The Clapham Common parks gardeners got the lawnmowers out and have (possibly accidentally) created a grass track bike race circuit on Clapham Common near the Bandstand Cafe. My son Tommy discovered it and we spend a happy 20 minutes doing circuits. Enjoy it while the weather is nice! There´s a lot more than the part of the track that appears in the video.
Tommy was on his Beinn 20 Islabike and I was using my wife´s Giant Avail.
Also this week I was re-aquainted with the Trott family at Buckingham
Palace where Laura received her OBE. They´re a great bunch, and it was
nice to meet road racer Emma who races in Europe for Dutch women's
professional team, Dolmans-Boels. She deserves more credit for what she
is achieving in the very competitive world of women´s bike racing which
is badly in need of more television coverage. There´s a video of Laura Trott shwing me how it´s done on the velodrome (outdoor) in the right hand column ....
After a miserable spring I waited until 29th of May 2013 before getting the new 'Summer' bike out of mothballs. Of course after I'd gone about five miles the heavens opened and for the next hour it poured down. No big deal, but not ideal for a test ride. I only managed about 20 miles before I called it a day. I'd just recovered from two weeks of (proper) flu, followed by a chest infection, followed by a couple of weeks where I was off work after 'putting my back out', so it was impossible to draw any conclusions about the respective merits of the two bikes. The Canyon is certainly a lively ride and has a more aggressive riding position than the Tifosi. With the new Mavic Ksyrium SLS the only thing slowing the bike down was me and my lack of fitness after the enforced time of the bike. I took it very easy but was pleasantly surprised to see that I set a PR for the Bathgate Road climb on Strava, when only a few weeks before I'd attacked the climb full gas to set my previous record. The ride is here, although somehow Strava switched itself off after 12 miles or so. The Zonda hubs are very good but the Mavic hubs are excellent, and the build quality is exceptional. The SLS are also a little stiffer than the Zondas, something you notice the most when climbing.
WEIGHT I weighed the SLS and Zonda front wheels and the results are below:
Mavic Ksyrium SLS front wheel including Mavic 23mm Yksion Pro tyre: 976g Mavic advertises the wheel at 875g with tyre, but some of the increase is the magnet from my Blackburn Atom bike computer. But only a little. That's quite disappointing (as punk band 999 used to say - remember them?)
The Zonda front wheel with 23mm Continental Gatorskin Hardshell tyre: 1059g So there's only around 100g difference between the SLS and the Zonda front wheels. Swap the Zonda's Gatorskin Hardshells with Ultremos and the difference would probably be negligible.
The Mavics SLS cost over £700 per wheelset (including tyres) whereas the Zondas cost just over £300.00 without tyres.The Mavics are clearly in a
different league than the Zondas in terms of build quality, especially for the more competitive
cyclist, but the Zondas are excellent value for money, especially as
they can be bough for under £300 if you look around. I'll weigh the rear wheel next, and it's quite possible that the difference will be greater. I'll tweet when I add that info to the blog. (@elprezcyclismo)
**LATEST** Have swapped to Ksyriums SLs and the bike, with pedals, now weighs 7.94Kgs (large frame). My only other change will be to swap the bars for my spare 42cms ProVibes, which should also shave off a little more weight.
My Canyon Ultimate AL Di2 came with Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels, and fine though those wheels are, I'm tempted to sell them while they're still brand new, and upgrade to something a little lighter. I'm going to want to upgrade at some stage, so it makes sense to get the best price for the Equipes. I'm probably looking at Mavic Ksyrium SLs but have recently read some good reports of the Velocite Gram SL wheelset. The hubs are supposed to be excellent and the wheels are well built and easy to maintain. At 1400g they're extremely light and they cost just £569 according to the Velocite website.
They are well reviewed here. "First ride out of the box was stunning, the hub bearings are
ridiculously smooth and spin like silk yarn – super smooth. Against my
other wheelsets, the Gram SL’s float along, this alone had me chuckling"
I'll update the blog as I delve back into the arcane world of wheel selection. I'm also interested in: Campag's Neutron Ultra (£680, 1529g) HED Ardennes SL (£760, 1450g) Strada Handbuilt (c.£700 c.1530g) Cero AR30 (£449, 1400g) but will research other options.
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