What is this on Brad's Pinarello?

pilot_pete
pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
edited July 2012 in Pro race
Just looking at some of the close ups of Wiggin's Dogma and noticed this behind the crank. http://velonews.competitor.com/files/2012/07/NIK8406.jpg

What is that stuck to the frame, looks like a lump of lead! Is it to make the bike reach the minimum weight?

Picture comes from a great close up set here http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/news/tour-pro-bike-bradley-wiggins-pinarello-dogma2-a-bike-that-flies_230060 looks like a big cassette for stage 14 in there too! Wish I'd had one like that when I did the Circle of Death in June instead of just my 25 biggest cog!

PP

Comments

  • jim453
    jim453 Posts: 1,360
    What makes you think it's lead? Surely any ballast would be placed inside the tubing. Anyway, from what I've read, the Dogma's don't struggle to make the minimum weight limit.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    Well, no becasue it depedns what equipment you hang off the frame. Build it up with superlight Di2 with climbing rims it will need some ballast. Put a heavy powermeter, a super stiff but heavy bar for the final sprint and some aero rims on and you don't need any ballast
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • jim453
    jim453 Posts: 1,360
    So you think it's a lump of lead?
  • DNQ
    DNQ Posts: 45
    That's a tack dispenser, if I'm not mistaken, no wonder he's in the yellow jersey !
  • BillyMansell
    BillyMansell Posts: 817
    It's liquorice. A tasty treat and something to keep Brad regular.
  • mfin
    mfin Posts: 6,729
    Its a GPS locator for thieves, to tell them all where it is. He's got them on all his bikes, in the hope they all get nicked so he can ride something else.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    jim453 wrote:
    So you think it's a lump of lead?

    Yep...well maybe not lead, but metal...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • jim453
    jim453 Posts: 1,360
    ddraver wrote:
    jim453 wrote:
    So you think it's a lump of lead?

    Yep...well maybe not lead, but metal...

    Fair enough. Why not stick it inside the tubing though?
  • Omar Little
    Omar Little Posts: 2,010
    A smaller, thinner battery for the di2 glued to the frame?
  • esafosfina
    esafosfina Posts: 131
    It's just a chuck of metal to chuck at Rolland next time he attacks!!!
  • SteppenHerring
    SteppenHerring Posts: 720
    Could be a rare-earth magnet of the sort used in electric motors ...
  • esafosfina
    esafosfina Posts: 131
    SteppenHerring wrote:
    Could be a rare-earth magnet of the sort used in electric motors ...

    As borrowed from Cancellera!
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    jim453 wrote:
    ddraver wrote:
    jim453 wrote:
    So you think it's a lump of lead?

    Yep...well maybe not lead, but metal...

    Fair enough. Why not stick it inside the tubing though?

    99% So when they put all the heavy stuff back on they can take it off easily! 1% Good marketing for Pinarrello of the "our bikes are so light our Pro's have to ADD WEIGHT to them!" angle
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • patchy
    patchy Posts: 779
    It's a spacer to increase the Q factor (effective space between cranks).
    point your handlebars towards the heavens and sweat like you're in hell
  • mfin
    mfin Posts: 6,729
    patchy wrote:
    It's a spacer to increase the Q factor (effective space between cranks).

    Good to see another person adding to the comedy answers
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    Well, it certainly looks like a lump of metal. Maybe his Dogma 2 wasn't 'Asymetric' enough for him, and now it only falls over one way? :wink:

    PP
  • tremayne
    tremayne Posts: 378
    at a guess - it will be connected to keeping the chain on the inner ring when shifting down from the large ring. Plenty of other (better) places to put ballast, so it wont be that. GIven the location - it has to be connected to the chain/rings.
  • BR 1979
    BR 1979 Posts: 296
    DNQ wrote:
    That's a tack dispenser, if I'm not mistaken, no wonder he's in the yellow jersey !
    Lollers!
  • Daz555
    Daz555 Posts: 3,976
    A magnet to pull Froome along when he's resting? :mrgreen:
    You only need two tools: WD40 and Duck Tape.
    If it doesn't move and should, use the WD40.
    If it shouldn't move and does, use the tape.
  • prawny
    prawny Posts: 5,440
    It's half a jam sandwich he dropped during Paris-Nice, gone a bit manky now, I'll have it if he doesn't want it.
    Saracen Tenet 3 - 2015 - Dead - Replaced with a Hack Frame
    Voodoo Bizango - 2014 - Dead - Hit by a car
    Vitus Sentier VRS - 2017
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    tremayne wrote:
    at a guess - it will be connected to keeping the chain on the inner ring when shifting down from the large ring. Plenty of other (better) places to put ballast, so it wont be that. GIven the location - it has to be connected to the chain/rings.

    Yeah, but he's already got a chain catcher attached to the front derailleur, and an odd shaped block of something, untidily cut and apparently siliconed onto the frame doesn't look very 'precision' to me, which would be required for a chain catcher...

    PP
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,695
    down by the BB is the perfect place to put ballast - that's why Di2/EPS battereies are all put there (on frames designed for it)
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver

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