- Here at GCN, we really do love a bit of retro-tech,
and we know you do too.
- So we thought we'd share with you some of our
favourite bits of old school tech.
(old-fashioned music)
- Starting with these Spinergy Rev X wheels.
Now the company was set up in the early 1990's
by a former Cannondale engineer called Ralph Schlanger.
With a distinctive, striking design, they certainly
cut a dash in the Pulsar.
- I love what you did there, Matt.
That's right, they were distinctive, certainly.
I mean eight carbon spokes, essentially bonded together.
You could also stiffen them up with some
little Rev X inserts in there as well.
- You could indeed, and they really had,
as well as distinctive design,
a distinctive sound, as well.
- They certainly did.
- A little bit like a helicopter, really, wasn't it?
- Yeah!
(helicopter blades whirling)
- Now aside from ourselves,
because both John and I did ride these
quite amazing wheels in the 1990's.
That is actually a picture of John
in his back garden.
Despite the pixels, he is there somewhere.
This is retro after all.
Now lots of other top pros used them, didn't they?
Mario Cipollini when he was riding at the Seiko,
Paolo Batini rode them as well.
As well as Michele Bartoli,
But, shat a legendary rider he was.
But as the 90's progressed
there're increasing stories of these wheels
quite literally exploding underneath the riders,
as well as other stories of them causing
quite nasty and gruesome injuries as well.
- Yeah, let's face it, Matt.
Essentially they were eight blades of carbon
flapping around in the peloton weren't they?
- Indeed like llamas almost.
- Yeah (laughs) that's right.
So in the end, in 2001 the UCI took it upon themselves
to ban them, ban them in competition.
And then the Spinergy Rev Xs were essentially
sent to the carbon scrap heap in the sky.
- Tell you what, that despite the risk of them
sort of, at any moment, exploding underneath you,
they're still one of the coolest wheels ever, aren't they?
- Yeah, absolutely gutted I sold mine.
- Power pedals, the pedals that make you a winner.
Oh, well that's what it says
(bell dings) on the box anyway.
- What a tag line.
Now these retro pedalling tech actually date back
to 1995, he used them,
and came from Norway.
What was most interesting about these
was the fact there was a clutch mechanism
inside of the spindle,
making it impossible to backpedal.
Which, in theory anyway, created
more leverage by adding the length of the shoe sole
to the length of the crankarm
during the upstroke phase of the pedal stroke.
- Wow, that was really well-explained, John.
Well actually back in 1999,
I had to use these very pedals,
this actual pair in fact,
because the team I was riding for
was sponsored by Power Pedals
therefore there was an obligation
to me to do so.
And I must admit, it took me about a month
to get used to them,
especially the sketchy feeling in races
where you just couldn't pedal backwards.
But the other big factor in terms of performance
was the weight of these
because they are very, very hefty indeed.
- I'll tell you what, Matt.
I've brought in some scales.
Let's compare them to a modern day equivalent.
- Let's do it.
- Right then John.
I'm looking forward to what these will ...
Shall we weigh the modern pedals first,
as a bit of a benchmark?
- Yeah, let's do them first.
- So they're full carbon, dual race pedals aren't they?
- Yep. - So there's a pair of those.
Let's have a look what they weight in at.
- So, 235 grammes.
- For the pair.
Okay, let's put the little Power Pedals on,
well not the little Power ...
They're big, aren't they? They are pretty hefty.
- They're actually quite small, the platform, aren't they?
But the axles...
(laughing) - Well,
it's not looking good, John.
- No it's not.
- I must admit I've nearly broken the scales.
Well, 446 grammes.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. That's nearly over half the weight
of some modern frames.
- Yes, I'm not sure, I'm not sure about that.
- No.
- Did you find any efficiency gains
when you were using these?
- Well despite their heft and their weight,
I actually did.
I definitely felt a difference
when using a larger gear, and I felt,
especially that long drags and shallow kind of climbs
using the big gear,
I felt like I was recruiting all the muscle groups,
and there was no dead spot at all.
So, I obviously wouldn't be able to quantify it,
I couldn't quantify it at all,
because we weren't using power metres back then.
But there was definitely something in there,
in that the dead spot, to me, was eliminated.
So there's definitely something there.
- Yeah, they kind of just disappeared though,
didn't they, in the late 90's
where they just went into obscurity.
I mean perhaps the hefty weight of them,
outweighed the performance gains.
Who knows?
- Yeah. I understand, though, they have actually been
reinvented in recent years.
There's a slightly smaller and lighter clutch mechanism.
But still, they do remain very niche.
(retro guitar riff)
Next up, John, we have these in the flesh.
- You mean the aluminium, right?
- Yeah, all right.
Anyway, these, in my opinion,
these Scott Drop-In handlebars are arguably,
actually not arguably,
they are these most iconic handlebar
of the last 30, 40, or even 50 years.
Well, nearly as iconic
as the guy that brought them to fame, really.
Greg LeMond, he of two World Road titles,
and, of course, three times a Tour de France winner.
But more importantly, a tech trail blazer.
- Yeah, he sure was, Matt.
These bars were actually made by Scott,
who at the time were a ski company.
And back in 1990 was the first time we saw them.
And the afore-mentioned Greg LeMond went on
to pilot these to victory in the Tour de France that year.
They allowed the rider simply to get
aero, low, and narrow, just like that.
- Like this. - Yeah.
- I mean, I've pretty much got Greg's position.
- You've nailed the aero there.
- I mean interesting, although they were
as iconic as they were,
there's only a few other professional riders
that went on to use them,
one of whom was the famous Russian TT specialist,
Viatcheslav Ekimov.
But what he did, he took it a step further,
he added some tri-bars that were attached
to the bottom of the bars,
to end up in a position just like this,
which was, I must admit, pretty sketchy.
And it was unsurprising really that
towards the back end of the 1990's
these bars kind of fell out of favour
and you didn't really see them at all
in the pro circuit.
- Yeah, it's a shame really.
Some of my earliest memories were seeing Greg LeMond,
this trail blazer, like you say,
and he had them, and it was really cool.
I mean, I remember buying some
and being so chuffed to put them on.
Interestingly though, Matt,
still race-legal, still use them.
- That's nuts, isn't it?
So do you fancy coming out of retirement
and sticking these on your bike
down the local crit at Bristol?
- I'll tell you what.
You give them a go first of all,
on some descents, just to make sure
they're stiff enough still,
because they've been in a loft for a few years,
and we'll go from there.
(light jazz music)
Now these ill-fated aero extensions
had quite a short shelf life, didn't they?
And they had quite a divided opinion as well with riders,
both aesthetically, as well as on safety grounds.
- Yeah, they were Spinacci bars,
and they were actually developed and produced
by Italian manufacturer, Cinelli,
between 1993 and 1997.
At the end of the 1997 season,
after being used for years by many, many professionals,
they were banned on safety grounds.
But what they allowed the rider to do,
as John is demonstrating now,
is to get into an aero elongated position on the bike.
And they could actually be adjusted, just here,
into a different variety of positions,
depending on the size of the rider.
- It's hard to imagine these days that they were
actually allowed in bunch races, weren't they?
- I know, and when you get back into the aero position,
no wonder they were banned.
Look how far away you were from the brakes.
- Now one thing about these bars
was that they were ultra-fast, weren't they?
Pros, amateurs all over the world at the time
adopted these and they were using them.
Rumour has it, although you can confirm,
Matt Stevens here actually took five minutes
off of his P/B riding 40K to work.
- I certainly did, for exactly the same ....
They were super aero, but also
very, very comfortable as well.
Comfortable and aero-dynamic,
what more can you want?
But the interesting thing for me
is the pros of today,
who basically we see them trying to get in
an aero position they'll be draping their forearms
over the handlebars.
And surely actually having something to support you,
like the Cinelli Spinaccis,
was more safe.
I mean, at least it's kind of food for thought.
- Now imagine this, Matt.
Scott Drop Ins, Cinelli Spinacci combo.
That is a dream.
- It is the ultimate retro aero combination.
I tell you what, I'm all over it.
- Yeah, I think I'm going to take this out
for a spin actually later.
- Well, no, 'cause I'm gonna kind of
ride home on these tonight, John,
to be honest with you, mate.
- Oh, please?
- It's all right.
- I guess you'll get home five minutes quicker anyway,
won't you?
Please?
- We hope you enjoyed our trip
down the memory lane of tech,
but we would love to know your favourite bits
of old school tech are.
You know what to do?
Leave your comments down below.
- Do make sure that also you like and share
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And to subscribe to Global Cycle Network,
click on the globe, which is somewhere onscreen right now.
To see Matt ride the Triple Crown-winning bike
of Steven Roach, from 1987,
click just down here.
- That was a lot of fun.
And to see Simon and me battle it out
on the flat on the cobbles of West Flanders
on a retro bike belonging to Johan Museeuw no less,
click just down here.