The Seduction of Symbols
There was a time when bicycles were lovingly handmade by artisans who themselves loved the sport more than those for whom they built the machines. Lugs were filed to become Luggs; chain and seat stays were beautifully chromed for durability despite the grams it added to the frame’s final weight; spokes were chosen for their purpose and laced to hubs and rims in a pattern that suited the specific purpose the wheel was intended to serve. Throughout the process – from building the frame to manufacturing of the components – extra care was taken to make every element of the bicycle beautiful; these bicycles, when you are in their presence, radiate La Vie Velominatus.
As was customary at the time, components would be pantographed and frames repainted and rebranded, leaving behind little evidence of their origin. But hidden in the components and frames were symbols that the manufacturers stamped into their wares to preserve their identity; Colnago their Fiore, Cinelli their C, and Campa their Shield. These symbols have come to hold great meaning within the sport and we of a certain ilk scour the photos of our heroes’ bikes for evidence of their existence.
For a variety of reasons including cost, proprietary tube-shapes, and repeatability of production, these practices have largely died away in mainstream bicycle manufacturing; in fact, nearly every element in the art of bicycle building that requires attention and skill is slowing being eliminated from the craft. Ahead-set stems have replaced the need for a carefully adjusted headset and stem, sealed-bearing bottom brackets and hubs have eliminated the subtle touch required to hold a race in place with one hand while tightening the assembly with the other. By and large, the machines and riders are stronger than the terrain they race over, leaving little practical need for the attention to detail and customization that once came as a matter of course.
There is, however, one magical week of racing where the terrain is still stronger than the riders: the cobbled classics of de Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. This is the one week during which the Pros still require highly customized machines and we, as fans, can scour the photos of our heroes’ kit, looking for the symbols tucked away in the components to discern their origins. One such symbol is the brass badge affixed to the valve-hole on Ambrosio rims.
These rims are chosen by the Specialists for their strength on the stones regardless of what wheel sponsorship obligations might exist within the team. Their mystique is further deepened for those of us living in the States because they aren’t available here. It follows, then, that the Golden Ticket, as I call it, is something I’ve coveted for as long as I can remember (which, admittedly, isn’t very long and, upsettingly, keeps getting less long) but have never had a good enough reason to justify procuring from Europe. But Keepers Tour, Cobbled Classics 2012 provided the perfect justification to go about finding a set and I wasted no time in doing so. Upon arrival, the rims spent the better part of two weeks sitting in my living room or next to my bed, patiently waiting for me to pick them up and rub my thumb over the badge, just to reassure myself they were still there.
Not long after the rims arrived, I excitedly loaded a picture of Boonen in the 2010 Ronde and turned the laptop to show my VMH.
Frank: Hey, what do you see.
VMH: Boonen. Goddamn, he’s a stud. Don’t let me too close to him; I can’t be responsible for my actions.
Frank: What about his wheels.
VMH: What?
Frank: Don’t you see? He’s got my rims.
VMH: You can’t possibly know that.
Frank: Openly shows his exasperation by groaning audibly and rolling his eyes. Yes, I do. Check it. You can see the Golden Ticket on his back wheel. Its obvious as shit. What’s wrong with you?
VMH: Sighs, pours another glass of wine. Exits stage left. Hopefully not for good.
*Coincidentally, on the same day that this article was being written, Inrng published a similar (better) article on a related subject of hand-built wheels. Well worth the read: The Dying Art of Wheelbuilding
@Bongo
That’s a good suggestion! I’m actually having the same problem on my R3 – a recurring thing that comes and goes. I’ve regreased the seatpost before but forgot about that. I’ll try that one as well.
We had a good chat on fixing noises a while back: In Pursuit of Silence
@eightzero
Sounds your woman and mine are cut from the same cloth. Only I can’t imagine why you’d be riding behind her. I’ve seen her, and I’ve seen you. You trying to get a draft off her is like a elephant hiding behind a mouse.
@Gianni
Do you mean paralel or perpendicular?
@jaja
Does that bike come with compulsory plus-twos, tweed socks and a flat cap? How many children fit in that saddlebag?
@frank
Great bit of writing. Those rims look so cool I almost want to build some up. Being Oli-old, i.e. pre-Mavic factory wheels old, I have built my share of wheelsets mostly because that’s what you did. My first wheel truing stand was the Peugeot, using the brakes as guides and a pencil across the calipers as a check on roundness.
I never got great at it, spokes tended to work loose after many km but I wouldn’t notice until the one spoke that was holding it true broke, ping, and then ya open up the brakes and finish the ride with a huge wobble.
I embraced my factory Campa wheels completely. I’ve never trued them, ever, and they must have 40K km on them. But go with Merckx, get some kilometers on them before April and retrue. And forget the copper wire and solder advice I gave you, it’s overkill and as someone pointed out, you can’t replace a spoke easily. It’s rubbish.
@frank
Yep. Size matters. And it isn’t for the draft; it’s because she can’t see around me when she sits my wheel. Like she needs to do that – she climbs faster than me (sweet mother of Merckx, everyone climbs faster than me) and is like the energizer bunny on most centuries. Besides, I can see over her when I’m not admiring her ass. Telling you, if I get too close to that, I can’t be responsible for my actions.
While we’re talking wheelbuilding, this is maybe a good place to bring up the recent buzz about road disk brakes. I have a buddy that rides a tandem, and he says disk road brakes are the nuts. He’d never go back to rim brakes.
Not sure how I feel about riding on a dished front wheel. And I’m sure not going to fuck with hydraulic shitte.
Depends on the execution I guess. Discuss? Cyclocrossers?
Disk brakes for road bike application?? I can see advantages for their use on log haul treking bikes, tandems, and certainly CX. I have read that the widespread use of carbon wheels and their inconsistent braking surface has stimulated interest for road bike applications. Since I don’t rid carbon wheels, rim brakes have been ok for me. Besides, brakes are over rated anyway, they just slow you down.
Bruyneel really wants them apparently, which makes me disinclined.
Does anyone with carbon wheels have anything to add? If you can lock them up with rim brakes, why bother with disks?
Someone had this up in comments somewhere saying this is when Bruyneel got the idea, I lol’d.
@Oli
Too much Affligem? There are worse things…
@wrench
You will never see a disk brake on my road bikes. MTB, OK…Cross, maybe, but a disk brake on a road bike is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. All that will happen is you’ll lock up your wheel and pop your tire. On a road bike with slick tires on pavement, the problem with stopping quickly has to do much more with slowing down quickly but without locking up the wheel. The brakes we use on road bikes, assuming they are well adjusted, work as well as they need to. In fact, I would argue they already work too well.
@Eightzero
A tandem is NOT a road bike. You have to stop a lot of mass, so it makes much more senes. Plus, a tandem is already an abomination of style and class, so fuck ’em. A disk brake on a tandem is fine. Let ’em do what they want.
@DerHoggz
The theory is that with disc brakes you get more modulation potential… I interpret that to mean a wider potential range of brake input from initial squeeze to wheel lock up, which should yield more control. There is an article in December Bicycling magazine that goes through the math behind the “more modulation” statement I led with. The look like shit on the bike whatever their technical advantages are.
@GottaRideToday
This.
@DerHoggz
And this.
Disk brakes would not have corrected his problem. He just made an error descending. Again. Disk brakes in this case are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
Braking on carbon rims is fine. There are no more crashes on descents with carbon wheels than there were with alu wheels. Descending takes skill. End of.
@frank
I have a pile of GP4’s, GL330’s and 280’s in the attic I’m considering relacing onto new hubs for weekends but haven’t pulled the trigger as I am barely riding the road bike on weekends any how.
Upon returning from a season on the continent my bike sat in the travel case for almost a year. A friend coaxed me into riding again and watched as I pulled it out of the case, mud from the last rainy kermis dried and caked on and I washed and rebuit it. When done, he chastised me for simply rinsing the Flemmish dirt down the driveway without any honor or respect. “it’s just horse shit and potato field dirt” I said. He was bothered and that was when I first realized the belgieophile fantasy of Some American cyclists.
@frank
In all fairness to Bruyneel, his reasoning is more on stopping the peloton from slamming into crashes. The picture was just funny, along with the comment from wherever.
They do completely destroy the look of a bike.
@frank
I couldn’t agree with you more..
I have always believed that road bike brakes are solely meant for scrubbing speed and I ride that way. Stopping is a bonus. Lock up a brake on a bike and you’re jacked anyway you look at it.. Road bike disc brakes and the ‘anti-lock hydraulic’ rubbish that is about to be sold to us all is BS. There will always only be a certain amount of rubber on the road that these forces can be applied to.
And this doesn’t even mention the complications of the 10 second wheel change while racing..
Discs have their application.. but nowhere near what I’ll ride on the road.
@Oli
No worries Oli, you did make me double check myself though..!
@Gianni
Thanks Gianni, I doubt I would get another one either…when I bought it you could send it back to Pinarello for service or a paintjob, these days they won’t even sell you decals for a resto job. Something about that doesn’t sit right with me – but I can’t quite articulate why…
@DerHoggz
I thought that the two spokes on either side of the valve were pulling together rather than apart, as can be seen here in my excellent diagram.
@Anjin-san
Haha! Something like that, no doubt…
I don’t believe the modulation argument is valid, good modulation is easily achievable on a well set up road bike. It’s a skill thing and if you can’t do it with traditional brakes you’ll not do it with disks. Occasionally, I’ll have a casual wander amongst the masses over on rbr.com and it astounds me how many people haven’t got a clue about how to brake when descending, not the mechanics of it, where and when to do it, nothing.
I would absolutely put them on any mountain bike (you will still end up on your ‘rse or face if you haven’t got the skill though) on account of the bigger contact area and the ability to work when covered in shit without destroying your breaking surface. Probably on a cross bike for the same reason but I’ve no experience there.
Don’t want to blow my own horn but I posted a link to the Road equipped disk bike Canyon built at comment 79. Interesting take from them from a constructors standpoint, though I don’t get the logic of disks. Heavier brakes that, the better you get, the less you use? Meh.
I think wheel companies (Zipp) are looking at the cross market and trying to get a wedge in there to stop people using the same wheels for road and cross. I can easily see cross having broad uptake, because course designers can get more spectacular stuff for the pros to ride, and the rank and file will want to copy. That and tire performance in cross has a lot more scope to improve with discs than with road tires. But road? Meh.
Can’t wait till teh intarweebz is filled with crit crashes of riders grabbing a handul of disk brake in a panic stop.
@frank
well stated
@Oli
Still confused, are you talking angle parallel or perpendicular to the page?
Above is the correct spoke spacing on either side of the valve. The spokes are near parallel to the valve.
This is WRONG! If the valve was between the next pair lower in the photo would be even worse, but ideally the valve should be between the pair above where it is.
What is so awful about this is that every time you pump the tire with the wrong spoke configuration you curse the extra beer you had while lacing the spokes. And of course, this wheel is rock solid and won’t allow me any further excuse to put the effort into correcting it.
@DerHoggz
What?? @jimmy is onto it.
Well, disk brakes will revolutionize (!) wheel design. The rim need only support the tyre. Carbon is a remarkably shitty surface to use for brake material. The heat dissipation qualities make it dangerous. Bet they said the same things about sti levers, free wheels and clip less pedals, all stuff we take for granted.
Oh. And aero bars. Ask LeMan.
Say goodbye to pretty low spoke count wheels, as the braking forces generated at the hub will need a greater spoke count to transfer the force without breaking. OK for shallow al and carbon rims, but who wants a 28 spoke 808 front?
I’m not going to put discs on my road bike to get a marginally better performing carbon rim, since 90 percent of my time is on al rims tapping out base miles or on shop rides.
I’m sticking to my curmudgeonly position that disks add weight for something that, the better you are, the less you’ll use. Heavier fork, heavier calliper (maybe), more spokes, heavier hub, trickier maintenance, to get? Lighter rims.
Ok, that is what I thought you meant originally.
Low spoke counts can suck it as far as I am concerned, as well as this garbage radial crap. Not in favor of disks though.
@Eightzero
Carbon is not a shitty material for braking; that is a myth. Carbon does not conduct heat the way metal does, but that’s not always bad, as a matter of fact. Heat dissipation from alu rims is a much bigger problem because it melts the glue that holds the tires to their rims. In my estimation, more crashes have been caused by alu rims than carbon ones.
Tires glued to carbon rims stay on. Given the choice, I’ll take tires that stay on my rims any time over a tire that comes off, irrespective of stopping distance. It’s called “catastrophic failure”, and it scares the shit out of me. By the way, if you’re riding clinchers and braking a lot on descents, you stand an excellent chance of overheating your pads and calipers and suffering a failure that way.
Cycling takes skill. Cycling well takes even more skill. To get up to a dangerous speed takes more skill than that. Stopping, it follows, should also take skill. Disc brakes will not remove this fact, and if it revolutionizes anything, it will only be in the new ways people find to fuck themselves up because they lack the skill for the job they’re asking of themselves.
Bottom line? If you’re descending fast, any number of things can suck very quickly, and anything that sucks can suck really badly and very intensely, more quickly than you can comprehend. I’ve experienced this first-hand and spent more time in emergency rooms that I care to recount. Cycling is dangerous. Don’t like it? Fine, don’t go fast.
It boggles my mind that the $10,000 Cervelo R3ca has a geometry tuned for a recreational cyclist and not a racing cyclist. Thats the direction we’re headed in, and I have no patience for it.
It is not “dangerous” when something requires skill. We need to stop catering to the lowest common denominator and start accepting the fact that everything worth doing requires time, dedication, and skill. Nothing worthwhile comes for free.
I’ll say it one last time: disc brakes on a road bike is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. It will only cause trouble.
@frank
just wondering on this, from beginner point of view – if doing a long windy descent in hot weather, what is the best tactic for keeping the rim temperature down apart from taking a break upside down in a ditch (which one is trying to prevent in asking this question?
(or is this only an issue with tubs and not clinchers?
@Dr C
I’m sure others have some thoughts on this as well, but keeping your rims/brakes cool follows the same principles as driving your Bimmer in the mountains (a Beemer/Beamer is a motorcycle, a Bimmer is a car – http://www.bmwccbc.org/misc/tech-and-trivia/bimmer.html), meaning you don’t want to sit on your brakes the whole time. If you don’t want to go too fast, sit up and make yourself big (like braking on the motor using low gears) and then do all your braking at once as you approach a corner or as you start to go faster than you’re comfortable with. Get off the brakes again before entering the corner and coast through the turn. It goes without saying that the front brake is more effective than the back for slowing down.
Bob Roll, somewhere, has a great story about sitting on his brakes on some descent and melting the glue on his tires and – I think – he may also have melted his brake pads…In classic Roll style, its a very amusing anecdote.
@frank
cool, that all Stracks up
@frank
Not so sure. Like any engineering process, it depends on the execution. Like you, I have no real complaints with my current braking system. But then, I had no particular problem with using a PC until I tried a Mac. Game over.
If a manufacturer can make a disk system that is competitive in price, weight and maintenance qualiities, that is even compatible with surrent sti lever, I think they’ll be on to something. I’m told by Those That Know, that dedicating wheel rims to holding a tyre will make them even more reliable, give them better safety margins, make them faster, and make them last longer. The trick has always been weight and some aero considerations. There’s that blob of disk puck sitting out there no one likes. And it is possible that a disk would require a dished wheel in front. I say ugh to that.
I spend a lot of time thinking about a electromechanical brake system, much like a electric car regenerative system. After all, a wheel is a rotating mass of metal, and that’s half a generator/motor that could be an effective, elegant braking system.Yes, UCI would have kittens over what spartacus might do with that clandestinely, but there are ways to fix that. Carbon materials have come a long way, and while caliper brakes are refined and acceptable technology…well..so were down tube shifters. Merely taking the whirling mass off the rim of a wheel with a braking surface on it wil make it faster if you can solve the disk weight and aero factors. I see Scott has a fork with the brake calipers built in to e fork arms. Expensive, elegant shitte, but wait for the trickle down.
Electric shifting is supposed to be the nuts. I can see the attraction, since the shifts are supposed to be really smooth and reliable. But the cost now is simply unjustifiable. Still, that is true of my custom Ti frame. I wanted because…I wanted it. It was an extravagance that I get a lot of enjoyment from.
All that said, I agree and respect the concept of cycling traditions, elegance, and dedication. However, is is never a reason not to innovate, develop and deploy what might, eventually, become better technology enabling faster, cheaper, all around better Machines.
That’s the engineer in me talking. I need to just shut the fuck up and ride my fucking (silent) bike. La vie velominatus.
Better braking = faster bike due to better control of the machine.
Bike disc brakes are amazing pieces of technology these days. I have my doubts that they’ll ever be light enough to make a road racing bike under a skilled rider go faster… but any machine that consistently sees wet weather and hills will be faster with disc brakes. Current CX brakes are like a bad joke.
Anyone know where I can get a (or pair) of Ambrosio Excursion Rims? The extra width over the Excellence or Excellight S.S.C.is what appeals to me. Plus the dual internal channels should give me a bit more support. (not quite at climbing weight.)
@tomb
Set up an eBay search. Or get some HED C2 wheels, either the factory ones or you can get rims.
@Nate
C2 aren’t eyeletted. Plus the Ambrosios are classier. I have found them on Google, but only at UK dealers. The shipping makes them silly cost. My other option was DT Swiss 540’s.
What I would really like is to find either a Classics Pro or Elite rear to match my front. But that has been a futile search.
a timely piece frahnk, cos I’ve given in to my inner demon and bought my first pair of tub rims; campy victory strada which are being built up with record hubs for my beloved orange gazelle. handbuilt wheels… hmmmmm
@Tomb
Ebay is where I found mine, and I’ve seen some others. Also, if you get the right vendor in the UK, they should discount the VAT when they sell them to you, which will offset the cost of shipping. Mine came from a guy in Italy, though, and the shipping was about 1/3 of the total cost, so yeah, shipping is stupid expensive.
Its worth it, though, if you want them badly enough.
@zalamanda
This is my first foray as well. Really looking forward to it. After the Reverence? Tubs bit, I’ve been very interested.
@frank
You shoulda checked out (the famous) Fair Wheel Bikes down here in Tucson. They sell Ambrosio.
@Eightzero
I agree with everything you say; my beef with disc brakes is that they’re looking to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. It’s not an innovation for progress, its change for the sake of change. My biggest challenge hitting the brakes hard is keeping the wheels from locking up and becoming useless. Our caliper brakes are already stronger than they need to be. Thats all. The cable is the big failure point….so caliper brakes without cables? That would be progress.
Electronic shifting, of course, is something I can detest purely for the reason that I’m an enthusiast and not a Pro. That is a system full of promise – cables are inefficient, stretch, corrode, and break. And electronic system needs to maintenance in that department and can be much more reliable.
It also kills the art of a shift, and abstracts us from our bikes by one more degree. Good for Pros, bad for people who like to be connected.
By the way, disc brakes in my experience cause at least as much – if not more – trouble with maintenance than do calipers. If the disc comes out of true, have fun stopping the rub. The tolerances in pad adjustment are non-existent, and don’t start me on squeezing the brakes without the wheel in there.
@RedRanger
Where was that advice when it mattered? At least they’re sold out. And more expensive than the ones I got from Italy.
@frank
+1 to that. I understand that bikes are going to progress, but e-shifting, and disc brakes on road (specifically)? Meh. I like the connection of shifting with cables, the battery pack is ugly, as are the ‘skinny’ wires. And disc brakes are great for ‘cross/ mtb when you need clearance in the mud, but they are unneeded and ugly on the road. What’s next, is the industry going to revisit Softrides? Unilateral forks?
@Tomb
The C2 are nice. But I can’t wait till my Nemisis arrive. ETA Friday. I think I will be hurting myself next weekend.
@Nate
Yeah. I feel the draw of the golden tickets, but really, I live in the country. Crap roads and random beer bottles don’t mix with tubs. And last time I checked I can replace 5 tubes for the price of ONE cheap Taiwanese sew up.
@frank You wouldn’t be willing to share the place you got your Ambrosios would ya. I hope to get someone to special orders a set of Excursions.
Narrowly missed a Nemesis wheelset on ebay last night. And a set of rims from the same seller. Anyone turning up to the Cobbled Clasic on Nemesis rims with red Hope hubs had best have their mini pump to hand!
@frank
Fronk:
You’re running sew-ups on your Ronde and P-R rides this spring? I looked into getting some of these beautiful Ambrosio Nemesis rims and now realize that they are only tubulars, no clinchers. Are you going to have an extra three or four wheelsets in the support vehicle? I cannot imagine making it the whole way, on either of those rides, without flatting at least a few times. Hell, even the cyclosportif says that you cannot start without 4 spares tubes.
I am looking into doing the June P-R cyclosportif and that is why I am asking about it.
Does anyone know of a Ambrosio Nemesis equivalent rim in clincher for the pave’ rides?
@Buck Rogers
Of course I’m riding tubs; I’m not a savage, am I? Actually, the idea would be that the tubs are less likely to flat; with all the banging around, snakebites are an issue. And yes, we have spare wheels in the car, and yes, I’ll have at least an extra tub (or more, they are expensive though).
I’ll be riding the FMB Paris-Roubaix, which is Boonen’s Choice. http://www.fmbtires.com/fmb_paris_roubaix_pro.htm
@frank
As I will be riding unsupported in June on the P-R cyclo, I do not have the chutzpah to ride tubs.
Understand the thought process of fewer flats, but I raced and trained on sew-ups for about 6 years and still had flats, and none of my races were on pave’!
Sure all the pros do, and they have a Mavic motorcycle with 5 wheels on it and a car with 5 bikes and 10 sets of wheels.
All I’ll have is me and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
Would love to run sew-ups, but doesn’t work in my scenerio (just one more reason I HATE the thought of missing the Keeper”s”s”’s’ Tour!!! :)