A proper handlebar at last!

 Arrivederci FSA!

A proper handlebar at last! Zio Lorenzo tried to like the FSA K-WING handlebar, he really did! Especially when he thought about the PITA involved in changing it.

But after a couple of months and more than 1000 kms he caved-in and ordered a more normal-shaped aluminum handlebar by Ritchey. Heather likes their 31 mm bars OK as they have a reasonable shape and bend, along with the same FSA model stem as the one that came with the bike but 10 cm vs 7 cm. The hoses/cables/wires are no longer inside the stem (or bar), instead under a plastic cover that fits under the stem and under the bar tape. Does it really look all that untidy? Not to Zio!

The thing looks a lot more "normal" now, but the real benefit is the change in position. The distance from the tip of the saddle to the center of the handlebar is now Zio's normal spec while when down on the drops the front hub is hidden, just as they used to tell us was proper back-in-the-day.

Not too ugly? Zio decided not to cut the steerer tube when he removed 2 cm of spacers underneath, at least for now. But he's really liking the lowered bars despite them still being higher due to modern frame design with higher headtubes and sloping top tubes.

And for now an old round style top-cap and spacers ABOVE the stem don't look too bad.

This was Zio's first time on a project like this. Pulling hoses/cables/wires out of the insides of a bar and stem seemed like a lot of work...and it was! The e-shifter wires had to be unplugged (once the plugs were found deep inside the frame!) and then snaked back through headtube and frame to be reconnected. 

The brake hoses have banjo-type fittings at the brake lever and Zio feared they wouldn't fit through the holes in the bar, but fortunately he was wrong, but they still had to be disconnected, which meant a brake-bleeding session was required to finish-up. 

Meanwhile, the shift cable had to come out of it's housing so it could be yanked out of the bar, then replaced, the entire time with Zio sort-of holding his breath as he pushed the inner cable back through all that housing - through the entire frame all the way back to the rear derailleur, hoping it would pop out rather than get stuck and frayed, requiring replacement with a new one. Super-duper, extra-slick cables are needed (Campagnolo call's 'em "Maximum Smoothness" which sounds like a men's shaving product) to deal with all the twists, turns and bends required for internal routing and the replacement for this bike is $100!

Zio breathed a sigh of relief when the cable popped out in good shape, especially as the replacement (he forgot to order with stem/bar) wasn't going to arrive for a few days. From that point it was just running everything along the handlebar, then under the stem (where the extra wiring that didn't like being stuffed back into the headtube was coiled-up) where it's all hidden by a plastic cover. 

Zio had saved the original bar tape when he switched to the red cork (which didn't come off in one piece) so it went back on, easily covering the simple round bar vs the multi-shaped OEM thing.

The bike now fits properly. Zio likes the less flexy feeling with hands down in the drops along with a general shape and feel he's familiar with. The levers are no longer slanted/tilted/skewed, unfashionable for sure. This damn near all-day project certainly would go more quickly next time, but even then it would likely still be a half-day project. But now with everything under the bar tape or under the stem cover, unless something goes wrong inside the headtube, any repairs or parts changes should be quick and easy in comparison!!

 

 

Crashfest 2024

 What's wrong with pro cycling?

Crashing seems to be a) popular and b) a popular subject in various online forums these days.

Zio Lorenzo's been kicked-off one where he used to make comments regularly, probably because when the blog publisher implied that cycling equipment could make the difference between winning and losing, Ol' Zio let him have it, saying if he thought there was something he could buy at a bike shop that would make that difference, he was either delusional or a shill for the bike biz. That was that!

But his and other forums are full of what Zio thinks are either just dumb or at best half-baked ideas about the epidemic of crashes and how to fix it. Below are some of Zio's ideas and observations:

A lot of the crash victims this season are what Zio calls "numbers riders" - racers whose main qualification to be on a World Tour team seems to be their watts/kg ratio. Many of them came into cycling from other sports after someone discovered their amazing physiology and turned them into bike riders. Too many of these end up as "supercharged hemi-engines in shopping-cart chassis" - riders with powerful engines but not much in the way of skills when it comes to the controlling of the bike. These riders seem to crash more often than more seasoned competitors, those who grew-up racing bicycles.

In Zio's humble opinion the big crash down in Spain was caused by one of these riders..one so strong he wore the rainbow stripes of World Champion not too long ago. You might remember him screwing-up a descent in the "Race of the Falling Leaves" and ending up in a ravine? In the head-on video clip from the Spanish race Zio thinks this rider messed up his line around the curve and is aiming for a soft spot to land as he runs wide and off the pavement. The poor guy behind him hits the brakes trying to let this guy crash solo, but locks up his front wheel...and ambulances roll.

There were claims the organizers should have somehow made this curve safer but are they supposed to put padding up or repave the entire race course? It's ROADracing after all, is it too much to ask riders to look where they're going and not assume they can zoom off the pavement at any time with no risk of injury? It's not MOTOGP after all!

But they could (and should) at least remove parked cars from the course, no? Just the other day Zio watched a race where the road suddenly narrowed and the peloton squeezed-in and of course someone crashed. The cause? Cars parked on the course! WTF? They can't put up "NO PARKING" signs the day before and then remove vehicles on race morning? That's low-tech operation so how/why isn't it done?

While that same ex-World Champ seems to crash a lot...and most of the time it's someone else' fault, according to him, he's not the only one. Perhaps it's time for a change in licensing? In the US of A a category 4 racer can't just decide to show up and race against the category 1 riders, so how do these "numbers riders" get into the World Tour without much experience in the lower categories where they can learn (and perhaps be noted as sketchy bike handlers, needing some tutoring) before they put a big dent in the career of the poor guy behind them in the race?

Another example is the "Zwift effect" - a sort of "number's rider" but one who gets a World Tour team ride based on results pedaling a stationary bike hooked up to the internet. Would you think these riders might find it a challenge to stay upright when the bike's no longer attached to anything and they're surrounded by hundreds of other racers, all being yelled-at through their earpiece to "Get to the front!"?

Then there's equipment. Ex-pro Paolo Salvodelli, a guy who knows a thing or three about handling a bicycle, suggests banning high-profile wheel rims to reduce crashing. Any rims taller than 30 mm tend to get pushed around by cross winds so why not put a limit here?

Gearing's another idea. Does it matter that racers are going faster now? Is racing made more interesting for fans when the average speed is 45 kph vs 40? Is the Daytona 500 more exciting when the cars lap at 200 mph vs 150? Most spectators want to see racing, they don't really have a clue as to the speed involved, but chainrings with nearly 60 teeth on 'em allow insane speeds to be attained through city streets as riders snake around raised medians and other "road furniture". Junior races have gear restrictions, why not the pros to slow things down some?

Modern bikes seem over-reactive in many cases. You have to be old to remember "stage race geometry" as a marketing tool. Those bikes were said to be more stable via slacker angles and longer wheelbases than their criterium racing brethren, but do any racers have such a thing these days? Back-in-the-day Eddy Merckx' bikes were custom made for him...and the course he'd race them on.  Current riders race on whatever they're given with an emphasis on it being the same bike Joe or Jill Crankarm can buy, which are usually bikes more reactive and stiff than really necessary for the best control at high speeds...speeds that Joe or Jill likely never reach.

Perhaps the bike regulations need a thorough revamp, one that isn't so skewed towards what the bike biz wants to sell this season? Ol' Henri Desgrange took them on, though then it wasn't so much equipment as their control of teams, but Zio thinks about airplane races where the fan faves are most often the WWII "warbirds" - those piston-engined P51's and the like rather than modern jet-powered fighter planes. Is more tech always better?

Bicycles are primitive machines, they go nowhere for the most part (heck, they don't even stand up straight!) unless a human is pedaling 'em so is the sport made better by kowtowing to the bike makers who want to make them ever lighter, ever more "aero", ever more stiff and ever more profitable? You could argue the sport would lose the sponsorship funding of the bike makers if the rules weren't favorable but would that really be the case...and if it was, couldn't the sport find sponsoring money from elsewhere?

Zio Lorenzo hopes the UCI implements some of the simpler ideas soon if they truly want to reduce the number and severity of crashes rather than just appoint task forces to write long-winded essays on the subject. They and the pro riders union certainly should work to reduce crashes and injuries but need to be careful not to undermine the essential elements of sport itself in the process.

More on the subject HERE. In this article the fracking king who owns that British WT team cites the death of Senna in F1 as a catalyst for safety improvements. What F1 actually did was try to slow the cars down. Would "Mr. Fracking" be OK with restriction on the "aero" characteristics of current bicycles? How 'bout restricted gearing? Both of those "innovations" are cited as reasons for the increased speeds of the pro peloton so...?

Meanwhile check this out. Rider error? Did his brakes not work? He was certainly going fast!

FSA Carbon Handlebar

 What were they thinking?

With this handlebar? This thing was spec'd on Zio's new e-gravel bike.

This and the stem are the only things he really dislikes. He understands that "gravel" means ya gotta have a flared handlebar, but this thing? Really?

If you look at the linked page, you can scroll around the image and see all the "features" of this carbon-fiber masterpiece. From the odd hexagon shape on the drops, the strange depressions where top turns into drop, the 5 mm of rise (so you can leave a 5 mm spacer off under your stem?) the forward sweep of the top, plus the "wing" shape that gives the bar its name.

For Zio Lorenzo, every one of these "features" is really a "bug". He'd much, much rather have a simple round (aluminum) drop bar in a reasonable width rather than this crazy thing with an MSRP of over $300! 

The wing shape might look good and make one think it's maybe more "aero" than a round tube, but what about a place to put your hands? It's a HANDLEbar after all! The pros don't even bother taping this part so I guess they never hold-on there, especially without gloves? Even taped, the flat part close to the forward curve feels OK when your palms are flat on it but when you cup 'em a bit the edge of the "wing" made Zio think about sticking some foam padding around it as he did to fill up that odd depression near this area.

What good is the forward sweep? Zio sees no + here, in fact it feels kind-of odd after decades of a straight section on the bar top. Holding-on there skews your elbows out or forces an odd twist in your wrist. Same with the tiny 5 mm of rise...the point is? More "shaping" = more "value"?

Worse, the bike's product manager spec'd it with a stem of just 8 cm! This makes the steering more sensitive than Zio likes, though the odd-shaped bar does put his hands where he wants 'em on the brake hoods and kinda/sorta on the tops (despite the silly forward sweep) though that same shorty stem means hands down on drops is too short...and too wide thanks to the flare. 

These drop are not just flared-out side-to-side but also oddly twisted so they again push your elbows out. Why? The old "hands on drops, front hub invisible" rule still applies for him but the reach to the drops is too short for that.

You might say "You're a mechanic, just swap 'em out!" and with our Bianchi e-bikes it was easy as the hoses/cables exit the frame and then run under the stem and handlebar tape. 

But MV (again in the fashion of the day, just like the too wide and flared-out bar) put all the brake hoses and cables inside both stem and bar, not just inside the frame. Grrrr! This means opening up perfectly functioning front/rear hydraulic brake systems to get the hoses out along with the single shift cable and the wiring for the remote e-shifters!!! 

This means bleeding both front and rear brakes once the hoses are re-routed and Ergopower units installed on a new handlebar, re-inserting a shift cable that one hopes isn't too frayed to go back in and then reconnecting the e-shift button wires.

A longer replacement stem of the same brand/type would allow the hoses, etc. to be run up to and under the stem (through a removable cover) where they can then be run along the outside of the bar/under the tape like back-in-the-day, but what a PITA, not to mention the little bits (called olives) that seal the brake hoses probably will need to be replaced in the process. 

Zio gets tired just typing this! He really didn't want to tear this bike all apart before he'd even ridden it, though if he was able to see (and measure) a size S and M in-person he would have chosen S instead of M and asked the selling dealer to swap the bar/stem. But "that ship's sailed" as they say so for now "it is what it is" (as they also say) but he's almost hoping for another excuse to take the brake systems apart so he can swap the bar/stem in the process!

One other gripe - the 40 mm "aero" wheels. Combined with a 38 mm slick tire, Zio thinks they present too much area for swirling winds to blow against, making fast descending a bit sketchy so far. Maybe that longer stem will help? Perhaps the weight distribution with bars too high and reach too short causes this? Swapping wheels with a motor built into the rear wheel's not gonna happen...but if none of the other changes help, perhaps a lower profile front wheel would help?

Otherwise he's liking the bike - the fat tires make it so he doesn't have to ride the cracked roads of Sicily with one eye always looking down instead of where he's going, the Campagnolo EKAR groupset works well with adequate gearing (some say the 40 tooth chainring's too small but 40 X 9's tall enough as a top gear for Zio) and the rest of the bike seems just fine. 

The electric "granny gear" is nice too, he's decided to bump assist from 0 to 1 any time he's in a really low gear and would have been using the small 30 tooth front chainring on his "acoustic" (as they call 'em now) bikes. He's still hauling the battery and motor around even when not using 'em and they weigh a good deal more than an inner triple chainring and the bits that go with that - so WTF not?

 Handling both on and off pavement is good, but should be even better with a slightly longer stem...maybe 10 cm? Combined with a normal bar (no sweep, flare, rise) he'd probably be exactly where he wants to be position-wise.

So be careful with sizing! Seems like a lot of bikes are spec'd like this nowadays. Both the selling dealer and MV were consulted and supplied with Zio's exact measurements. He asked about XS vs S but both insisted M was the correct size. MV's geometry chart didn't much help so against his better judgement (which might have worked out for the best as the S size would have been worse with it's shorter top tube and shorty stem) he took their advice and went with M. That's one of the risks of online vs in-person purchasing (there was no dealer in the island of Sicily that had these in-stock..as it turns out neither did the dealer in Rome Zio bought this one from!) but he'd have for sure had to endure the PITA swap of bar/stem on the S so maybe he's better off than he knows?

Spring is here...almost

 Sunny Sunday in Sicily

Milano-Sanremo was yesterday. La Primavera is the start of spring and for us, the start of the real cycling season. So Sunday was time to get out on our own bikes! A ride down the coast on quiet roads, then inland and uphill, climbing what locals call Il Carciofo, the artichoke. Turns out we were on the route of the Mediofondo, Giro di Carciofi held earlier today.

No racing for us today! Our goal was to arrive at Case Damma in time for lunch! As you can see above we made it...40 kms into our ride. And what a lunch it was!! Eight or nine antipasti: fresh ricotta, salami, zucchine, olives, cheese and more followed by two first plates - a lasagne with pistachio and a pasta with tomato, sausage and wild fennel. If that wasn't enough, a second plate was served, a pork roll in a spicy sauce.

Desert was up next, a sort of tiramisu with a shot of Zibibbo wine to wash it down. We could barely get out of our chairs and back on the bikes!!!

The proprietor had this nicely restored Matchless on display so the two-wheeled connection was there too!

Meanwhile, we noticed this painted on a wall near one of our favorite market vendors the other day. The famous author of the Montalbano books, Andrea Camilleri.

Hope you had a great Sunday as well!

Fixed!

 -MV-AGUSTA E-Gravel Bike

Fixed! Cancer-stick related logo covered!

You almost can't tell with the white background strip

Now the bike looks like it should, right? In a perfect world a -MV-Agusta would be red/silver like the ones Giacomo Agostini raced on, but Zio's not gonna take this thing apart and send it out for a repaint! Maybe a red SMP Glider saddle with red bar tape to match will liven things up? Check back, tape's on-the-way and saddle already here - see below.

The proper colors for MV, forget that cancer-stick livery!

The last MV Agusta Zio rode.

He's getting used-to the flared and aero-shaped carbon handlebar along with the more upright position on this bike. Getting close to real geezer-hood he's probably doing his back some good with less bending over so much? And disconnecting, rerouting and bleeding hydro brakes along with fishing a shift cable out to change handlebars isn't getting any more attractive vs living-with the current bar/stem. 

Almost 500 kilometers on it now, including a steep climb and twisty descent - gearing is adequate and assist level 1 seems to compensate for the extra weight of the bike when things get steep. Going down, response is good, no "desert-sled" sluggishness but the fat slicks and disc brakes will take some getting used-to. 

There's still more than 40% of the original battery charge remaining, so the "range-anxiety" expressed by many who obsess over 250 Wh vs 350 battery in the downtube or extra batteries mounted in the 2nd bottle cage makes Zio scratch his head. What kind of rides are these folks thinking about? Is it the old idea where the guy must have a Ford F150 pickup truck for the 2 times each year he has to haul 4 X 8 sheets of plywood vs the 363 other days of the year when it's just him and his lunchbox?

Overall, since the e-gravel-bike offerings with both MAHLE X20 and Campagnolo EKAR were so slim the MV has worked out to be a good choice for this old man. Don't think of an e-bike as "cheating" but rather something to let you tackle rides you might no longer feel up for. If you don't use any (or much) of the e-assist, more power to you! But you know it's there just-in-case, so you can set out worry-free!

Better? Needs some darker red bar tape Zio thinks, but a big improvement overall.

And now it has a proper headtube decal. A more simple black version might have looked better but Zio's always been enamored with the original, full-color version. Back in the day his friend's moto's stickers were peeling off - Zio found a great auto detail guy who copied them - painting 'em directly onto the moto! Back then who knew how to get stickers from Italy without going their yourself or knowing someone there?

Note: The seatpost collar/clamp broke the other day despite being torqued only with a calibrated 5 NM hex key. Instead of a $300+ carbon handlebar might they have included a decent clamp to hold the seatpost in place?

Slippery Subject Part 3

 More slippin' and slidin'

Read Part 2 HERE. Recently a sort of war has broken out on that infamous video channel between the "Friction Fiction" fellow (I use that name because he's been making threats of legal action against his detractors who have called him out by his or his company's name) and a fellow Aussie who has posted some rather crude criticism of the man and his company.

Zio ran afoul of "Friction Fiction" when he emailed to ask why no test results were on his website for Finish Line Wet, a popular chain lube, but the guy's finally managed to post some after first claiming it wasn't popular and that other Finish Line products he tested were NFG, so why bother? Of course the results for this one aren't very good either - no surprise there.

But the fellow did ask for experiences with this lube and since Zio's used it for years here's one:

Shimano 11-speed chain on GRX equipped gravel bike. Bike used from new with factory grease then periodically relubed with Finish Line Wet. Drivetrain cleaned now and then with a tablespoon or two of common diesel fuel as outlined in various bike wash regimens.

Roughly 50% of this bike's use has been on unpaved, dusty bike trails. Chain gets wiped-off now and then and relubed when it appears dry. A few drops on each side of the rollers while backpedaling to distribute the lube, then excess is wiped off.

The result - after 4200+ kilometers the chain now measures (via KMC digital chain-checker) wear of .15 mm averaged between 3 measurements. KMC says change 'em before wear exceeds .8 mm while Zio will install a new one when it gets to .4 mm.

Why change at .4 mm? The chain costs $30. Why take a chance on wearing the sprockets and cogs out just to squeeze a bit more life out of a cheap, easily replaceable component? Back when Zio maintained a fleet of rental bikes he swapped the chains out at just 2000 kms for the same reason. Just like pro racing teams he wanted to be sure any chain on any bike in the fleet would run happily (no skipping!) on any wheel.

Is Zio a huge fan of this lube? He does like the applicator bottle but wonders if the Mobil 1 SHC 75/90 gear oil he's also used for years (but doesn't have any data for) isn't just as good? Another wax-cult guy recently showed some tests of lubricant film-strength and Zio wonders what could be better in film strength than a lube designed for automotive manual transmissions and/or differential gears? But is film strength all that matters?

What does matter to Zio is that this test chain received pretty much zero care compared to the wax-cult regimen: no solvent cleaning to bare metal, no boiling in a wax cooker purchased just for the purpose, no $50 bags o' wax pellets or $30 squirt bottles of liquid wax for in-between lubes before removing the chain for retreatments. 

And no unfastening/refastening of the chain quick-links, which Zio thinks eventually will fail if you do this too many times. Those sell for $3-5 each. It all ads up, so the "Save money by buying my expensive product(s)" claims seem like most of the too-good-to-be true claims out there.

Could Zio realize double or triple the lifespan of this chain via religious and expensive waxing treatments? Maybe. But $90 for three of these chains is less than the solvent, a wax cooker and bag o' snake wax pellets, etc. not to mention the time spent fooling around with all this stuff. He guesses this chain will easily go another 2000 kms before replacement at .4 mm of wear.

When you make an objective comparison (Zio's not selling ANYTHING and gets nothing from Finish Line or Mobil) for his money "old school" oil still seems the simplest (and cheapest) way to take care of your chain, despite what the wax-cult zealots would like you to believe.

But feel free to wax away if you like! Chain, legs, mustache, "bikini area" ..whatever. Stay clean, enjoy the miniscule efficiency improvements touted, etc. But don't waste time in recruitment efforts on Zio to join the cult, OK?

The Friction fellow also claimed he'd asked Finish Line repeatedly for data to back up their marketing claims for their "WET" lube. But when Zio contacted Finish Line they said the guy had never contacted them. Seems like more marketing of whatever you sell vs stuff you don't with "data" to prove the stuff you sell is the best? 

Zio's gonna try using Mobil 1 on the chain of his new e-bike rather than Finish Line to see how it does in comparison. He might have some useful data in 6 months maybe? If film strength is all that matters the chain wear should be pretty low. Time and distance will tell, but even the exclusive 13 speed chain for this bike costs less than $50 so...

Campagnolo - the future

 Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio..er..CAMPAGNOLO?

Remember the old "Mrs. Robinson" song? Look closely at the photo above. Zio ordered some "Original Parts" for his new Campagnolo EKAR-equipped e-gravel bike from a reliable and trusted online shop here in Italy so he doesn't think these are counterfeit.

WTF? As recently as here (claimed to have been updated less than 6 months ago) the folks in Vincenza were claiming “We’ve always stayed true to building things in the European Union and 100 percent in-house,” Riddle said. “Nothing’s offshore and nothing is outsourced. Everything apart from circuit boards and batteries for EPS is done in-house.”

Not anymore (or even then) it seems. The two designed-for-OEM groupsets mentioned in the story (Centaur** and Potenza) are gone now (and it was rather obvious their brakesets were Taiwanese*) despite working quite well and getting positive reviews but Zio can remember unboxing a set of cantilever brakes for a Campagnolo 'cross group a decade ago and reading "Made in Taiwan" (*seemingly by Tektro) on the package. He wasn't happy about it but figured it was just a few 'cross brakesets so did it really matter?

It matters and the marketing guy quoted in the piece is no longer there either as far as Zio can tell. Tullio Campagnolo's grandson seems to have taken over after some time at their wheel brand Fulcrum.

Campagnolo's market position seemed to be aiming at the high end of the market with the exception of their gravel EKAR groupset. But how long will people pay a premium price for "Designed in Italy Made in Taiwan"? EKAR costs more than a Shimano GRX groupset for example but how much of it is made in Asia like Shimano? 

Meanwhile, they just announced EKAR GT, a product of what Zio likes to call the "product cheapening department" (what do companies really call these?) with aluminum rather than carbon crank (something that would have been just fine with Zio!) and some other cost-saving changes, all to offer a gravel groupset at a slightly lower cost.

Zio remembers a carbon fork sold by Columbus back-in-the-day. A bike industry friend told him these forks were actually made in China, shipped to Columbus for stickers and a fancy box and then sold at a premium price to customers who assumed they were made by Columbus in Italy. This same friend said the guy who first told him this story arranged for the friend's company to buy the same forks but put his company's name on 'em instead of Columbus'. The friend stopped buying 'em from Columbus and instead got 'em directly from the maker through this "sales agent". Seems there are lots of these folks around, experts at getting stuff made cheaply in Asia with whatever branding you like on it.

Is Campagnolo destined to be come nothing more than a "designer name" like so many other "luxury goods" that are produced in Asian factories for pennies on the dollar only to end up commanding premium prices when it's time for the retail customer to cough up the cash? Do they care that most of these same products have counterfeit (though ya gotta wonder if they're perhaps cranked out by a midnight "third-shift" at the same sweatshop producing the originals, so how "counterfeit" are they?) versions hawked on side streets of most major cities?

At the same time some Asian companies are now offering super-cheap groupsets that have no famous "designer" name, so if you're gonna buy Made-in-Taiwan (or mainland China) stuff, would you pay more for an Italian name and "design"?

If Campagnolo's sales are decreasing, Zio would point to this as at least part of the cause. But are profits up since production costs are lower? Will Ferrari set up a factory in China next...or have they already? Would people buy "Designed in Maranello, made-in-China" cars?

It works for Pinarello I guess? Zio wonders if some confuse "adrenalina" (andrenalin) with "Made in ___"? He remembers a client one time insisting that Pinarello bikes were still 100% Made-in-Italy, so...?

** Centaur 11 is  back in the lineup though now only in black.