06.28.09
So the Cannes Advertising Festival is over for another year. It was 7 days of meeting, greeting and riding. I managed to get 14 hours of riding in this week, including two long four rides on the weekend. I think my favorite though was riding up the Corniche before breakfast (and the hangover crew woke up). The picture above was taken on the last morning ride. Tomorrow we head to Luchon in the Pyrenees for another week of riding. The Tourmalet awaits us. When get back I will be posting the Garmin maps, elevations and numbers from the various rides in the area. Until then posts may be down for a while as we will be living out of a camper van, but we will be capturing it all. Laters.
CATEGORIES: Design, Routes
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06.23.09
Perfect day today. Got a beautiful 2 hour ride in along the Corniche and had an very inspiring 2 hour conversation with Bill Buxton of Microsoft (also the author of “Sketching User Experiences”). This is the guy that invented the touch surface and is a visionary in the technology space. He also happens to be a rider and a collector of bikes. His next purchase could be a bamboo frame…..if he can find one for sale. The more people I meet here at Cannes the more I realize cycling runs through the Design and Ad community, and also that everyone is jealous I brought my bike. He is friends with the Trek design team and owns a series of the early Madonne carbon prototypes. We have agreed to go out for ride when we get back to the states – where I might get to ride one! That is an offer I will be taking him up.
CATEGORIES: Design, Riders
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06.21.09
Today was the first ride on this trip to Cannes and the South of France. I headed out of the hotel to ride to St Raphael along the coast on the D559, which despite the area is a beautiful quiet road that rolls along right next to the coast. Just outside St Raphael I stopped for some water and met the guys from Everson Frames. We ended up comparing bikes and kit, and rode back together to Cannes. I hadn’t heard of Everson before meeting them – but their carbon Insomnia SP frame is a genuine beauty. They are based here in Cannes where they design the frames and have them made up in Italy. (They also had a Titanium frame out for its second ride as a test frame which looked pretty damm good as well). The Insomnia has a super simple finish and really nice geometry. The down tube resembles a Felt team bike and the top tube looks almost like a Ridley Damocles. They use 1K carbon and can make you a custom geometry and custom paint job. They had a really interesting rear cable insert into the frame just north of the integrated seat post, which made for some very clean lines. The frame was built up with SRAM and 3T and Lightweight wheel(s). This bike was LIGHT! (the front wheel was also a test product they were trying out for Everson wheels). The founder and owner (below), thanks for the ride guys, looking forward to seeing your frames in the US. Everson Fames
CATEGORIES: Design, Rides
COMMENTS (1)
06.19.09
The bikes are packed and the dog is confused. Each year I am lucky enough to get invited to the Cannes Advertising Festival, which means two things. I get to look at some great work, and I get to ride the best roads in Europe. We are down there for two weeks, first week in Cannes and the second week in a camper van driving around the Pyrenees. LOTS of posts to follow…..
CATEGORIES: Routes
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06.17.09
We just made a connection with the good people at The Ride Journal. We have a common purpose in promoting bike culture, quality content and GREAT design. We had issue one of The Ride already in the studio and remain impressed. Beautiful photography (“Faded Glory” and “Herne Hill, SE24″ – by a photographer who I was best man at his wedding), great prose (One-On-One) and overall, beautifully produced. The second issue is available now. Check out the site and get the first copy as a downloadable PDF – hell! get the second issue too. The Ride Journal.
CATEGORIES: Design
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06.15.09
I recently got introduced to Big Agnes from Steamboat, Colorado (thats an outdoor brand, not a implant from Scotland). They make kit for the serious outdoors adventurer, tents, sleeping bags and duffels. The Stagecoach duffel comes in three sizes, all built around an aluminum frame. The shell is made from water resistant material, water sealed zippers and soft rubber handles. The largest size bag carries a massive 9300 cu.in./150L, making it the ultimate “get it all in there” kit bag. Apart from the wheels it also has smartly concealed backpack straps tucked away in there on panels. When you look at their products they are obviously people who spend there time in the back-country trying to figure out how to make their products better. Every single product could compete for a best in class.
Big Agnes
CATEGORIES: Design, Kit
COMMENTS (1)
06.13.09
Came home from work last night to find these beauties sitting on the doorstep. I had them custom built by the excellent Wheelbuilder.com crew. The rims are Edge Composite 45 Clinchers, with a 20/24 spoke combo. For the hubs I chose the DT Swiss 190’s with ceramic cartridge bearings. The spokes are DT Aerolites in silver. The front wheel weight using the Wheelbuidler calculator comes out at about 650g, the rear wheel around 750g, without the cassette (total wheel weight around 1400g). So they went straight on the bike this morning, and out for a 2 hour tempo ride. First impression, OMG! Super smooth, the ceramic bearings roll really nicely. The wheels are also super quiet. Out of the saddle they pick up speed with a nice whip and once you settle in to your tempo they roll along with that nice hum you get off a mid-profile rim. I put Vittoria Open Corsa tires on which give you a pretty close to tubular ride. I have ridden Zipp clinchers and tubs, and I also have a pair of Fulcrum Racing One’s. Without doubt these are as good as the Zipp tubs and a little more practical for everyday riding. Below is a shot of them on the bike pre-ride. Highly recommended.
CATEGORIES: Kit, Rides
COMMENTS (4)
06.10.09
These might be some of the most beautiful frames we have ever set eyes on. The craftsmanship, paint and decals are stunning in their simplicity. Darren Baum the owner, originally trained as an aircraft engineer, which is where he probably picked up his CAD skills. The Titanium Corretto frames are custom designed to the individual customers specifications. Every tube in the frame is individually sized and butted to the customer, and areas of low stress are individually milled to make the tubes thinner, and hence lighter. This requires a lot of hands-on craftsmanship which is the reason for the fat price tag (we looked around and the last prices we could find were around $6500 US for the Corretto frame, fork and headset). The paint jobs look immaculate and are all handled in-house. With custom paint jobs all the decals are airbrushed on, with one additional nice touch of airbrushing your name on the top tube. That is so Pro. There is a lesson to a lot of frame makers here in the simplicity of the paint. Not over done, simple decal, and just enough of the frame material left exposed. Feels very confident. Expensive, but man you will stand out in the crowd on this one. A bike for life. Baum Frames
CATEGORIES: Design, Rides
COMMENTS (2)
06.08.09
Found these great photos of the recent Paris Roubaix U23 Espoirs, and the aftermath of the race. They are by a photographer called JJdelrot, whom I can’t find out much more about. The link to the full set is here. The team shots from pre-race are great. The future of Belgium cycling is in there somewhere. Spot the next Tom Boonen with the monster thighs at age 21.
CATEGORIES: Riders
COMMENTS (0)
06.07.09
I got the Garmin 405 a few weeks back and have been testing it out before we head off to France. Initial tests show it to have been a great purchase. Out of the box it was really easy to set up, as was linking it to your free account on Garmin Connect. The watch comes with a USB antenna for your computer, so it is just plug and play. Starting out on a ride you just hit and hold the training button and it will pick up satelites in about a minute, hit start and you can roll off. The only complaint that I have is that is is obviously designed for a runner. The touch bevel for controling the unit is very sensitive, so when you get you wrist into a tuck position or a reverse bend when climbing, it can activate. All that I can tell has happened is it switches to pace and back. So if you can put up with the odd “beep” – there is no probems with the data. On getting back home the antenna automatically senses the device, pulls the data and uploads it to Garmin Connect. It does pull speed and averages, but the good stuff is in the mapping (overlayed onto Google Maps) and the elevation info. It also gives you the options to export the data to use and edit in other programs. All in all this is a pretty good kit addition to get you mapping and elevation. Now all I have to do is figure out how I went to 200ft below sea level for 5 mins.
CATEGORIES: Digital Things, Kit
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