TLI Champions 2009

All the team here would like to congratulate Dan Whelan in becoming the National TLI Champion for 2009.

It’s a great achievement Dan, after racing hard for around 35 miles, an uphill finish allowed him to out sprint the others and take first place.

The race began with a roll out from headquarters with a rider immediately attacking once started. He got a fair gap and Dan realised this and time trialed his way up to him. (A good job he’s been TT’ing lately!) Once caught the two rode well but soon the bunch caught back up.

Although others tried the wind and sheer speed of the bunch meant any more attacks were for nothing.

The last mile of the race was uphill, with everyone finishing together it was a tough one, Dan got blocked in but found one of those spaces ‘which wasn’t there’  and nipped out, sprinting for the line and getting there first! Nice one!

A National Champion  for PBK – doing the kit proud.

Lost in a sea of rubber?

We get lots and lots of very confused customers (and its easy to see why) regarding the stated sizes of tubular tyres (singles, tubs, glue ons) and to a lesser extent tyre sizing.

Basically and without going into reasons all you need to know is 27″,  28″ and 700c when refered to in TUBULAR sizing are all the same size (I.E. they all fit onto a standard modern tubular wheel).

The problam that exists if you are actually concerned as to why, is that standard tyre sizing refers to either a bead diameter (I.E. 622 this is also refered to as the ETRTO number) or

then there is the french measurment (the most common I.E. 700c) this refers to the inflated tyre diameter neither measurment are a physical wheel size.

I’m not going to go any further, space is limited and I dont want to confuse you, but here is a brief summary;

Tubular tyres: 27″, 28″ and 700c are the same. 650c and 26″ are the smaller triathlon size and will not fit standard wheels

Clincher Tyres 700c and 28″ are the same size.  650c are the smaller triathlon size and will not fit standard wheels.  26″ and 27″ are not compatible and refer to MTB and cruiser style wheels or very old road wheels.

One last thing 23mm is the optimum width for a road tyre, tubulars being rounder in aspect have a optimum around 22 mm.

Here we go folks, I’ve finally gone and done a loving review of some of the kit I’ve been using so far this year. First up is the new Shimano RS80 wheel set.

So if you’re on the look out or thinking about treating yourself to a new set of hoops then see what I’ve got to say about em!

The tours the place for shiny new toys, and this year like every other tour there was some fancy kit adorned on the bikes of the pros.
Some custom goodies, some top secret bits and some stuff that will be winging its way in to the shops real soon. All of it on show and all of it being gazed at by the fans with envy.

So what did little old me notice while walking around the pits at the Annecy time trial stage.
With loads of time on my hands and a yellow band ,no not a Livestrong one but a pass for the village and pits I was in my element. Bothering riders, mechanics and generally geeking out.

Garmin Slipstreams Dave Zabriskie's Bike

First up screaming from the top of one of the Garmin team cars was a bike that looked ready for action for Captain America himself. Now I’m not a massive fan of the felts really but the Dave Zabriskie bike looked kinda cool. With the rear zip wheel stickered up with a huge US flag and the argyle on the wheel in matching colors, they’d even  touched the frame up with a few stars and strips for the US national time trial champ. Very cool indeed.
Then out walks the man himself, skinsuit to match but what’s this! It looked like Mr Zabriskie was kitted up as if he was ready for a spill in to Lake Annecy.
But no the item in question was not a life jacket but an ice jacket. I’d heard about Garmin working on keeping the riders body temperature down while warming up and this was what they had been using to accomplish that.
A vest that you wear while warming up thats packed with ice or ice water and this lowers the body temperature. As we all know throwing a bottle of cold water (or coke as Charlie Wegelius did in on Giro)  over yourself helps a huge amount when racing. This obviously is just the next step for the pros. Very “COOL” indeed, but will we ever see it down at our local club 10. I wouldn’t be too surprised at all!

The new Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 is out in the shops and yep its a pricey upgrade to any bike. But boy oh boy was there a good few of the group sets kicking about on the time trial bikes, thats a big yes. It looks like the pro peloton have taken to the new electronic groupset. With a lot of the top guys sponsored by shimano using it. Not just on there first bike but also on the spare bike too. Looks like its a hit with the TT bikes then.

While still hanging around the Garmin team truck i noticed that Wiggins bike was sporting a O’Symetric chain ring. From the pictures you can see it’s one crazy shape. Like the old shimano oval rings its suppose to eliminate the “dead spot” while pedaling. It looked a massive size, but from a quick count I think it must have been a 53 tooth chain ring. Just the shape making it look abnormally big.

A wander over to the Rabobank team truck lead to a few more new bits rearing there head.

Rabobank's Orange and Blue Calipers

For starters Rabobank were not sporting the Shimano sponsored brake calipers. Na these guys were rocking some funky looking orange and blue calipers. Machined alloy with an anodized orange caliper and a bright blue brake block. All tucked neatly behind the fork. Very swish indeed. Unfortunately I didn’t get close enough or at a good enough angle to catch who made them. But yet again a very smart piece of kit, which I’m guessing is just pro team issue.

I could be wrong here but Im sure I spotted a new aero lid atop one of the Rabobank guys noggin too.
This new Giro aero helmet looked to have a new lower end faring where it meets the back, plus it was boxed in at the back too. This could very well be a one off for the rider, he might have an odd position on the bike so his helmet might have been modified. But it looked pretty tidy and well thought out. So keep an eye out, it just might be the next generation Giro aero helmet.

Custom paint jobs were everywhere you looked from Cadel’s kangaroo and Australian flag Canyon road bike to the cannondale with its polka dot pain job. Not forgetting a certain Mr Armstrong who had a gaggle of fancy pain jobs on a number of bikes. Apparently Trek had commissioned 7 different artists to design paint jobs for 7 different bikes for the man himself.
There was even a cool cartoon on one of his disc wheels, and not even in his black and yellow but a pale blue and white.
Contador wasn’t to be out done. As he had a few steeds with a few neat paint jobs. One of  his race bikes had a very nice and understated paint job. You had to look real close as they’d even put a slight leaf pattern under the paint where the carbon showed.

Bike’s weren’t the only thing to be custom. With Giro and Oakley throwing out some cool colors in there shades that us mere mortals cant get our hands on.

Contador had a few cool shades, lets hope that Giro see the light and release the colors that they were showcasing at the tour. The Astana blue Giro havik shades were a particular favorite. There even looked to be a few new flavors with the lenses too.
Some crazy mirrored lenses, that i have yet seen for sale. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these available soon.
Oh and if Giro happen to be reading this (well you never know) I spotted a Caisse D’Epargne rider in the Flanders cafe in Belgium on the monday before Wevelgem sporting a very cool pair of fluro orange Haviks, please, please make these available. These are absolutely the dogs ………(you know what). Oh and when are the Havik’s going to be available with the smart Giro writing on the frame.
Keep an eye out (no pun intended there) for a review on the Giro Haviks real soon on here.

Oakley were showing off there new Jawbone glasses too, again a crazy amount of colors in them too. Theses all so look to be the next big thing.
It also looked as if Oakley had a new lens shape out for the Radars too.
And while we’re on the subject of glasses Rudy project had a few riders sporting there various glasses in fluro yellow.
Oh dear oh dear, I am a sucker for shades!

Liquigas Green Sidi's

Right lets move on from the glasses to shoes. Again custom paint jobs splashed across the feet of a few pros. Cadel had an australian inspired pair on while I noticed a cool green pair of Sidi’s shoved in the window of the Liquigas team truck. Yep! Liked them too.

Rotator who are partners of the Cervelo test team had a few different cranks on show. Including a very trick black and pink alloy chainset with there rotator rings for Carlos Sastre. How’d I know they were for him, well yet again they had his name on them. I’m guessing there’s are a pair that were used at the Giro Italia, what with them being pink n all. Again like Wiggins O’Sysmetric chain ring the Rotator rings are designed to eliminate that dreaded “dead spot”
On another Cervelo was yet another pair of Rotator cranks. this time, a normal circular chain ring but with what looked like a crank set you could move,  I presume again to help loose that dead spot. And again with a nifty pain job.

By now I’m getting dizzy looking at new stuff, but not dizzy enough not to notice Mavic’s new wheel set. Now these baby’s are gonna cost the earth when they are released I’m guessing. The top of the tree R-SYS wheel set. Full on carbon. Every thing from the rims to the spokes to the hub. And all in matt black carbon. These things are gonna be light. I’m not sure how light as they were under the eye of a Mavic rep and attached to a stand in the Tour Village. There seemed to be no alloy nipple heads or bonding areas, just carbon to carbon. They take the Mavic Cosmic Carbon Ultimas to the next level.

If you watched the tour you will have defiantly seen the team kit of Columbia, what with the Cav man notching up 6 wins. And yep they have a new sub sponsor too. HTC, a mobile phone manufacture. So the kits changed a bit, a splash of green in there and them Abs have been altered to allow room for  the new sponsors name. Im not even at work but I guess theirs an order been placed with Moa sports for this new kit. Im sure Probikekit will be getting it in. I bet the columbia kits been flying off the shelf what with every one wanting to support Cav and his super team.

And finally what about that crisp and clean looking Cervelo kit, all in white. Have they been sneaking a peek at probikekits designs and taking a leaf from our books!!! Well we can dream.
Will this flash looking jersey and shorts be released to us fans.? I don’t know but I’m sure that Fatty’s chatting to Castelli already so that Probikekit.com can bring it to you.

There we go then people, thats thats for the tour tech.
I’m sure I missed loads of cool stuff. But the sun was shining I was trying to hurrass riders for their signatures, I was filming for the blogs and trying to take the race in too. I tell you it was a tough day!

The Damien Hirst butterfly bike ridden by Lance on the last stage of the Tour De France

LANCE Armstrong may make at least $4 million for charity by selling the Damien Hirst-decorated bike he’ll use to complete the Tour de France at the weekend, as well as works given by Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha and other artists.

The racing bicycle may fetch more than $1 million alone when it is sold with five others at Sotheby’s New York in October. The rest will be raised by an exhibition now in Paris.

Armstrong will be riding the Hirst bike down the Champs- Elysees on the final stage of the Tour on July 26. The racer, adorned with butterflies, is one of six featuring designs by contemporary artists that Armstrong has ridden in his comeback year as part of Stages, a global art exhibition to raise funds for his campaign against cancer.

One Of Lances Time Trial Bikes

“Studying and collecting art has been a passion and a pleasure for many years,” Armstrong says on the Stages site. “In retirement, I was finally able to focus on it more deeply. It was during this time that an idea arose to offer artists a forum in which to convey the Livestrong ideals.”

Armstrong, rode a bike with a “stroboscopic” rear wheel designed by Marc Newson in the Tour’s opening time trial on July 4.

His “daily driver” during the gruelling three-week long, 21-stage contest has been a Madone bike decorated by New York street artist Kaws. Others were embellished with designs by Shepard Fairey, Yoshitomo Nara and Kenny Scharf.

All six of the “art” bikes, made by Trek Bicycle Corporation, will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York on October 2, the anniversary of Armstrong’s cancer diagnosis. All the proceeds of the sale will benefit Livestrong.

Shimano Dura Ace 7900 Installation Guide from ProBikeKit on Vimeo.

Full instructional video to help you through the process of installing the new Shimano Dura Ace 7900 groupset to your bike.

Shimano Dura Ace 7900 Groupset

Shimano has raised the bar to a new level of performance with the development of a hollow outer chainring, giving vast improvements in rigidity and increased weight savings.Weight saving by trimming unnecessary material. Ultimate aluminum crankset, even lighter than carbon crankset. Weight saving while maintaining strength. 20% more durability for better power transfer. All gears are usable with no cross-chaining problems by the combination use with CN-7900 chain. Wider gear choice to match riders style or demands of situation. Weight saving High rigidity for more aggressive pedaling and better power transfer. Smoother rotation and longer durability.

This video is an instructional video to help you through the process of installing the new Shimano Dura Ace 7900 groupset to your bike.

Shimano Dura Ace Di2 Groupset

The eagerly awaited Shimano Di2 (Digital Integrated Intelligence) is here. Evolution never stops. This new technology brings shifting to a new level. It gives you a swift, definite shift every time and in every situation. Rigorously tested to perform in all weather conditions, for all riding styles and terrain.

This video guides you through the process of installing Dura Ace Di2 7900 groupset to your bike.

Pretty? Warm? Suitable for a century ride? NO!!!!

Hi we get a lot of questions about choosing saddles there are two common themes

1. Which saddle should I choose for comfort

2. What saddle will fit my seatpost?

I will concentrate on the first question today

The first thing to bear in mind is that your sit bones should support your weight if you are experiencing soft tissue discomfort it is possible your position on the bike is wrong be sure to have the saddle set up parallel to the ground or with the nose dipped slightly. You should have a slight bend in your leg at the bottom of the pedal stroke (in your cycling shoes -clipped in if you ride clipless pedals) when seated in the saddle. Bars should not be too low or too far away (causing your weight to press on your soft tissue areas) space limits talking of specific fitting advice here.

As regards comfort as stated above your body weight has to be supported, so a firm saddle is more comfortable in the long run than a softer saddle but there is a process of breaking in involved.

Saddles with holes are a solution to poor set up and ergonomics and not a viable alternative to proper position (how many tour riders do you
see with holy saddles??)

So if you are riding lots of miles choose a firm saddle wide enough to support your sit bones and allow a little time to grow used to it, but most importantly check your position.

For riders who only ride infrequently or for short distances a softer saddle may offer a suitable alternative and there may be a case for a saddle with a central hole.

Seatpost and Saddle Compatibility

Following on from the saddle FAQ here is some basic advice about compatibility with different rail types.

As you may be aware Carbon railed and some Ti railed saddles can have oval shaped rails this is particularly relevant from the Italian saddle makers. These “oval shaped rails dont fit all seatposts. We state the rail shape on the site and we get lots of e mails asking about compatibility so here is a quick guide (if your still unsure e mail me)

All seatpost that use a clam shell clamp, have twin bolt t bars or generally clamp upward in a vertical plane will work

Most seatposts that clamp from the side or back (horizontal plane) will not work. The exception is Ritchey single bolt seatpost, Ritchey are providing a optional oval clamp system to allow there single bolt seatposts to work with oval rails

PBK White Team Kit 2009

The only thing moving faster than Mark Cavendish this summer is our PBK Team Kit. We’ve had it for a couple of months now and the sales have been brilliant. It gives you/anyone the chance to ride in our team kit anywhere around the world. Some people don’t seem to like us on the road and anything that can bring a bit more camaraderie is welcome in our books. It’s so nice to be asked if you’re OK when stopped fixing a flat or chain by a passing cyclist – give it a go if you haven’t already!

Anyway the main reason for this is to give you the lowdown on our team kit. I’ve been riding in it since it arrived (with the occasional wash) and honestly it is a great quality kit. (I’m going to avoid being biased as much as I can here!)

It is made by MOA who you may have noticed have their logo on Mark Cavendish and the rest of Columbia’s Team Kit. So quality isn’t an issue, the seams are holding up well and the fit is nigh on perfect. There’s also a radio pocket in the back of the shorts so I can pretend to be talking to the car while bonking over a flyover bridge…

Fit and comfort. Again no problems here, from hour blasts after work to the weekend slogs I haven’t had any issues. The only problem is on very hot days, which seem to be long gone, the black kit is pretty warm. The solution of course is to buy both the black and white set!!! But seriously, all kit nowadays has great wicking properties and even the darkest kit is perfectly bearable on sunny days. The white is still nice and white too; white mitts are more of a problem. While they are nice and white in the packet and when you first put them on, after touching anything other than your bar tape they morph into grey and slowly get worse no matter how many washes you put them through.

The white hasn’t been with us so long, (and seeing as Cervelo Test Team have copied us for the hot season) we think it’s a pretty cool kit. It definitely gets looks when riding through town (maybe just the overweight rider wanting to be a pro).

Grab yourself a set before we sell out and join the friendliest team around.

PBK Team Kit 2009

PBK Team Kit 2009

Some shots taken by Jack Neville of the kit ( check him out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackneville or jackflashphotography.com) of the kit in a sunny Vale of Belvoir with a touch of hangover: