- Welcome to the GCN Tech show.
This week, again, it's
me and all my friends.
Jon's gone away, again.
This time to Italy to see Vilia.
Video coming soon.
Anyhow, on this weeks show,
we take a look at the future
of pro-cycling road bike tech.
Also, we have your upgrades to bike vault
and some super light
19 gram through axles.
(upbeat techno music)
Our main talking point this
week is seven future tech
and equipment predictions for pro-cycling.
(mystical music)
Why is this important?
Well, the equipment that we
use is often heavily influenced
by the equipment that pro-riders use.
So without further ado, let's have a look.
(upbeat music)
My first prediction is aero.
We will reach peek aero.
Now by this, I mean that
bikes will continue to evolve
and become more aerodynamic
with more aero tube shapes
and it'll become the norm that
pro riders use, aero bikes.
Not all do at the moment
and the same for skin suits
and more aerodynamic helmets.
We'll also see more pro
riders, or all pro riders,
entering wind tunnels.
Not just to optimize their
time trial positions,
but also their road bike positions too,
as these facilities are
becoming more numerous
and more accessible.
Now, this will of course
reach a moment in time
where we achieve peek aero,
where aero can't be optimized any further,
and that will, I guess,
level the aero playing field.
This is, of course, unless
there are significant changes
to the UCI regulations.
(upbeat music)
More gears, will we
see 13 speed, 14 speed?
20 million speed at the back?
Unlikely, we think, here at GCN Tech.
We believe that in the next five years,
all the pro teams will
be running 12 speed.
Campagnolo and Stram have lead the way,
having introduced their 12 speed
group sets for pro cycling.
It's only a matter of time
before Shimano enters the 12 speed party.
And I would say, in the next five years,
you'll still see all the
teams running 12 speed.
Such has been the time scale
they've all been running 11 speed.
However, we think it's unlikely
that alternative drive
mechanisms will be adopted
but as we reach peek aero,
perhaps the drive train is
where big gains can be made.
Could belt drives be the answer?
Could something like
ceramic speeds driven system
be the answer?
We're not sure, but one
thing is for certain.
And that is that traditional
chain driven drive systems
are far from perfect,
being open to dirt and moisture and dust,
they require frequent
maintenance and cleaning
and can often become less
efficient during a race.
It's often calculated
that during Paris-Roubaix,
which is notoriously dirty,
that the drive trains can be
20 to 30 watts less efficient
at the end of that race.
(upbeat music)
Our next prediction is disc brakes.
Disc brakes will be used
by everyone in the future,
even Team INEOS.
That's right, it's inevitable.
Disc brakes are coming.
That's all I have to say on that.
(upbeat music)
Our next prediction is tubeless tires.
Now tubeless tires is a
really interesting one.
They offer lower risk of punctures.
They can seal punctures.
You've got lower rolling resistance
and a big push from manufacturers
for people to adopt the technology.
I've got to say, I've
been using tubeless tires
for a few years now.
I've currently got a continental
GP 5000 set of tubeless
on my road bike and I really like them.
However, for while some pros have adopted
tubeless tire technology,
the majority haven't,
and this is for three main reasons.
Firstly, safety, tubular
tires are deemed to be safer
if they puncture, than a tubeless one.
The likelihood of them
staying on the rim is greater
and it's just believed that
riders can stop more safely
and more controlled with
a puncture on a tubular,
perhaps on a descent,
than they could with a tubeless set-up.
The next one is the fact that
you can ride tubular tires
if you have a puncture.
Often this is deemed useful
because while a rider is
waiting for the service car
to come up and give them
their replacement wheel,
they're able to still ride a bit
and not lose as much ground on the peloton
as they would if they had
to just stop straight away.
And the final reason is weight.
Now, a tubular tire and wheel set-up
is typically 100 to 200 grams lighter
than a tubeless tire and clincher wheel.
It's not much but to pros,
they often deem it important.
However, what can't be ignored
is the fact that manufacturers
are investing the majority
of their resource and time
into developing tubeless technology,
in terms of wheels and
tires, rather than tubular,
suggesting that it's only a matter of time
before the future is tubeless.
(upbeat music)
Our next prediction concerns weight.
Now, bikes will continue to get lighter.
Although I don't see the UCI weight limit
of 6.8 kilograms going anywhere
in the next five years.
This is because carbon bikes
are getting slightly lighter,
but not drastically so.
And so it makes more sense
to add additional
functionality to those bikes,
such as beta brakes,
more gears, better gears,
more aerodynamic shapes,
and make them up to the
UCI weight limit of 6.8.
In the longer term though,
new materials will emerge
that allow for much, much lighter bikes.
One such material could be
higher grade carbon fiber,
manufactured from carbon nanotubes.
Now, the way this would work is that,
if you look at current carbon
fiber under a microscope,
it's full of imperfections.
It kind of looks like a wool jumper
that's been knitted by your nan,
with sort of frayed bits
and the odd loose strand.
Now these imperfections cause weaknesses
within the structure.
Carbon nanotubes, if
manufactured on a large scale
and woven into big sheets,
could provide much higher
grade carbon fiber.
The key though is working
out ways to manufacture them
in a cost effective way, on a large scale.
Now essentially this would mean
that you could build a bike
frame with much less material
that was much stronger than
it would be ordinarily.
There's even talk of
using carbon nanotubes
to weave a giant rope cable
that would stretch all
the way up into space
where it would be connected
to a geostationary space elevator.
But that's another topic
for GCN Tech after dark.
(upbeat music)
The next prediction is improved safety.
Now this is more of
something we hope to see
rather than something we
think, we definitely will see.
But in light of some
of the tragic accidents
we've seen over the past few years,
we'd really like to see some
improved safety for the riders.
Now aside from mandatory helmet use,
little has changed in
our sport since it began.
And little has been done to combat
the most common cycling injuries
of road rash and collar bone breaks.
Hopefully some very clever people
will come up with some clever solutions
to combat these problems,
perhaps even some of you watching.
Now in the past we have
seen special fabrics
that are able to rapidly dissipate heat
and therefore mitigate
the effects of road rash.
But these have never
been fully implemented,
never really taken off because
they've often compromised
the fit of stretchy clothing.
Could we see more airbag use,
such as we see in motorcycling now?
Well, the Hovding helmet
airbag already exists.
Although it is kind of like a giant scarf
and would be pretty sweaty
if you had to wear it at the Vuelta.
(upbeat music)
Our final prediction is bottom brackets.
There will be about five million more
bottom bracket standards
in the next five years.
I mean, personally, I'd
just like everything to be
an external threaded bottom bracket
but that is undoubtedly too much to ask.
Cane Creek did have a
really cool bottom bracket
with some new bearings at Eurobike though.
Rather than a traditional race and lube
inside the cartridge bearing,
they had a polymer race
which removed the need for lube,
essentially making the bearing
jet wash and degreaser proof.
Cool, anyhow, let us know
down in the comments below
what you think will be
the future of bike tech.
What have we missed?
Fundamentally though,
it's going to be exciting.
(logo swishing)
Hot tech now.
Now the real reason Jon
isn't here this week
is that he's gone on an important mission.
Now many of you will be
familiar with Jon's escapades,
painting bikes.
(sultry upbeat music)
And trying to paint other bikes.
(sultry upbeat music)
And attempting to hydro dip.
(sultry upbeat music)
- They look pretty good, don't they?
I'm impressed with that, oh, yes.
- [Ollie] Can you turn it?
Turn it around, Jon.
(sultry music)
- Now when he is here, you
can quite often find Jon
ogling over custom
paint work on Instagram.
Visuals that he had only dream
of being able to do himself.
So here is a selection
of amazing paint jobs
that we found recently.
Check this out.
So first up, we have got
@velocolour on Instagram.
And we spotted this amazing paint work
that's been done on a PARLEE frame
with these sort of custom
painted boxes on there and stuff.
But that looks absolutely brilliant.
And also, one that caught my
eye was from @fatcreations.
Now Ali at @fatcreations
has done this beautiful,
sort of color burn rainbow effect
on an ENVE bar and stem for the logos,
but then has created
this kind of hundreds and
thousands background to it,
which is really innovative.
I've not seen one like that before.
And another one that's really cool,
that we've been following
recently, is @tony.spray.
Tony Spray does a lot of different frames
and has done some really nice 3T bikes,
but also I'm a big fan of this Trek frame
he's got on here, that's just simple white
with like a matte, sort of crayon white
and then this beautiful, sort
of iridescent red Trek logo.
But, very nice.
There are rumors that Jon is actually
on a custom bike painting training course.
- Sorry, I can't be with
you this week, Ollie,
but the kind folks at Vilia,
they invited me out here
to their paint facility
to see exactly how it's done
after they saw a rather poor attempt
of me trying to paint a
bike and also hydro dip.
So they said, "Jon,
come and learn from us."
So far though they've
only let me polish a bike,
but guys can I have go?
All right, fair enough.
See you soon, Ollie mate.
See you soon.
- I know, I didn't even know
that was a thing either.
Anyway, more hot tech.
Now disc brake bikes are
heavier than rim brake bikes
but something that could offset
that slight weight penalty
could be these new through axles
from a German company called Aserra.
They weigh just 19 grams.
Naturally, they're made of
carbon fiber, what else?
But, they feature a
hollow carbon fiber tube
with titanium hardware fitted
either end of the tube to plug it.
If you're worried about the strength
or durability of such a product,
then your fears could be alleviated
by the fact that the
manufacturers have a background
in making high performance carbon
and titanium components for super cars.
Hot clothing tech now.
And Castelli has updated the Gabba
and Perfetto jerseys/jackets.
Now, the original Gabba
was a revolutionary piece of cycling kit.
It was developed in conjunction
with the Cervelo test team, no less.
I think I can remember one
of the riders on that team.
Struggling to think of the name.
No, escapes me.
Anyway, it was a
revolutionary piece of kits,
essentially a stretchy,
water-repellent jersey
for use in bad weather conditions.
And the Perfetto, when that came along,
was a slightly lighter
gage version of the Gabba.
Now the new Gabba, now
in its fourth generation,
has been updated to feature a
waterproof panel on the front
and a new fabric called Gore-Tex Infinium,
which is said to be even
more water-repellent
than the previous Gore-Tex
Windstopper that was used.
And they've developed it in
conjunction with Team INEOS.
And on the back, interestingly,
there's just two pockets
rather than a traditional three.
The reason for this is they believe
that it's easier to access two pockets
when you're wearing gloves.
And finally, some hot dad tech.
Former world champion
and dad, Thor Hushovd,
has created a bike trailer for kids.
The idea was a bike trailer
that looks good with a nice design
that's also easy to use and foldable
so that you can transport
it in the back of a car
or store it easily.
It even features suspension
and a five point seat belt
to keep your passengers
safe and comfortable,
and also a transparent cover
to keep them warm and dry.
Nice, more tech next week.
(power drill buzzing)
Cha-ching, it's now time
for screw riding upgrades,
buy upgrades, where you submit
pictures, evidence, whatever,
of your upgrades, down
using the uploader tool
in the description below.
For a chance to win the ultimate prize,
the Camelbak Eddy water bottle.
Now, last week we had Steven
with his Bianchi Ocelot upgrade
versus Mica from Brighton in
the UK with his steel pointer.
Now it was a close one but the
winner, with 51%, was Steven.
(crowd cheering)
Well done Steven.
Two great upgrades though.
Bottle is in the post.
This week, we have James
from Ottawa, in Canada,
and his upgrade is,
well, it's more of a restoration,
but it's an absolutely incredible job.
Check this out.
This bike was donated for spare parts,
it was a complete wreck.
But he liked the head badge on it,
'cause it had his name on it,
and he decided to restore it.
So, him and his dad,
they stripped all the parts and
saved as much as they could.
They then put on new wheels, new tires,
and they even put new bearings everywhere.
And they used electrolysis to clean parts
and, well, put chrome coatings
on them, amazing, right?
I mean, just look at that chain guard
and what they've done to that.
That is, I mean, you can't
believe the transformation,
when I show you it.
They put a new saddle
on it, new bottle cage,
and they put a Sturmey-Archer
dynamo hub as well
to power the lights,
which work with the
original bulbs and wires.
Says it's perfect for
leisurely Sunday rides.
Look at that.
That's absolutely brilliant.
I mean, it's like a museum piece.
You could probably get
paid to use that bike
in films and TV and stuff,
albeit for period pieces.
But, that's incredible.
What an amazing job that is, well done.
That is one of the best
ones we've seen, I think.
Up against James from
Canada, we have got William
from Huntington Beach,
California, U-S of A.
Now William has an Ibex bike
that he's upgraded and
had for a long time.
So it's basically America
versus Canada right now,
like "South Park" the movie, go figure.
Anyway, William started cycling in 2005
and he wasn't sure he would like it
so he conservatively spent on his bike
and bought an Ibex for 399 U.S. dollars.
But he fell in love with
cycling, great to hear,
and then went about
upgrading his beloved bike.
Rather than buying a new one, he liked it,
so he wanted to just upgrade
it and make it better.
So, he upgraded it in several
phases which I quite like.
Phase one included changing
it to a carbon fork
and putting some shorter crank
arms on that he preferred.
He also changed the bottom bracket,
changed to a Cane Creek
Hellbender Headset bearings.
He put a PowerTap G3 Power
Meter Hub on the back wheel
and also got a Garmin and a little bell
so that he could tell people
to get out of the way.
He also changed his bar tape.
Then the next phase of his upgrades,
I like that he's done
this in phases, it's good.
He put some American
classic wheels on there
and also put some better tires
and changed some Ultegra
6-600 components, really cool.
And some 105 crank sets
and brake shift levers.
That's really nice.
I really like what you've done there
and I think some of the
upgrades you've made
are really sensible and great choices.
PowerTap Hub, great.
And that mixture of sort of
105 and Ultegra components
has really improved the ride.
One of the best upgrades you
can make is always wheels,
so you've done a good job.
And, that is a really
fine looking bike, nice.
Really like that.
So, you decide.
Who's it going to be?
It's not down to me, who wins?
America or Canada?
(logo swiping)
It's time now for everyone's
favorite part of the show,
the Bike Vault where we look
at pictures of the bikes
that you ride and you submit
using the uploader tool below
and judge them to be
either nice or super nice.
If they're super nice,
someone rings the bell,
which is here.
This is the bell.
Right, let's get started.
First up is Aaron with
his PARLEE Altum Disc
with mechanical Ultegra on it
and he's been riding around Iceland,
Iceland looks incredible there.
It reminds me of when I
was in Iceland recently.
It's such an amazingly beautiful place.
Really nice bike, that PARLEE Altum
but you have unfortunately
not removed your saddle bag
from the picture,
something that we always ask people to do
when they submit their bikes.
So unfortunately, that's
just a nice, sorry, Aaron.
Next up, we have Stewart with his De Rosa.
He's in Edinborough.
Nice Campagnolo Zonda Wheel Set on there.
But, I mean, that's a nice
De Rosa Milanino, Milanin?
I can't, I've lost the ability to speak,
must have caught that from Hank.
Anyway, he hasn't unfortunately
got it in Biggie Smalls.
The rear wheel is slightly out of focus,
the crank set is not aligned
in the three o'clock position,
the wheel valve stems, also,
failure to align those,
the bar tape doesn't match.
There's just too many infractions.
It's a nice bike, nice.
Next, we have someone
who's not properly used the uploader tool.
It's a Colnago C59
and they've put their location at home.
Presumably, that's where
they ride their bike.
Well, it's in small big,
which is a crime against bike photography.
The chain looks rather dirty,
the wheel valves are not aligned,
the background is cluttered and...
(sighs)
I despair, nice.
Next, we have James and his
Scott Foil, location, London.
Someone who has correctly
used the uploader tool.
Now, he said,
the time has come to
say goodbye to his bike,
as he's upgrading it.
It's a very nice bike actually.
He's got Enve 3.4's in
there, they look good.
Ultegra, he's got it in Biggie Smalls.
The crank arm is positioned
in the three o'clock position.
Nice use of a stand
and good depth of field
in the photo there as well.
The background is nicely
sort of blurred out
and the bike is in really shift,
really sharp, crisp focus there.
We can see everything that's going on.
Nice bar and stem and nice physique area,
and his saddle on that bike as well.
You know what, I think
that one is a super nice.
I'll ring the bell.
(bell rings)
There we go.
And finally this week, we've got Chris.
Wow, that is incredible.
Chris is from Castlemaine,
Victoria in Australia
and he has submitted
an absolutely fantastic
Victorian Railways J-Class Locomotive.
Whoa, look at that.
That's actually number
549 of the J classes,
originally built in the 1950's
for light branch line duties.
Of course, the J class
replaced the K class
which had a higher fire
box than the J class
because the K class was limited
in the gauges it could operate on
because of that low fire box placement.
The J class also featured
substantially redesigned
cylinder porting to improve
steam flow and efficiency.
The higher set boiler,
together with the German
style smoke deflectors
on the front of the J class,
gave the J class a very
distinctive European appearance.
It actually had 131
kilonewtons of tractive efforts
weighing in at 114 tons.
One absolutely superb
steam locomotive that is.
Fantastic, absolutely amazing.
More Bike Vault next week.
That's it for this week's show.
Hope you enjoyed it, and
if you like our content
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And if you'd like one
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All right, I'm going to go now, bye.
