Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at
2:20 pm
The Look company started life in the 1950s in France as a company manufacturing ski bindings. Owned by famous French industrialist Bernard Tapie they expanded into other markets which included high performance cycle sport.
Clipless pedals had already made an appearance in 1971 with Cinelli's M71 which was based around a plastic cleat that slid into the pedal and was held in place by a small lever which had to be manually released. These pedals (similar to the later Addidas System 3) became known as the 'death cleats' due to their inherent danger on the road when a rider was faced with an emergeny dismount scenario.
Look took this idea of a rider being connected to the bike but enhanced it in 1983 bringing out the first quick release clipless pedal. Known in France as 'pedale automatique' they borrowed ideas from Look's successful ski bindings and were quickly accepted by the professional peloton to the extent that Bernard Hinault used them when he won the Tour de France while riding for Tapie's La Vie Claire team using in 1985.
Look licenced their clipless pedal idea out to other manufacturers so that during the late 1980s and early 1990s component makers such as Campagnolo had their own versions in each of their groupsets.
Shimano decided to design their own pedal quick release system to avoid paying royalties to Look and the SPD was born to which Look released an off road version of its pedal which was less successful due to the large plastic cleat not being suitable for running or walking sections and not being recessed.
In 2004 Look launched their new KEO range which offered users an even more refined riding experience. They now come in a variety of materials including aluminium alloy, plastic and carbon fibre. Titanium Look pedal axles are also available.
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Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at
12:42 am
Laurent Fignon was one of France's greatest latter day professional cyclists. He began his professional career in 1982 after taking more than 50 wins in the amateur ranks. He amazingly won the Tour de France in 1983 during his first attempt, then in 1984 when he beat Bernard Hinault on the back. Fignon spent eleven years riding as a professional during which he won a total of 81 races including the Fleche Wallonne in 1986, Milan-San Remo in 1988 and 89 (the Italians have awarded him the title of "professore" for his double), the Giro in 1989 (2nd in 84) and the Grand Prix des Nations the same year. Finally, he achieved the No. 1 professional cyclist UCI World Ranking following his fantastic 1989 season.
In the eyes of many english speaking fans he remains probably most famous for having lost the Tour de France in 1989 to Greg LeMond in the final stage timetrial between Versailles and Paris for 8 "small" seconds after over 3 000 km of racing. With his flowing pony tail and exposed shoe laces he gave Lemond the chance he needed to take the yellow jersey with the aid of an aero helmet and aerodynamic triathlon handlebars.
His career was marred by two positive doping tests for amphetamines in 1987 at the Grand Prix of Wallonia and in the 1989 Grand Prix Eindhoven.
At the end of his sporting career, Fignon launched a company organizing cycling events. It has included, through the "Laurent Fignon Organization" the Paris-Nice in 2000 and 2001, before selling the rights to Amaury Sport Organization, the organisers of the Tour de France.
The brand name "Laurent Fignon is owned by Auchan, which markets bicycles under that marque. Fignon was subsequently a consultant for a very long time on Eurosport France.
He revealed in an interview with the TV show "from 7 to 8" on June 14, 2009 on TF1 that he suffers from an "advanced cancer" of the pancreas, but did not know if this can be linked to taking performance-enhancing drugs that it took, as everyone says he, throughout his sporting career.
During his sporting career, he was considered the "intellectual" of the bunch, because of his glasses and the fact that he was one of the few holders in the peloton of the baccalaureate.
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at
11:19 pm
If we ignore the cheaper supermarket style high tensile steel frames and look at the classic steel alloy frames which are often a mixture with chrome, manganese, nickel etc we can see the the recent successful utilization of aluminium and carbon fibre meant that steel had to raise its game to keep up in the bike frame business.
Go back to the 80s and Reynolds 531 and 753 and Columbus SL and SP dominated the racing market. Look at the 1990s and beyond to see Reynolds and Columbus joined by a multitude of other tubing manufactuers whilst expanding their own offerings of tubesets to satisfy a greater demand of rider's requirements. Touring, mtb, track, time trialing all require slightly different tubesets.
In addition to the wider selection of steels consumers are also faced with a wider choice of tubes made from the materials. Plain guage and double butted have been supplemented by a wide selection of different buttings and profiles.
To a great extent steel had become unfashionable amonst riders which means it becomes fashionable for restorers. Newer materials are often pushed as being 'better' , however its certainly worth remembering that good steel tubes remain eminently suitable for bicycle frames. They also usually offer the answer when the question is quite simply "what frame should I get?"
For: Strong, Cheap, Stiff, Repairable
Against: Rust
Good examples of steel frames for restoration projects
Easy: Raleigh, Bianchi, Colnago, Merckx, Peugeot
Harder to find: Masi, Botecchia, Pinarello, Moser, ciocc, wilier,
Great if you can get one: Legnano, Roberts, Mercian, Hetchins
