“I’m by no means happier than once I’m writing.”
~ Ed Hood, as spoken to Martin Williamson from the passenger seat, driving alongside a stage route on the Tour de France.

Pricey Readers – Our beloved colleague and pal Ed Hood suffered a severe stroke in February.  We don’t anticipate Ed will make it again into our bunch, so we’ve began a GoFundMe web page to assist Ed along with his future.  Learn the total submit right here – and please think about donating.

** Click on this hyperlink to donate to the GoFundMe web page to assist Ed **

We’ll be posting a number of Ed’s work from the previous 16 years, as a result of nice story-telling by no means will get outdated.

Tech Rant: What’s subsequent for the standard handlebar? Who is aware of, however Ed Hood has been analyzing the newest developments of the ‘cow horns’ on the entrance of the bike. Aero is the factor of the second and the ‘bars want to chop by way of the air like a knife, time for a handlebar rant.

As is my behavior, I used to be questioning round wanting on the bikes right here on the Rotterdam Six Days, testing the handlebars. . .

Handlebars – they was once easy, in the event you preferred ‘sq.’ bars then it was Cinelli 64 or the deeper 66, the ‘Merckx’ bend – in the event you didn’t like ‘sq.’ bars and most popular a ‘flared’ design then you definately went for the 63. There have been different bars accessible, just like the very mild TTT bends and Ambrosio made bars too with the Giro di Sicilia a well-liked form; however Eddy and Roger rode Cinelli in order that was that for many people for a very long time.

And a number of the older, extra conventional riders do nonetheless journey typical bars, Niki Terpstra for instance. And it’s true there have been some improvements again within the 80’s just like the ‘ergonomic’ bars which had a ‘flat’ on the drops and had been very comfy – however the actual adjustments began with that Lemond dude.

‘Tri’ bars burst onto the stage once they had been largely chargeable for Greg profitable the ’89 Tour by eight seconds from a devastated Laurent Fignon.

However then issues received manner loopy with Scott producing ever-more outlandish configurations of ‘bars which we purists might hardly metal ourselves to take a look at. Issues received even worse with corporations attempting to outdo one another on the, ‘aero factor’ with riders like Toni Rominger, Thierry Marie and Gianni Bugno showing on ever extra convoluted bends which might a give a plumber’s pipe bending machine a run for it’s cash.

Tri-bars now are a lot sleeker and aero having advanced to the place you’ll be able to pay £2,000 Sterling for the AeroCoach Vantaggio as utilized by Pippo Ganna to interrupt the world hour report.They’re handcrafted within the UK and made to swimsuit the person traits of the rider who orders them. 3D printing has entered the tri-bar frae now however not at all times with joyful outcomes – keep in mind what occurred to the Aussie workforce pursuit squad in Tokyo?

One of many super-light 3D printed tri-bars snapped inflicting Alex Porter to crash into the boards, face first at 65 kph.

However the form of six day riders’ bends remained fairly constant – till Australia’s Cameron Meyer, who was one of many first to undertake the present ‘using on the tops’ type of using on the observe, got here up along with his, ‘Sphinx’ bar in collaboration with the Italian TTT firm.

Not too long ago retired ‘King of Gent,’ Iljo Keisse was a devotee and Danish six day man, Marc Hester who rides right here, nonetheless makes use of them on his English, Dolan body – the identical marque as favoured by Messrs, Keisse and Mørkøv of their six day hey days. To an old style purist like me they don’t relaxation straightforward on the attention however then I’m not using 60 kph chases.

However the introduction of the Sphinx was the catalyst for an entire new era of ‘bars. Former World Madison Champion, Germany’s Theo Reinhardt rides these strange ‘bars full with rubber pads and non-slip abrasive grips on his German Federation FES machine. The ‘seen weave’ on the FES isn’t unattractive however I moderately hanker for the outdated days when black was NOT the color of most frames.

The person Theo received his world madison titles with, large Roger Kluge can be one for radical bars, like Theo’s they’ve abrasive ‘gripper’ areas as an alternative of handlebar tape; he’s additionally astride an FES.

World Level Champion, Yoeri Havik is one other to go down the ‘rad’ bars route on his Dutch, Koga machine.

While European and World Elimination Champion, Elia Viviani rides Pinarello’s MOST ‘bars full with built-in extension. Very cool and light-weight however a rider should have his place 100% dialled earlier than taking place the built-in bars and stem highway with 4 determine costs common you don’t need to make a mistake.

The current seek for ‘final aero’ has led to ‘longer’ extra stretched positions on the bike and a number of the extension lengths on present right here would by no means have been seen even just a few years in the past, this on one of many Dutch Koga machines.

Our Czech sprinter, Thomas Babek rides an 18 cm. extension on his Argon, he’s a type of whose place has ‘stretched’ in the hunt for ‘extra aero.’

In the meantime the likes of the Malaysian sprinters – and GB riders have been going for ever narrower bars to enhance their CdA. Nevertheless it’s received so out of hand that the UCi is introducing new guidelines from January 2023 which limits the minimal width of ‘bars.

And while the likes of Elia are very a lot into consideration to element not everybody has received, ‘the look’ proper – some aren’t straightforward on the attention, can be extra at residence as a scaffold clamp and may’t presumably be slippery by way of the air.

Some of the radical ‘bars are the ASHAA 3D printed titanium bends which may be discovered on our personal Wojciech’s Argon machine, these come from TooT Engineering in Montichiari in Italy. Elia Viviani had a hand of their design and they’re maybe essentially the most ‘completely different’ of all of the bars on present right here however give the riders 4 completely different hand positions.

The long run?
Longer?
Narrower?
Who is aware of?

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