- Welcome to the GCN Tech Show!
- Welcome to the GCN Tech Show.
- Coming up this week we have a 13 speed groupset,
we talk cargo bikes, we have the BikeFO,
and the weekly talking point.
- And we also talk about your reaction to materials
you would like to see bikes made out of in the future.
- Let's get going.
(electronic music)
Come on James, what's hot in tech this week?
- Well to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a bike shop
in Switzerland, called Obst and Gemuse,
they've come up with a creation of building an e-cargo bike
with the help of Dutch frame builder Elian Cycles.
- Imaginatively named, the Obst and Gemuse
by Elian Cycles Ultimate e-Cargo,
it is the ultimate e-cargo bike,
lightweight, high-freight machine.
Featuring a Maxon, Amex25 rear electric hub,
helping assist you and your cargo up and down hills.
- Yeah, it's all well and good having a good motor,
but having good steering is also really, really important.
And they've put a lot of time into this,
creating a central steering hub,
which keeps it nice and light,
even though you've got it fully loaded.
And it's actually patented by Elian Cycles
because they actually came up with this whole design,
which is really cool - Genius.
It makes the bike look really nimble, doesn't it?
- Have to say, it does, yeah.
- And you also said earlier that it comes with,
or you can at least put really wide tires on it,
meaning you can probably take it off road.
- I know, it could be kind of,
the start of e-Cargo gravel racing.
- Oh! - That could be exciting.
- Everyone has to carry a certain amount of cake
up front in the cargo bay.
No, oh, maybe that's just me that wants to carry cake, beer!
- Beer, that'd work better.
- [Chris] But how many beers and cakes could you buy
for the price of the bike? - Well quite a few crates,
because it comes in at around 11,000 euros.
But then again, it is limited,
and it looks really cool doesn't it?
- Yep, only a production run of 20 will be made,
and it'll take 12 weeks to make each and every bike.
- Yeah hand made, oh lovely. - Stunning.
- So this week, Rotor finally released more details
on that 13 groupset, and to avoid any confusion,
they've called it the 1x13, and yes that is one chainring.
- Aw, that's so last year, isn't it?
- Well yeah it is, but, it's cool though.
- It is cool, and its ultra lightweight,
at only 1,785 grams.
- [James] And it's still got that hydraulic shifting,
which is also pretty cool.
- [Chris] One of a kind, in fact.
Rotor also released the pricing.
So the cheapest version will be from 2,600 euros,
right up to 4,500 euros for the top of the range
most expensive version with a power meter.
But, as expensive as that sounds,
it does include a wheel set,
because Rotor are the only company
currently manufacturing a hub
that will take that 13 speed setup.
- I mean this is super cool because its offering such
a wide variety of gear ratios,
for well, all types of riding,
from flat to downhill, to going up big mountains.
But, could this be a one stop shop for all groupsets?
- Yeah, pretty much,
'cause you leave the same set on the back
and you just change your front ring, maybe it is.
At least pretty smart, anyway.
- Yeah, it looks exciting,
I kind of want to get my hands on one.
So last week, we were talking about that new aluminum,
the AA7075 that opens up the door
for new bikes being made out of new materials,
which is super exciting and you all got in touch
and sent us some really cool stuff.
So I reckon we should read some out.
- Yep, come on.
- Who's first, Chris?
- Zachary Lambert, "Foam, some sort of light,
"high strength foam that is injected into a mold,
"creating any shape to tune ride and optimize aero."
That's pretty cool idea.
- Right, this quite a cool idea, but, could it work?
- Well I have no idea, I'm not--
- I mean, you're gonna have to make
some serious, dense foam, aren't you?
To be able to like, but I mean, it'd be light.
Right, next one comes in from Joel Sherrer,
"A cast iron or lead frame would be pretty sweet."
- Great for straight line down hills, I would imagine.
- Yeah, definitely downhill, probably not uphill,
because, I mean, gravity might just,
it might just be really difficult.
- Marshallferron, "I'd like to see a bike made with sinew,
"wood and horn like a traditional composite bow."
- Interesting, interesting.
- You do get bikes made out of wood and all sorts.
- Next one in from Alex Kontofrios,
"3D printed carbon graphene lugs,
"titanium tubes, or vice versa?"
- I'm pretty sure that there's a downhill bike out there
that's currently using 3D printed lugs.
I don't know what they're made of, but, it might have that,
that's the new Atherton bike, that one.
- Oh really, that's exciting.
- Quite exciting, custom made bikes.
And then, James Mason with,
"I want to see more bamboo bikes."
- Yeah, me too to be fair, I think they look wicked,
and, yeah, I think it's a really cool material to use.
- What about the pandas?
What are they gonna eat
if you build bikes out of their bamboo?
(chuckles)
- Right, onto the weekly talking point,
and we're talking about tech
we wish we had when we were growing up,
and tech we, well, couldn't live without.
- Yeah, and for me, back in the 90's,
it would have been custom insoles.
Whilst you could definitely get them, I never had them.
And nothing has done more for my comfort on the bike,
than actually having custom made insoles that fit my feet.
And I'll never ride a bike again without them.
The other thing I would have would be a mobile phone,
so I could call for help if I got stranded
for whatever reason, that kind of happened
more frequently back then, tires weren't as good
so you'd puncture more often, double punctures.
And, it would have been good to have a camera phone
to take picture of what I was doing, you know,
so I could remember those experiences now.
Although, these days, I would be happy with
a camera and having no phone whatsoever.
- Yeah, but, mate, you say that,
but then you cannot live without Strava,
I mean do every ride and straightaway you upload it.
So, I'm not having that.
- Ooh, that's not completely true,
I did a mad bike ride you don't know about.
- Oh yeah, 'cause I probably wouldn't,
- What does it not count if it's not online?
- Well it doesn't, no.
For me, I used to use a Turbo Trainer a lot,
as I was growing up, and I think
a direct drive Turbo Trainer
would've just enhanced my training so much better.
'Cause I used to train on, just a normal basic trainer
that, you know, would skip and I would,
just go through so many mounds of tires.
And I just couldn't get comfortable on it,
where now the direct turbos, the smart trainers,
all that kind of stuff, I just think you can,
just hone down on your training,
- Yeah, they're a lot smoother.
- Just make it really specific.
- They're a lot less choppy, I know the ones that you mean,
back then you'd would feel like it was like.
- Oh, it was just uncomfortable.
- It was on, off, on, off.
So how about tech that you could never race without now?
Like as in if you were about to go out and do a bike race.
- Hmm, interesting, well, I think for me
it's gonna be a power meter,
because I relied so heavily on a power meter during training
and, not even for racing, as I was racing,
'cause I don't really look at my watch that much,
but more about breaking it down after the race
so I could see, where I was, how fit I was,
if I needed to kind of, train on my five minute power,
my ten minute power, or whatever,
so yeah, I think, you know,
the power meter has just been amazing for me.
- Right, see I would've gone with a head unit in races,
because even though I'd normally just have speed,
like your current speed and your duration,
that would help with knowing
what sort of position to ride in,
if you're going fast then of course
you tuck down a little bit
and if you've been riding for 15 minutes,
you've not had a drink yet,
you probably ought to be having a drink
and that really helps.
And I can gauge my, kind of, fueling throughout the ride,
based on what time it was,
and I'd know how much energy I was expending
in certain parts of the bunch, depending on the speed.
- Oh, interesting.
- And, of course you could feel them intuitively,
it did help to have more info, though.
- Yeah, well that's a good point, Chris,
but we would like to know what you like.
So make sure you get in touch,
and either use the uploader,
or even just chuck in some comments down below,
and what you couldn't race without,
and what you wish you had back when you started.
- How about stuff that you wish we didn't have these days?
That's also quite an interesting one.
Last week, Hank and Jon asked you to get in touch
with your bike related products
that you have turned into every day items.
And, I think it's fair to say,
we were simply astounded by your response.
- Yes, so we thought it'd be a good idea
to show you some of those.
And we've got one from Julia in Amsterdam,
"I have a growing pile of worn out chains,
"so I've been turning them into basic jewelry.
"These pendants and earrings were made from
"the chain I used to ride from in Germany
"to Hell in Norway, last year.
"1,404 kilometers, 11 day bike-packing adventure."
- Nice. - Look at those,
I could see you wearing them, mate.
- Yeah, what the earring, or the necklace?
- The earrings, 100%.
- [Chris] Jamie's written in with an old, Zipp 404 650C rim,
that's a rare size, and a bunch of old cogs.
Living room, Schweinfurt, Germany,
I see why you wanted me to read that one out.
- [James] Yes.
- [Chris] He used an old 650C rim, and a bunch of old cogs
to create a functional piece of living room decor.
- [James] Oh look at that!
- [Chris] Apparently it's always four minutes past four.
Just kidding, there's an actual clock
in the mechanism there. - Oh that's cool, that!
- Yeah that is really cool.
That's probably the most inventive thing
I've seen for a while.
- Yeah, aw good on you.
Right, next in is one from Simon, from Bristol.
"Hi, just thought you'd like to see some of the things
"that I've built from old bike parts."
Look at that, we've got a lamp, like a reading lamp,
made out of old cogs.
- [Chris] I like that.
- [James] That's quite cool, but, very niche, isn't it?
I don't think it would go with my decor,
but fair play, I think it looks cool.
- I don't think it would go with your decor, no.
- No.
Would it go with yours?
Have you got like, it would be good in like a workshop.
- That would be perfect in a workshop.
In Cannings' lair.
- In Cannings' lair, yeah that would be cool.
- I'm Dan Bigham from Hubb Wattbike.
Screw riding upgrades, buy upgrades.
- Now it's time for screw riding upgrades,
- Buy upgrades.
- All right, are you ready?
- Yep, before we dig in,
we have to go with last week's results.
And, Andrew from Tasmania was up against
Tana, from Dallas.
But, with 53% of the vote, it was Tana from Dallas.
- Yeah, so well done to you, make sure you get in touch,
so we can get that apron off to you.
- Yeah, if it doesn't come through any time soon,
Ollie has close to 50 in his personal collection,
so send him a DM.
- Yeah, it was 25 last week, and now its 50, but,
yeah he's obviously got quite a few.
- Hoarder. - Yeah.
Right, let's get into some bikes.
- Ooh, Jim from Canada,
who is up against Steven from Indonesia.
First off then, Jim, with a Marioni,
Marinoni Special, there we go, lets pronounce it right.
" I always regretted selling my first bike,
"a 1977 Marinoni Special, that was custom made for me.
"A few years ago, I decide to find a replacement.
"After a prolonged search, I found an '88 Marinoni,
"with the same geometry as my dream machine."
- Perfect.
- "It was in good condition,
"but suffering under the original owner's
"efforts to upgrade it.
"I bought it and took several months finding
"the bits and pieces to take it back in time.
"I stripped the bike, off came the saddle,
"the quill stem adapter, and the modern bars."
- Ooh a lot came off.
- "Yeah, the original core's groupset was lovingly cleaned,
"buffed, lubed, and put aside."
- Beautiful.
- "The frame was sent to Marinoni in Montreal for a repaint,
"the result was breathtaking.
"With much scouring of the internet,
"and trips to the basement of all the local shops,
"I acquired the Cinelli stem and bars, roll saddle,
"campy-era pedals, and clips, NOS campy hubs,
"Ambrozio exon's red anodized rims, and,
"the find of the adventure, a pair of Dioman cycling shoes,
"which sat in a dusty box in one of the shops for decades,
"and they fit like a glove.
"The end result, my dream bike was back in all it's glory,
"no speed, cadence, power, or any other sensor."
- Just old school, beautiful. - Him and his machine,
the classic ride.
- Tell us Hank, what is he up against?
- Right, he's up against
the 2016, Cannondale neon limited CAAD 12,
so it's kind of like a retro versus modern, honestly.
- Yeah, and his list of upgrades is, well, huge.
So I'm gonna go through a few of them.
We've got the Stramred GSW titanium bolts,
absoluteBLACK chainring, ceramic speed BB,
Ciamello zero gravity brakes, Look Keo Carbon pedals,
lightweight Teflon cables, carbon tie top cap,
Astute Starline VT saddle that I actually used it last year,
or the year before,
Cannondale carbon seat post 27.2,
extra light hub, Sapim CX race spokes,
tune Skyline 25T wheels,
Continental Giro 22 millimeter tires,
Cannondale blank ink carbon fork, Zipp SL handlebars,
Airlight stem, lightweight cork bar tape.
- And how heavy was it?
- Mate, this is crazy, 'cause it weighs in
at 5.8 kilograms, which, I mean we all like light stuff,
but this is incredibly light for an alloy bike.
- Yeah it is, and look at the pictures.
There's the original, and,
wow. - Oh wow.
- [Chris] That is a big transformation.
- [James] That's beautiful though, isn't it?
- Well it's a lovely shaped frame, for a start.
- [James] I love those upgrades!
- [Chris] Yeah, that's a well thought out bike,
I bet that rides pretty quickly.
- [James] I can't believe how light it is,
that is a perfect hill climb bike.
- Yep, you're lucky Ollie's not here
'cause he'd be salivating all over the desk right now.
- He's even got a bottle with it without a bottle cage,
he's got one of those fabric bottles, yeah.
- I really like that, that's really cool.
But, it's not up to us is it? - It's not up to us.
So make sure you get involved on the poll.
Where is it, Chris?
- It's up over there, top left corner,
top right corner, sorry.
- Yeah so get involved on that,
because it's a difficult one this week,
it's a difficult one I have to say.
So we didn't have a Bike of the Week last week,
so we're gonna go straight into this week with a big one.
It's Sunweb's Cervelo P5, up against.
- [Chris] The Trek Speed Concept from Trek Segafredo.
- Yeah it really, well, two amazing bikes.
Incredibly fast bikes, and beautiful bikes.
But, we'd like to hear from you which one is better,
so do get in touch, in the poll, just up there.
Right, it's that time for the bike vault.
- Yes! We love the bike vault.
What do we need though, there's something missing.
- Well, it's the bell but, I mean, who's gonna ring it?
- I think we need to take it in turns
to see who can do it the loudest.
- Okay, I'm down with that, I'm down with that.
Right, do you wanna start off?
(Bell slams)
Right, do you wanna start off?
- Yep, cool.
First up, is Neil.
Zeus C3 arrow sticker bond, in his back garden,
which is Edinburgh, in Scotland.
And, that's a lot of stickers Neil.
- [James] That, is an incredible amount of stickers.
It's like a comic book stuck to a bike.
- [Chris] I imagine it's quite heavy as well,
like, stickers aren't light,
- [James] No, it's not gonna be that heavy is it?
- [Chris] I reckon it's added
a couple of hundred grams to the frame.
- [James] Would you ride a bike like that?
- Well I never have, so I probably never will.
- I think it looks cool but, it's just,
I don't know if it's for me.
- Neil, I'm very sorry, I don't think its for me either.
- I'm sorry Neil, it's gonna be.
- It's too busy.
- It's gonna be a nice, It's gonna be a nice.
- It is nice, it's still nice; and I respect your effort.
- Yes, 100%.
Right, next up it's,
- Zinch - The Zinch chapter three,
from Amherst, Massachusetts, in the USA.
- [Chris] Man, that is cool.
- [James] That is cool, it's got a saddlebag,
and a mirror on it,
- [Chris] And some lights.
- [James] And some lights, a power meter, mud guards.
I mean it's cool, it's very much a commuter bike.
I wouldn't say it's kind of like--
- It's not a race bike. - An Epic.
- [Chris] But it's a practical bike,
and I quite like it because of it.
- What would you give it?
I mean, I'm gonna be really hard this week.
I'm gonna have to give it a nice.
- I'm gonna mark you down,
'cause it looks like you've got a mirror.
So it's gonna be a nice, not a super nice.
- [James] Right, Chris, what've we got next?
- [Chris] We have Curtis and his custom welded bike,
from Portland, Oregon.
That's cool. - Beautiful.
I love that, he's actually thought really hard about the
background as well, 'cause that kinda fits perfectly,
in that kind of like, sun, shape, thing.
- [Chris] Yeah, and he custom welded it himself, in fact.
- [James] Wow, did he, god, that's epic!
Yeah, to be fair, that's 100% a super nice from me.
What about you? - It is from me as well.
- Well you know what to do, Chris.
- I do! (bell rings)
Yes, happy with that, that's a good effort.
- That is quite something.
Right, next up we've got Bruno
and his KOGA Colmaro Allroad from Belgium.
Look at that!
(speaking in foreign language)
I mean I love the color, love the tan side walls.
- [Chris] Yeah I do love that,
that looks like a lot of fun, that bike actually.
- [James] It does look like a lot of fun.
I personally would have the head unit
pointing down a little bit,
and I wouldn't have a saddle bag.
- [Chris] Of course you would,
I've seen your saddlebag video.
- [James] Well that's true, only on a few rides.
But I think, I think that's a super nice.
- I think it's a super nice yeah?
The tires, everything, it looks cool.
- The paint job's awesome,
he's even got metal flasks in bottle cages.
- Yep, full of drink.
- But I love it, I'm a sucker for some tan side wall tires.
- Well it draws you in. Come on, ring that bell.
- Super nice! (bell rings).
Right, who's he up against?
Or not up against, who's next?
- Ooh, the Pinarello, look at this.
Classic looking bike, the Galileo,
from 1998, Campback wheels, records Aralias.
Bit of a lot on there as well.
I like that, that was such a cool bike
when I started cycling way back, way back when.
- [James] It was like a poster bike that was,
back in the day, wasn't it?
- [Chris] Yeah, that's really cool.
- Yeah, that is wicked, isn't it?
Ah, it's a super nice, isn't it?
It's gotta be that old Pinarello.
- Handlebars have changed shapes so much over the years,
I can never get over this.
- I like that old shape, with the flat
- Yeah, there's loads of places
to put your hands, aren't there.
- Come on. - Super nice!
(bell rings). You can do half, because I just did
the last one so it's only fair.
(bell rings)
Yeah there you have it.
So we've got, we had three super nices,
which is actually pretty good isn't it?
- It's not bad, it's not bad.
- It's not bad. - It's better than last week.
- So make sure you send in your bikes
using the uploader tool in the description below
if you want to find out how to do that
because we love going through all your bikes, don't we?
- We do, the more the better.
- Right that's it, for this week's tech show.
I've enjoyed doing it with you mate.
- It's been good fun, hasn't it?
- Yeah.
- If you wanna see more videos coming up this week,
Jon Cannings is over at the UAE tour,
and he is sending plenty back for us to watch.
- Yeah, and if you're still up for some more tech,
then check out this video,
where Jon turns a cheap bike, into a super bike.