Cycle Systems Online

To round off the tumultuous 2020 we shall try to lift your spirits with a round table, ‘virtual Christmas drinks’ with some of our and hopefully your favourite cycling tech people. Featuring, Caroline Stewart of https://cscyclecoaching.wordpress.com/ Troy Laffey from https://www.sram.com/en/sram Scott Dedenbach and David Palan from https://wideanglepodium.com/bike-shop-cx/ John Galloway from https://velocast.cc/ and of course Sean from CSA, we take a look at everyone’s life in 2020 and try to make sense of it all.Have a tipple of booze or herbal tea with us as we get as close as most of us can to a good old knees up down the pub. Enjoy, thanks for your company this year and we’ll all see you soon.Sean, Julia and the Cycle Systems team!

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https://www.dtswiss.com/en are a very well established brand in the busy wheel market. In this superb gear head pod we get down and not very dirty (it IS Switzerland after all) into the technology behind world beating wheels.Here is the factory tour video Sean mentions https://www.dtswiss.com/enSo tune in and find out why aluminium nipples are not so bad, steel is most definitely real and women are the best wheel builders!You can check out the DT Swiss Academy Martin mentions herehttps://www.dtswiss.com/en/dtswiss/business-partner/dt-swiss-academyThis pod will be the first of two, with the next one to focus on DT Swiss’ suspension development and design coming in the New Year.

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https://cyclingtips.com despite sounding like a beginners guide, is in fact one of the most interesting cycling media platforms of the moment. Including traditional racing coverage, in depth reportage and superb tech content and a successful and engaged Membership subscription to help to pay for it all, the Veloclub. https://cyclingtips.com/veloclub-welcome-page/Their weekly podcast is a mainstay for many people’s engagement with the cycling world and has sprouted equally entertaining offshoots, such as Sean’s favourite, the Nerd Alert tech pod. https://cyclingtips.com/tag/nerd-alert/Sean chat’s to Caley Fretz, editor-in-chief about his background in cycling, how Cycling Tips found it’s unique voice and a few small topics such as diversity and corruption in cycle sport!

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Sean is joined again by Mike Stead from www.road.cc to discuss the growth of touring by eBikes and the rise of infrastructure that supports this. Mike has particular insight into this as he has facilitated four new Bosch charging stations on the www.Perthshiregravel.com route he has been instrumental in creating.Other charging stations can be found here https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/powerstations/Of course it wouldn’t be a new genre of cycling without new bikes, right? The German manufacturers in particular have been heads down for a few years working on just this, the ‘Trekking eMTB’. With models as radical as the Nikolai G1 Eboxx e14 https://en.nicolai-bicycles.com/bike/g1-eboxx-e14/ through to the similar but more sedate Reise und Muller Delite https://www.r-m.de/en-gb/bikes/delite/ this genre looks to appeal to hardcore shredders and a completely new market too.Of course, we always come across a few funny gems along the way. Here’s the electric trailer we mentioned. https://ridekick.com/Here’s the cargo eBike trip with a dog Mike mentions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX_uhdP3SM0&ab_channel=THESEARCH A nice film by Marcus Stitz about the Perthshire Gravel routeshttps://youtu.be/r29PQeOjtZ8Ed Oxley’s European odyssey on a freight eBike https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/news/video-900-miles-across-europe-on-an-e-cargo-bike-1389

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We all know that The UCI is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.(Thank you, Hunter S. Thompson)However, they do have a technical department that prevents the Tour de France being ridden on Triathlon bikes, so there is that!All joking aside, the UCI technical regulations are a critical part of cycle sport and of course affect the bikes we will eventually ride as well.Join John and Sean as they look in detail at these new rules and how they may pan out in 2021 for the bikes the pros (and you) will be riding.

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Many of you will know that generic bike reviews are often little more than marketing pap or re-hashed press releases, only for the bike’s flaws to be knowingly highlighted in the following year’s review of its replacement. As if the reviewer didn’t know them in the first place!As mechanics, we work on many 9/10 reviewed bikes regularly, see which ones walk the talk and why. What factors make a bike great to ride, simple to work on (or at least not a nightmare) and future proof in an ever changing world? Join Sean and John for a subjective, if informed view in what they look for when selecting a new steed.

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Once upon a time there was no such thing as mountain bikes. Yes, many people rode all sorts of bikes off road, some even modified their machines into true all terrain machines, but it took a bunch of Bay Area hippies to create mountain biking as a bona fide sub culture, with a brand new type of racing, (downhill off road time trials), an underground ethos and truly radical and beautiful bikes that evolved from mechanical experiments with old clunkers into handbuild masterpieces by Gary Breeze and Tom Richey.That story is told in full in the film Klunkerz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sjRCzRrPac and one of the main characters is the one and only Gary Fisher. https://mmbhof.org/gary-fisher/Gary’s story has been told many times, although there are so many ideas and memories buzzing round his head at any one time, it is a bit different each time, like looking at a different side of a gem and seeing many reflections. Very exciting news for us is a new book by Gary called ‘Being Gary Fisher (and the Bicycle Revolution) is out 01/11/20 and Gary takes us through it’s conception, creative process and most importantly, where we can buy it! https://www.trekbikes.com/For this week’s pod, we didn’t want to cover old ground that you’ve heard before, but rather draw on Gary’s roots with the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey and Jefferson Airplane and his early days of road racing right through to what drives and inspires him now. At a time when the humble bicycle could really change the world (again) Gary, as ever has many words of wisdom, humour and kindness for us. So whether you like to shred a black run, bike pack over mongolia, race an eMTB or even groove on 1960s psychedelic light shows, Gary has helped define your life as he has mine. Enjoy the ride.For the first time this week’s pod also has its own playlist, because for us the 60s children really were the greatest generation. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2IRomebwJKFW11Pw88txe4

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Now and then we meet an individual who is not your average bike trade type, but who has such a great insight into and passion for the bicycle that we end up talking for hours. Such was the case when Sean met Hani Rashid at an event in Treviso and despite their varying backgrounds hit it off immediately. We knew that Hani would be an engaging podcast guest and it has proven to be the case.The co-founder of https://www.asymptote.net/ and Professor at https://www.dieangewandte.at/ Hani has just released a very limited edition of Pinarello bikes for World Bicycle Relief. https://www.hanixpinarello.com/ In this pod Sean delves into Hani’s past and philosophy in order to try to understand the mind and soul behind this varied and inspiring body of work. We then look together at the future and where we (and bikes) fit in!

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This week we welcome the return of Scott Drawer, the former Head of Performance at Team Sky, British Cycling as well as other leading roles in British Rugby and other sports inferior to cycling!Scott has now stepped back from the manic schedule of a full time employee of a World Tour team and has taken a role at a leading English school, as head of Sport. In this wide ranging and fascinating chat, Scott discusses the realities of life at the top, for riders, mechanics and staff as well as the route to get there avoiding the classic angry P.E. teacher methodology.

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While you may have read about the new Campagnolo Ekar groupset online, or even been lucky enough to test ride it from a Campagnolo Pro Shop dealer, you won’t have had this much insight we reckon.Long term listeners will have heard Graeme before but for the uninitiated, he is the head of Campagnolo tech training in the UK and founder of the excellent https://www.velotech-cycling.ltd.uk/training.shtml He also spanners for the World Tour team, Movistar and is involved in much product development at Campagnolo’s HQ in Vicenza, Italia.In this pod, Graeme explains the thinking behind the new Ekar gravel groupset, its place in the market and the tech in each piece as well as how it all works together. We were particularly pleased with some of the news concerning disc brakes as well as excited to try this new groupo out for ourselves soon.Many CSA Level 3 graduates go on to do the Campagnolo Pro Shop course with Graeme. Contact him at Velotech for details, for non UK listeners, contact Campagnolo to find out your regional training provider. https://www.velotech-cycling.ltd.uk/campagnolo.shtmlGraeme has also provided some excellent lessons for CSA Members, from EPS to Ergopower servicing and much more new and old Campag tech. https://cycle-systems.lpages.co/cycle-systems-founding-members/You can find your nearest Campagnolo Pro Shop here https://www.campagnolo.com/UK/en/Shops/proshopGraeme is active on social media, on twitter as @gfk_velo

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