- You certainly seemed to enjoy
our last retro tech video,
and we've listened to what you've said.
So, we've had a bit of a rummage
in our respective attics
to see what we could find.
- That's right.
We've battled through the cobwebs,
and we've come up with four more cool bits
of retro tech that you're gonna love.
Just feast your eyes on these Matt.
The quite stunning Campagnolo Delta brakes.
An absolute design classic,
originally made back in 1984 by the Italian brand.
As a challenge to Shimano,
who at the time were making some quite technological steps
in the groupset market.
- Yeah, and although they were absolutely beautiful,
gorgeous to look at, they did have a few problems.
Firstly, they were notoriously difficult to adjust.
And secondly, and more importantly,
they weren't particularly good at slowing you down,
which of course was a big problem.
Resulting, in fact, in five different iterations
of the Delta brake.
The final version having five internal pivot points,
as opposed to three in the first iteration.
- Now the first iteration of these
was actually withdrawn from sale,
after reports of some failures.
And then sadly they were discontinued back in 1994.
They have however though been known
to fetch a fair price by some collectors worldwide.
These are the second edition model.
- Yeah funnily enough I was looking on Ebay
just the other day, and I saw a pair of Delta brakes
for three and a half thousand dollars,
although they were original prototypes.
But yeah, as you said, they're highly collectible.
Now I was fortunate enough to ride Delta brakes
in the 1992 Olympic games,
and I had a limited edition set of brakes.
They were anodized in a cool stealthy black,
what Campagnolo called the century finish.
John, this is your bike, isn't it?
- Yeah?
- Why on earth have you got Shimano levers,
and Campo brakes?
That's basically heresy.
- Yeah.
- Carnac was founded as a small shoe company,
in the rural town of Geste, in northwest France, in 1949.
Now first they made normal everyday shoes,
before then specialising in cycling shoes
that were handmade and non-mass produced,
which really came to the fore in the late 1980s.
- Yeah, and it was in the mid-1980s actually
when clipless pedals really became popular,
and Carnac took the initiative,
decided to use a different way
of mating clips to the sole of a shoe,
and that was via an insert system.
Then, in 1989, they actually patented that,
as the UCS interchangeable insert system.
- Now when three times Tour de France winner,
and tech trailblazer Greg LeMond started
to wear their shoes in 1991 and 1992,
this model in particular, the Legend Kevlar,
Carnac saw their popularity soar.
Now, Carnac didn't actually sponsor
that many professional riders.
It was just the pros wanted to wear Carnac shoes.
They were that good.
And, let's face it, they look pretty cool as well.
- Yeah.
Both Matt and I wore different versions of Carnacs
throughout the 90s.
This model, in fact this actual pair of shoes,
Matt rode to victory in the National Road Race Championships
back in 1998.
And do you know what?
They were stiff, they were comfortable,
they were simply, they were the shoe of choice,
weren't they back in the day?
- They were, but, shoes have come
a long way since then, haven't they?
- Leaps and bounds.
- I mean, shoes are far stiffer,
they use different retention systems
rather than velcro straps,
and let's face it, shoes now are loads lighter.
You know what we're coming to, don't you?
Let's weigh these puppies.
Alright then John, the time has come.
Let's weigh in my 19 year old shoes
against a modern pair.
Okay, so let's put these on the scales.
Whoa.
- [John] Okay.
- 929 grammes.
Basically, it's a kilo.
- Yeah, it's a kilo - It's a kilo shoe,
now that's including the shoe plates, okay,
so 929 we've got to beat.
Now, these are pretty much a state of the art shoe.
They're the brand new Fizik Infinito R1s.
Super comfortable, super light.
Let's weigh a pair of these John,
what do you reckon?
Have a guess.
- [John] I don't, I don't.
- 611.
So that's nearly a third of a kilo lighter,
just for a pair of shoes.
The Cinelli Aerolite helmet,
or the pea pod, to give it its rather unflattering nickname,
although you can see why, because of the shape,
was actually made by the Italian company in 1985
with obviously aerodynamics and going fast in mind.
And it was actually worn by the legendary Bernard Hinault
who scorched to victory in the Prologue,
and in the Stage Eight time trial
at that year's Tour de France
en route to his fifth Tour de France victory.
- As you can see, the Aerolite is devoid
of any vents whatsoever.
No padding, no retention system.
Basically it's just secured with a bit of velcro
underneath your chin.
It essentially started the aerodynamic helmet craze
which is still going on to this day.
- John, did you actually wear that helmet?
- No, but I had one very, very similar,
back in about 1997.
I sprayed it silver.
I ended up looking like a martian or a robot.
The guy holding me up at the time trial,
he laughed his head off.
I never wore it again.
- You sprayed it silver?
- Yeah.
- Oh my God.
Well, I'd never really owned one of those.
I was envious of all my mates who had it.
But, they did lend me a helmet
for a few individual time trials
the backend of the 1980s.
But, although you do look reasonably fast in it John,
and relatively cool, it was Bernard Hinault if you ask me,
who rocked it the best mate, so.
- Thanks mate.
- Yeah, sorry mate. - Cheers mate.
I think I look alright. - Take it off, take it off.
- Now we wouldn't blame you for thinking
that electronic gear shifting was a new thing.
I mean, with Shimano's wired Di2 system
came out as recently as 2009.
And then SRAM's wireless eTAP system in 2015.
- But, you'd be wrong.
French company Mavic, more famed for their wheels,
launched electronic shifting
a quarter of a century ago in 1992,
with their wired system called Zap,
which was followed a few years later in 1999 by this.
The world's first ever wireless shifting groupset,
called Mektronic.
- So gear changing was transformed,
for a while anyway.
Mavic created a system
which didn't use the parallelogram system.
The chain powered the mech across the cassette.
Quite something.
As opposed to the motors in the modern day systems.
- Pressing a button on the the brake levers,
or at the end of the TT bars,
or the satellite shifter near the head unit,
would send a signal to the mech,
which would engage with a tooth shaft,
turned by the jockey wheel.
That, depending on the gear selection,
either up or down,
would wind the jockey inwards or outwards,
changing sprockets in the process.
- So the Mektronic was beset with glitches,
and mechanical problems.
There was a painfully slow lag between button press
and the shift of the rear mech.
When you went close to a radio mast, TV mast,
it would just pack up.
Just didn't work.
- That's not good is it.
- So, with all of these put together,
it led to the rather rapid demise and decline
of the Mektronic groupset.
It never caught on,
and it was discontinued shortly afterwards.
- Now ultimately, although it was
a trailblazing idea by Mavic,
it was Zap for Mektronic.
(sigh)
See what I did there, mate.
- I'll tell you what.
I'm gonna take these home.
I'm gonna give them a blast,
and I'll let you know how I get on.
- No, no, no, no it's my turn.
Because it set this up,
and I actually got these off one of me mates,
so I'm gonna ride it home.
Look how aero - It's always you,
- I can get as well. - it's always you
who gets the good stuff.
- No but look, you can get get really on this.
That's like, - Alright, alright.
- if Batman had a kind of bike groupset,
it would be this one, wouldn't it?
- Yeah. - Look at that.
- The Batwing-tronic.
- Well we really do hope that you enjoyed
this little ride down retro tech avenue.
Have you got any of this stuff?
And, what do you think deserves
to be on our next video?
- Yeah and let us know in the comments down below
what you'd like to see.
Now do remember to like and share this video
with your friends, and to subscribe
to the Global Cycling Network,
click on the logo, which is just here.
And for four more cool bits of retro tech,
click just down here.
- Yeah, and for another retro video,
where I rode an Orbea Orca in Euskaltel colours
in the Pyrenees at the Tour de France,
how about clicking just down here?
You can stick naughty's leg back now mate.
- Oh, you could do that.
- Kind of us to lend us his leg now, wasn't it?
- Yeah.