Fusion Bike

1. A helmet should manage as much energy as possible in a very hard crash, keeping g levels in lab testing as low as possible, but certainly below 200 g for a two meter drop. In a lesser crash it should keep g's below 75.

2. A helmet should have a strong strap that keeps it on your head after the first impact (car) for the second impact (street). Child and toddler helmets should also have a buckle that holds firm in a crash but releases after 5 seconds of steady pull to avoid strangling a child who climbs trees or uses playground equipment with their helmet still on and gets caught.

3. A helmet should be easy to adjust properly or self-adjusting, and designed to encourage a good fit without excessive fiddling. Once adjusted, the adjustments should stay put.

4. A helmet should be comfortable to wear: cool, light, unobtrusive to the user and fashionable in appearance.

5. A helmet should be as smooth and round as possible on the outside to prevent snagging in a crash. It should not have an "aero" tail that can shove it sideways in a crash and leave the rider's head unprotected.

6. A helmet should provide for mounting of a mirror and a visor with breakaway mounts. If it has a visor, it must be shatterproof.

7. A helmet should be highly visible to motorists both night and day.

8. A helmet should be durable, easily cleaned, and should not scuff or dent in normal use.

9. A helmet should come with clear, understandable instructions for fitting and use.

10. A helmet should be cheap (affordable price) and readily available in retail stores, including but not limited to local bicycle shops.

Summary: This is a checklist to verify helmet fit.

___ Level - The helmet should be level on the rider's head.

___ Rim barely visible - The front rim should be barely visible to the rider's eye

___ Y below the ear - The Y of the side straps should meet just below the ear

___ Snug strap - The chin strap should be snug against the chin so that when the rider opens their mouth very wide the helmet pulls down a little bit.

___ Skin moves a little - Move the helmet side to side and front to back, watching the skin around the rider's eyebrows. It should move slightly with the helmet. If it does not, the fit pads are probably too thin in front or back, or the helmet may even be too large.

___ Stablilizer snug - If there is a rear stabilizer, adjust it until it is snug under the bulge on the rear of the head.

___ Palm test - Have the rider put their palm on the front of the helmet and push up and back. If it moves more than an inch more fitting is required.

___ Shake test - Have the rider shake their head around. This can be fun. If the helmet dislodges, work on the strap adjustments.

___ Ask about comfort - Ask the rider if the helmet is comfortable and check to make sure there are no comfort issues that still need to be addressed.

___ Be ready to switch - Not all helmets fit all heads. Be prepared to use a different helmet if the one you are fitting just will not work for this rider.

Helmet facts in plain language.

What is a bike helmet
A helmet protects your brain when you fall. It has a plastic shell on the outside and foam inside. It has a strap to keep it on when you fly through the air. It only covers your head, and the rest of your body is still exposed. So you still have to be careful.

How does a helmet work?
The foam crushes when you hit the road. That cushions the blow, and usually saves your brain. The shell makes it skid on the street so your neck does not get jerked. The shell also keeps the foam in one piece. It can split when you hit the car and not be there when you hit the street.

If the strap is not right, your helmet can slip to the side or to the back. Then your bare head hits the road. Ouch. Pavement is very very hard.

Why wear one?
Being careful and not crashing is the best way. That's better than crashing in a helmet! The helmet only covers your head. So you need to learn the rules of the road and how to ride with them. But even the best riders crash. If you hurt your brain it can change you. You may not be able to read this page, or play video games, or talk, or run, or tie you own shoes or even feed yourself.

Some people do not wear bike helmets. Don't let that stop you. You need one when you ride your bike. They do too, but they just don't know it yet.

How do I pick one?
A magazine called Consumer Reports can tell you which helmets are best. But they don't test very many helmets.

Find a helmet that fits you. That's really the most important part. That will keep it on your head while you fly through the air or over the handlebars. Work on the straps to get the fit just right. You will probably need somebody to help you do that.

You don't have to pay a lot for a good helmet. But be sure it fits you, you like it and you will wear it.

Your helmet is good for only one bad crash. That damages the foam and you have to replace it. So you can wear a bike helmet to skate if you use inline skates and don't crash every day. For skateboards where you do crash a lot, you need a different helmet that recovers after a crash.

Unfortunately we can’t ride our bikes everywhere. Sometimes we have to transport our bikes from one place to another. In the old days, people would use hodge-podge methods to tie their bikes to vehicles for transport, but those days are long over! With the advent of back racks, it is now possible to transport your bikes safely and securely.

Bike racks come in many different styles and uses. They also come in various prices. You need to do a little investigation to see what fits your needs. You very well sped as much as 300 dollars on a high quality bike rack or pick up one really cheap at bazaars or garage sales. The one you pick will depend on your needs. Be sure to ask yourself the following questions.

1. What vehicle will be used?
You need to know where the bike rack will be going. This is important because you need to know how the rack will attach to your vehicle. Racks use different attachment methods. You will have to choose one that fits your vehicle.

2. How many bikes will you need to transport?
Do you transport two or more bikes? If so, you will want to buy attachments that will allow more than one bike rack.

3. Where do you want them to be racked?
Consider whether you want a roof, rear, or sport rack:

- Roof Racks These racks are attached at the top of a vehicle
- Rear Racks These racks attach to the rear of vehicle
- Sport Trailers These are used to carry many bicycles

4. What shape are your bikes?
You must into consideration the size and shape of your bikes. If you are transporting children’s bikes, for example, you will need racks that will take that size of bicycles.

5. Who will load the bicycles on the rack?
It has to be convenient for the loader. The easier the rack is to load unto the more expensive the rack.

6. How strong should your rack be?
If you are loading heavy bikes, you will need racks that can withstand the weight of the bike. They have to be made of sturdy material. But the sturdier the material, the pricier the rack.

7. Should it be lockable?
If you want added security for your bikes you will want to purchase racks that support locks and other security devices.

8. How often are you likely to use the rack?
You need to know how often you will use the rack so that you can purchase one that can withstand the rigors of travel. If you will not use it often, you will not have to purchase a heavy-duty, high price rack.

9. How much do you want to spend?
Ultimately, everything boils down to your budget. If you can’t afford it, even if you need it, it will have to wait. But don’t be afraid to save up if the cheaper alternatives do not match up to your needs. Try to find a rack that has only the features you need. If it has bells and whistles you don’t need, don't buy it right away. It's fine to take into consideration features and functionality that you might need in the future, for example.
By: John Morris

Why do you think one needs a helmet while riding a bicycle or skating or horse riding or even playing?Well,some say that helmets are unnecessary as they cannot save a persons life or prevent accidents.True,safety helmets cannot prevent or stop accidents but they can in some measure safe a person’s life when met with an accident.

According to the statistics calculated recently in U.S, about one fourth of the people brought in emergency rooms have head injuries and one out of every eight of them are reported to have brain injuries. This may not have happened had they been wearing a safety helmet. So at least brain injury would have been prevented which would eventually cause death.

A single head injury can also make a person handicapped for life. Even while at work especially where there are a lot of construction work, a safety helmet is a must. It should be the responsibility of the employer to provide these helmets to his employees as many to prevent any such head injuries.

Choosing the right helmet:

There are different kinds of safety helmet available as different sports require different helmets. But the key here is to wear the right fitting. A loose helmet cannot protect the head as much as fitted ones. A helmet should always fit the persons head. It should touch the head all the way around and should be stable enough that even in jerks it should not move.

When it comes to buying for kids many a times we tend to feel that we should get a bigger one as they would grow anyways but that is wrong. The brand is also important. One should never compromise on price when it comes to safety. Comfort is another thing that you should keep in mind as if it is not comfortable then you are very unlikely to wear it also.

All parents, coaches, trainers and organizers should be made aware of this safety precaution. A lot of injuries also occur during horse riding and the statistics of accidents is very alarming. Even though other factors may also be involved from falling off a horse like slipping and back riding but the height from which the person falls is what jeopardizes the injury. If he falls from a height of 2 feet he is likely to have brain damage but if he falls from a greater height as the horse tends to elevate him up to 8 feet from the ground then his skull would be shattered. So, one should never ride a horse without wearing a safety helmet.

Bicycle helmets are made from foam polystyrene, and this polystyrene though is rigid it can be molded into virtually any shape. This can be easily damaged by crushing as it has a quite a high number of tiny air pockets. This process of crushing absorbs energy thus making it ideal for the construction of bicycle helmets. This helmets tend to get a bit warm during hot days but nowadays there are more expensive ones that are available and these helmets have more air vents to keep you cool but this can reduce the amount of energy absorbed as the amount of polystyrene is reduced.

Whether wearing a helmet is necessary or not depends on the individual. But you should never underestimate the use of it because there are benefits of using a safety helmet. It is always better to take precautions then suffer the consequences. You should take responsibility of young ones in your family and educate them about safety helmets after all it is always better to have knowledge about things then be careless about it. Always wear helmets and be safe.
By: Joel Noah

"Time invested in fitting a helmet pays big safety and comfort dividends!"

Your objective: Snug, Level, Stable
You want the helmet to be comfortably touching the head all the way around, level and stable enough to resist even violent shakes or hard blows and stay in place. It should be as low on the head as possible to maximize side coverage, and held level on the head with the strap comfortably snug.

Be Prepared for the Worst
Heads come in many sizes and shapes. You should be prepared for the possibility that the helmet you are trying to fit may not be compatible with this particular head. And unfortunately, you should expect to spend ten to fifteen minutes to get your helmet properly fitted.

1. Adjust the fit pads or ring
Helmets that fit with pads come with at least one set of foam fitting pads, and if you got a second set of thicker pads it can be used to customize the shape. For starters, you can often remove the top pad entirely or use the thinnest ones. This lowers the helmet on the head, bringing its protection down further on the sides. It may reduce the flow of cooling air slightly, but probably not enough to notice.

Adjust the side fit pads by using thicker pads if your head is narrow and there is a space, or add thicker pads in the back for shorter heads. You may also move pads around, particularly on the "corners" in the front and rear. Leaving some gaps will improve air flow. The pads should touch your head evenly all the way around, without making the fit too tight. The pads may compress slightly over time, but not much, so do not count on that to loosen the fit. The helmet should sit level on the head, with the front just above the eyebrows, or if the rider uses glasses, just above the frame of the glasses. If you walk into a wall, the helmet should hit before your nose does!

There are also helmets on the market that use a fitting ring rather than side pads for adjustment. With these one-size-fits-all models you begin by adjusting the size of the ring. Some of them may require the ring so tight for real stability on your head that they feel binding, but loosening the ring can produce a sloppy fit, indicating that the helmet is not for you.

2. Adjust the straps
Now put the helmet on and fasten the buckle. Be sure the front is in front! You want to adjust it to the "Eye-Ear-Mouth" test developed by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine:

* When you look upward the front rim should be barely visible to your eye

* The Y of the side straps should meet just below your ear

* The chin strap should be snug against the chin so that when you open your mouth very wide you feel the helmet pull down a little bit.

With the helmet in position on your head, adjust the length of the rear straps, then the length of the front straps, to locate the Y fitting where the straps come together just under your ear. That may involve sliding the straps across the top of the helmet to get the length even on both sides. Then adjust the length of the chin strap so it is comfortably snug. If it cuts into the chin and is not comfortable, it is too tight. Now pay attention to the rear stabilizer if the helmet has one. It can keep the helmet from jiggling in normal use and make it feel more stable, but only a well-adjusted strap can keep it on in a crash.

When you think the straps are about right, shake your head around violently. Then put your palm under the front edge and push up and back. Can you move the helmet more than an inch or so from level, exposing your bare forehead? Then you need to tighten the strap in front of your ear, and perhaps loosen the rear strap behind your ear. Again, the two straps should meet just below your ear. Now reach back and grab the back edge. Pull up. Can you move the helmet more than an inch? If so, tighten the rear strap.

For a final check, look in a mirror or look at the wearer whose helmet you are fitting. Move the helmet side to side and front to back, watching the skin around the eyebrows. It should move slightly with the helmet. If it does not, the fit pads are probably too thin in front or back.

When you are done, your helmet should be level, feel solid on your head and be comfortable. It should not bump on your glasses (if it does, tighten the nape strap). It should pass the eye-ear-mouth test. You should forget you are wearing it most of the time, just like a seat belt or a good pair of shoes. If it still does not fit that way, keep working with the straps and pads, or try another helmet.

Note: with a helmet that fits this well on a child, you must be sure the child removes the helmet before climbing trees and playing on playground equipment. Otherwise there is a risk of catching the helmet and being strangled! That doesn't happen in normal bike riding, even in crashes, but it can happen while climbing trees or monkey bars.

Finally, you want the straps to stay adjusted. Some helmets--even expensive ones--do not have locking pieces on the side where the straps come together under your ear. If you can move the side buckle with your hand, it will migrate in use. We call that "strap creep," and it is a major problem. If your helmet has non-locking side pieces, that means you have to either put on a rubber band and snug it up under the side buckle, or you will need to sew the straps when you have the fit just right. If you use heavy thread you only need five or six stiches to hold it. It's an extra chore, but worth it.

Like all mechanical contraptions, your bicycle is vulnerable to wear and tear caused by regular use and exposure to the elements. Routine preventive maintenance will keep your bicycle in peak condition and safe for riding throughout the year. Although some bicycle repair and maintenance is best performed by a qualified bike mechanic, you should be able to do routine maintenance using a few basic tools. Here are some of the things you can do to keep your bike in perfect shape.

Tires

Check the pressure of your tires to make sure they are inflated to proper specifications. Consult the manual or the tire’s sidewall for information on the range of acceptable pressures for your tire. Note any splits or fatigue marks in the sidewall or tread. Inspect the rim for dents, twists or kinks. Spin each wheel to make sure it is true and centered in the stays. If the wheel wobbles from side to side when spun, then it needs truing. Check if some spokes need to be replaced or tightened. If your bike is equipped with quick-release mechanisms, make sure they are securely fastened.

Steering

The handlebars, saddle and pedals must be securely attached. Check the height of the handlebar stem. Make sure that the handlebar stem and seatpost are fastened such that their minimum insertion marks are not exposed. Handlebars should be tight and in line with the front wheel. Check if handlebars and front fork are properly stabilized. You should be able to rotate the handlebar post freely in the front fork. Tighten the bolts that attach the pedal crank-arms to the front bearing. Pedals should be tight, with no binding. Check for looseness in front and headset bearings.

Brakes

Squeeze both brake levers and try to roll the bike to check if the brakes are operating properly. If the bike moves while the brave levers are squeezed or if the brake levers touch the handlebar, then your brakes are too loose and need some adjusting. Make sure brake cables are taut. Check the brake cable for breaks or frayed ends; replace any worn or frayed brake cable. When brakes are applied, the brake pads (shoes) should contact squarely with the rim and should not touch the tire or the spokes.

Chain

Keep your bike’s chain clean and properly lubricated. Use a rag soaked in de-greaser to remove dirt and grease buildup. Lubricate the chain after cleaning. Bike maintenance experts recommend using a web lube in wet environments and a dry lube in dry environments. Make sure that the chain moves smoothly without sticking or jumping.

Tools for basic bicycle maintenance

Proper inspection and maintenance of your bike requires a few basic tools.

By: Gregg Hall

Did you know that there are several categories that mountain biking can be split into? Each category offers the rider a different experience either as a hobby or as a sport. The different mountain bike reviews are broken down into these categories:

1. Dirt Jumping

This style of mountain biking is known for the high jumps over manmade dirt hills. While in the air, tricks are done on the bike. Six or more jumps are usually done in one run and the jumps are close together so that the biker can get a flow going with their trick riding.

2. Cross country

In this style of mountain biking, you ride your bike up and down hills. It is not the most extreme form in the mountain biking world, but most of this type of ride is in great shape due to the long rides.

3. Cyclo cross

This biking category is a cross between mountain and road biking. The riders learn how to race on and off the course, ride obstacles, and go through rivers.

4. Downhill Biking

Racing downhill the fastest is the goal of downhill mountain bikers. The name of the game is extreme and intense riding, to help give the riders maximum excitement and thrills.

5. BMX

This style of mountain biking uses 20-inch wheels. You can very commonly see this kind of bikes at skate parks or areas with dirt jumps. These BMX bikes are made for performing tricks and doing stunts because they have a shorter wheel base and smaller wheels.

6. Trials

The bicycles used in trials do not look anything like mountain bikes. They have 20 or 26-inch wheels and they have smaller, lower frames than mountain bikes. In trials, riders jump their bikes over different obstacles. This kind of biking takes a great deal of practice, focus, and balance.

7. Freeride Biking

This type of mountain biking involves finding a path down the side of the mountain where you can use all of the terrain to do tricks, stunts, etc. This is a very popular competition, because the riders can express themselves.

8. Street and Urban Biking

Manmade obstacles, ledges, and other urban areas are what this type of biking revolves around. They will do great stunts and tricks on these manmade items, too, including grinds and stalls.

9. Single Speed

This kind of biking is done on a bicycle with only one gear and few other components. This is not to be confused with a fixed gear bicycle. The basis behind this kind of biking is simplicity. This helps the pedaling to be more efficient and the bicycle is lighter and has fewer problems mechanically.

10. All Mountain

All mountain mountain bikes, also known as trailbikes are the workhorse category of mountain bikes. An all mountain bike is a mountain bike built to handle almost everything a mountain biker will run into on a full day of riding.

The all mountain category consists mostly of bikes with about 4 to 6 inches (100 to 160 millimeters) of travel. While they are designed to climb hills very efficiently, they are generally heavier and a bit more stout than the typical cross county mountain bike. They can handle a lot rougher terrain as well.

Trail bikes are what most people should be riding. They are an excellent balance between efficiency, comfort, and control. All mountain mountain bikes are light and efficient enough to get you to the top of the hill, have soft enough squish in the suspension to keep you isolated from rough terrain, and have enough travel to suck up the bigger hits that can leave a cross country racer tasting the dirt.

This may sound simple, but it is rarely carried out since most people train in the discipline they enjoy most, not the discipline they need to work on most.

How to improve your bike performance.

After endurance, the most fundamental fitness component for the triathlete to develop on the bike is force. "Hills make you strong for the flats, but flats don't make you strong for the hills."

Force training on the bike is even more important if you are not lifting weights throughout your base and build phases.

Force is the ability to overcome resistance, such as a rider applying power on the pedals. If you develop force on the bike, you will not only be a faster rider, you will also be able to ride longer and push bigger gears.

The idea behind force training is not to improve the force a muscle fiber can generate, but to recruit more muscle fibers when pedaling. In order to achieve this, bodybuilders lift heavy weights very slowly to induce a near maximum contraction for a relatively long time. For triathletes, the same principle is applied, but it relates specifically to cycling.

The best way to generate a near maximum contraction for a long period is to push very big gears at a slow cadence. When staying seated in the saddle while climbing, you will be able to develop even more muscular contraction.

Sport-specific strength work such as force sessions on the bike is most advantageous for the time constrained cyclist who doesn't have time for weightlifting sessions.

Some of the sessions for triathletes are:

Big gear/low heart rate

Do 3-4 x 5 minutes in a big gear while maintaining a heart rate in zone 2 (of 5, with 5 being the most intense; zone 2 approximates "very light" to "fairly light" exertion.). Sit during the intervals as that best develops the fibers.

As with your training, progress the intervals up to 6 x 5 minutes, depending on your fitness level and the amount of these sessions you have done previously. The objective is to tax the muscle fibers, not the heart, thus keeping the heart rate relatively low.

As you get into the build phase of training, this session will progress to taxing both the muscle fibers and heart rate, such as: 4-5 x 6 minutes in a biggest gear possible with a cadence of 75-80 rpm on a flat to rolling course. Do each interval to exhaustion with five minutes' easy spinning recovery.

The 3, 3, 3

Warm up 20 minutes. On a climb (preferably long), do a continuous 3-minute stand (out of the saddle) in big gear, 3-minute sit big gear, 3-minute easy spin in small gear. Don't let your heart rate get above zone 3 ("somewhat hard" perceived exertion) at any time.

Do this up to 6 times through for a total of 54 minutes, depending on length of the ride. Keep your cadence at 65-70 rpm with the exception of the easy spinning segment. Also, as the season progresses, the intensity will increase.

Rep it

Warm up 10 minutes. There are no prescribed zones, as heart rate is not important. In your big chainring and a gear giving you a cadence of 50-60 rpm, every 3 minutes do 15-20 revolutions of max effort. Complete 6-10. Cool down 5 to 10 minutes. This can be done with other force workouts depending on the length of the ride.

Indoor force/hills

With your bike on an indoor trainer, raise the front wheel off the floor 4-6 inches. Warm up 10 minutes, then in zone 4-5 effort with an RPE of 16-19, do 6, 5 and 4 minutes while attacking the last :30 with an all-out effort.

Recovery is half of the interval time. Raising the front wheel helps simulate your position while climbing a hill. Again, the intensity progresses as you become fitter.

Do not attempt any of these sessions if you have knee problems. When doing these sets, focus on maintaining proper form, avoiding excessive upper body movement. Concentrate on efficient pedal stroke technique.

Don't fall into the realm of mashing big gears. Developing force will make you a more powerful rider, and therefore a faster rider. It will also make you more economical on the bike, as at a given intensity, you will need a lower percentage of your maximal strength.

Eventually, because the bike leg of the triathlon will be easier, you will have more energy when running off the bike, and indirectly, your improved bike strength will be beneficial to your run.

Titanium has an image of being a rare, hard to get, difficult to work with material. Titanium is an element, atomic number 22 on the periodic table. Titanium is the fourth most abundant metal on our planet. Titanium is most often mined as the ore rutile or ilmenite.

Titanium was not discovered until nearly 1800 and only processed into pure metal in 1910. Over the last four decades titanium has seen significant growth as a commercial product. Titanium is abundant but difficult to refine and process. Unlike Aluminum which is economically refined using an electrical process, titanium is commercially produced by reducing titanium tetrachloride with molten magnesium. The difficulty in manufacturing structural titanium metal, not its rarity, is responsible for titanium's high cost.

Nearly all titanium metal used for production is an alloy. Like other pure metals, pure titanium requires the addition of other elements to achieve the structural properties that performance applications demand. The most common alloy in use (60% of all alloy production) is Ti 6-4, an alloy of 6% aluminum and 4% vanadium. This common titanium alloy possesses a tensile strength of 135,000 psi. For performance applications RCS uses a proprietary titanium alloy manufactured by Dynamet, a subsidiary of Carpenter Technology. This alloy, known as UPG ®(Ultimate Performance Grade) beta titanium has a tensile strength of 200,000 psi.

Titanium enjoys a space-age reputation as it has been heavily used on aerospace applications from commercial airliners to stealth fighters and satellites. That reputation is undergoing change as many performance applications are beginning to realize the benefits available from highly engineered titanium products. Titanium springs are a large part of this change. Until recently titanium springs were only found on weight sensitive and demanding aerospace applications.

Today, RCS is directing it's expertise with this material to developing high-quality, high-performance parts for applications from downhill mountain bike suspension springs to incredibly precise titanium springs for Formula 1 racing.

SRAM vs Shimano
After recently making the transition from the "mainstream" Shimano gear shifts to SRAM I thought that I'd "spread the word" and give you the benefit of my experience.

I'm sure that almost everybody will be familiar with the Shimano amd it's MTB groupset with it's various levels of "competence" from the functional yet basic Deore, LX, XT up to the flag ship XTR. But how many of you know about SRAM ?

Background : Until a recently they were a small company building on it's slightly different take to the Shimano "standard" gear changes with different shifters, cassettes, chains. However, they're recently undergone few years of rapid expansion and are "the" company on a roll and are surely out to rival the bigS. They're moving towards being able to supply their own groupset after acquiring the likes of Avid (brakes) and Truvativ (cranks/stems/bars/seatposts/etc). More recently, they also bought out RockShox (forks, shox's) which is fairly big coo and give's them an edge to Shimano as they don't manufacture forks.

The SRAM gear sets range from X7, X9 to the major bling X0.

A number of basic differences separate SRAM from Shimano in the operation of gear changes.
1. SRAM operate on a 1:1 ratio between the shifters and the mechs, whereas Shimano use 2:1 on the rear and 1:1 on the front. This means that a SRAM system is likely to operate for longer without the need for small adjustments and to be less prone to ghost shifts on full suspension steeds.
2. SRAM shifter paddles are operated by the thumb only whereas Shimano require both the thumb and forefinger. This was a major selling point for me as having 4 fingers permenantly wrapped around the bars gives a more secure ride over those large boulders. It's also much less strain on the grey cells as only the thumb is in motion.
3. The rear mech cable routing on SRAM is direct from the chainstay whereas Shimano need a long loop of cable to enter in the rear. The most obvious advantage of a direct cable run is less drag but an additional benefit is that shrubbery is less likely to get hooked along for a ride !
4. SRAM rear mechs use a much firmer spring mechanism over Shimano. Which greatly reduces chain slap (chain hitting the chainstay), chain derailment when jumping and the mech hitting the chainstay. I can also be a pain to then get the back wheel out ! Update: checkout this thread for a video (approx 28Mb) that helps to highlight the differences.
SRAM also produce a Shimano range of compatible shifters called (rather uninspiringly) "2:1 shifters" ! Fortunately, they're more commonly referred to as Rocket or Attack.

Having previously used Shimano Deore and the midrange LX I can confirm that it's all good kit and works very well, with noticable improvements higher up the range. Converting to the SRAM midrange X9 shifters didn't cause any worries and in operation the changes are slightly less slick but feel more positive. Which I find a bonus when you've a set of full fingers gloves on as I always mis-shifted Shimano gears during the winter as their operation is quite light to the touch. Do they change any differently ? Probably but I'll be damned if I can tell. You'd need a dedicated test rig to figure that out and personally I'd prefer just to get out and ride...

Appart from the shifter ratio's all other components are interchangeable between the manufacturer's and my current rig has SRAM X9 shifters, rear mech and chain with a Shimano cassette and front mech. I've found that SRAM chain's tend to last longer but that probably means that the rest of drivetrain wears a little more rapdily.

The general understanding is that the SRAM front mech isn't as slick as Shimano, all Shimano cranks/bb's set the industry standard for light/stiff, that the top flight SRAM X0 rear mech is the bees-knees, that the SRAM X0 shifters are leagues ahead and that the rest of the kit functions on a par.

You chose which you'd like...

From Knobblies MTBing Blog

Ceramic Bearings decrease resistance to power by close to 1 watt
1 watt = 2-3 seconds over 40K. And when you consider that more than a twenty Pro-Tour time trials this season have come down to less than a second between 1st and 2nd place you understand why squeezing every precious watt out of your technology is so important.

Tests by the Danish magazine Cykel-Motion (Mar 2005) and subsequently supported by calculation, show how using ceramic bearings can reduce rolling resistance by 50%, saving 22m in just 55 seconds at 32kph. In short, astounding speed improvement of 4%.

Further tests confirmed by the Danish cycle magazine Cykel Magasinet (Sep 2005), describe dramatic reductions in friction compared to conventional cycle bearings. For example:

With a pair of race wheels (total of six bearings), friction with ceramic bearings is reduced 22 fold

While Dura Ace pulleys consume 0.78W @ 500rpm, ceramic pulleys use less than 0.06W

A Record BB @ 100rpm and 400W consumes 0.6W, the same BB with ceramic bearings consumes 0.02W

Such improvement is unheard of, even in this day of advanced bicycle technology.So, it comes as no surprise to learn that top professional riders are already using these amazing bearings to win major races. Full Speed Ahead has been testing ceramic bearings with teams for the past two years. The results are great, teams and riders are convinced.

The friction reduction of ceramic bearings aids a wide variety of riders. Unlike aerodynamic features, which only the fastest riders enjoy, the advantage of ceramic units is greater at lower speeds. This is a crucial difference between aerodynamic resistance, which increases exponentially with speed; and mechanical friction, which increases in direct proportion to speed.From a technical point of view, riders sheltered inside the peleton or riding off road have more to gain with ceramic bearings.

Ceramic bearings last longer, perhaps 5-10 times more. From a strictly economic perspective, theyre less expensive to run even without considering the labor savings.

We hear and read that steel road bikes have made a "comeback". COMEBACK? We don’t think that they have really gone anywhere. Fans of steel bikes have remained loyal. As recently as 20 years ago, a professional rider feeding his family with his pedaling talents rode a steel (cromoly) bicycle. End of story as far as frame materials went. Steel was the gold standard. Since then, many different materials have come onto the scene…some more successfully than others. The general consensus remains to this day that steel (cromoly) frames deliver the best overall ride. Other materials might make a frame stiffer, lighter, more aerodynamic, and in some cases some materials might make a frame even MORE compliant and comfortable than steel tubes, but the idea is still to make them all ride as close to steel as possible.

Making a great frame that rides incredibly well requires the balance of all these characteristics (comfort, shock dampening, weight, stability, traction, etc.). These attributes are all directly related to one another. Making a frame lighter automatically changes or "digs into" one of the other distinguishing performance features. So all of these important riding aspects must be considered carefully and be balanced. It seems that steel frames keep this balance at a more favorable ratio than any other frame material.

The number of brands offering a full line of steel bikes is dwindling. This is great news for Torelli and the Mondonicos, but a sad statement of where the bike industry has gone in the last 20 years.

We know many dedicated riders who have been riding aluminum or carbon for the last few years and have decided to go back to steel, purely for the quality of the ride and the experience that a steel bike delivers. Frankly, a lot of them want a more comfortable bike that doesn’t beat them up in certain riding situations. These are men and women who have logged many miles on stiff, tight, robotic frames for years and they are quite simply tired of the lack of personality in their rigs. We mention durability and longevity when speaking of steel frames. Aluminum and Carbon frames have an effective "performance lifespan" that is much shorter than steel. This means that the quality of the ride deteriorates over time. It doesn’t refer to an all-out frame failure. We think it is fair to say that a good steel frame, built properly, can last 25 or 30 years if cared for. Aluminum and carbon frames are much less predictable, but we think it is reasonable to say that they won’t have the lifespan of a fine steel frame.

Here are the major reasons riders love steel frames:

Best Overall Ride Quality, Comfort and Shock Absorption (important in our area with the quality of our roads)
Stage Bikes Have the BEST Stability
Steel Provides the BEST rear wheel Traction and Climb like GOATS!
Greatest Durability
Repairable
Best Longevity – 30 Year Bikes!
Many Construction Options to Suit Rider’s needs and to make rider FIT the highest priority
Very Favorable for CUSTOM Builds
Economical
Low Weight
CLASSIC and Traditional!

Here is the basic thesis of this essay: there are three forces that have recently and profoundly changed the design of the road-racing bicycle

The usual search for competitive advantage on the race course.
Marketing pressures.
The manufacturer's search to reduce costs, and the corollary desire to reduce the number of items manufactured.
The result? Most people are being sold bicycles that have had their ride quality seriously compromised in the name of increased performance that is really illusory. To put it bluntly, the bikes they are being sold ride like bloody hell. The pleasure that can be had by riding a delicious, well-designed, comfortable bike that is competitive at all but the very highest levels of racing has been denied to the majority of the modern road bike riders.

A discerning rider should look upon lightweight road bikes as basically falling into two categories.

All-out racing bikes (and lower-priced clones that purport to be the same, but have none of the competitive advantages and all of the disadvantages of these bikes) that, while not offering the most comfortable or pleasurable ride, give the serious athlete a chance to race without worrying that his equipment will hold him back. Many items that claim to be in this category are marketing tools aimed at the misinformed. But more about this later.
Riding bikes. An intelligently designed bike will offer a wonderful ride, handle like a dream and only slightly compromise the all-out need for the ultimately competitive bike. I believe that these are the bikes most people should ride.
This all used to be so easy.

In 1975, a professional rider rode a bike made of Columbus, or Reynolds 531. The usual group was Campagnolo Nuovo Record, but a mixture of French or even Spanish components could be used. The rims would be tubulars like Fiamme strung up with 36 spokes, and have handmade (cold-treated) tubulars glued on. The bars were most likely Cinelli, the chain and cogset Regina. The bike probably weighed about 21.5 pounds. It was the state of the art. No bike could be made that was faster, more reliable or significantly lighter.

At the same time, no bike could be had that rode better than a handmade frame, built by a master out of 531 or Columbus and assembled with the pro equipment of the day. The bike was not only competitive at the highest levels of the sport, it rode comfortably and had excellent vertical compliance so that it adhered to the road. The sensual element that gives a bike ride its real pleasure could find no better tool than the true pro bike of the '70s.

Bikes have changed. Those changes require that a thoughtful person contemplating the purchase of a new bike to use a different set of criteria than a rider of the '70s and '80s. It's no longer enough to just want what the pros ride.

As I stated in my opening paragraph, there are several forces at work changing the design of the professional racing bike. First of all, the most easily noticed is the march to lighter weight. This has caused the UCI (the governing body of worldwide bike racing) to require that bikes weigh at least 6.8 kilograms (15 lbs.). There is a fear that the technological advance will obscure the importance of the human effort in a bike race. The UCI wants to make sure that the emphasis is on the athlete.

There are two other forces at work. Manufacturers want to reduce the number of different items that they manufacture. Sometimes this ends up being for the better. Threadless forks are lighter, the stems are stiffer. The manufacturer gets to make only one fork and cut it to length. Previously he had to make a different threaded fork for each size frame. His life is simpler and the bike is lighter and stiffer.

Compact frames reduce the number of frame sizes that need to be manufactured. We make the Corsa Strada (not a compact frame) in 18 sizes, each with a unique geometry. This many items, all complex and differernt, are a manufacturer's nightmare, but a bike rider's dream.

Fit and weight distribution on compact frames, however, can be a problem. If a person is between frame sizes, the choice between a too-short or too-long stem (and the same with the seat post) will result in a poor fit and bad handling. The miniscule weight savings does not make up for the disadvantages. But, the manufacturer has saved a bundle. And you'll look like the pros in the Tour de France who are being paid to sell this line of baloney.

Another force driving design is advertising. Marketing costs are huge. In the sport-driven world of bicycle advertising, these costs have ballooned. Up until the 1970s, a big bicycle factory could, on its own, sponsor a high-end bicycle team. Gone are the days of a Peugeot team stocked with Tour winning riders like Thevenet. The last team sponsored primarily by a bicycle company was TI-Raleigh. And this was possible because Tubing Investments, the owner of Raleigh, amortised a lot of the costs of the team over other branches of the conglomerate. Today, the bicycle supplier generally plays a much smaller part in the financing of a pro team, which can cost more than $8,000,000 a year. With these huge costs, the pro team has been forced to become a more focused marketing driven device than in decades past. Every square inch of the bike and the riders' clothing is crammed with advertising.

In the past, rim manufacturers never paid racing teams money to equip their bikes because the then-used box-section rim is so anonymous. You never knew which teams were using what rims. New wheels with deep section rims can carry obvious and easily recognized advertising, but this is at a real cost to the rider. The deep rims ride very harshly. The reduced spoke count wheel have very high spoke tensions that exacerbate the problem.

The consumer is sold the wheels because they are light. But, this is a half-truth. Because the rims have deep sections, the inertial mass (rotating weight) is greater. The result is that the bike has less snap and rides more harshly. To make it worse, tests have shown that a rim needs to be 40 mm deep to have any real aerodynamic advantage. The rims with their cross sections in the 30mm's are not aero, they are only fancy looking. Before buying one of these wheelsets that have lots of gee-whiz, consider a nice set of 32 hole, cross-three wheels with box section rims. Put a pair on your bike and give them a chance. Borrow a buddy's set if you have any. The weight is almost the same. But the ride.........

On to the frames.

Bicycle frames and forks are made of four different materials: steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber. There other materials on the fringe, but they are beyond the scope of this discussion.

Steel, aluminum and titanium are metals with an interesting relationship. Titanium has 1/2 the density of steel and 1/2 the tensile strength. Aluminum has 1/3 the density and 1/3 the strength of steel. Now the obvious conclusion that one can draw from this is that a frame of aluminum should end up weighing the same as a steel frame. A given cubic volume of aluminum weighs 1/3 as much as the same volume of steel. But because it has 1/3 the strength, one would need 3 times the material to make a given structure work.

It's not that simple. In building bicycles, made of 9 tubes, there are problems in drawing the tubes too thin in relation to their diameter. Given the current state of the art, a bicycle downtube of steel is roughly 32 mm in diameter. It can be drawn so that the walls are about 0.4mm thick. Any thinner and the tube can buckle easily, and the tube is subject to denting as well.

Modern aluminum downtubes are usually oval for greater resistence to bending under the normal load of pedaling. The mechanical characteristics of aluminum are inferior to steel. It will fail more quickly under repeated stress. So, the diameters and wall thicknesses must be increased, but not as much as would be called for to make up entirely for the reduced tensile strength of aluminum. With a 42mm diameter, aluminum tubes can be drawn down to 0.7mm yielding a tube that weighs 185 grams, compared to 220 grams for a state-of-the-art steel downtube. Multiplied throughout the bike's 9 tubes, it is obvious that a significant weight saving can be achieved using non-ferrous (non-steel) materials. Intermediate weight savings can be gained using titanium.

Steel
We know more about steel than any other of the materials used to build bikes. It is one of the basic building blocks of our civilization. Even though it has been over 150 years since Henry Bessemer figured out how to produce steel commercially and cheaply, new developments keep coming. In the early 1990s, Columbus announced the introduction of Nivachrome steel. Previous steels used to build bikes were chrome-moly alloys that lost as much as 40% of their strength after brazing. Nivachrome was the first alloy specifically developed for building bicycles. In the hands of a competent builder, Nivachrome loses only 10% of its strength after building. Also, it is a highly ductile steel (not brittle like glass) and has a very high tensile strength. The results? Steel tubes could be made thinner and lighter.

Previously, because so much strength was lost in brazing or welding, the tubing maker had to put a lot of redundant material in the tubing to allow for the loss of strength. A normal tube in 1976 was 0.9mm at the butted end and 0.6 in the center. With Nivachrome, that changed to 0.7mm at the butt and 0.4 in the center. This is a reduction of 1/3 of the mass of the tube with no loss of strength or durability.

The resulting bikes made with these modern 0.4mm thick tubes were light and had a new, beautiful, elastic, delicious sensual feel that I cannot describe. I can only tell you that it is there.

The other advantage of steel is reliability. Modern metallurgy teaches that if a steel tube is bent and released repeatedly, it will not break as long as the amount of this bending remains within what engineers call the "elastic" range of the metal. When a steel tube is bent until it permanently deforms, it is said to have failed. As long as the frame is never bent beyond it's elastic range, its life will be very long, indeed.

But let us not deceive ourselves. The slight weight disadvantage that comes with a steel frame makes it unusable for racing at the highest levels. A steel frame can be made that weighs in the mid to low 3-pound range. Over a non-compact aluminum frame, this is a penalty of about one pound. This is just too heavy to chase Tyler Hamilton up a category-one climb. That is why the professional peloton uses aluminum or carbon. But for the rider who does not compete at the elite level, that one-pound penalty as part of a whole rider/bike package that approaches 200 pounds (or may generously exceed it) is insignificant. And for that pound, the rider gets a bike that can take advantage of the high-tensile strength and springy elasticity of modern steel and ride a bike that is an absolute dream. No bike rides as well as a steel bike built by a skilled builder. People who disagree with this conclusion usually have either a commercial interest in other materials, or have not ridden modern steel bikes.

Forks. Putting on a full carbon fork will save almost a pound. This is a huge weight savings in a single component for a very modest price. I will save most of my comments for the carbon discussion below. But, because the deformation of steel under load is linear, the springy feel of a steel frame is greatly enhanced by the lively feel of a steel fork.

Aluminum

The evolution of the aluminum frame has been going at the speed of light. The first modern aluminum frames that showed up in the mid 1970s by Alan of Italy used the same diameters that were then used in making steel frames. The resulting frames were very light, but they were so soft, I considered them unrideable. Vitus also made aluminum frames that were very soft and very light. I could say these were terrible bikes, but Sean Kelly beat the rest of the world like gongs with these spongy imitations of real bikes. There are many roads to the same place. One man's food is another man's poison.
Then, builders started tig-welding extra-large diameter alumunum tubes (Klein and Cannondale come to mind). The resulting bikes were fantastically stiff, very light, but hard as nails. I considered them terrible alternatives to good steel bikes because they had gone too far the other way. The ride was just too harsh.

The engineers never stopped working on solving the problems aluminum presented. Columbus came out with Altec and the ride got better. Easton's offerings made frames that I finally admitted were tolerable. Columbus' modern tubes Altec2 and Airplane make fine riding bikes. I don't put their ride quality in the class of the good steel bikes. But, if a rider is seeking competitive light weight and acceptable ride quality, a non-compact, horizontal top-tube aluminum bike will serve him well. The earlier problems of aluminum's tendency to fail after only a short time has been basically solved. But the lifetime of an aluminum frame is not and will not be that of a steel bike. The rider has to accept that in his search for high-perfomance, compromises must be made. These are not lifetime bikes. They just aren't!

Titanium
This is the middle ground. Titanium is not as strong as steel and it is not as light as aluminum. The result is a frame that has a better ride than aluminum, but weighs more. It doesn't ride as well as steel, but it is lighter. It is very reliable. Titanium frame failures, like steel frame failures, are very rare. Titanium also has another advantage. It doesn't rust. Riders in areas where roads are salted like titanium frames. They don't have to be painted. If the decals get wrecked, new ones are easy to apply.

I have good friends whose judgement I respect who insist that this is the best material from which to build a frame because of its middle ground between aluminum and steel. At this point, it becomes a matter of taste.

Carbon Fiber
I think it was about a decade ago that Greg Lemond predicted that carbon fiber bikes were the future. I don't think they have yet lived up to that promise, even with Lance Armstrong's six Tour de France wins on carbon.

The first carbon frames I recall were from Alan and Vitus. The aluminum tubes that were usually glued into aluminum lugs were replaced with carbon tubes. Then, the next big advance came from Kestrel with a monocoque frame. Lots of riders went wild over them and adored the ride and lightness. Like all early products, all of the above frames suffered from growing pains. Reliability just wasn't there.

If we fast-forward to today, the advances have been profound. The basic problem of carbon's reliability has been solved. Millions of men and women trust carbon for the their forks, the component on a bike that requires the greatest level of quality and reliability. A broken fork can be catastrophic.

Producers of carbon fiber products have advanced the basic technology of the raw material. Carbon fiber products are made of carbon fiber imbedded in an epoxy resin. As the technology has advanced, engineers have been able to reduce the amount of resin as well as cabon fiber in the basic make-up of a carbon item.

This is important not only for a weight savings, the basic reason people turn to carbon, but also for road feel.

I have a theory.

When the first carbon tubes frames from Alan and Vitus showed up, they were slightly over size. They were still quite soft as frames go. Then, when the first carbon fiber forks were introduced, many of them mimicked the dimensions of steel forks. They were terribly underdesgined. They were so soft that the front wheel would vibrate back and forth in an unnerving shimmy when the front brake was applied. These very soft, improperly designed items gave carbon a reputation for softness. If an item were carbon, it was assumed that it would give a soft, comfortable ride. It was not the carbon, which is an extremely stiff material, that was causing the softness, it was the engineering.

Look at carbon forks today. They are built to dimensions that are appropriate to the material. Carbon forks are stiff, reliable and well-made.

So how does carbon fiber affect the ride of the bike? Engineers can do almost anything they want with carbon. It's all in how the sheets of woven carbon fiber are laid and epoxied together. There is, however, a great deal of commonality in how all carbon fiber products are designed for bicycles. So, we can paint with a broad brush and make some general rules.

The epoxy in the carbon fiber matrix damps high-frequency vibrations. If you have a nice road, it will take out that road buzz and smooth it out.

However, because the deformation of carbon under load is not linear, the worse the jolt or impact, the harsher the feel. It can make a good road nice, but it will make a bad road terrible as it bites back when the usual elastic limit of the carbon is reached.

Some riders find the deadening of road buzz delightful and pleasant. Other find that carbon fiber results in a dead feel. Once again, it's a matter of taste.

I believe that the feel of the road is a large part of the feedback I am looking for as I ride my bike. I am not looking to isolate myself from my cycling environment. I want to be part of it. For me, then, carbon works against my cycling goals. I have never ridden a carbon frame or fork that gives the fine, pleasant, comfortable ride under the widest set of condition that steel gives.

With changing technology, this judgment is only for today.

So, what kind of bike to buy?

I still hold that a modern steel bike built with hand-made cross-three wheels and good tires inflated to no more than 110 psi remains the gold standard. No other bike will ride as well.

The elite racer looking for the lightest, fastest bike is best served with a lighweight aluminum bike. He can get good feel as well as high performance with aluminum. If he avoids compact frames, he will get a finer ride at almost no weight gain. The important, and now ignored, questions of fit and weight distribution are better answered with a horizontal-top-tubed bike.

Bill McGann
Torelli Imports

NO! Our eyes roll everytime we hear someone say "I don't want steel because it is HEAVY." Our kneejerk reaction to this statement is usually "Get your brainwashed head out of the corporate/commercial bike companies fluff and hype catalog!" or "PAH-LEEEEEEEZ"! Neither approach will endear too many customers however.

We find it more constructive to take 5 minutes to educate you on the current state of frame materials and their weights.

This topic is best left for in store conversation, but let us type a few words on the matter. First off, proof is in the pudding: we've built full bikes with lugged, steel frames that weigh in UNDER 17 pounds. And NO, they did not cost $6000. Most of the steel bikes we build weigh in between 18 and 19 pounds.

Today's aluminum frames are the lightest available. There are some exceptions, but if you want to talk about top-shelf, proven, stage style frames, this remains accurate. Titanium is light no doubt, but it has lost the label as the LIGHTEST bike material. Carbon, in general, is light....but in some specific cases it is NOT. When you consider ride quality, you can debate for hours on weight vs. material. Ask us (in store) to explain to you how some companies at the TOP of the food chain have decided that Titanium and Carbon on their own don't make for very good bike frames at all. The combination of these materials is another story. More on this when you visit us!

Aluminum seems to be the material that has come closest to the goal of doing what steel does but with less weight. 20 years ago, aluminum was lighter than steel but it was harsh riding and too stiff. [There is a great story about an engineer from a BIG CORPORATE BIKE COMPANY in the pits at the Tour De France in the early 1980's. A team competing in THE Tour was riding his company's newest aluminum frame. When the riders returned from the stage, they we assembled under a tent to meet with the engineer for a feedback session. The engineer, through an Italian speaking helper asked "How was the ride on our great new frame"....the riders muttered to each other in Italian and their collective reply came from the one team member that spoke a few words in broken English, with a heavy twist of Italian accent..."It's a-fast, but it's a-too a-hard!"]

As higher quality materials and aluminum alloys became available, tubing manufacturers became more and more able to make aluminum tubes with a thinner wall thickness which reduced stiffness and even lowered weight more. BUT, at the same time, steel tubing benefited from new alloys and advancements in production and design. Steel tubing is now much lighter than it had been. Also, frame parts like lugs, bottom bracket shells, seat collars, etc. have been slimmed down by new materials and production techniques to reduce full frame weight even further. This lends some proof in our eyes that steel is still at the forefront of frame material. If steel is "OLD SKOOL" or "RETRO" or whatever you want to call it, contact Columbus, Reynolds, True Temper or some of the other steel tubing manufacturers and ask them why they continue to spend millions of dollars on R&D for steel tubes!

Remember that what you lose in weight you gain in many other departments. A light steel frame is 3 to 3.5 pounds*. A SUPER light Aluminum frame is 2.5 pounds*. So we are talking about .5 to 1 pounds net difference. If your absolute 1st priority is building as light a bike as possible, you won't choose steel. If you want a very light bike that performs and rides to the highest quality standard, you will love a steel frame.

*REAL WEIGHTS...not catalog weights or tech sheet weight!

Aluminum, carbon, and titanium are fine frame materials. After all the touting we’ve done here about steel frames, you still might very well be better off with another material. No worries, our friends at Torelli and Mondonico all know this very well and all brands offer frames made of these materials, and of course, all are crafted in the Italian Style. If you aren’t sure what is best for you, please consult with us. We can give you solid advice. We will always throw the warning flag if we think a customer is wandering down the wrong path when buying a bike or making a fit decision. Ultimately, it is your choice, but we are here to help you match your desires and needs with the right product.

Everyone talks about bicycle weight. It consumes our discussions. Magazine reviews make it clear that if the very lightest parts are not chosen, if it is not as light as possible, the bicycle being examined is suspect. Light weight has become the sine qua non of a good bicycle. A light bicycle is a good bicycle, without any further discussion of its other merits or qualities.

Can we step back for a moment?

Let's get some numbers. Let us see if, as I believe, the handy availability of a single number has led people to make poor decisions in their choice of bicycle.

First of all, weight is important. If it weren't, we would all be enjoying pleasant 75-mile rides on 42-pound Schwinn Varsity bikes. The road bikes offered today are a far cry from those mild-steel tanks. We're not talking about riding heavy bikes. I want to limit the discussion to modern, well-made, well equipped bikes.

My personal favorite bike is a 55-centimeter all Columbus Foco Steel Torelli bike with a steel fork, generously chromed, built up with a Campagnolo Record 10-speed group. It weighs about 19 pounds. Beyond aluminum spoke nipples and double-butted spokes, there is nothing heroic about the equipment to make it lighter. The Squadra HDP saddle is heavy by the usual standards.

UCI regulations limit a racing bike to about 15 pounds. What we are discussing, from a normal all-steel bike to a super-light, barely legal bike is about 4 pounds. This is what we're going crazy about, 4 pounds. Maybe a bit more with a less expensive groups. In any case, given the usual rider-bike package of at least 180 pounds or more, the difference is obviously very small indeed.

But how does this weight difference affect performance? Does removing these few pounds make the bike fly? Is a lighter bike the fountain of youth? The September 2003 Bicycling Magazine has a chart that makes it easy to quantify the performance gains from light weight. James C. Martin, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of exercise and sport science at the University of Utah provided some interesting calculations that make the cost of weight very clear.

He posited a 5 kilometer, 7% grade. That's a good, stiff climb. The legendary Stelvio climb averages 7.5%. He further assumed a rider who can kick out 250 watts. A 160 pound rider will take 19 minutes and 21 seconds to get up the hill. Every 5 pounds added make the trip up the hill take 30 seconds longer.

That means each added pound adds 6 seconds to the time it takes to get up this hill. That is only 6 seconds on a stiff, 20 minute climb.

So, given our roughly 4-pound range from a full steel bike to a super-light carbon or aluminum bike, the time difference up this hill would be 24 seconds from best to worst.

But, most weight conscious people aren't bringing their bikes down to 15 pounds because down at that weight, the handling gets very sketchy. 17 - 17.5 pounds is the normal range. The real discussion is about 1.5 to 2 pounds.

The performance advantage of a lighter bike is greatest when the hill is steepest. What happens as things flatten out? Then, as the speed of the bike increases, the resistance comes from the wind, tire rolling resistance, bearing drag, etc. Those 6 seconds/pound grow ever smaller.

The variations in body weight, however, being so much greater, make large difference. If that same 160 pound-250 watt rider were to be 220 pounds, he would come in 6 minutes, 10 seconds later.

So what do we do with this information?

There are two basic groups of riders to whom this is important.

The first is the serious athlete. A few seconds advantage is not something he can give up. No matter what the quality of the ride of the bike in question, he must seek every attainable performance gain in his equipment or his body.

Then there is the large body of dedicated cyclists who enjoy the sport at various levels, but do not compete in the higher racing categories. I think this is almost everyone reading this essay. For these riders, the choice of bike and equipment should involve a more complex, qualitative study. Weight is one consideration. But there are others. How does the bike feel? Is it stable? Does it fit? Does it have the snappy, clean, vibrant feel that should be the soul of a great bike?

These basically sensuous questions that are beyond simple quantification. It's not a matter of a 73 degree head tube or 18 pounds or 9 sprockets in the rear. It is the whole bike, taken as a whole that must be considered. One should not pick a bike as if he were one of the 7 blind men describing the elephant.

The fact that these 1.5 - 2 pounds are so unimportant in choosing a bike should be looked upon a truly liberating. Now we can to back to judging bikes on their real merits.

Before leaving this discussion, let's look at the most common "upgrade".

A full carbon fork is considered an upgrade that will add greatly to the competitive advantage of the bike. A full carbon fork replacing a steel fork can take off a little less than a pound. Remember, that's our 6 seconds. Clearly, we have all been oversold on the carbon fork as the easy performance upgrade. There is some improvement, but it is minuscule. And it is not without its costs in quality of road feel. For more about carbon, please see my essay on materials.

Or in other words, Scarpelli, you can't buy a bike light enough to keep up me with on a climb.

Bill McGann
Torelli Bicycles

In order for mountain biking to continue to thrive, it needs new riders. However, mountain biking is one of those sports that has a high learning curve, and I’ve seen a lot of people quit out of frustration — not because of a lack of fitness but, rather, because of a lack of technical skills. Depending on the level of technical difficulty on your local trails, you’ll need to spend the time learning some basic skill if you want to have fun and enjoy yourself when you get out in the hills.

This series of &undefined;how to&undefined; articles is geared towards the beginner / intermediate xc rider, as I am certainly not an expert when it comes to bombing down trail at places like Whistler or at some of the other gnarly spots out there. But, you know what They say, "You teach best what you need to learn most".

This introductory post highlights some basic skills that have helped me become a better rider; future posts will take more detailed looks at specific skills that you can use while out on the trail.

The "I wish someone had told me that" Basics

I’ve got scars up and down my knees and shins from learning how to ride a mountain bike. Each of these scars represents something that I learned the hard way and, in hindsight, wish that someone had told me when I first started riding.

Know your center of gravity. There is a point in space somewhere in front of your navel that is often referred to as your center of gravity (CG). It represents a point where all of your weight is located. Understanding how to manipulate your CG depending on the terrain and what you want to accomplish while riding is a key to all types of mountain biking.

It’s a balancing act. When you climb a hill, you need to move your center of gravity forward in order to keep the front wheel from popping up. However, if you move it too far forward you start to loose rear wheel traction. When going down a hill you have to move your CG towards the rear of your bike to keep yourself from pitching over the bars. However, if you move it too far back you unweight the front wheel and make it difficult to corner. When it comes to mountain biking is a game of give-and-take, compromise, and balance.

Speed is your friend. Fear usually keeps me from going as fast as I might on downhills and, obviously, riding on terrain that is beyond my technical skills gets me into trouble that could have been avoided. However, 8 crashes out of every 10 could have been avoided if I was going faster. It is very hard for beginners to understand how important momentum is. Remember that momentum and speed will get you through something more often than not.

Learn to like your front brake. Something like 75% of your braking power comes from the front brake. The first time I went over the bars as a result of grabbing my front brake at the wrong time, I was instilled me with a fear that took a long time to overcome. I think that this is a problem for a lot of beginners, who rely mainly on the rear brake, something that leads to a lot of skidding and causes you to lose control of your ride. As you brake, your center of gravity wants to move forward. Remember to counteract this shift by forcing your cg rearward. This movement allows you to brake with the front without going over the bars.

Look where you want to go. Look at the trail, not at the rock or tree.

Look up. This is one of the hardest things to do. Keep your head up and look down the trail rather than at your front tire. To put it another way, the next time you drive down the highway, look 5′ in front of your hood, and then look up as you normally do. Which one ‘feels’ like you are going way too fast?

Built in suspension. Our knees and elbows are a form of built-in suspension that is as good as any modern linkages today. Keep them bent, keep them loose, and let them move with the bike to soak up bumps.

Assume the position. Developing a feel for the ‘ready’ or the ‘attack’ position often times does not come naturally. How many beginners have you seen go down a hill while sitting in the saddle. Try to focus on the following things and your descents will ‘feel’ better:

Elbows bent and elbows out
Keep your head up
Keep your chin low
Keep your center of gravity low
Get off the saddle
Use the saddle for stability by squeezing it between your thighs
Keep your pedals level with the ground, with your strong (chocolate) foot forward




This picture is somewhat exaggerated but one thing I’ve realized is that even though I ‘think’ I am in the right position with my elbows are out, chest low and head it up, the reality is never as good. So it helps to try and exaggerate the ‘ideal’ position in order to get closer to it while actually riding.

When I first started trying to emulate this position I’d feel like I was going to pitch forward every time I braked. That’s because I was trying so hard to ‘get things right’ that I forgot to shift my weight back more when braking. Lesson: Flow with the bike, be loose. Not stiff like us xc guys.

Placing weight on the pedals. When going downhill, move your center of gravity back far enough so that you have your weight centered over the pedals. You’ll know that you’ve done it correctly when you can go down a rough downhill with only your thumb and index finger lightly wrapped around the bar or even completely OFF the bar.

Note: only do this a few times to emphasize the feeling. This is something that you have to FEEL to understand. But once you get it, you will increase your speed on downhills dramatically.

Learn to pick up the rear wheel without clipless pedals. I started cycling with mountain bikes way back in the late ’80s. For me, that meant flat pedals with toeclips. In order to bunny hop and pick up the rear wheel I naturally tightened my toe clips down. With the advent of clipless pedals, cleats that were bolted onto your shoes replaced those tight toe straps. This made picking up the rear wheel easy but, technically, it’s not the ‘right way’. It works, and I continue to lift my rear wheel with a heavy reliance on being clipped in. But I have started to try and learn the proper way of hopping and lifting the rear wheel with flat pedals. I wish someone had showed me how to do it way back then. If you are a BMX kid than you probably already know how to do this.

Conclusion

For a lot of you, these things are ingrained in your riding and you don’t even think about them anymore but for some beginners these skills can make or break their enjoyment of the sport. Hopefully these basic skills will help you or someone you know. Remember that simply reading over these tips a couple of timesis not going to make much of a difference in your riding ability — these are things you have to feel and experience in practice and on the trail over and over in order for them to sink in. Don’t believe everything you read, try it out yourself and convince yourself.

My next entries will deal with specific skills that will help you become a better technical rider and give you a better ‘feel’ for your bike and the trails you’re riding on.