Buried

Snowed under with work at the moment. Heras won the Vuelta and Pettachi did it again. Is he the next Zabel? Will Heras replace Lance at USPS when he steps down? Will Armstrong manage a sixth tour victory?

Questions, questions, questions and I’m too tired to think up any answers.

GT are back. Not owned by the same people as before, but they’ve resurrected the brand and launched a new range of bikes. There’s more from Mike Davis over at Bikemagic.

The following was posted on bikebiz and is an interesting slant on an ongoing issue. James Annan sent in a short MPEG of a rider crashing at low speed, on the flat, thanks to a front wheel pop-out. He doesn’t link it directly to his ‘disk brake/QR/wheel ejection’ design flaw theory but it demonstrates, he says, the severity of injuries likely from crashes that fork designers could prevent.The 3MB MPEG can be downloaded from here. James’s comment was:

“I believe the separation was due to a stripped thread on the QR, and the wheel literally fell out as the rider lifted the front wheel over a kerb so it looks superficially unrelated to the disc brake, but of course it is disk brake riders who routinely overtighten their skewers (and yes, the rider does have disk brakes). Perhaps a useful warning to those who say ‘just do up the skewer tighter’?”

“Regardless of the cause, it is I think worthwhile as an illustration of the severity of these crashes. Even though he was rolling on flat ground at a gentle pace, he hits the ground directly head first, sustaining facial injuries and a smashed helmet, without even getting his hands off the bars to cushion the fall.“