Last week, Facebook offered me an interesting group named “Vintage Carbon Nonsense and Marketplace”. It is an interesting group, dedicated to the ’80s and ’90s carbon bikes.
Carbon-fiber frames have a longer history than most people think. According to Wikipedia, the American bike producer Kestrel produced the world’s very first all-carbon bicycle frame in 1986. But before then, there were hybrid designs, like carbon fiber tubes bonded to titanium or aluminum lugs.
How bicycle wheels are made: here’s a nice video showing the construction of Fulcrum Racing Zero aluminum bicycle wheels. It’s too good, almost mesmerizing.
Ernesto Colnago celebrates his 85th birthday with a special edition bike: Ottanta5. Ottanta means “eighty” in Italian, so the meaning of the bike is “85”. The bike will be available in a limited edition of only 85 pieces.
The bike is handmade in Italy, as a special edition Colnago should be.
Hugo Koblet, “Pédaleur de charme“, and Fausto Coppi, “Il Campionissimo”, two post-war era giants. They were good friends, until the Giro d’Italia 1953 edition. After that Giro, they would never speak to each other again. But, what happened?
This afternoon (on January 4, 2017) 105-year-old French cyclist Robert Marchand set the hour record for the category created especially for him by the UCI (105+). At the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome near Paris, managed to complete 22.547 kilometers in an hour! He fell just short of his 2014 record of 26.927 kilometers but what a phenomenal achievement!
A huge crowd cheered Marchand during his record-setting on trackside. He carried number 105 on his back.
Today, twice UCI World Champion Peter Sagan published his new bike’s photo on his Twitter account: a custom Specialized S-Works Venge.
Sagan’s new bike is equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and Roval wheels. On the top tube, near the junction point with the seat post, his name, the flag of Slovakia, and the colors of his rainbow jersey, which he will continue to wear next year, printed.
Here is the bike of the day: a black and white Basso Diamante SV, an Italian Beauty. This bike is assembled by Veloholic Cycles, a local bike shop in Vancouver, Canada.
Kazakh team Astana will ride Argon 18 bikes in 2017, instead of Specialized. The UCI WorldTour team will also be switching the components and drivetrain sponsor: they’ll use FSA gears and Vision wheels and components (they were using Campagnolo drivetrain).
Giro d’Italia 2017, the 100th edition of the race will start on May 5, Friday in Alghero, a town in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The route is completely within the borders of Italy. The iconic Passo dello Stelvio (Stelvio Pass) is the 2017 Cima Coppi. The final stage will be a time trial, from the famous Monza racetrack to the Milan Cathedral.
The Giro d’Italia is the first of the three grand tours in the cycling calendar and is generally regarded as the second most important race in cycling. Here is a short history of Giro with numbers. Overall winners, mountain, points, young rider, and team classifications.