Talking to the Race Mechanics

I found out on my recent foray into the pro racing world, the first as a journalist since my last Tour de France in 2002 (working for A.S.O. hosting their post-race, English language race reports), that like me, many old pros are riding off into the sunset on exactly the machines they want, with no commercial considerations clouding their equipment choices. In other words, the best possible stuff available according to personal experience and judgment. 

I wrestled with the choices surrounding my latest ‘mistress’, a bright red, traffic-stopping (seriously) Pinarello F12. Full disclosure: This is the fourth Pina I’ve bought – I wrote about them last summer – and I’ve recently been brought into the Pinarello “family”, albeit as somewhat of a fourth cousin, twice removed. I also have a relationship with Shimano as I was born in Japan, love Japanese culture and things, and have always been a great admirer of the legendary Wayne Stetina, the Shimano executive who works with product development and their sponsored racing teams. I also use Rapha clothing, find their products very well made, long lasting and technically excellent. While all of the above companies now make it easy for me to get into their products, those relationships began after I was a few bikes and several sets of shorts in. I’m riding the stuff I want to ride. 

The big issue with the new Pina, was of course the decision on whether to go to disc brakes or not. I endured a veritable chorus of disc brake fervor from my Central Park riding friends, about how, “you’ll be sorry if you don't get them” and so forth, yet something held me back. I kept thinking about Team Ineos who, with that massive budget allowing them free rein in equipment choice, combined with their deep research abilities, have stuck to rim brakes. I also spoke with a team director friend who, surprisingly, told me that his disc brake equipped riders begged him all year to allow them to change over to rim brakes for the Tour de France – it didn’t happen. 

I ended up with a rim brake machine and am so happy I did, especially after hanging with the mechanics down in Colombia and getting the – emphatically off the record- inside views on the current equipment situation. The one theme I kept hearing was that the bicycle industry is using teams for product development rather than putting them on perfected equipment. The SRAM derailleur failures last year are an example of this practice. 

Many issues still remain with disc brake systems. Besides the fact that they add 500 grams (one pound) to a bicycle and make wheel changes difficult and slow, the brake rotors are constantly warping, sometimes even after a single hard descent. That “ping-ping-ping” of the rotor hitting the sides of the brake, which seems as thin as credit card swipe, drives racers (and everyone else I’m assuming) mad and is source of drag to boot. Brake pads are fast-wearing and changing them is certainly much more difficult than it is for rim systems. 

The completely integrated bicycles we have today make life a sheer misery for race mechanics. A handlebar replacement takes at least two-hours, and sometimes, if time is short, mechanics have to resort to what is known as a “spot bleed” for the hydraulic discs, a shortcut to avoid the complications and time required of a full disassembly and bleed. It’s a risky practice that stresses the wrenches out to no small degree as they are never completely sure if air has gotten into the system or not. The wide new SciCon bike travel bags, designed so that the bicycle can be put in with the handlebars untouched, have this issue in mind. The initial stopping period of the discs is quicker, that’s certain, which has changed the way the racers ride the descents, giving one another much more room than they did in the pre-disc era. My thoughts are, for we earth-bound cyclists, that if you’re in a situation where you think that discs will save you and rim brakes won’t…it’s in fact too late and you’re already toast.

Then on to tubeless tires, especially after the latest Cyclingnews article announcing the death of tubulars and the complete ascendancy of tubeless in the pro peloton. Not so fast boys and please begin to label your sponsored content as such. While, according to the article, EF Pro Cycling did indeed win the opening TTT in Colombia on tubeless, the flat, three-turn racecourse hardly offered a challenging testing ground for the new technology. The team used tubular (100+ year old design which is basically an inflated cotton bag with tread on top glued to the rim) tires, as did every other team, for the remaining stages of the race. UAE Team Emirates too for that matter (There was another article featuring one of their mechanics espousing tubeless as the future).

There are even more issues surrounding tubeless than there are with disc brakes, most prominently the phenomena of “burping”, which occurs when the wheel pops up in the air and comes down hard, or hits something in the road, forcing a section of the tire to separate from the rim for a millimeter and milli-second. When that happens with mountain bikes, the suddenly escaping air (no tube to hold it in) drops the pressure from 35 psi to 20 psi – no big deal, inconvenient at worst. On a road bike, at speed, the pressure collapses from 85 psi to 20 – and disaster hits. I’m convinced that this is what happened to UAE’s Alexander Kristoff at last year’s Paris-Roubaix when he flatted three-times on the hard-hitting cobblestones, quite possibly costing him the race. 

Air travel is a big problem too as inflated tubeless tire tend to explode when high in the air, and if air is let out before the travel, messy issues with leaking sealant come into play.

I have a riding friend named George, who is one of these people that things just happen to, making for the most delightful and hilarious stories. For example, last year he was riding the Cent Col Challenge (don’t ask me why but it’s 100 mountain passes in 10-days) and there he was, exhausted and alone, lost in the Dolomites with the sun going down along with the temperature, stuck with no food on the side of the road without cell service, his frozen fingers unable to get his repaired tire back on the rim, literally in tears. An Audi S8 came roaring up the mountain pass and screeched to a halt. A Versace clad Signor kissed his magnificent wife, jumped out, pulled off his calfskin driving gloves and set to fixing George’s flat. He then raced up to the top of the mountain and a garden party, marshalling all of his equally beautiful friends to toast and cheer George as he crawled past them up the climb. That’s George.

George tried tubeless. He was in a race and hit something that sliced the front tire. The “milk”, or sealant, sprayed all over George’s groin and inner legs bringing him to the discovery that he in fact had a severe allergy to latex. His, sorry have to say it, throbbing groin and inflamed inner legs kept him off the bike for weeks. Thus ended George’s tubeless career.

As for me, I float along on the very best 28 mm tubulars I can find, inflated to 6 BAR (85 psi), on Shimano C60 carbon wheels. If riding far from home I’ll throw on a pair of latex-tubed clinchers. I’ve been liking the new 28mm Pirello PZeros - I’ve no relationship whatsoever with Pirelli for the record. 

Modern racing bicycles are simply astounding, beyond anything I’d ever imagined, even after 50-years of riding. The afore-mentioned Cyclingnews article criticized the inherent conservatism of the racing world. We’re conservative for a reason: while innovations have been spectacular, not every bicycle industry latest-and-greatest is an improvement. Tubulars will rule the racing world for a good time to come. Talk to me in five-years about disc brakes when they’ve finally gotten them sorted out. For now, I’m on my dream machine and nothing will convince me otherwise.