How do you plan on steering?"

The green machine

What Do They Ride in India?

   On my recent trip to India, I had a great chance to check out some of the local rides. Everything I saw on the street was of the vintage variety. Most of these bikes had (what I learned are called) rod brakes:

Rod brake example

   These are some durable, simple brakes. Perfect for riding in a city like Hyderabad. After I went to this mall with some cricket batting cages, we went to a store and checked out new bikes for sale. This was a big box-type store that had what you'd expect in bike selection:

Bikes for sale! 

   These bikes were on par with what you'd find at a Wal-Mart or a Target. Low end Shimano shifters, 8 speed index shifting. 

Drivetrain

   The nicest bike was 16,790 Rupees - don't get excited yet, that's about $250. It was decent for the price, and would be perfect for riding in a place with rough road conditions and unpredictable traffic.

Cyclone D

   Overall, the bikes I saw were very utility, great for getting around and not spending a ton of money. It would be interesting to go to a dedicated bike shop and see what the high end brands look like... maybe on my next trip!

Trending: Vintage Drop Bar MTB?

   Always on the look out for the latest trend, I stumbled across this on the bicycling subReddit: Drop handlebars on vintage mountain bikes. What's that mean, you ask? Well check this out:

Nishiki

   This is a project for people who like to tinker, since there probably aren't two of these builds that are the same. For people that like to tinker, and have access to a co-op or somewhere to get some old parts easy and cheap, this would be a fun thing to try.

Univega

   There are a lot of considerations with a project like this:

Brake compatibility: Road levers don't work great with V brakes due to the amount of cable pulled, so you need to find a bike with cantilever brakes. This dates the bike, as V brakes started coming onto the scene in the mid 90's.

Handle Bar clamp size: These vintage bikes use 1" threaded stems, compatible with a quill stem. These kinds of stem are designed to clamp to the tiniest of handlebars. Clamping to a modern bar will be a challenge.

Stem Reach and angle: Judging by these stem lengths, you might think that stem designers had adequacy issues. You'd be hard (ha) pressed to find a 110mm MTB stem these days, and even harder to find a vintage 60mm. 

Gary Fisher... maybe 

Shasta

Gary Fisher

   Like most things vintage, performance is sacrificed for soul. Serious racers would put themselves on a newer machine, optimized for performance rather than rework and old mountain bike. But if 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' has taught us anything, it's that that book is confusing as hell. And the journey is the reward.

   Still interested? Here is a lengthy (180+ page) thread about it.

New Bike Report: Diamond Back Haanjo

   I have been bouncing around between bikes for commuting to work, and finally decided to get a purpose built commuter. I settled on a Diamond Back Haanjo. Here it is, fresh out of the box:

In progress

   This is the first new bike I've had in a long time. It was nice to have all new parts, if only briefly. There were some things I wanted to change to suit my needs a little better. 

• Swapped out the Avid BB5s for BB7s with nicer levers
• Put a rack and Ortlieb Pannier bag on it
• Swapped the 680mm handlebar for a 700mm Salsa bar
• Swapped stock grips for Ergon grips with bar ends
• Half platform, half SPD pedals
• Swapped the stock seat for a Fizik
• Front and rear lights and a bell
• Frame stickers to protect from cable rub

Final build

And my initial thoughts:

   Riding with a pannier was a new experience for me, and took some getting used to. Even just moving all my shit from my backpack to another bag resulted in me getting to work and realizing my badge was buried in the bottom. Otherwise, the bike is great. Comfortable, efficient, sharp looking. 

Pros:

• Upright seating position
• Solid aluminum frame
• Fully housed cables

Cons:

• There's a little toe overlap. I'd gotten used to lots of room on a 29er with a rigid fork.
• The front brake cable routing was a hassle to set up. I ended up running it on the outside of the fork. 

   All in all I'm really happy with this bike. It is a great all-arounder and I'm looking forward to piling on the miles this summer!

Pro Bike: Simon Clarke's Super Six Evo

   Cannondale's pro road team has had a challenging couple years. The combination of a young roster and losing some talent meant they weren't finishing at the top of the peleton in the big races . They appear to be poised to be more competitive for the 2016 season, evident in this letter written by manager Jonathan Vaughters. One of the leaders on the team is Simon Clarke, a recent addition formerly of GreenEdge.

Simon Clarke

   He is everything you want in a leader, handsome, strong rider, awesome bike. Bike Radar did a great article on Simon Clarke's sweet Super Six Evo:

Cannondale Super Six Evo Hi-Mod

   It's interesting to see how a pro sets up his bike. He's got a mix of parts, allowed since C-dale apparently doesn't have a sponsor restricting what they can use. He's running Shimano Di2 group, and some sweet Cannondale Hollowgram cranks.

Hollowgram crank

   It's amazing the gears the pros can turn. He's running a 53/39 chainring set up and an 11/25 cassette. This is so manly I think I have to go punch a bear. I run a 50/43 chainrings and 11/28, a mockery of fitness in comparison.
   He has done something that I think is really cool - put a satellite shifter on the flats of his bars so he can shift the rear derailleur from the comfort of the upright position. I'd only ever heard of multiple shifting buttons being used on tri bikes.

Shifters all over the place

   Thanks to Bike Radar and Cycling News for the great article and pics. 

Motors: Not Just For Motorcycles

   Get ready for a wild ride, with bicycle motors, stolen parrots, iPads with x-ray technology and a good friend to take the fall.
   Femke van den Driessche just became the face of the latest scandal to rock cycling. The UCI impounded her pit bike at a race in Belgium for suspected motor use. The UCI used what it vaguely referred to as tablet based technology to identify that her pit bike had some sort of motor in it.

Femke in action

   The UCI Officials took the bike apart and found an undisclosed kind of motor in the frame.

A distressed Femke van den Driessche

   Initially, her father jumped to her defense, claiming the bike was not hers. A male friend came to bat for Femke and said the bike as his own.

...

   To make things more weird, her dad and brother are facing charges for stealing rare birds from a pet shop.

Stolen bird in question

   Depending whether the UCI buys the friend bike story, Femke could be facing hefty fines in the thousands of dollars (8-10 parakeets, street value) and an unknown length ban. 

   I can't get over the parrot thing. I thought a family into cycling would have high enough moral standards not to be stealing birds.

"This career is no more!"

Hello From India!

   I am writing this from my hotel in sunny and warm Hyderabad, India. While there is 12" of snow on the ground in Boulder, I'm wearing flip flops and a tee shirt. I flew from Denver to Dallas, to London, and then onto Hyderabad. All in all, I was in transit for about 25 hours. 

The route taken

  Landing early in the AM and then going into the office was an unmitigated disaster. I was pretty jet lagged and making to dinner was a challenge! Next day though, I'm feeling solid! Here's the view from our hotel:

Hotel View

   It's funny how you can see developed areas right next to undeveloped areas. And piles of rocks everywhere. Lastly, the Super Bowl is coming up, and the hotel is showing it for guests. They even have a mannequin set up to promote it:

Go sports

   That is a cricket batters helmet, a Seahawks jersey and cycling shorts. Jokes aside, I am impressed they got an actual football since football is so much less popular over here.