Bike Tech and Seat Masts

The week after a Grand Tour is a depressing time if you are a bike news junkie. Where is the constant stream of info, results, rumors, and tech reports??? Hats off to Trek who used this lull to launch their new Madone design. Velo News has the story. A lot of new innovations packed into one frame, but some of the new tech they are dropping has me thinking....
Are integrated seat masts/post the new integrated headset or the new
biopace? A few years back when integrated headsets came out, doubters
claimed that any improvements would be offest by the chance of the head
tube ovalizing. A few years have past and the integrated headset seems
to be on its way to becoming an industry standard rather than failure. Even the evolution from 1" to 1.125" seems to be continuing with the emergence of 1.5" headtubes that taper to 1.125" for increased rigidity.
This year has had the emergence of the integrated seat mast replacing the
seat post on the highest end bikes. Giant,Scott, Ridley and Look are ahead of the curve on this and it looks like Trek is now jumping in the mix. Benefits are alleged to be a weight reduction and increased stiffness. Disadvantage is cost, difficulty of set up, and inability to make big changes post set up. (You
can avoid cutting down a fork crown if you want to sell the bike later,
this doesn't appear to be an option a seat post.**Trek's design may avoid this flaw)
Will this become the new standard? It seems to add around $500 bucks to the cost of the frame. So assume you don't have to buy a Record seatpost which saves you $140 bucks you are still out at $360 bucks over the cost of a standard frame. A 500 dollar seat post is a tough sell to me. Is it worth the weight savings and headaches? Does it improve power transfer, handling, or stiffness that much? Hard to say, but it is scary how quickly cycling tech is advancing with cost seemingly not an issue. Good news is the good innovations seem to trickle down pretty fast to lower end models.
Another bet the farm innovation is the new oversized bottom bracket with integrated crankset that both Cannondale and Specialized are rocking. In the last few years we have seen the 1.5 head tube, integrated seat mast, oversize bottom bracket, outboard BB bearings, compact cranks, the carbon fibre crank and component in general explosion, the list goes on. How many parts on a bike are left to improve? How long til electric shifting is rolled out? The divide between frame builder and component builder is becoming less clear, and the emergence of other component manufacturers has got to ratchet up the pressure on Campagnolo and Shimano to innovate.
The two biggest criteria I always hear people lusting after are light weight and stiffness. If you have the cash either(and maybe both) can be delivered beyond you expectation and even on a budget you can get them up to or beyond your needs.

Cannonball Adderly Mercy Mercy Mercy b/w Games 45

This was 45 was taken from the "mercy,mercy,mercy live at the club.." LP. Turns out it was recorded in the studio and the shouting are some drunken guests told to liven things up.
Joe Zawinul's "mercy,mercy,mercy" is some soulful late night groove a la Mingus at his prayer meeting best. Nice building chorus with the swelling volume making up for the steady tempo. The "audience noise" is a nice touch.
"Games" is a more upbeat rollicking Nat composition that is equally as good.

Own the LP, and would highly recommend grabbing it if you don't, but this 45 does hold 2 of its best tracks. Capitol Records #5798. If you ever need to know anything about Cannonball Adderly records check here That is an extnsive and extremely complete collection there!
And yes this another one from the Brighton Yard Sale Score (BYSS)

Messthetics #101 DIY 77-81 London CD

22 tracks of DIY tunes from Messthetics. I am aware of DIY thanks to Ugly Things and a few reviews of this series. I was hesitant to even check it out. The last thing I need is to expand my wantlist into another entire genre(using this same reasoning I avoided a lot of the late 90 New Zealand indie scene-knox,gailbraith, etc). But I was curious and how much trouble can one cd comp be? I figured it would be art school rambling on some Beefheart or post punk level. I figured it would all sound like the Swell Maps or Soft Boys or something. Well it is all "English,English" but it runs the gamut form catchy proto pop to arty damage to stuttering punk. Generally more reverb than distortion and more keyboards. Not unlike some stuff you would hear later on K Records or other anglo-influenced indies here in the States.
These were some of the tracks that stood out to me. Rich and Famous's "Machine Gun" sounds like the Buzzcocks with synths replacing the guitars. Super catchy. Acid Drops have a classic catchy anglo tune with "Distance"-the kind of song you swear you've heard before. Existence follow a few tracks later with the laid back and catchy "I'm Glad". For the truly dedicated beat digger, you could try and grab The Door and the Window's "part time punks" single which has a nice break that is unlikely to have been sampled. A hit or miss collection. Interesting, but not mind blowing-there were definitely a chunk of tracks I skipped through, but most are painless at less than 3 minutes a pop.
This is really like kicking over a rock and finding a giant hole in the ground. Check the Hyped to Death website and you will discover a whole world of comps of super rare records. And don't worry once you get through all 8 of the Messthetics series you have 7 volumes of Homework-the US DIY comp series. Jump in if you have the time. Good news is Hyped2Death keep it affordable with a CDR series. Nice.
Soul Jazz is releasing a comp covering the DIY scene. In general I am a supporter of theirs, but the take the loss trying to launch a one disc comp against this mountain of material from Hyped to Death. Especially when SJ have more mainstream bands like the Buzzcocks and Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry taking up space on their comp.

fixed gear horror shows

Boston is a town full of people on bikes which should be a good thing, but some of the things you see people riding make me cringe. I am not talking about dept store bikes or budget bikes, but idiots who think just becuase it's a "fixed gear" all other rules of bike fit and gearing go out the window. This is a short list of some of my favorite malfunctions.
1. Bike fit. Small person giant bike is always a good one (just like Chris Farley in the tiny jacket-it is funny but doesn't look right or work well), but the too tall seat post is another classic. Are you trying to look like Pettachi? If you look like a hunchback bending down trying to grab you bars, there is a thing called an allen wrench that can help. Couple the huge drop and reach with a giant messenger bag and an average speed of 10MPH and you have something that looks like a grazing camel not a bike rider.
2.Gearing. Are you trying to win the kilo? What is up with the giant gearing? Do you want knees when you are 30?. Too hard to spin and too hard to stop. Why is there a 50+ tooth ring on your bike? Why is their an 11 or 12 tooth cog? 60-70RPM worked for Ullrich but one of his thighs was the size of your waist. Learn to spin. Ask someone about gearing. Riding a bike can be fun and fast.
3. Helmets. I hate to be the scold on this one and I am a hypocrite because I used to never wear helmets, but if you are going to play in traffic all day and do it half in the bag at night a helmet isn't a bad idea. A side note, kids rocking Cinelli caps when they are running no Cinelli parts (or Campy, etc) always annoy me, but to reiterate I am a hairy old grump so deal.

Paris Brest Paris, 80s Highlights

Some classic footage from Brevet afficianado fixedgearhead.
Soundtrack is classic.

Boston Chinks

The band name alone is reason enough to pick up the single to see what is going on. Add to that the label, Goner, and the song title Coltrane and you have an intriguing mix. What is the Memphis super label up to? Are these guys from Boston? If not what is a boston chink? and how will this entangle John Coltrane in the blown out punk web of Memphis/Goner scene?
The tunes are not quite what you would expect. 4 songs Simple catchy punk tunes. To me it's got a real English vibe. The riffs hearken back to classic late 70s Brit punk/oi/power pop. Production is standard blown out Goner style. Nice curveball as I was expecting some blues-punk stomp. Also reminiscent of Ohio band Gaunt. These guys have got the hooks, the riffs, the whatever. Classic 45 even if I still don't know what a Boston Chink is.

Giro Finale

I was away for the final weekend of the Giro and was dissapointed to see Simoni knocked off the podium on the second to last day. Ouch. But that is what happens when you end 2+ minutes down from your biggest rival.
DiLuca and Liquigas rode a fantastic and aggressive Giro. DiLuca shut up his critics and kicked ass. Best Giro in a few years for sure. Andy Schleck is the revelation amongst a bunch of older dudes. Cunego and Ricco and 5th and 6th are the other young guns.
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 92.59.39
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC 1.55
3 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Astana 2.25
4 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 3.15
5 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 3.49
6 Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 7.00
7 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System 8.34
8 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 10.14
9 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 10.44
10 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 11.58
I hope this is an indication of how open and aggressive this years TDF will be.