The Spoke Word: E-Bikes Coming Into Their Own
Interesting story from CNN today about the booming market for electric bikes. There were 200,000 of them sold in the U.S. alone last year. We still haven't caught up to Europe, where e-bikes are reportedly the fastest selling category in bike shops, or China, where there are 100 million of them in use. But 200,000 in one year is impossible to ignore.
Based on visits to a few bike manufacturers this summer and the Interbike trade show last month, I can say e-bikes are a constant topic of conversation in the industry. Major brands like Trek, Giant, and Schwinn all have electric lines now, and they're being joined in the U.S. market by new and established e-bike manufacturers like Sanyo and Kalkhoff.
Is there an e-bike in your garage or in your future? Yes, they can look a little clunky sometimes. But they don't have to. The photos below are of a working prototype I saw at a Trek dealer event this summer, styled to look like a pre-1910 Harley Davidson—right down to analogue gauges and a "gas tank" to conceal the battery.
—John Bradley
Twitter: johnwbradley
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October 14, 2009
The Spoke Word: 2010 Tour de France Route Announced
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme unveiled the route for next year's Tour in Paris today. The 2,237-mile race will start in the dutch city of Rotterdam and wind through Belgium before taking a clockwise loop around Paris.
The route includes six mountain stages, with three of those ending in summit finishes, plus four "medium mountain" stages. Aside from the 5.6-mile opening Prologue in Rotterdam, the race will have just one individual time trial—a 37-mile stage on the Tour's penultimate day—and no team time trial. So it's a route that favors climbers like Alberto Contador and has fewer opportunities for TT specialists and strong TT teams like Lance Armstrong and his new Radio Shack squad. You can already see the story lines unfolding.
"There will be only a 60 K individual time trial," Armstrong said in a Team Astana press release (he's technically an Astana rider until the end of the year). "But the only thing that is unfortunate for us is that there will be no team time trial. The race will technically and tactically be much different than this year. You will have more guys who will be factors in the race because of the lack of the team time trial. In 2009 the TTT eliminated half of a dozen guys."
Another challenge will be the inclusion of cobblestone sectors in the north of France, where the route will take in roads used in Paris-Roubaix. The cobbles are dangerous enough, but the jockeying for position before the race enters those narrow paths is where the riders will be most exposed to crashes.
Still, the real story will be the mountains, especially the Pyrenees. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Tour's first mountain stages—in the Pyrenees—the riders will spend much of the final week climbing those mountains on the border of Spain. Most spectacularly, the route goes up the iconic Tourmalet twice. The second time will be a summit finish just four days before Paris.
"It will be a better Tour for climbers than for rouleurs," Contador said in the same Astana press release (he's currently trying to get out of his contract there). "Honestly I would have preferred a 10-K shorter time trial and a second one of 20 or 30 K, but I am really happy about the course. It will be a very difficult race to control in the first week, which is particularly difficult with the Paris-Roubaix cobblestones, but I don’t give it too much importance. The most important thing will be not to crash. I hope it will not rain there. The Alps stages will be less hard. The Pyrenees will be twice as hard as this year, especially with the double climb of the Tourmalet."
Full route details here.
Photo credit © ASO
—John Bradley
Twitter: johnwbradley
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October 12, 2009
The Spoke Word: Belgian Cyclist Found Dead
Belgian cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke, whose once promising career was repeatedly derailed by doping scandal, drug and alcohol problems, and depression, was found dead today. AFP has the story here.
John Bradley
Twitter: johnwbradley
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October 06, 2009
The Spoke Word: Bike Sharing Coming to a City Near You?
Maybe. Denver will be the first city in the U.S. to launch a Paris-style bike-sharing program. A $50 annual membership gets you free use of bikes at drop-off stations around the city. Minneapolis, Boston, and Miami to follow. Huffington Post has the full story here.
—John Bradley
Twitter: johnwbradley
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September 29, 2009
The Spoke Word: Bike Beats Helicopter (and car, and bus)
This is very cool. The video needs to be edited down to about 25 percent of its current length. But the contest and the result are great. (Found via Lance Armstrong's Twitter feed)
—John Bradley
Twitter: johnwbradley
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September 24, 2009
The Spoke Word: Chicken Soup for Interbike
No big updates from the show today, unfortunately. I'm in my hotel room eating room-service chicken soup and battling a head cold that started yesterday. I'm still holding out hope that I'll be able to return to the show floor tomorrow. In the meantime, I found a couple more photos from yesterday.
Here is the fork with the proprietary hidden front brake calipers from the Storck Aero 2 that I mentioned yesterday.
Italian shoe maker Sidi announced a lighter, revised carbon sole in its top shoes and also this awesome new blue colorway in it's top mountain-bike shoe, the Dragon 2.
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The Spoke Word: Day 1 Interbike Eye Candy
Some goodies from the show floor at Interbike:
Here's the Scott Addict that Mark Cavendish rode to six stage wins at the 2009 Tour de France. Check the gigantic stem he uses to withstand the torque he applies to the handlebars while sprinting.
Continue reading "The Spoke Word: Day 1 Interbike Eye Candy" »
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September 23, 2009
The Spoke Word: The Ride Ends
We made it into Las Vegas on Tuesday, right on schedule. Writing about a ride like that—600 miles in six days, over mountain passes and through scorching deserts—is beyond me at this moment. I'm assuming that, a few days from now, I'll have some perspective and be better able to recall what we went through. Right now, though, I can't recall much beyond the dinners at the end of each day (despite all the riding, I somehow managed to gain 2 lbs). The rest is kind of a blur.
I remember that I suffered terribly—to the point that I frequently wanted to get off the bike. But I don't really remember any specific suffering. I can recite the figures that went along with it—30-mph headwinds on a climb out of Lone Pine, California; 117 degree temperatures in Death Valley; seven-hour days in the saddle—and I know that I got through it all. But I'm not sure how, nor can I recall what it was like.
Regardless, there's not a lot of time for reflection right now. We got off our bikes at the Interbike trade show, and I spent all day today looking at new bikes and accessories, which is how I'll spend the rest of the week. So, for now, it's onto writing about the show. I'll revisit the ride once I've downloaded the photos and made sense of it all.
—John Bradley
Twitter: johwbradley
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September 20, 2009
The Spoke Word: Finally, an Update from the Ride
At last, a wi-fi connection! We’re done with day four of the Komen Ride to Vegas. Just two more to go.
Today’s 101-mile ride started with a 3,400-foot descent from Mammoth Lakes, California. Then we had 70 miles of flats with a strong tailwind into Lone Pine, in the shadow of Mt. Whitney and the Sierras. It all added up to us covering the 101 miles in just less than four hours.
The Komen ride, if you missed my earlier post, is an annual undertaking by Specialized to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. About 35 of us set out from Specialized HQ in Morgan Hill, California, on Thursday and are riding to Las Vegas for the annual Interbike trade show. Our crew includes a few journalists, several Specialized dealers from around the country, Specialized owner Mike Sinyard and a few of his employees, and Rebecca Rusch, the current 24-hour mountain-bike world champion, whom we profiled back in 2003.
We started on Wednesday with full bike fits at Specialized’s offices, then a quick ride to make sure everything was working well. I’m on the company’s flagship race bike, a 2010 Tarmac SL3, outfitted with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 electronic drivetrain and Road Tubeless wheels (a personal favorite). It’s a fast and, importantly for this ride, comfortable rig. Since then, here’s how things have unfolded:
Day 1: We were joined for our first day by “Amazing Race” host Phil Keoghan, who, in addition to riding from Los Angeles to New York this past spring, is also a competitive track cyclist—a strong, strong rider. I’ll view his show a bit differently after being ridden off his wheel. He was only able to join us for one day, unfortunately, as he had to leave Friday to be home in time for the weekend's Emmy Awards, where he was nominated for best reality host.
Continue reading "The Spoke Word: Finally, an Update from the Ride" »
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September 11, 2009
The Spoke Word: I'm Really Doing This?
Some of you may remember The Crazy Bet ride that I did last summer—240 miles and 30,000+ feet of climbing over two days, basically on a dare. Well, starting Thursday, Sept. 17, I'm doing the following:
Day 1 – From Morgan Hill to Lake McSwain: 130 miles, 13,364 feet of climbing
Day 2 – From Lake McSwain to Yosemite: 70 miles, 12,857 feet of climbing
Day 3 – From Yosemite through Tioga Pass to Mammoth: 100 miles, 13,257 feet of climbing
Day 4 – From Mammoth to Lone Pine: 100 miles, 2000 feet of climbing
Day 5 – From Lone Pine through Death Valley to Furnace Creek: 104 miles, 6809 feet of climbing
Day 6 – From Furnace Creek to the Dirt Demo outside Vegas: 134 miles, 8530 feet of climbing
Why? Because somebody asked me to, and because it's raising money for breast-cancer research.
For three years now, Specialized has invited a few journalists and bike-industry types to join several company employees, including founder Mike Sinyard, on a ride from Specialized HQ near San Francisco to Las Vegas, site of the annual Interbike trade show. Specialized donates money for each rider to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation and solicits additional donations along the way.
The company put up a site today to collect donations. If you'd like to give, go to www.specialized.com/komen and click on the "Donate" link.
In all honesty, I'm way, way less trained for this than I was for the Crazy Bet—I'm a full 10 lbs heavier than I was then—and this ride will involve a lot more miles and climbing. So the knowledge that people are giving money might give me a little boost over the passes. I'm going to need all the help I can get.
I'll be blogging about the ride, and also posting frequent updates on all the new bikes and cycling news from Interbike, here and on Twitter. So please be sure to check back.
—John Bradley
Twitter: johnwbradley
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