- This is the Bond road bike of Emma Pooley.
It's a very special bike,
firstly 'cause it's just won a race.
Secondly, it's still got its race-winning mud on there.
Thirdly, this is an aluminium bike,
which is quite a rare thing on GCN Pro Bikes.
And then, finally, Emma is actually here
to talk us through it.
(triumphant music)
So Emma, your bike is made out of aluminium.
Bond have just recently launched, within the last year.
As well as being made out of 6067 Aluminium,
they also can make completely custom bikes, that's right.
And so, this one is totally to your spec.
- Yep, yeah, I gave the measurements, which is always,
well, it was a bit scary actually,
because if it was terrible to ride,
then it would have been my fault.
I couldn't have blamed anyone else.
So yeah, I actually saw the geometry based on
my favourite race bike from the past,
but I changed it a bit to make it shorter and smaller.
- Your time trial bike is based around 650 wheels, right?
But this one is 700c.
So how have you managed to get the position the same?
- Well, yeah, that's the tricky thing.
I mean, ideally, someone my size,
or even some people slightly larger,
would ride on 650s on a road bike, too,
but because I do a few road races and sportives and things
where, in an emergency, you want to take a spare wheel,
and no neutral service is gonna have 650s,
so I did want a 700c road bike.
The problem is that obviously,
if you make the bike shorter,
the wheels get closer together,
and you get more toe crossover.
And the handling can get a bit funny,
so you have to just be careful
with the foot brake so you have enough trail
that it steers properly.
The reason I wanted the top two to be shorter
is that then you can have a slightly longer stem
which makes it less twitchy at the front.
- But then obviously you shorten the top tube,
and you bring that front wheel
closer to your toes. - Yeah.
And then you get big toe crossovers,
so that's why I'm actually gonna
try and get a fork with more rake to it
so that I can get more trail.
I've always had toe crossover.
Once you know you've got toe crossover, it's fine.
Any small rider, I think, would know what I mean.
It just makes track standing really difficult.
But I was never gonna be able to track stand anyway.
I'm not skilled.
- There is often a bit of debate, it seems,
about the whole, kind of, 650 versus 700c
in terms of, I think because mountain bikes,
larger wheels typically roll faster,
so people therefore think that a 700c wheel
will roll faster than a 650,
but you won your time trial world championships
on 650 wheels, right?
- Yeah, I've won, all the time trials I did well in
were on 650 wheels,
and I mean, if you look at the mass and the physics of it,
it's fairly straightforward, the analysis,
and it's been discussed many times.
There is a slightly higher rolling resistance
with smaller wheels, but it's very slight,
and it's more than made up for by
the fact that the wheel is lighter and smaller,
so you're low to the ground so you're more aerodynamic.
And just as a small rider, you actually can get
an aerodynamic position.
Like with a 700c time trial bike,
I can't get low enough at the front end
to be even vaguely aerodynamic,
so I mean, any benefit of lower riding resistance
is totally negated by the aerodynamic resistance.
- Yeah.
Okay, let's talk about wheels as well,
because these are from Sense,
which is a completely new brand,
and one that you're actually quite involved with.
- Yes, I'm co-founder, actually, which is cool.
I don't actually make them.
(laughs)
I can't true a wheel, but I know the guy who does,
and he makes really fantastic wheels,
and I went to him with a problem
of needing 650s for my time trial bike.
'Cause I've been training and racing
on some old training wheels from 2009,
and wheel technology's come on a lot since then,
just in terms of weight and aerodynamics,
and he's, Tim Smith, he's a real expert,
and he basically designed 650s with tubeless tyres
to try and get the rim/tire boundary,
which is where most of the
aerodynamic flow disruption happens.
So you try and get that as smooth as possible,
'cause it really does affect the
aerodynamics of the wheel and the drag,
which, and the smaller you are,
you know, if you're smaller, you generally have
less muscle mass and less power.
The more you can reduce your drag the better,
which is kind of the same for all riders,
but it's much more noticeable
if you're 50 kilos and threshold is 250 watts
than if your threshold is 400 or something, so.
Yeah, so the 650s are quite exciting,
and then the 700s are based on that.
They're designed, we're gonna have certainly
a range designed of 700 Sense wheels
for smaller riders on the road.
Again, with as low riding resistance as possible,
low spoke count, and there'll be a weight limit
on the base at least, so they are small rider specific.
- The rear hub on there, I'm looking at now,
because it's a power metre hub, right?
- Yeah, it's brand new, and it's in the hub,
and it's less than 300 grammes
and a new design by someone based in Taiwan, Busway
and he's working with the guy who makes Sense wheels
to incorporate this pound metre.
We'll have an option without a pound metre,
but it's pretty cool.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- It's, 300 grammes for a rear hub is not bad, is it?
And to have a pound metre in there as well,
that's pretty cool. - Exactly.
- You've also got another pound metre on here,
so I'm guessing the wheel's quite new.
So that's a Roto 2INPower
that you've got, - That's right, yeah.
- With Q Rings.
- Yes. I love Q Rings.
I got onto them in 2009 on the Cervelo Test Team,
and it took me I think a couple months to adapt to them,
and then, now if I ride on round rings,
I feel really uncomfortable, so 'cause I've adapted to it,
I wanted to keep riding them.
I really believe they work for me.
And Rotor are kind enough to sponsor me with them, so yeah.
And the 2INPower means that we can look at,
like, check any accuracy of the new hub.
- Yeah.
What length cranks are they on there?
- 165s.
- 165s?
- Yeah, and I'm--
- Tempted to go shorter?
- Yes, I've tried going shorter.
Last year I had 155s that Rotor made specially,
but I was pretty (bleep) last year,
and I don't know if that was a crank up,
I think it was actually more me.
I strongly believe, and I think this something that
small riders don't often,
especially when you just get into cycling,
it's not something you think about.
I even rode like 175s when I started cycling
because that was what was on the bike,
and that was what was available.
And obviously when you start cycling,
you don't need to have the most expensive of everything,
but fit is really important just in terms of comfort
and how much you enjoy riding your bike.
And I honestly hated cycling for the first year
because the saddle didn't fit me,
the bike didn't fit me, and I was cold all the time.
And then I found the right saddle,
got a different bike, and bought some arm warmers,
and I felt much better.
(laughs)
But I also remember my first proper team,
and they were an awesome team.
They were brilliant for me.
Like I wouldn't have got riding without this
little specialised team in Switzerland.
And it had a great team director.
I still remember the team mechanic saying,
"Oh yeah, we've built your time trial bike."
'Cause I had got selected for the world championships
at the last minute.
"Built your time trial bike.
"We've put 175 cranks on it, 'cause in a time trial,
"you need more power."
So they put longer cranks on my time trial bike
because I needed more power.
And I was thinking, "Well,
"you need power in a road race, too,"
and surely, if you need more, like,
if longer is always better,
you'd just ride the longest crank possible
for anything, and it's, they've shown,
proper science behind showing that
crank length is largely insignificant
as long as you can adapt to the lengths.
You could ride small or long,
but the problem is that if you're very small,
you're limited in the length in that
I hit my stomach with my knees
if the crank's really long, so,
which is really uncomfortable.
So yeah, I'm a big believer in small cranks,
and I think it's something that
small riders should consider.
- The race obviously we're talking about
was the KOM Challenge,
so 100 kilometres uphill
with some ridiculously steep pitches
towards the top particularly.
What are the gear ratios that you've got on there?
What size chain rings and cassette?
- 50/34 at the front and a 28 at the back.
So it's a perfectly fine gear for training on lots of hills,
but when your 25% pitches come
at the end of a four-hour race,
and you're at 3,000 metres altitude,
I thought, "Hm, maybe I should have arranged
"a 30 at the back," but I got up.
But I was glad that I took it steady
just before the steep bit.
(laughs)
- You got up, and got up exceedingly fast,
we should stress.
And then that's an Ultegra Di2 group set.
Any specific reason you've gone for Di2?
I mean, it's kind of self-explanatory, I guess, but.
- Well, it's funny, I never had electric gears
when I was racing pro.
I did on my time trial bike in London and Falkenberg
thanks to British cycling,
but I never had electric gears to race on.
And I have been dropped by people who can
effortlessly shift into the big ring
at the top of the climb,
and I was struggling trying to get into the big ring,
so I really wanted to try it.
And I've not been disappointed.
The functionality is just insanely good.
I'm really happy with it.
- Let's go on to finishing kit, then, shall we?
So you've got that 70 mil 3T stem
that we talked about earlier on.
Are they 38 mil bars?
- Yes.
- Say centimetre on, not millimetre.
That'd be a bit weird.
- I mean, I'd like small bars,
but that would be too tight.
- It would be a little bit small, yeah.
And sorry, you say you'd go for even smaller than 38?
- Yeah. You don't need a bar that's any
wider than your shoulders,
but it's quite hard to find a narrower bar than that.
And I really like the 3T bars because of
the shape of the drops,
and they basically, width is one thing,
but the other thing is the depth of the scoop,
if you see what I mean.
So I can get the hood really close to my hands.
- And then Speedplay pedals as well.
- Yeah. - Longrunning relationship--
- Yeah, as you know,
I've been riding on Speedplay since 2007,
and I've tried to change
because they're so expensive.
(laughs)
And for walking around, you know,
if you wanna go to the cafe or stop for a pee or something,
sometimes you get gravel in the cleats,
and it's not ideal,
but they just feel so good.
And I tried riding others,
and I just can't get on with them.
I just love the functionality of them
and how they feel and the float.
- Lastly then, a subject very close to my heart.
The aesthetics of the bike.
Now, it being a custom bike, it's custom colour way, too?
- Yeah. Totally.
- It's a very cool colour.
I compliment you on your choice.
- Thank you very much.
Actually I wanted a slightly darker one,
but it's really hard to assess the colour
when you see it on an email, so.
I'm really happy with it, it stands out, that's for sure.
Personally, I quite like blue,
and I'm fed up with having pink stuff,
so did not want a pink bike.
- Yeah, and all the Bond bikes
have got that typical black top tube as well, right?
- Yeah. That's actually an engineering feature
as well as an aesthetic.
I mean, it makes it very recognisable.
They have the logo down there,
but you can treat the surface of the aluminium
to save a bit of weight.
Yeah, so it's quite cool.
- Cool fact. Nice one.
- I don't know exactly how,
but I should check that before I say.
(laughing)
- Great, so Emma, thanks so much for talking us through.
That is a thoroughly, thoroughly interesting bike.
- Thank you very much.
Thank you for having me.
- Well, what a super cool bike.
We had to let Emma go because
she's actually getting ready for a cycle tour.
Believe it or not, this bike is gonna go from
winning a hundred kilometre uphill race
to doing a cycle tour around Taiwan,
which I think is super cool.
Do make sure you give this video a big thumbs up,
and make sure you subscribe to GCN as well,
if you don't already.
To do that, just click on the globe.
And if you wanna see a couple of other videos to check out,
we've got Vincenzo Nibali's pro bike.
He won the men's event at the KOM Challenge,
so that one is just over there.
Or to see a video about how Matt and I got on
at the KOM Challenge, and I'm warning you now,
it's not quite as well as Vincenzo or, indeed, Emma,
but that one is just down there.