BMC Lambo

Ferrari has been a muse to Colnago for several years. According to the Colnago site the first Ferrari badged Colnago was the CF-1 with a limited production run of 500. And if you need to ask how much a CF-1 retailed for, you can’t afford one. However if you gotta have one, I discovered that the Bike Exchange in Australia is selling a 60cm Ferrari for 26,000 Australian dollars ($26,915 American).

Last year we saw Mark Cavendish on a Specialized Venge, which was designed in collaboration with McLaren Technology Center – famously known for their Formula 1 cars. Specialized claims that the result is weight savings and improved stiffness over a standard Venge.

Specialized offers the McLaren in flat black kitted with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 with some assorted Zipp goodies for a retail of $18,000.

Today BMC announced an impec Lamborghini model. It looks to be the same BMC impac but detailed in a black and red color scheme. Naturally anything with Lamborghini stamped on it has to have a limited run and in this case it’s only 30 bikes.

Like the McLaren Venge, it also has Shimano’s Di2 with “exclusive high profile carbon rims.”

I mentioned on Twitter several days ago that I hadn’t seen the BMC squad racing the impec. I had heard from someone associated with the team that the robotically made frames had some issues. BMC’s media person replied to my question on Twitter saying, “the impecs were R&D tested for nearly two years. Now they’re in phase 2 and available to the public.” I’m not sure what phase 2 means, but I’m guessing/hoping that whatever problems BMC might have had with the impec were sorted out.

In VeloNews’ (now Velo) 2011 Buyer’s Guide BMC owner Andy Rihs said that the automobile industry’s mechanization of building cars is a success. He pointed out Toyota as an example of a company that made top quality cars with mechanization.

Can top quality bikes be made by this method too? There will be some bugs to work out – frames will fail due to real life circumstances – but I do see the automobile industry continuing to influence bike design (like McLAren) as well as construction. Ten years from now we could see robots, like the ones in the BMC factory, making frames day and night. Rihs expects to see a return on his investment in the “next three to five years.” Who said Cylons didn’t exist…

This past Wednesday I wrote a post regarding the Shiv road bike that Specialized’s creative director Robert Egger has been riding on the the company’s famous lunch ride. Like many of you I was intrigued by the idea of taking a time trial bike – in this case the Shiv – and converting it to a road machine.

I wondered out loud how the Shiv frame would handle in a road situation and if there had been any modifications to the frame to make it more road-like. I e-mailed Robert and he was kind enough to respond to my questions.

Browne: I realize that the frame isn’t UCI legal, but how often do these one-off projects become reality?
Egger: We are always trying new ideas. I love to borrow (steal) ideas from other segments of our business. When we were working on the Shiv Tri I knew right away it could make an interesting road bike.

The shapes up close are really beautiful, the wind tunnel told us what the shapes needed to be. I felt the sheer size of the downtube would be a great canvas for a crazy graphic. I used our old 74′ graphic as a way to balance old and new. I like that tension in Design.

I like to do these exercises to make us think about what can BE. Our biggest enemy in the bike industry is complacency. We have to evolve and reinvent. Realistically one out of 10 make it. Probably not nearly enough…….

Browne: Was this Shiv road bike just a fun project or is it being used to test a possible new aero-type frame?
Egger: I will get in trouble if I say too much here. We are never satisfied with what we are doing today. For me this project was partly about making a cheater bike for our very competitive lunch race.

Browne: How does it ride?
Egger: I set the bike up with the same seat and bar position as my normal road bike (actually also a cheater bike). It rides quite well but certainly lacks the lively ride of an SL4. I find myself riding a gear higher with the same amount of energy. On the flats it’s a dream! I haven’t done any longer climbs but I felt no compromises on an undulating course.

The Shiv TT frame in action

Browne: Did you change to angles on the frame or fork to make the handling more “road bike like”?
Egger: Angles are per our existing Shiv geometry.

Egger also confirmed that the carbon fiber layup hadn’t changed and it was a standard Shiv production frame.

While Egger is coy about what features could dribble down into a road bike, I can imagine that the 2014 models and beyond will be Shiv influenced. Other bike companies are also embracing aerodynamics in their road frames: Scott Foil, Cervelo P3, Felt AR, Neil Pryde Alize…you get the point.

Just one more thought – can you imagine if the UCI’s 3:1 aero ratio rule didn’t exist? Seat stays with aero farings? Seatposts with whale tail spoilers? Pointy head tube? Hmmm…

The baned Shiv at the Specialized launch

First Alberto Contador’ Specialized Shiv was banned, now Fabian Cancellara’s Shiv has also been declared illegal by the UCI. Team Saxo Bank team manager Bjarne Riis was furious.

“It is very annoying,” said Riis to Sporten.dk. “Fortunately we have not really had a major time trial, but it will not be long before we do at Paris-Nice. The rules are so complex and precise.”

Contador was set to race on the Shiv at the Tour of the Algarve. However, the UCI decided at the last minute to ban the bike.

“It is ridiculous, the bike is durable and safe and they suddenly call it illegal. It is always about these little details.”

The piece in question is the nose cone. Specialized considers the nose cone an important design feature which houses the front brake. The UCI considers the nose cone a fairing, which is in violation of the design rules of a bike.

The nose cone in question. Is it a structural element or a fairing?

Alberto Contador takes the overall at Algarve

Alberto Contador’s time trial bike drama didn’t seem to bother him today in stage 5′s time trial. He took second in the stage and secured his overall victory in the Tour of the Algarve. Luis León Sánchez won the stage with a time of 21 minutes, 32 seconds. Contador was 13 behind.

The time bike confusion started Friday night when the UCI disallowed Contador’s Specialized Shiv time trial bike. The UCI stated that the headtube area falls outside the measurements that are allowed by 8 millimeters.

Specialized scrambled to replace the Shiv with the Transition model which still required some slight modifications to become UCI legal.

General Classification

1º Alberto Contador
2º Luis Leon Sanchez
3º Tiago Machado

RESULTS: Stage 5 time trial
1º Luis León Sánchez (Caisse D’Epargne), 21m32s (Média: 47,926 km/h)
2º Alberto Contador (Astana), a 13s
3º Sebastien Rosseler (RadioShack), a 16s
4º Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), a 22s
5º Frantisek Rabon (Team HTC-Columbia), a 23s



Contador and Astana riding SRAM RED in 2010

Since 2008, SRAM has partnered with Team Astana and their star rider Alberto Contador to clinch the three Grand Tours: The Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta Espana and the Tour de France.

For 2010, SRAM has renewed its agreement with Team Astana and will continue as offi cial drivetrain supplier. Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador stated: “I started riding SRAM in 2008, and even if at the beginning I had my doubts as I did not know how it worked, I got used to it immediately. The components are very intuitive and since the start I am more than happy with the groupset.”
Top riders such as Alberto Contador, Alexandre Vinokourov and newly signed Oscar Pereiro will take full advantage of SRAM RED components to secure many more successes. With 1800g* on the scale, SRAM’s flagship groupsets is by far the lightest in the race scene offering superior ergonomics and unchallenged shift/brake lever adjustment features.
SRAM’s Global Marketing Director, David Zimberoff said “We are super excited to have the Team including Contador on SRAM again. Having won the Tour and Swept the podium in 2009 was a great milestone in SRAM’s history.”

It’s official— after ALBERTO CONTADOR requested the support of Specialized Bicycles in his bid to win his third Tour de France, the California brand will be the complete bike sponsor for Team Astana in 2010.

In a video conference with Specialized Founder and President, Mike Sinyard, Contador said, “I am very excited. I want to have the best bike. It is very important to have the best if you want to win the Tour de France. This is why I made it a requirement to have Specialized as the team bike for my return to Astana.”

“Team Astana, Alberto and Specialized share the same goal—to be the best. We are totally committed to supporting Alberto and the rest of the team in their pursuit of another Tour victory,” said Specialized Chief Brand Officer, Ben Capron from the company’s Headquarters in Morgan Hill, California. “Winning the Tour has been a dream of ours for many years, but even more important is the opportunity to work with riders like Contador and Vinokourov to help us create the best bikes possible and bring them to riders everywhere.”

At the team’s training camp in Pisa, Italy, Team Astana’s General Manager Yvon Sanquer said, “Even when I worked with Specialized with Team Festina from 1999 to 2001, I could see the professional attitude that animated the company; they never stopped developing and improving the material they supplied to the riders. Since then, Specialized has continued its progression to become the reference point in road bikes.”

Well I’m proud to say that my BFF finished the Canadian TransRockies mountain bike stage race. For a moment I thought he might say f’ it and quit, however he dug deep and completed it several hours behind the winner. Mike states in his last blog post that he is amazed that Specialized rented an RV for him. Mike is too modest. Mike wields a huge amount of power in the cycling industry. One word from him and a companies’ $600 hybrid is either going to be the most successful bike ever or the albatross around their neck bringing them to the brink of bankruptcy. So don’t believe his self effacing ways, I know better. In his blog Mike seemed to be disgusted by the fact that human waste had been dumped in front of his RV. I know Mike and out of the two things in life he loves, talking about feces is one of them. And like a pig in slop, he probably couldn’t have been happier to see that biological disaster at his front door. He’s filthy that way.

Anyways congratulations and you actually didn’t suck too bad this time. Now man-up and do Vegas ‘Cross!

I’ll say this right away, ringtones are stupid and nine times out of ten very embarrassing. However this all changed very recently. On my last press junket I went to the A2 wind tunnel to check out how aero the Specialized helmets and bikes are. During the Tour, Nic Sims from Specialized had his film crew record an authentic Tour de France team car’s horn, which he then converted to a ring tone. Needless to say I had to have it. Nic emailed me the file and I immediately converted it to a ringtone on my iPhone. Now I’ve posted it on the NeilRoad MySpace page. You can download it and then convert it to a ringtone for your own phone. Now you are as cool as Tim and I. And I guess Nic Sims is kinda cool to.

Tim and I being cool at breakfast

It’s that time of year where companies unveil their ’09 products. I’m in San Jose for the Specialized launch and right now I’m in the back seat of a large sedan that is taking me to my hotel. I’ll blog about the new stuff Specialized is going to dazzle us with. For now though
when I get to the hotel I’m going to hook up with my bff and tip a couple back. I love junkets…

To celebrate Vino’s win at the Vuelta only 750 of these gold helemts were produced . I got number 3.

In my normal non-cycling life I dress plainly. Jeans, a t-shirt and Keen shoes are my daily uniform. I don’t iron anything and I seldom shave. I have one suit that I wear for weddings, funerals and job interviews. Needless to say, I’m quite the catch. However, when I get cycling gear I metamorphous into a metrosexual.

A while back I received a pink retro style jersey from Rapha. My eyes lit up with joy when I saw myself in the mirror, resplendent in the bright pink jersey with Mortirolo across the chest. Naturally, my friends verbally abused me about wearing pink. I also received a very nice black riding jacket from Rapha. But it is so nice that I can’t bare to ride in it, but instead wear it when I go out. The inside lining is pink, which I think looks amazing. I wore that jacket to my team’s holiday party and again people made comments about the pink inside lining. But I didn’t care. Now recently I’ve received a gold Limited Edition Decibel helmet from Specialized as well as gold Limited Scott cycling shoes. I’m telling you, I couldn’t be happier. It was like Christmas had come early! Naturally, the guys at work immediately started to pile on the abuse, but their words are like water on a duck’s back.

Yesterday I kitted-up in my full metrosexual clothing and went for a ride. I was wearing my gold Decibel helmet, gold Oakley M-Frames, white and black jersey, black shorts and gold Scott shoes. Yep, I was looking good. I had to go to the post office and as expected there was a long line. I wheeled my bike into the post office, leaned it on an out of the way wall and got into line. My click-clack of my cleats announced my arrival. Post office patron’s heads swiveled to see what was making the noise. I could tell a few were thinking, “What the hell is that guy wearing?” But I stood there proud in my gold accented attire.

After my transaction I click-clacked back to my bike. Next to it was a postal worker filling P.O. boxes. He was an older gentleman and he gave me a hard look. “Those are pretty fancy shoes you got there.” he said.

“Yeah I just got them and I’m testing them out. What do you think of the color?”

He looked down at the shoes, looked up at me and scrunched his face up that could only be described as disgusted. That made me love the shoes even more.

I also like to wear my orange Specialized shoes