Molly Coddle

I missed this clip the other day, it's amazing, I thought the bird had broken it's wing at first. Nature, you can't beat it.

P.S. If I'm on my ipad it doesn't always instantly show a vid link, which is a bit flipping naff!

Molly Coddle

That's got to be something to do with air pockets in the ones left floating surely.....Dono.....maybe not.

Molly Coddle

I can't believe there's no carbon bespoke frame builders in this country?! That's absurd! Britain has a lot of keen cyclists and semi-pro, so what on earth is that all about? Is it because they can be made cheaper abroad ?

I've just had a gander at Ironman Lanzarote on youtube, it looks awesome Have you done it before? What do you mean by canned?

Good luck with the rest of your events, you must have a very understanding wife, especially with the new bambina on board!

Molly Coddle

Yep! Fair play.

Molly Coddle

Interesting stuff, Garry & Lesleys!

Tr1boy

They aren't many countries you can find carbon frame makers now, outside of China and Taiwan. Colnago still make the lugged C59 in Italy but that's their only model and the C60 will sound the death knell for Italian production from that storied brand.

Molds are incredibly expensive to make and f course you need lots of sizes for each model costly stuff. It's not really as bad as it sounds because there is no logical reason why a wizened old Italian (or European) artisan frame maker would have any inherent of better knowledge of carbon frame mfr than any other country. Bike design yes, but manufacturing in carbon? not really.

Noteable exceptions are Parlee and Calfee in the US, and the odd small company like Marco Bertoletti in Italy, Sarto, Cyfac in France and a few others, but you pay for it. Even then most of the good carbon is supplied by Toray of Japan and the rest could honestly come from anywhere. There's a ton of smoke and mirrors in the industry about where certain bikes are made (or aren't).

It's much easier to find bespoke frame maker in steel (modern steel like XCR and 953 is pretty light) or titanium. Enigma in the UK make some nice Ti frames, but the higher end stuff frame makers won't see you have any change from £4.4k and upwards for a Ti frame. Plus if you are really keen on a Independent Fabrication, Rob English or Richard Sachs (all US) then you'd better be prepared to wait a couple of years.

Where carbon is king is in its ability to manipulated into aero tubes that can reduce CDR. So great for TT bikes and an awful lot of racing road bikes are based on an aero platform now (except for out and out climbing bikes).

Britain has a lot of pro cyclists, but the population of pro cyclists has nothing to do with whether a frame should be made there. Otherwise the TdF would be won by Chinese and Taiwanese riders every year.

Not done IM Lanza before (done others). By canned I mean I had to withdraw due to Mrs TB having an emergency c section on Boxing day so my key block of running where I would have transitioned from base/build to build/speed would have been January and I just had to dedicate all my time to looking after her, baby and the house. A less than optimal build up would see me spend a lot of money just to go and finish the thing, and I have no interest in that really as I've done enough of them.

Mrs TB is understanding but there is no way we would have gone forward with a kid if we hadn't sat down and worked out how that would work with training and racing etc. Plus she already knows that the only reason I'm willing to go back to Oz is because eventually that's what she wants. So it's all give and take.

GarryP

I'm a bit surprised that they haven't started exploiting 3D printing for bike frames yet. You can 3D print carbon fibre, integrate it with other materials, and construct it far more intricately and purposely than you could ever do by hand. Bespoke manufacture comes for free.

Tr1boy

Read an article about this the other day. Current tech is about 10-15 yrs away. You can make the shapes (if you have enough money) but can't get the integrity.

You can get a plastic 3D printed Garmin mount but they have been pretty poor so far.

GarryP

???

Depends what you want, and what you mean by integrity, but there's some pretty serious, high integrity, uses of 3D printing out there. Hell, the seeker head on the latest Sidewinder missile is 3D printed, and that's years old.

A little googling and here's some people doing it :
http://www.core77.com/blog/digital_f...rame_26463.asp
and looking at that, I'd guess it can be done much better in the next generation (where's the internal structure?).

Tr1boy

Did you actually read the article in your own link? How on earth does that relate to the subject at hand? Unless you're trying to tell me that a mtb Ti frame with multiple points of linkage is somehow comparable to the subject of a road bike?

Then again, WTF would I know about the subject

moneypenny20

It's a pain in the arse driving between QLD and NSW during Daylight Savings months. Scrap the bloody thing, we're no longer at war, NSW don't need it.

GarryP

What percentage of the population has daylight savings time, and what not?

Whip the vocal yokels in queensland and western australia into shape and get them on DST like the rest.

bcworld

DST has majority support in SEQ anyway...but ideas such as splitting the state into 2 timezones is just too much for them (the decision makers) to comprehend.

moneypenny20

No idea. I don't want to whip anyone, I just don't see the point of it so why can't the others come in line with us?

Alfresco

I have my own DST. I start work at 7and leave at 4pm. That way I can support people in Sydney from 8am (their time) and still get home early enough to enjoy some daylight in the evening Bris time.