Monday, February 28, 2011

Let battle commence: Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

So Sky came out pretty well at the weekend. What a contrast: Saturday, cold, wet, windy and a Rabo win in an epic 2-up sprint; Sunday, cold, dry, sunny(ish) and a convincing win for Sky in a bunch gallop.
I've got so many photos from the weekend, literally hundreds, and they'll be appearing in Cycle Sport magazine next month. I'll probably be able to do a slideshow once the mag's been out for a while, but here's a couple of early edits — the finishes of both races.
Het Nieuwsblad 2011
Kuurne Brussels Kuurne 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Cyclocross gear review, 2010-2011 season

The cyclocross season has finally come to an end, so I've got a bit of time on my hands to do a post about some of the gear I've used on my Cannondales this year.
Cannondale CX9
 As always, click any of the images to see them at a higher resolution on flickr.

Strada Wheels — Velocity Major Toms
Strada Wheels comp
Back in December Jonathan Day from Strada Wheels emailed me and asked if I'd like to try out some of his wheels. To be honest, if they had been any old wheels, I probably wouldn't have bothered as the thought of gluing tubs on in January filled me with dread — I'd had enough of that game in the autumn.
The wheels Jonathan proposed to send me were interesting though: Velocity Major Tom rims on Hope hubs. Major Tom rims are approximately 4mm wider than a standard aluminium or carbon tub rim — 23mm vs 19mm — and the central well is shallower than standard, which all adds up to a GOOD thing because it allows wide cyclocross tubs to be glued perfectly across a big, broad area. What that means is a better connection, so less likelihood of your tyre rolling off at the silly low pressures we run in cross, and even at low pressures, that broader base will stop the tyre flopping from side to side in the corners, allowing you to ride more confidently.
In practice, I found the Major Toms really good. I'm not sure whether I could really tell the benefit of the wider rim, but without exhaustive back to back testing with the same tyres at the same pressure on different rims, it's hard to make any real conclusions. Did I notice any tyre flop though? No. And needless to say, I didn't roll a tub either.
What wasn't in doubt was the Strada Wheels' build quality. They came dead straight, and they remain dead straight, despite being raced around the boulder fields of Herne Hill.
The other application where I'd like to try the Major Tom's would be with some wider road tubs — 25mm+ — for events like the Tour of Flanders Sportif of the Tour of Dengie Marshes. I'd even like to try them at Crystal Palace crits. Imagine how good a super stable, grippy 25mm tub would feel round Palace's bends!
Unfortunately, these wheels are going from me straight up to Crossjunkie in the north of England, so no chance to test them on the road, but check with him in a few weeks — no doubt he'll give them a pounding over the Ronde Van Oost Lancashire cobbles.
More info at Strada Wheels.

TRP CX9 brakes
TRP CX9
I persisted with TRP Euro-X's for most of the season, but when the opportunity to try out some TRP CX9 mini V-brakes came along, I jumped on them.
They really revolutionised the way I rode my cross bikes. At races like the Southampton National Trophy, which was icy, dry, fast, and had a tight corner every 50m, they were worth their weight in gold. The ability to sprint out of corners, safe in the knowledge that you WOULD be able to slow down in time for the next corner made a massive difference. With Euro-X's, there's always a feeling that you don't want to pick up too much speed incase you can't scrub it off again!
That said, the CX9's aren't without their downsides. You do have to set the pads up close to the rim, which means that you often end up with them rubbing, not enough to slow you down, but enough to be irritating, and the feeling is distinctly spongy when compared to Euro-X's. For me, that sponginess is preferable to the wooden feel of traditional cantis, but each to their own.
The front CX9 definitely feels better than the rear — the longer cable allowing for more sponginess — so I think for 2011-12, I'll use the CX9's on the front of both bikes, and use TRP CR950's on the back.
Using V-brakes has really opened up my mind to the effect disc brakes are likely to have on the cross market when the bikes start coming available. One thing my mind is made up on, is that good brakes are definitely worthwhile in cross.
TRP brakes are available in the UK through Upgrade.

Shimano XT shadow rear mech
XT cyclocross

I ripped an Ultegra rear mech off at a London League cross race back in November. It was the second time I'd snapped a mech in the same place, so rather than replace like for like and wait for the same thing to happen again, I thought I'd try something different.
Shimano's shadow rear mechs lack one of the hinges of a normal rear mech, eliminating what is the weak spot on an Ultegra rear mech. You can't use 10spd MTB stuff with 10spd road gear though, you need to use a 9spd MTB mech — when Shimano made their MTB stuff 10spd, they changed the cable pull ratio, just to confuse everyone and eliminate any backwards compatibility.
New MTB mechs don't have barrel adjusters, so I had to add one to the cable, which is in a pretty crappy position at the moment, but will be moved up the frame when I don the big off-season re-build in the next month or two.
Besides that though, the XT mech worked faultlessly. I suppose the shifting might not be quite as crisp as a short cage road mech (this is a medium cage XT mech, Shimano no longer make short cage MTB mechs in the XC ranges) but crisp shifting is something you only experience for the first few minutes of the first few races of the CX season anyway. After that it's graunchiness all the way through till February.
So, XT seems to work, the cable routing is pretty neat and out the way, and so far, in over two months of heavy racing use, it's not caused me any trouble. I'll be putting an XT mech on my second bike too ready for next season.
Want to use XT too? This is the mech you need.

Specialized Tracer tubs
Specialized Tracer tread
Specialized let me try out a couple of sets of Tracer tubs at the end of November and I've been using them regularly since.
The Tracer's are an all-conditions tub, based on the MTB tyre, the Renegade. To look at them you wouldn't think they'd be much good apart from in dry conditions, but I've actually found them really good, comparable to and in most cases better than, the ubiquitous Challenge Griffo.
They work great on playing field type terrain and the shoulder tread is surprisingly good on cambers but where they really excel is in the woods, on loamier terrain, like you find at lots of local league races and particularly at Foxhall Stadium in Ipswich (fave venue). 
Specialized's tub range should be on sale ready for the start of next season. If the prices are as good as they should be (if Specialized can't undercut Dugast, there's something wrong with the world) then Tracers and Terras should sell like hot cakes.

So that's it, what cross gear have you used this year that's blown your mind?

Crystal Palace, photos without bikes in

I was meant to be doing a photo shoot for Cycling Active today, but the miserable weather meant it was cancelled, so instead I went and took some pictures in the drizzle up at Crystal Palace. Shooting for Condor in Italy the other week got me excited about taking photos of stuff that isn't directly cycling related, so I figured it would be a good exercise to take some photos of the architecture up at Palace.
Whenever I go to Crystal Palace park, it's with a real sense of sadness that the facilities have been allowed to fall into disrepair, even if they are still well used. There's a feeling of a being in a crumbling communist facility when you walk around, which, with the Olympics coming to London next summer, is criminal.
Why hasn't what is (at least, was) the National Sports Centre, which is in the Olympic city, been given a lick of paint to celebrate?
With Herne Hill having fallen into an even worse state, it really doesn't bode well for London's Olympic legacy. How long till we're organising fund raising events to help keep the Olympic velodrome in a state that is fit for use?
I give it till 2020...
Crystal Palace -3
Crystal Palace -1
Crystal Palace -6
Crystal Palace -2
Crystal Palace -8

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Few Koppenberg re-edits

Just messing with Lightroom, trying some new stuff, what do you think?
Koppenber2010-813small
Koppenber2010-288small
Koppenber2010-204small

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Crap way to end the season

London League Team Champs — Kev crashed out and I fell off and snapped an Ultegra lever. Game over. Season over. See you in September.
End of season mess

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Vignette for Android — mini review

Wimbledon Common, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.
A few weeks ago I bought a new phone, an HTC Desire. One of the reasons I wanted a proper smart phone (I had a Nokia E71 before) was for a decent camera with some nice photo apps. I was jealous of my friends posting hipstamatic pics from their iPhones and I wanted a piece of the action.
I didn't really want an iPhone though — too common in my circle of friends — which left me with Android, which suited me just fine.
Vignette for Android was the first app I downloaded from the app store (cost £2.50) and I'm very glad I did. It's really very good. There are 62 built in effects and 20 frame styles. Additionally, all those built in effects are customisable to allow you to over or under expose, add light leaks, fade or over-saturate the colours etc.
So far, my favourite setting is Vintage>Faded in a bordered 5x4 frame — as above. It creates a really nice, desaturated but warm image, much as I've often tried to achieve with other cameras and processing styles. With a flash against a white background, this setting makes for pretty cool portraits too.
I should know by now I never get everything I need into one basket
I'm looking forward to playing with the more contrasty presets when summer comes along. At the moment I'm finding the Holgaesque settings too dark for my taste, but when there's a bit of blue sky to play with, I bet they'll be very good.
I also really like the ability to create a strip or a 2x2 grid of images as below in my Condor Italian job post — that top shot was created in my phone, using Vignette.
Lastly, the double exposure feature is very cool.
1297174953325
Having used Vignette for a fortnight or so now, I'm wondering why normal compact cameras don't come with in built processing presets like this? Maybe something like Vignette for Canon or Nikon compacts would help stem the decline in compact sales? For me, I really can't see myself using a compact for anything anymore...

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Italian job for Condor Cycles

Paint Shop, originally uploaded by Andy Waterman.
I'm just back from Italy shooting photos and video of Condor's frames being made. Italian factories reflect the general air of disorganisation that pervades Italy as a whole, but somehow they consistently create these beautiful hand made steel, aluminium and carbon frames. Travelling around a number of small factories it's surprising just how many man hours go into each frame. Hopefully the videos that come out of these few days will show that off. Keep your eyes peeled for them on Condor's website over the next few weeks.
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And of course being Italy, everywhere you go you're offered coffee, which you have to drink, right? I nearly made myself ill on day one I drank so many espressos - think I'll give caffeine a break for a while now...
Coffee