tisdag, januari 22, 2008

Standardcykel accoutrements, part 1



I grew up riding BMX back before the movie Rad propelled Bart Connor and Lori Loughlin to their respective acting careers, so I've shredded my share of Levi 501 right pant legs. Of course, nowadays I have cuffs and bike pants and bash guards and other things that help keep me out of that kind of trouble, but my son getting his pants caught on the chainring on a rare (for him anyway) ride on a real MTB last summer reminded me of that phenomenon.


In my quest to determine the optimal commuter sled at least part of my reason for eschewing bikes with multiple front rings has been to ease the task of keeping right pant legs intact and clean. Earlier this evening I came across the picture above on the Soma blog page, and it has given me cause to re-think this issue. Sure, I've had ideas that go about half a dozen steps beyond this on the complexity scale, but if this is as universally applicable as it appears to be it looks promising.

I can even see somebody like Cervélo or Oval Concepts or FSA coming up with something similar that could ostensibly be called a chainguard but that would have the primary function of cleaning up airflow around the front derailleur/chainring/frame intersection. In carbon it wouldn't have to weigh more than a couple hundred grams (if that), and it is very common that teams are adding more weight than that just to bring the bike up to the required minimum. Think of it: 200 grams, at the perfect location for both weight distribution and center of mass, that could make a bike more aero and thus potentially faster but that wouldn't be grounds for disqualification because it is a chain guard and not strictly an aerodynamic device. Imagine Cancellara winning another world TT championship on a P3C with an FSA Neo Pro crankset and his new secret weapon...a chainguard!

Makes me smile.

2 kommentarer:

Sånger från nedre botten sa...

Bilden på den här sidan ser lite konstig ut hemma hos mig en bild syns och sen ser det ut som om nån försökt att klistra in en till men misslyckats och det blev bara en liten tom ruta med ett x i. Ska det va så?

Markus F sa...

Blogger käkar crack.