September 25, 2009
Inside Interbike
By: Jamie Naragon
Every year, cycling professionals and fans alike gather in Las Vegas, Nevada in September to talk shop and hobnob with those in the industry. This special event, Interbike International Bicycle Expo, is the largest industry trade show in North America.
Interbike is the brainchild of Steve Ready and Herb Wekkenkamp who conceived of the event in 1982. Their vision was to create a tradeshow for cycling in the fall so new products could be developed, tested, and shipped by the start of the cycling season that coming spring. Since then, however, Miller-Freeman and the Nielsen Company have purchased rights to Interbike. While Reno, Anaheim, and Philadelphia have all played host, Las Vegas has been the official home since the mid-1990s.
The 5-day event begins with an OutDoor Demo, this year held on September 21 and 22 at Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City, Nevada. Over 3500 bicycle retailers and media members are slated to attend. Those who come to OutDoor Demo are able to test out the latest gear on various mountainbike, BMX, road, and cyclo-cross courses. This allows those who then attend the indoor Interbike to recall their hands-on experiences from the previous days. Those unable to attend, however, can still get the hands-on experience from OutDoor East held on October 8-11 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Next, the main Interbike convention runs from September 23-25 at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas. In the past, an average of 730 exhibitors talk with 20,000 attendees. This year should be just as jam-packed. Some of the exhibitors scheduled to attend this year include Velonews, Velowear, Twin Six, Trek, Tifosi, Stevens Bikes, SRAM, Speedplay, SockGuy, BMC, Campagnolo, Cannondale, Colnago, and DZ-Nuts. A full list of the exhibitors and where they will be located can be found at http://www.interbike.com/exhibitordirectory/index/.
In addition, special events and seminars abound. These range from casual group rides, tips for your LBS, technical clinics, a Mtb Hall of Fame induction ceremony, World Bike Relief, and Yoga seminars. For a complete list of these events, see: http://www.interbike.com/eventsseminars/master-schedule
Lastly, the 23rd is also CrossVegas, the biggest cyclo-cross race in the United States. Elite men and women and wheelers and dealers from Interbike will be on deck, tackling the challenging 30-60 minute course. The course is a grassy 1.7 miles long, making it extremely spectator-friendly.
There’s certainly a lot to see and do at Interbike. Whether you’re a die-hard fan, an active member of the industry, or just curious about the bike world, if you can make it to Vegas September 21-25, you should!
Filed by Andrew Hershberger at September 25th, 2009 under Featured, Tech
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July 28, 2009
By Kevin G. Saunders
People around the world have speculated on the comeback of Lance Armstrong after nearly four years off the bike. Bicycle racing as a whole is a young person’s sport in concept, but many masters’ racers are proving that chronological age is not necessarily a factor in speed or power. Two things do change significantly, the ability to adapt to a bicycle position and the amount of time needed for recovery.
While we may get to see many people who are struggling with the changes that happen with aging, a fantastic opportunity has been presented to us because of the visibility of Lance’s comeback program. So many people have photographed him over the years that it becomes easy to spot the changes that have happened over time.
This year, Lance’s handlebars have come up significantly. This makes perfect sense but it flies in the face of some pretty serious bicycle racing traditions. The “aggressive” position that is so aesthetically pleasing and so desired by bike racers may not be the fastest position for a bicycle racer. I see people struggle with this concept all the time and it is interesting to see what Team Armstrong does, because it is a safe assumption that they will do anything that is 1) legal and 2) effective to make Lance faster and more efficient.
Younger racers have much more supple backs than the Masters racers. This is quite evident in some of the taller climbers seen in the Tour this year. It seems like their thoracic spine has a hinge in it, allowing a very low handlebar position. When I was a full time bike racer back in the 80’s we had ridiculously low handlebars and ‘’the lower, the better” was the philosophy. The wind tunnel also supports extremely low positions but aero is more aero, but not necessarily faster. Overcoming wind drag and mechanical friction is done with more power. Having the most power using the least amount of energy is best for the long term, particularly in stage races where recovery is nonexistent.
Lance is, at 37 years old and still is competitive on the global stage race scene. He chose to forego one of the coolest parts of cycling, the Aggressive Position, to match the bike to his body. Other teams are also seen doing modifications to bikes so their riders can be more efficient. Since the rest of the team typically rides a “stock” bike with less customization than the team leader, people have to do what they can, within the rules.
The ability of so many riders to adapt to whatever bike setup they have given to them and still perform reasonably well allows the bike industry to reduce the number of sizes in a frame model line. They still fit most of the riders well enough to get the job done. As the riders age, however, this shrinking of adaptability catches up with them and they need to pay more attention to bike fit and design. Some riders even go the custom route to get machines designed around them as that technology exists today.
The custom mindset is relatively new to modern bike racing because the cost of manufacturing custom carbon frames is so high. Steel frames had many sizes because it was easy to make the frames different. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how the industry serves the consumer who wants better and better equipment to perform their best. Riders have more choices and have a greater need to become better educated as new knowledge is constantly evolving.
Author Kevin Saunders is the President of KGS Bikes.
KGS Bikes is known as the world’s premiere custom bicycle boutique. For over 25 years, Kevin Saunders, President, has studied bicycle fitting and sold high end bicycles. KGS Bikes designs custom bicycles from Co-Motion, Guru, KirkLee, Parlee, Serotta, Zinn, in addition to fitting services and technique consulting. For more information visit the KGS Bikes blog, and the KGS Bikes website
Filed by Andrew Hershberger at July 28th, 2009 under Tech
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June 7, 2009
I Found The Missing Saddle’s
fi’zi:k
It’s time kids for another adventure of “TEST THAT PRODUCT”
Today we venture to the equipment that caters to the most important part of the human anatomy …………….your private parts and yes we are talking about saddles.
I don’t know about you, but I can force myself to ride under any painful condition for a short period of time, knees, arms, numbing of the hands, pain in my neck, you name it, and I know you have all been there, but if your twigs and berries are just a gnats ass under the weather, its grounds for divorce and your standing on the side of the road. The saddle has become one of the most important pieces of equipment on our machines, and we are willing to go through several saddles, and if you are not given them for free, find yourself reluctantly wasting tons of your bank account to find the Golden Fleece.
Let’s face it; this is one product that has been over gimmicked in the industry to the point of complete confusion, if you ride this saddle you won’t have kids, if you ride this saddle you will have kids etc. etc., its like the Bush administrations war on terror tactics to convince you to put more money into this cause to make his buddies fat pockets bigger, and I have yet to find a pro cyclist in retirement who hasn’t popped out a kid or two, so needless to say I do not buy into the “slotted saddle” philosophy and lucky enough neither has Fizik. What I do believe in is a proper fit and saddle adjustment regardless what equipment you choose that your equipment is sitting on.
I have tried tons of saddles in my days, everything from the old Brooks “force your crotch to mold the hard leather saddle, saddle”, the Selle Italia turbo, the famous Concor, Serfas models slotted and not, and many more. But recently, I was given three models from Fizik to take for a spin and see what I thought. I know what your thinking, shi*, here we go again a saddle review from someone with a completely different set up than mine, and the guessing continues.
So here is what I am going to do, I will describe the three saddles we are testing by means of design and intent, I will give you my feed back and input from other people in the Tucson area who do ride and race these saddles. Hopefully with this information you can get enough input to come close to your preferred riding style and the seat that best fits it, the rest is up to you for slight adjustments.
Fair? O.K. lets go for it.
First let’s get a bit warm and fuzzy with some history regarding Fizik.
Fizik saddles are a relatively new kid on the block for saddle makers. Fizik started research and development back in 1996 here in the USA, and are handmade in Italy by the worlds largest and one of the oldest saddle manufacturer, Selle Royal. You will find Fizik saddles on more professional team bikes than you have fingers and they have produced some of the most hip advertising campaigns for saddles that I have seen in the past ten years, pushing their product as the “High Fasion” for cycling. They were one of the few companies to make the hype about the top secret saddle the Arione during the Simoni reign in the tour of Italy back in the day when everyone wanted to know about his top secret saddle weapon. So let’s talk about this secret weapon and two other popular models from Fizik.
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Arione Wing Flex
Arione Wing Flex
Statistics:
Color Tested: Chalk white
Cover: White suede
Thigh Glides: White microtex
Rail: K:ium
Weight: 225 gr
Integrated Clip System I.C.S. (This is a removable plastic clip that allows for the mounting of special Fizik designed saddle bags)
The Famous Arione was developed with the input of Gilberto Simoni back in 2003 and was introduce during this particular Tour of Italy that he won. Fizik abviously was well informed about the UCI amended Technical Rule 1.3.014 that was passed on January 3, 2003 in which The length of the saddle shall be 24 cm minimum and 30 cm maximum. Well, most of your saddles out there at the time and today hang around the 27 cm mark in length, Fizik just decided to go for the maximum length and increase the rail lengths in the process. This length increase allows for more adjustment in the fore and aft position on the post and for the rider to move along the saddle itself with greater range. The slots in the saddle or “Wing Slots” are designed not for ventilation, but to allow the saddle to flex more and allow for your inner thigh to have a bit more range of motion. It sounds like simple stuff, but you have to understand know one tried it before so it put Fizik up there as the progressive thinkers.
I put this saddle on my bike and I have to say it is on the cool side to look at, but I will warn you, the increase ability to adjust this saddle can also increase the difficulty on finding that happy sweet spot. Since most people are used to the 27’ish saddles, this saddle will feel a bit on the weird side the first couple of rides.
Now, I have had heard mixed input from friends who have this saddle, from tons of praise such as “I love the ability to move farther back while climbing”, or “I love the longer nose for moving forward into the power position”. To the only occasional dislike “I had that saddle and got rid of it because my balls went numb”.
I have to be honest, in my 20 years of riding it is the only saddle I ever heard this kind of extreme feedback from, and during my testing I have to say I personally occasionally encountered the numbing of the balls thing as well.
My engineering brain can only hypothesis that the added length in the saddle causes slightly more deflection to happen in the middle of the saddle and possibly pushing some riders gently in the wrong places, this is even after I adjusted it several times to eliminate the issue. But again it’s a different design and therefore will have extremely different types of feedback to different types of anatomies.
This is one of those saddles I would start with the question: Do I naturally move around a lot on my saddle and find myself needing more space? or, do I typically like my saddles to hold me firmly in one or two positions? If your answer is the ladder go to the next saddle review for the Aliante, if not, then this saddle will allow you unquestionably to have one of the greatest platforms for full movement from any saddle out there, and you will be crying like Mel Gibbson at the end of Braveheart without the unpleasant rectal torture……….. Freeeeeeedoooom!!!!!!
Regarding color choice, the white suede center panel sweat stains way too easily and was not easy to clean, I would highly suggest another color for this model, and Fizik has a ton to choose from, even custom combos, so color away.
Arione Wing Flex
I give the Arione 4 out of 5 saddles
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Aliante Carbon
Aliante Carbon
Twin Flex – Carbon Braided
Statistics:
Twin Flex
Aliante white
Cover: white perforated microtex
Rear Protection: Beige Scuff Guards
Rail: k:ium
Weight: 239 gr
Integrated Clip System I.C.S. (This is a removable plastic clip that allows for the mounting of special Fizik designed saddle bags)
Ahhhhliante, this is my new name for this saddle. I have to say after riding the Arione the Aliante was a cornucopia for my Bottom. It is more the traditional 27’ish cm length and has a traditional subtle lip to the back of the saddle to cradle you into a more focused position. A feature that was not found on the Arione but again obviously to allow for the freedom of movement it is designed for. The Aliante has a good amount of padding where you need it and they eliminated the suede material on this model, so no more sweat stains that need cleaning to maintain that fresh new look. The shape reminds me of the older saddles, and I stress the word “saddle” in the traditional sense because the curvature of this seat really wants you to find the center, it will push back at you when you are at the rear of the saddle and pushing on the peddles, and will want you to sit more centered if you try to go too far forward. For some riders this will work great for people who like well defined zones on a seat, for those who like the more open and subtle approach, once again take a look at the Arione.
Again check out the colors online, The Aliante also allows you to customize to your hearts content.
Aliante Colors
I give the Aliante 4.5 out of 5 saddles
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tn_aliante_gamma_dark_grey_perforated_top.jpg
ALIANTE XM Gamma
Statistics:
Twin Flex – with Technogel
Aliante XM Gamma white
Cover: White Perforated microtex
Rear Protection: Anthracite Cordura Scuff Guards Black Soft Touch
Rail: k:ium
Weight: 259 gr
Integrated Clip System I.C.S. (This is a removable plastic clip that allows for the mounting of special Fizik designed saddle bags)
Specifically designed for MTB use on bikes with suspension travel from 80 to 120mm.
The new high shape on the central and front part of the padding provides optimal weight distribution while you are riding in hard conditions.
Squared and well-padded front zone with Technogel gives you amazing comfort and increased traction during steep climbs.
Patented Twin-Flex gives extra softness on the genital area.
Check out the information on this saddle and it looks like your purchasing a freaking fighter jet, but for good reason, this thing is beyond comfortable. It takes the saddle shape of the Aliante and puts it on steroids.
The most impressive thing I found about the Gamma is its versatility. “It wins the good for anything you do saddle award” hands down. The Aliante XM Gamma is designed for mountain biking, but I have already seen it on several road bikes during races, and I myself did two time trials on this saddle on my TT bike. I found that I liked it better than any TT saddle out there due to it having just the right amount of cushion on the nose and center. Too many TT saddles put a freaking pillow so large on the nose that their saddle starts to push back on the private area and forces you to tilt your saddle to the point where you look like a freaking rookie. I thought this saddle was gifted in that department. I would even recommend this saddle for cyclocross due to its slightly more padded than the road Aliante and its increased structural build for those “not so smooth transitions”. If weight is your fear, a friend of mine told me that some people remove the scuff guards to reduce the weight enough to be competitive or lighter than most TT saddles out there. I have to say if weight is no issue for you and you are the “I am hard on my saddle events” go with the Gamma, it’s the best all rounder.
I give the Aliante XM Gamma 5 out of 5 saddle
Phew,
I have to say I am tired of typing, and I have enjoyed one hell of a rollercoaster adventure thanks to Fizik for letting us do the review. I hope that some of the information I experienced during this process gives all of you looking for a nice place to put your goodies that extra information for making the least painful choice. Regardless, Fizik has a saddle that will fit any style of rider and I guarantee the perfect cornucopia for your Bottom.
Filed by admin at June 7th, 2009 under Tech
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