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Comments - There's math, then there's madness

August 16, 2009

It's all about 'Performance': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4
- Matt, Montreal

August 14, 2009

Germaine - Sounds like it would be the perfect compliment to Veltec in the USA then. News: Shit firm buy shit firm, film at 11. Another brand to overcharge for, and undersupply to an array of increasingly frustrated bicycle stores. Not that many will stick with them for Lake when they can get Sidi...
- Vel, Tec

August 14, 2009

You write"Why not buy Challenge or Veloflex"? The best way to describe Challenge is what one retailer told me.."It's a shit firm" That comes from the mouth of one of the recommended retailers of Challenge products. Recommended by Challenge. To me. Directly. Putting the time in finding their really, really great tires ain't worth it.They can't seem to get a dependable supply to retailers, even their cross tires to their cross retailers here in Europe.
- Germain, Europe

August 13, 2009

Anywhere there's government, there's graft. I'd amend that to anywhere there are people there is graft. Government, private business, even religious institutions. And the more power and less checks and balances their are on any human enterprise or individual the more corruption their will be. It's why the newspaper headlines today don't look much different then they would have in the middle ages.
- Henry, Miami

August 12, 2009

Sometimes I do entire rides without ever jumping out of the 18 and I never run a cog smaller than a 14. Natch, all of my sleds are of the lugged ferrous variety so there is no chance of it ever being mistaken for a pro (oops, PRO) rig anyway. Dudes that check out the gearing on other guys bikes are sort of like those insecure jaggoffs that secretly glimpse all of the dangling Johnsons in the locker room to see how they stack up (or not). You know who you are.
- PawleeWalnutz, NYC

August 12, 2009

I got cool with the 25 when I had a chance to ride with Hincapie in the off season and he was using one...
- TTT, Boulder, CO

August 12, 2009

Hey Tom from D.C., Lance marketed himself so well that he's even got his fans lashing out at anyone offering criticism of him? Stop pretending that you have any idea what Lance or any other riders of that era (or this one) put in their bodies to win. Lance's yellow cancer cloak is no justification for the fascist silencing of descent that Lance and his fans so often engage in. I think Lance probably doped. So did most of his competitors. I don't think this detracts from his accomplishments: it's silly to ask riders to not use a drug when no test has been developed to catch it, because you're asking them to throw a chance to succeed to the inevitable users.
- Nick, Santa Barbara

August 11, 2009

I am a cat 4 top 10 type rider - I run a compact with campy 11 - I have an 11 - 25. I put out plenty of power to spin as fast as I can with cadence in the 90's when I need to. I laugh at the 53 cat 4 riders who have a 60 cadence in a sprint. Compact works fine for me. I am not a pro and I am fine with that too.
- tom, NYC

August 11, 2009

if you show up at a group ride sans fenders out here you are excommunicated to the back of the line for the entire ride to fend for yourself. They are both PRO and common sense (which i wish would apply more to people's perceptions of what PRO is). Caking myself in shit all day does not appeal to me, unless i'm riding in Belgium through a farmers field!
- Michael, Vancouver, BC

August 11, 2009

My take on the gearing situation: Get over the vanity issues about the 25. It is not that big of a deal to have it on there and then you can still be a real man riding a 53x39 up front. Just knowing I had *36* little ring would emasculate me so much more than the 25T could ever do. But I for one do not crave the 18T cog, I am perfectly happy with the 12-25 in 10spd and the cog I can't do without is the 16T so that is why I would never run the 11-25 in 10spd. Plus 12-25 gives better chainline in the 16-21T cogs on the rear and I spend the majority of my time training in 53x15-21. I guess all of this goes away if I bite the bullet and get Campy 11 but I stocked up on Campy 10 parts last fall like a squirrel preparing for a long winter.
- Eric, White Rock, BC, CANADA

August 11, 2009

So how does the look at the woman translate into Lance and drug use? You lost me there. If you don't see why Lance, as a pro and as a person, is different from everyone else in the pro ranks then you need to question your degrees and go back to school. Lands, though, is no different than, say, Vino - but let's be clear, Lance made himself different and when you do that, with a message of hope, triumph, all heart, then you get different treatments. That's the way it works, I don't make the rules, but them be the rules. As for your gear situation, man, my head hurts, get campy 11 and be done. My chorus 11 works better than my 7800 ever did.
- Tom, DC

August 11, 2009

I used 52/36 for a few months. Worked fine with rival front derailleur.
- Britton, Kansas City

August 11, 2009

Of course, the only thing Concorde about Sean's TVT carbon there are the stickers but you knew that didn't you?
- Matthew, Kippax

August 11, 2009

Did anyone notice the sweet high flange hubs in the Sean Kelly picture? How about high flange hubs making a comeback?
- Matt, Indianapolis

August 11, 2009

Often thought, it'd be cool to see a photo spread of PROs and their training bikes. I'd love to see that some of these guys ride on dirty grimy fender having rigs that look they are 10 years old but really only 6months old. I remember Procycling magazine years ago tested Matt White's USPS Trek in Aus, it was spent. But so PRO looking.
- Hung Low, Philly

August 11, 2009

You clearly don't follow the Spanish news or understand one of the main underpinnings of Spanish culture. No reason that you should, I suppose, so let me help. The Spanish often complain about themselves as being very envious, and it's true. In the US if you see someone with a nice car, you may envy them, but you will imagine how you might get one some day. In Spain, they just take a key to the door. The corruption scandals that have been a mainstay of Spanish politics and news nearly since Franco died usually center around the housing boom in the south of the country. Local mayors and planning board members got paid off to allow what amounted to illegal building. Now what motivated these inquiries was the same envy and jealousy that inspired the guy keying the side of a car. While legal officials have been hunting down any government official that has a nice piso in Marbella, the government continues to let the economy sink into the abyss. My point here is that the uncovering corruption here in Spain is not because there is more of it here than anywhere else, or that the government is particularly vigilant about fighting graft, it's just that the Spanish can't stand to see someone doing better than them, especially financially,
- Dexter, Madrid

August 10, 2009

Been running a 52/36 for over a year now. I think it's a much more useful combo than a 50/34 because you can actually use the little ring for something other than climbing.
- Todd, Los Angeles

August 10, 2009

Will the change in distro have any effect on Sidi's snicker-inducing prices in the US? Every time I show up to a ride consisting entirely of Sidi-wearers, I want to ask how exactly everybody knows they're the best-fitting shoe in the cycling world if they don't know anybody who wears anything else?
- Andrew, Philadelphia

August 10, 2009

What ever Veltec is doing is remarkable. Not only have they lost all their top tier brands but the have lost all their Product Managers, Inside Sales, Credit Department, Purchasing and Marketing staff in the last 2 years. With that kind of turn over one has to wonder...
- Veltec, Carson City

August 10, 2009

Veltec owns Pariba tires, distributed over in Benelux. Veltec also owns Concorde, look it up. They own American Eagle as well, but have kind of stopped using that name for their MTBs, and are instead naming them Concorde.
- Vel, Tec

August 10, 2009

''It's not just in New Jersey. Anywhere there's government, there's graft'' You can do better than that, many socialist systeme have done better than this simplistic statement, you know it, we know it. In France we would say that ''votre jupon dépasse ma chère''. Arkansas doesn't need to be ticketed that way, you might have gone beyond imitating your welcoming state...
- guido, guidolela@gmail.com

August 10, 2009

FYI, Veltec Benelux already owns the Concorde brand.....a few years ago they tried to distribute them in Canada with no success, but they do own the brand and it is pretty successful outside of North America. They have long talked about how to bring that brand back into prominence in the US...time will tell...
- Cee, San Jose

August 10, 2009

Campy 11 seems to be a better solution than the odd-ball chainring combination. 52/36 would be a rather large jump also.
- sergio, manitowoc, wi

August 10, 2009

How can a 53x11 be a smaller gear than a 52x11?? [ed. Typo corrected, thank you.]
- Phil, Greenville SC

August 10, 2009

53X36- What will be the set up?
- Frenchy , NYC