- I'm here at the Red Hook Crit in Milan,
which is different from any other bike race
we've been to with GCN before,
because the riders have to use fixed gear bicycles
with no brakes, it's absolutely bonkers.
Now James Lowsley Williams, fellow GCN presenter,
is gonna be competing in this race, rather him than me.
But while I've been here, I've just noticed so many
awesome bikes that well, quite frankly,
you don't see anywhere else.
So I thought I have to show you these
and do a video showing you some of the tech at Red Hook,
so right, let's go and have a look.
(metal sliding)
(upbeat music)
Here you can see behind me, one of the Look riders,
warming up on the rather nice 875 Madison carbon frame.
I've been asking the riders 'bout what kind of gears
they're using for Red Hook and the 50 14 combo
seems to be the most popular choice
for this kind of circuit.
The riders reckon that this'll mean
they average their cadence well over 100,
with speeds they reckon of about 45 to 48 kilometers
an hour average for this technical circuit.
The other thing I'm noting, is the cranks.
Everyone's using shorter cranks
because catching a pedal in Red Hook,
is a potentially big issue, because you have to
pedal around all the corners.
So 165 cranks are pretty common
and there's some 160s as well, but I'm gonna try
and find the shortest cranks I can see.
(upbeat music)
One of the cool things about Red Hook,
is that you actually get trained teams
competing against amateurs,
which you don't get at many other bike races.
Now these are the bikes of the Rocket Espresso
Specialized team, as ridden by Alec Briggs
and Justin Williams, who are among the favorites
to win this edition of the Red Hook.
Now what's really cool here is this is
an alloy sprint frame, which is quite unusual,
because it's aluminum, so they've got these really funky
paint jobs on there, so it shows that to win,
at Red Hook, you don't need a carbon bike.
Which is really cool, you can just win
with an aluminum bike.
And also, aluminum bikes are quite popular for Red Hook,
because they're deemed to be a bit more, reliable.
Well, a bit more robust in the case of crashes,
of which there are quite a lot.
And it's quite deceptive that it's an aluminum frame,
because if you look at the seat tube,
it's like a tear drop shape and well,
you don't normally expect that kind of shape
from an aluminum frame, but it shows
how far aluminum manufacture's come.
But, we look at these wheels.
So these are Rovo Wheels, propietary Specialized,
but they've been custom painted
to match the sort of paint job on the bike
and they're just so funky and really cool.
And interestingly they're running
28 millimeter tires as well, for that extra grip.
Another really cool piece of tech,
is that the team actually has these custom painted helmets,
to match the funky paint job on the bike.
How rad is that?
They are seriously cool.
Just really bright and vibrant and different.
(upbeat music)
Just spotted a really cool hack.
Using a boot strap, right, as a bike stand.
How cool is that?
And, this is one of the competitors bike here at Red Hook,
and it's a really cool, custom,
Don Walker steel frame from America.
And it's all nice, filet brazed beautiful frame
and this is just, sums up Red Hook really.
There's a lot of amazing customs,
or hand built steel frames here.
As well as sort of, big frames and big brands,
but it's nice to see that the sort of custom frame building
community is thriving in this kind of racing, it's great.
One of the more unusual bits of tech here from Red Hook,
is this, which is a Schindelhauer Hektor,
as ridden by the Schindelhauer-Gates teams.
Now it's an aluminum track frame, and it has a carbon fork.
But the most unusual thing about it,
is that it's got the Gates carbon drive.
So you've got this whopping chain ring.
But it doesn't mean that the riders have a massive gear,
it's still equivalent to the 50 14
that a lot of the other riders and teams are using.
Because the sprocket on the back is a 22.
The reason why you have these much bigger gears,
is because the carbon belt drive works better
when it goes through a bigger angle
and not as tight an angle as a conventional chain.
But the advantage of it is, that it's really efficient
and it's said to last three times longer
than a conventional chain.
(calm music)
The bikes are really simple, but one of the most important
pieces of tech is tire choice.
Now I've not seen a bike with tires narrower
than 25 millimeters here
and I've been scouring the pit lane.
This one actually has 28 millimeter tires.
Now traction is just so important when you have to pedal
around tight corners and hairpins.
But also, today is wet, which adds
a whole other spanner into the works.
Generally, if people can fit 28s in their bike,
and not many track bikes have that clearance,
they're using 28s.
There's also a full range, people are using tubeless,
like on this bike, but also clinchers,
and there's quite a few tubular tires
still being used as well.
But the other big thing with tires is the pressure.
Now I've been looking around the pit lane
and asking the experienced guys what pressures
they're running and it's surprisingly low.
A lot of guys today are running just 60 PSI front and rear.
And that isn't much at all.
But, it's crucial in order to gain that extra bit of grip.
And although you loose a little bit of rolling resistance,
the trade off, because you can stay upright in the corners,
well, it's a no brainer.
(calm music)
A bike that's really caught my eye,
even though it is getting a little bit dark now,
so apologies for the lack of light, 'cause the Red Hook
actually takes place in the dark, is this Thoro.
Now I have to admit, Thoro isn't a brand
I've actually heard of before.
For the paint job here, is absolutely stunning.
You've got this sort of nice iridescent,
glitter in the white section here,
which when the light shine on it, when they're racing
in the dark, it really pings, and it looks amazing.
But these sections, it's like a Jackson Pollock painting.
It's like the paint's just been flicked on it.
And it just looks absolutely awesome.
I'd love to see more bikes with this
kind of style on the fork, 'cause I've not seen it.
(upbeat music)
Cinelli is a brand that has well, massive heritage
in single speed bikes and track bikes.
So it's great seeing them represented here.
And this is a Cinelli Vigorelli and well,
it's absolutely beautiful, it's really simple.
Just with this nice red paint job
and then just like the mirrored silver Cinelli logo.
I really like it.
But what this undermines, really is that these bikes are
just really simple.
This is an aluminum frame again and it's not too expensive.
It costs nowhere near the price of what
a professional racing bike would cost in normal racing,
with gears and a carbon frame.
Yet, this is all you need to be completely competitive
at Red Hook racing, which I think is really awesome.
(upbeat music)
There's loads of really creative, cool touches
at Red Hook, but one of the things is the numbers
that all the competitors are given.
So, it's a folding design, as you can see here,
but it folds as a number onto your seat post
but is rigid and aerodynamic, it's just,
I mean it's simple, but it's ingenious.
So cool!
(upbeat music)
Just spotted another really cool bike,
which is this eight bar.
And check out the paint job on this.
So it's got this sort of pointless paint scheme,
with all these dots of different colored paints
overlaid on the matte black frame and it just looks superb.
I like how they've also carried it through into the wheels
and customized the DT Swiss RRC 65
deep section wheels as well.
How cool is that?
Running 28 tires on here as well, tubeless,
which is a common theme and the classic 50 14 chain set,
which seems to be the prerogative
of the riders here at Red Hook.
(upbeat music)
Hope you found this video interesting.
Covering an area of tech that we
haven't done much on before.
So if you have, let us know in the comment section below
if you'd like to see more of it in the future.
And if you'd like to see a video covering, well,
the complete opposite of simple tech,
something really complicated,
then why not check out Si's video,
for his KOM challenge bike, in which he sort of modified it
and did all sorts of fancy things to try and beat a KOM.
But until then, I'll see ya later.