CyclingTips Digest: How to 3D Print Titanium, $10,000 Handlebars, Chain Lube Testing, & More
What's going on in the curly bar world? CyclingTips Digest showcases articles from our sister site, CyclingTips. In each installment, you might find endurance coverage, power-to-weight ratios, gravel bike tech and, of course, lycra.
THAT RADICALLY ORIGINAL BRITISH CYCLING TRACK BIKE MIGHT NOT BE SO ORIGINAL
By: JAMES HUANGLoThe Team GB Lotus x Hope track bike used by the British cycling team at the Tokyo Olympics certainly generated a lot of buzz when it debuted in October 2019, given its highly unconventional design (we even paid Hope a visit right after its debut). More recently, however, the bike has also generated some serious controversy as renowned cycling engineer and aerodynamicist Richard McAinsh — together with Dutch brand Kú Cycle, which McAinsh founded with Alex Bok — is now claiming the design was stolen.
Bok’s history with McAinsh dates back more than a decade, to when the former was running professional triathlon teams, and when 3T — for whom McAinsh was working at the time — was a sponsor.
(Read more.)
THREE YEARS LATER, MY STOLEN BIKE IS BACK
By: CALEY FRETZI have spent the better part of a day now trying to fill in the gaps, but they’re big gaps and impossible to fill. Nearly three years of gap. I am specifically intrigued by the very end of it. Wednesday morning, in fact. Maybe Tuesday night.
I want to know about the hours in which my bike, mostly disassembled but not entirely so, ended up locked to a very visible fence not half a mile from where it was stolen.
(Read more.)
HOW TO 3D-PRINT TITANIUM WITH BASTION CYCLES
By: DAVE ROMEModern technology is continually opening the door to new ideas. Metal hydroforming, computer-controlled milling, and laser cutting are all now commonplace within bicycle parts manufacturing. And while still niche in its usage, you can add 3D printing to the list.
When it comes to 3D printing metal for bicycle purposes, few have more hands-on experience than the Melbourne-based team at Bastion Cycles. They first used 3D-printed titanium lugs in 2015 to produce the first custom road bike of its kind and the brand continues to refine the technology today. For the past three years, the young Australian company has relied on in-house printing capabilities.
(Read more.)
NERD ALERT PODCAST: SEPARATING CHAIN LUBE TESTING FACT FROM FICTION
By: DAVE ROMEWelcome back to the Nerd Alert podcast, in this week’s episode Dave Rome steps in as host and goes full nerd while diving into the murky waters of chain lube testing.
The amount of mixed information related to chain lubes is staggering and it’s undoubtedly one of the more confusing product areas for consumers. That’s an issue because your choice of chain lube can make a substantial difference to the durability and efficiency of your drivetrain. To help unravel these issues we called up Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling and the founder of FrictionFacts Jason Smith to talk all things within their domains.
(Read more.)
A DO-IT-YOURSELF GUIDE TO FITTING CYCLING CLEATS
By: DAVE ROMECycling can be a beautiful and often meditative sport, but sometimes even the smallest of body niggles can make it a downright miserable experience. How you sit on and interact with the bike can make or break your cycling, and that only becomes more true as your mileage increases.
Clipping into your pedals brings numerous performance and bike control benefits, but it does mean you’re effectively locked into pedalling in a set position. Getting this position right is arguably the base to being comfortable and efficient on the bike. Get it wrong and it’s likely your calves, knees, hips, or even your lower back will complain.
(Read more.)
3T’S 60TH ANNIVERSARY DREAMBOX BIKE COMES WITH ITS OWN MOTORIZED GARAGE
By: JAMES HUANG3T is celebrating its 60th year in business, and like any self-respecting bike brand with that kind of history behind it, the company has released a limited-edition model. In 3T’s case, it’s a special version of its Exploro RaceMax aero gravel bike, though the party includes far more than just a bike.
There’s a garage, too. Really. Well, sort of.
(Read more.)
THE CURVE REMLAW IS A FLAT HANDLEBAR FOR DROP BAR BIKES
By: IAIN TRELOARMelbourne-based bikepacking standard bearers, Curve Cycling, have form when it comes to interesting handlebars. In late 2019 they released the Walmer – an ultra-wide drop bar that measures up to 750 mm at the drops. Now, they’ve come out with the Remlaw – yup, that’s ‘Walmer’ backwards.
What’s the Remlaw? It’s a flat bar for drop-bar bikes. As anyone who’s retrofitted a flat bar onto a bike with geometry designed around a drop handlebar might know, that usually ushers in some compromises, shortening the reach and negatively impacting on the bike’s handling.
(Read more.)
ROCKSHOX GOES GRAVEL WITH RUDY XPLR SUSPENSION FORK AND REVERB XPLR DROPPER
By: JAMES HUANGDo you really need suspension on a gravel bike? The idea of suspension forks on gravel bikes has always been a contentious one, and the bike industry hasn’t exactly done itself any favors given what was available early on.
Several of the most popular ones were just chopped-down obsolete mountain bike forks, and they looked and rode like them. They were heavy, they were ugly, and the afterthought tuning just didn’t work well enough to convince enough people that they were worth the substantial hit in weight and cost. Cannondale’s Lefty Oliver fork has probably come the closest functionally, but its single-sided design and proprietary hub present its own hurdles to adoption.
(Read more.)
MICROSHIFT ADVENT X GRAVEL BIKE GROUPSET REVIEW: BIG RANGE, SMALL PRICE
By: DAVE ROMEWith a rear derailleur, a wide-range cassette, and a pair of dropbar shifters all for US$287, you’d be easily excused for assuming that MicroShift’s Advent X drivetrain components are kinda crummy. Instead, they’re solid proof that bike parts don’t need to be expensive to function reliably.
In a market almost devoid of low cost 1x drivetrain options suitable for gravel riding, this single-ring mini-groupset is a glimmer of hope. However, some aspects of it shine brighter than others.
(Read more.)
A 64×15 AND $10,000 BARS: ASHTON LAMBIE’S SUB-4-MINUTE PURSUIT BIKE
By: RONAN MC LAUGHLINAshton Lambie has cemented a place for himself in the history books as the first person to ride a 4 km pursuit in under four minutes. An achievement of immense magnitude, some might say it is at least the cycling equivalent of Roger Bannister’s sub-four-minute mile in 1954. While Bannister achieved what many considered physiologically impossible at the time and broke down an apparent collective mental barrier for humanity, there was a certain inevitability about someone, sometime soon, breaking the four-minute 4 km pursuit barrier.
That is not to detract from Lambie’s achievement but is rather a collective acknowledgement of the progression in modern sport. The sub-four-minute pursuit became an equation: massive human engine + sports science and physiology understanding + technological advancement = 3:59.930
(Read more.)
SPOTLIGHT: SHIMANO’S NEW BRAKE BLEED TOOLS
By: DAVE ROMEOn paper, Shimano hydraulic brakes have always been rather simple to bleed, but in practice little things such as getting the hose to stay on the bleed nipple offered room for improvement.
Shimano recently released three new bleed tools aiming to smooth the process of bleeding its brakes, and while they’re still made of plastic, they offer some notable (but small) improvements over the old.
(Read more.)
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cyclingtips.com/2021/07/1026-km-austrian-ultra-cyclist-sets-new-24-hour-world-record
The goal of that podcast wasn't to tell you the best chain lube (which is dependant on conditions and desired user effort related to prep/cleaning/ongoing maintenance), but rather to inform people on why so many manufacturer claims don't add up.
We'll have a feature and podcast that dives into the "best" in the near future.
However sponsored riders are not allowed to take advantage of this, but everyone else can!
In the UK it rains ALOT so I run a Ceramic wet lube from FinishLine pretty much all year only putting less on in that one dry day. I do also put it on the inside of the chain. Bugs me when you see people putting it on the outside of a chain. Thanks for responding and keep the podcasts coming. It helps pass the time at work.
Hope my boss doesn't read this!
Cheers.
But still not as good as completely sealed chain drive!
I would be surprised if the hope/lotus team had not seen that patent and implemented some of those ideas on their machine, whether that has been taken far enough to count as an infringement would be what highly paid lawyers would be sorting out.
At LBS.....I was just riding along and I taco'd my wheel.
At Olympics.....I was just riding along and now have splinters on my nose
My profession is also motorsports, my daily job is failure analysis and risk mitigation for a multiple championship winning team across two continents. Is failure a part of motorsports? Yes. Is it something we accept? No. We’ve won multiple championships and it wasn’t by having spectacular failures. It was through reliability, lifing of marginal components.
Bastion wasn’t making some super trick one off part. It was for sale to the public (they subsequently retracted it). Only a fool is taking risks there. Lawsuits alone aren’t worth the effort. As for top tier competition, The only peeps taking big risks are those with nothing to lose. Australia were medal favourites. Even a 500g heavier bar wasn’t going to loose them a medal. The idea of risking it to win the biscuit is a nice romantic thought. And a foolish one. To finish first first you must.
As for cost of 3D printed parts it comes down to print time. Small parts can be economical. Larger parts tend to suck time wise. And often still need post print machining of key elements.
it highlights lack of safety margin. Good engineers factor loads. The aircraft industry typically works to a margin of about 1.8:1. They run the closest as they are concerned with weight. And it’s also why everything, much like a race car, has a life. It doesn’t matter how shiny and new it looks, once a component reaches its lifing limit it’s replaced (aircraft typically use cycles - takeoff/land, race cars typically use mileage). Cyclists tend to life things by either when they see something else they can’t live without if they are dentists and until it fails for everyone else.
Sure over tightening a bolt can be bad. With good design the worsted that should happen is stripped threads.
Just about every single motorsports category and bicycles (via the UCI) have a minimum weight. Building a track bike under the uci limit isn’t hard. Nor is it important (for a velodrome race)
You’ll note also the the break line is fairly neat and tidy. That suggests to me that the failure happened along a print layer, highlighting the lack of a uniform dendritic growth that is typical of 3D printing.