TDF Bikes Maintenance Schedule
Comments
-
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19658441#p19658441]Simon Masterson[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19658438#p19658438]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Going off a slight - or poss big - tangent, when a rider commandeers a domestique's bike after a crash and makes up five minutes to get back to the pack, it does make the idea of forking out hundreds of pounds on a bike fitting seem slightly ridiculous...
It wasn't already?
Just because a Pro can ride a few KMs on a team mate's bike does not mean a bike fit is ridiculous. I could ride any bike for a short period of time, anyone could. A bike fit is there to make sure you have many many many miles of pain free cycling. It optimises your position on the bike to reduce the likelihood of injuries and increase your efficiency. Not ridiculous at all, as most people who have had one would agree I'm sure.2020 Reilly Spectre - raw titanium
2020 Merida Reacto Disc Ltd - black on black
2015 CAAD8 105 - very green - stripped to turbo bike
2018 Planet X Exocet 2 - grey
The departed:
2017 Cervelo R3 DI2 - sold
Boardman CX Team - sold
Cannondale Synapse - broken
Cube Streamer - stolen
Boardman Road Comp - stolen0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19658441#p19658441]Simon Masterson[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19658438#p19658438]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Going off a slight - or poss big - tangent, when a rider commandeers a domestique's bike after a crash and makes up five minutes to get back to the pack, it does make the idea of forking out hundreds of pounds on a bike fitting seem slightly ridiculous...
It wasn't already?
Just because a Pro can ride often many, many KMs on a team mate's bike at a pace we can only dream of, remaining injury and pain free and get on another bike the next daydoes not mean a bike fit is ridiculous. I could ride any bike for a short period of time, anyone could. A bike fit is there to make sure you have many many many miles of pain free cycling. It optimises your position on the bike to reduce the likelihood of injuries and increase your efficiency. Not ridiculous at all, as most people who have had one would agree I'm sure.
Just to get it into perspective.Trail fun - Transition Bandit
Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
Allround - Cotic Solaris0 -
Most are - Ned B does a regular piece showing how the mechanics strip & clean each bike. Why would you reuse a couple of quid's worth of brake cable, or brake blocks that have done a mountain descent? And the point stands that the manufacturers want shiny as-new bikes to be seen on the coverage.Bikes are stripped & rebuilt every night with new tyres tubes blocks cables chain rings cassette & bar tape + anything else that looks like it needs changing.
Just to be clear - all those things are not all routinely replaced every day - that would be ridiculous.
No they aren't, you need to break in brake blocs, and why would they have new cables everyday they also need stretched. Here's a comment from Sky's facebook:
Robert Bartholomew Thru a grand tour,how many chains,tyres,and wheels are used by Team Sky?
Like · Reply · 12 November 2013 at 17:11
Team Sky 27 chains, 120 tyres, 10 wheels
Like · 12 November 2013 at 17:48
Now there's 9 in the team and 21 stages so if they put a new chain on everyday that'd be 189 chains (not to mention everyone has a spare bike) not the 27 they say they use.
They wash them every night, not replace all the part.0 -
I did hear a while back that a team would usually use one chain per week during the Tour de France, so that fits with those numbers.0
-
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19658441#p19658441]Simon Masterson[/url] wrote:[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19658438#p19658438]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Going off a slight - or poss big - tangent, when a rider commandeers a domestique's bike after a crash and makes up five minutes to get back to the pack, it does make the idea of forking out hundreds of pounds on a bike fitting seem slightly ridiculous...
It wasn't already?
Just because a Pro can ride a few KMs on a team mate's bike does not mean a bike fit is ridiculous. I could ride any bike for a short period of time, anyone could. A bike fit is there to make sure you have many many many miles of pain free cycling. It optimises your position on the bike to reduce the likelihood of injuries and increase your efficiency. Not ridiculous at all, as most people who have had one would agree I'm sure.
It's the spending large amounts of money that's more ridiculous, but in a lot of cases it's just yet another thing to spend money on. You can, and should, set your bike up yourself, and you should expect to be comfortable and pain-free on your bike without paying through the nose. There are plenty of bike fitting professionals that won't give you any more than the internet and/or books will.0 -
Tubulars... I rember seeing a documentary about the US Postal Cycling Team, it showed they got all tubulars from one eccentric Belgian bloke with a cottage industry. This Belgian had a dark cold cellar full of tubulars that were maturing like a fine wine or cheese !!! He made out they perform better after being stored and a tubular he had hung up would be winning the TDF in a few years time. So bizarre it was like a parody joke.
Yes, the latex compounds mature over a couple of years. Tubulars are best stored on rims, as they shrink slightly in store, and are a bugger to stretch onto the rims on installation otherwise.To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.0 -
Canyon also sell off some of their ex-pro bikes to the public too. Prices are around 20% less iirc.
Only 20%? For a bike that will have covered thousands of miles and had enough watts put through it to power a family home for a year? Not quite sure that's enough discount to justify the prestige of owning an ex-Tour (hopefully) bike unfortunately...Job: Job, n,. A frustratingly long period of time separating two shorter than usual training rides0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660991#p19660991]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Canyon also sell off some of their ex-pro bikes to the public too. Prices are around 20% less iirc.
Only 20%? For a bike that will have covered thousands of miles and had enough watts put through it to power a family home for a year? Not quite sure that's enough discount to justify the prestige of owning an ex-Tour (hopefully) bike unfortunately...
Another way to look at it, is that no expense has been spared in keeping them in top condition for their pro riders, as a mechanical or lack of performance can lose them a race. As for being ridden by a powerful rider, that means nothing at all to the frame's structural integrity.0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660991#p19660991]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Canyon also sell off some of their ex-pro bikes to the public too. Prices are around 20% less iirc.
Only 20%? For a bike that will have covered thousands of miles and had enough watts put through it to power a family home for a year? Not quite sure that's enough discount to justify the prestige of owning an ex-Tour (hopefully) bike unfortunately...
Another way to look at it, is that no expense has been spared in keeping them in top condition for their pro riders, as a mechanical or lack of performance can lose them a race. As for being ridden by a powerful rider, that means nothing at all to the frame's structural integrity.
Pro riders training bikes are notorious for being poorly kept, David Millar told me (in Glasgow road race) when I was considering a ex Garmin cervelo not to bother, as I will keep my current bike better than they have been kept.0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660991#p19660991]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Canyon also sell off some of their ex-pro bikes to the public too. Prices are around 20% less iirc.
Only 20%? For a bike that will have covered thousands of miles and had enough watts put through it to power a family home for a year? Not quite sure that's enough discount to justify the prestige of owning an ex-Tour (hopefully) bike unfortunately...
Another way to look at it, is that no expense has been spared in keeping them in top condition for their pro riders, as a mechanical or lack of performance can lose them a race. As for being ridden by a powerful rider, that means nothing at all to the frame's structural integrity.
I've heard this too. Racing bikes are then demoted to being used for training, then they get sold, so by the time they are sold they've been heavily used and the training bikes aren't maintained anywhere near as well as the race bikes.
Pro riders training bikes are notorious for being poorly kept, David Millar told me (in Glasgow road race) when I was considering a ex Garmin cervelo not to bother, as I will keep my current bike better than they have been kept.0 -
I would have thought that the degree of stretch new cables undergo during the first 50 odd miles would have meant it wasn't a great idea to change them every day0
-
I don't think cables stretch - a steel (?) cable with fairly low tension stretching within 50 miles..I reckon it's a cycling myth.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0
-
I don't think cables stretch - a steel (?) cable with fairly low tension stretching within 50 miles..I reckon it's a cycling myth.
It's a misnomer. The cables don't stretch but the outer ends, ferrules etc all bed in with use, creating the impression of cable stretch. Easily dialled out using the cable adjusters.
Anyway, virtually all the bikes are now electronic, so we're only talking about brake cables. Can't see the mechanics rewiring Di2 after every stage!0 -
Ok, I wonder if they change the batteries every day...0
-
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660991#p19660991]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Canyon also sell off some of their ex-pro bikes to the public too. Prices are around 20% less iirc.
Only 20%? For a bike that will have covered thousands of miles and had enough watts put through it to power a family home for a year? Not quite sure that's enough discount to justify the prestige of owning an ex-Tour (hopefully) bike unfortunately...
Another way to look at it, is that no expense has been spared in keeping them in top condition for their pro riders, as a mechanical or lack of performance can lose them a race. As for being ridden by a powerful rider, that means nothing at all to the frame's structural integrity.
Pro riders training bikes are notorious for being poorly kept, David Millar told me (in Glasgow road race) when I was considering a ex Garmin cervelo not to bother, as I will keep my current bike better than they have been kept.
Yes, but who's to say that are training bikes? The bikes being sold by Canyon are in full-on race spec and generally unmarked condition. So unlikely to have been mere badly-maintained training bikes.0 -
[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19660991#p19660991]steadyrollingman[/url] wrote:Canyon also sell off some of their ex-pro bikes to the public too. Prices are around 20% less iirc.
Only 20%? For a bike that will have covered thousands of miles and had enough watts put through it to power a family home for a year? Not quite sure that's enough discount to justify the prestige of owning an ex-Tour (hopefully) bike unfortunately...
Another way to look at it, is that no expense has been spared in keeping them in top condition for their pro riders, as a mechanical or lack of performance can lose them a race. As for being ridden by a powerful rider, that means nothing at all to the frame's structural integrity.
Pro riders training bikes are notorious for being poorly kept, David Millar told me (in Glasgow road race) when I was considering a ex Garmin cervelo not to bother, as I will keep my current bike better than they have been kept.
Yes, but who's to say that are training bikes? The bikes being sold by Canyon are in full-on race spec and generally unmarked condition. So unlikely to have been mere badly-maintained training bikes.
Well we'll see but that was what the pro rider told me, who was on the team that I was thinking of buying one from.
Spec was (if I remember): r5, full dura ace execpt from crankset, mavic rims, was a 2013 bike0
