We're just messing about at it

CiB
CiB Posts: 6,098
edited June 2009 in Commuting chat
How many threads do we have asking for advice on the best commuter bike to buy? What's your budget - oooh - £50, a couple of hundred maybe if the washing machine survives to its eighth birthday, or I want a full carbon road rocket with Ultegra GS for less than £800, etc. All valid clearly in their own context.

Lets raise the bar. Here's what I fancy - the BERU Factor 001, a snip at £25000. It'll be my winter bike too just to annoy those who have a special winter bike. 7Kg of nice bike, with some toys. I particularly liked the functionality that measures left & right legs' max torque. That's a nice touch.

Shame that there's so much, any at all in fact, reference to falling off the thing. What is it with journos & cycling, that they assume that the most obvious thing to do with a bike is to fall off it. No-one I know has fallen off since the day they learned to ride. We get knocked off, hit other things and come off at impressive sorts of speeds and have scars to scare kids with, but falling off? Unheard of. Didn't that prat off The One Show once ask Olympic Bike Champ and All-Round Top person Vic Pembleton if she ever fell off? Berk.

Comments

  • jonginge
    jonginge Posts: 5,945
    Pembleton??
    Tink you are referring to the SPOTY interview A Chiles did with Nicole Cooke in 2007
    FCN 2-4 "Shut up legs", Jens Voigt
    Planet-x Scott
    Rides
  • CiB
    CiB Posts: 6,098
    JonGinge wrote:
    Pembleton??
    Tink you are referring to the SPOTY interview A Chiles did with Nicole Cooke in 2007

    I probably am. Doesn't alter the point though, that someone who's reached the top is faced with such a juvenile question.
  • Roastie
    Roastie Posts: 1,968
    ChrisInBicester wrote:
    BERU Factor 001
    Silly tech w*nk. And when you really look at it, despite not being UCI compliant, it doesn't move the game on any further. A waste of time. I'd much rather spend that money on a Colnago EPS and a coach.
    David
    Engineered Bicycles
  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    The Beru was mentioned in a post somewhere round the start of May.

    From the article:
    An extraordinary example of technology transfer, from the mighty mechanical power of Formula One to the human power of a bike, the Factor 001, weighing in at a mere 7kg, can reach 45mph on the level and 70mph down a mountain road when powered by Olympian muscles.

    I don't see what's extraordinary about those figures, particularly the latter speed in the context of the speeds the more daring sportive riders reach in the Dragon or the Marmotte.
    FCN 2-4.

    "What happens when the hammer goes down, kids?"
    "It stays down, Daddy."
    "Exactly."
  • CiB
    CiB Posts: 6,098
    Humblest apologies. I've misread my audience [as usual], fondly thinking that participants in a bike related web forum might have a slight interest in some unnecessarily flash and overtly expensive bit of kit that I happened upon in the paper on Saturday. Not to worry...

    :)
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    It's only the Telegraph Motoring section - you can't really expect a top quality bike review by a top quality cycle journalist can you?

    Bike 'top speeds' always annoy me too becasue they are much more to do with the rider than the bike. I bet a lot of motorists were quite impressed by the figures though.

    So are the carbon fibre disc brakes any good though? Are they lighter or more powerful than top end rim brakes? I suspect not, but would be interested to know.
  • Roastie
    Roastie Posts: 1,968
    ChrisInBicester wrote:
    Humblest apologies. I've misread my audience [as usual], fondly thinking that participants in a bike related web forum might have a slight interest in some unnecessarily flash and overtly expensive bit of kit that I happened upon in the paper on Saturday. Not to worry...

    :)
    Trust me, I love bike pron as much as the next guy, but come on - this thing doesn't introduce anything genuinely new and innovative. Last I went to the Science Museum a few weeks back I saw this thing there, and I was even more underwhelmed. For starters, it still uses a chain...

    Hell, Mike Burrows' Lotus track and TT bikes from about 10 years ago still makes this look a bit silly in terms of genuine innovation. Out of 10 I give it a 1.

    (I suspect my views on this bike are perhaps disproportionately intense)
    David
    Engineered Bicycles
  • gtvlusso
    gtvlusso Posts: 5,112
    Can I get an FCN for this...?!?!
  • Bassjunkieuk
    Bassjunkieuk Posts: 4,232
    gtvlusso wrote:
    Can I get an FCN for this...?!?!

    Well it's technically still a road bike so base FCN of 2 or 4 depending on how hairy your legs are :-)

    Whilst it is a very expensive bike I still can't see exactly what your paying for. I'm fairly sure if I fitted a 705 to my bike, got a compatible HR and power meter I'd be able to pull just as many technical details off.
    Those claimed top speeds are also useless, as the previous poster said, they are based pretty much on the rider. I'm fairly sure I could just as easily get a bike costing 1/25th the price of that upto about the same speed on the flat - might not be 45 but I reckon I'd do about the same top speed on each one. Also I think carbon ceramic hydraulic discs are a bit OTT, I quite like my cable operated brakes as I can get some feedback from them!

    Wonder how long before we spot one round RP :-D
    Who's the daddy?
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    Giant SCR 3.0 - FCN 5
  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    Bassjunkieuk wrote:
    Whilst it is a very expensive bike I still can't see exactly what your paying for. I'm fairly sure if I fitted a 705 to my bike, got a compatible HR and power meter I'd be able to pull just as many technical details off.

    So something like this, then :shock: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Wiggl ... 360042986/
    My Focus / My Bob Jackson
    Blog (incl. bikes)
  • jonginge
    jonginge Posts: 5,945
    biondino wrote:
    Bassjunkieuk wrote:
    Whilst it is a very expensive bike I still can't see exactly what your paying for. I'm fairly sure if I fitted a 705 to my bike, got a compatible HR and power meter I'd be able to pull just as many technical details off.

    So something like this, then :shock: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Wiggl ... 360042986/
    That's what I've got but bought the two items several months apart. Works a treat at a total cost of ~1.7k. The other 23k must be to shave off 1kg of weight ;)
    FCN 2-4 "Shut up legs", Jens Voigt
    Planet-x Scott
    Rides
  • Bassjunkieuk
    Bassjunkieuk Posts: 4,232
    biondino wrote:
    Bassjunkieuk wrote:
    Whilst it is a very expensive bike I still can't see exactly what your paying for. I'm fairly sure if I fitted a 705 to my bike, got a compatible HR and power meter I'd be able to pull just as many technical details off.

    So something like this, then :shock: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Wiggl ... 360042986/

    *clicks Add to Wishlist*

    WANT :-)
    Who's the daddy?
    Twitter, Videos & Blog
    Player of THE GAME
    Giant SCR 3.0 - FCN 5
  • Tempestas
    Tempestas Posts: 486
    It was also featured on Bike Radar a while back....

    http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/f ... bike-20960

    It's nice to see something like this being produced as it shows how far the sport has come in terms of technical developments with regards to training, moved on a long way since lead filled water bottles and double tyres :wink:
  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    ChrisInBicester wrote:
    Humblest apologies. I've misread my audience [as usual], fondly thinking that participants in a bike related web forum might have a slight interest in some unnecessarily flash and overtly expensive bit of kit that I happened upon in the paper on Saturday. Not to worry...

    :)

    :lol: I'm more than happy to be distracted from my work by bike p0rn.
    FCN 2-4.

    "What happens when the hammer goes down, kids?"
    "It stays down, Daddy."
    "Exactly."
  • nation
    nation Posts: 609
    El Gordo wrote:
    So are the carbon fibre disc brakes any good though? Are they lighter or more powerful than top end rim brakes? I suspect not, but would be interested to know.

    I always wonder about this. Working out weights for road bike brakes is always tricky, because of the combined brake lever and shifter units. The lightest MTB disc brakes going at the moment are Formula R1s, which are about 270g for a complete front brake assembly (i.e. including lever, caliper, hose, fluid, mounts, rotor, etc.) I'm willing to bet that if one of the big component manufacturers had a proper go at a disc brake for road bikes, they could shave a good bit off that because I would think it wouldn't need to be as heavy-duty for a road bike.

    For comparison, a pair of Dura Ace caliper brakes (not including levers or cables) is apparently about 290g. So half that for a front brake only, but I don't know whether a lever would be heavier if it worked hydraulically rather than by pulling cables.

    Then if you use discs you can make a lighter, stronger rim because it doesn't have to have a braking surface, you gain all the control benefits of discs, consistent brake behaviour in the rain, and you don't wear your rims out. It also doesn't matter as much if you have a rim that's slightly out of true.

    They're probably banned by the UCI or something, though.

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