14 LEADing The War On Bike Love : No More, Says CPSC

Note : Fiction Ahead

Cyclists must be really young at heart. Wild, adventurous. You know, always looking for that extra something. But is Bike Love real?

Cyclists ride bikes for the simple pleasure of being on a bike. They often go to a bike shop and mistake it for a candy store. They wish for bikes for birthdays, Christmas and any or all other national holidays that can found on the calender. They spend hours outside riding, telling their concerned ones to keep quiet, and that they'll be back on time when they really can't.

They shave their legs wanting to look smooth, aerodynamic, and young. They run red lights frequently after watching James Bond special effects. They use the internet to read Velonews, Cycling News, Cycle News, Bike Radar, Bike Sonar, Bike News and Biker News although they all steal from one another. They constantly pick fights with motorists online, screaming to each other, "this road is mine.... NO ITS MINE..... no its mine...MINE...I pay taxes ...NO YOU DON'T..."

They even have heroes to worship, to emulate and to watch DVDs of. Their Captain Americas and Spidermans are also Lycra donning larger than life figures, minus the undies over the pants. Examples are Lance and his nads, Indurain, Pantani, Merckx, his sons, brothers and cousins...you name it.

Psychologists are calling this peculiar behavior John Cycleman Sindrome. In layman's terms, sinful bike love. It was first discovered in an Irish immigrant to the U.S in the 1880's. His name was J. Cycleman and his passion for the bicycle went beyond all the books.

Lately, this bike love has gotten out of hand, it seems. Copious amounts of attention towards the bicycle have now progressed to Stage 2 of the addiction. Showering, sleeping, and even genital adventures with the two wheeled intruder have increased by 27% alone this year, says a report from The Family Evesdropping Group Of America (or FEGA, a child of the Patriot Act). The 97 page report claims it has brought serious family tensions in its wake, like jealousy, envy and hate crimes. An unassuming survey in the same asked people what they found so goddamn attractive in their bikes that their partners didn't have. Many responded with things of pleasure such as carbon fiber saddles, long Presta valves, curvy frame geometrics, hard spoke nipples and kinky shifter cables and transmission chains. Good Lord!

As if Hollywood divorces are insufficient already, cyclists have contributed an additional 2% to all divorces this year, the same report said. Wait, what if those cyclists who caused 2% more divorce were all from Hollywood? Okay, so the report did not specify that.

As we know, absurdity generally increases by factors of four. Now, national lawmakers are being called on to determine, among other things, the age of consent of a bicycle and what constitutes a rape, restraining order, marital status to inanimate objects and so on and so forth!

Well, guess what. It now turns out that all those perverts who fondled their bikes a little too much could be in trouble for lead poisoning.

In a very dramatic fashion, some 20 or more odd bicycle companies chose not to call Bullshit for a very long time. In other words, they took this odd 97 page report by FEGA on pure faith. Obvious profit motives aside, they claimed they were taking into their own hands the national chastising of such lewd cyclist behavior by adding generous amounts of lead paint in all their bikes. This would curb sexual behavior through the risk of lead exposure. Furthermore, they were imported from China to get, you know, the good quality lead all made to beautiful ISO 9001 specification. You can't get any better lead than that.

The Chinese were delighted! For a long time, the communists wanted to get the world to rediscover this age old toxic pollutant. "A Renaissance in Lead", was what the Chinese Painter Ping Lee called it in his popular book that I can't even pronounce. "Its different, its like a feeling of going back to nature..fresh as earth, " said an enamored Lee.

But it turned out that Mattel poured the paint, so to speak, on the Chinese instead early last year, and business was bound to be doomed.

Until these bike companies came along to form such a partnership for lead. It was a heaven send! Back door sales increased as China happily upped the PPM quantity on all things paint, while bike companies pursued their Anti Bike Love Strategy. The marketing idea was to promote "go green" by selling bikes for the public to ride, while uncompromising on regulating paranoia and an immoral, uncouth and twisted obsession over articles of sporting enjoyment.

But were these bike companies really upto any good? Irony was that curvilicious designs in bad economic times would make bicycles cheaper and provoke riders to buy more, adding to further indulgence in cycling crime, whether beautiful Chinese lead existed in the paint in the first place or not.

When questioned about this obvious consequence by leading UK journalists Harold & Kumar, Pacific Bike's President T. Burp said , "Look, we know that could happen. But the more they come into contact with Lead, the more is the potential for health risks, brain damage, "false balls", liver and kidney problems and so on. Tit for tat to the perverts who commits heinous crimes on bikes. These guys need a life! Family is the fabric of this nation, our culture, our values. You can't take that away. We won't either, neither will our bikes encourage it. We as a company will continue to get tough and LEAD this war on bike pervertism."

Over the past month or so, the paint has been tipped over these manufacturers by none other than a leery Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. No more lead, they declared! According to a their new legislation, all bicycles and related product beginning early next year must certify and comply with the "below 600 ppm" limit (or 600mg/l of water) of total lead content in paint and surface coatings.

Risk of non-compliance? In the true sense of Governmental Overkill, all non-compliant products will be taken off the shelf next year, banned, waterboarded, and then safely destroyed by AMTI Seeker robots in a remote, undisclosed location...all at the cost of the company and importer.

That's probably bad news for these bicycle companies, considering that the economic crisis has been bringing a crap load of financial upsets in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

While bike manufacturers are trying to understand how they must recertify all their products for testing, a desperate appeal has been made to CPSC by some of them, asking it to take FEGA's report seriously, and to reconsider the 'contraceptive' nature of lead in svelte looking adult bikes. In an initial response last month, CPSC firmly declared that familial tensions over the bicycle must be resolved internally, and that lead or Pb is not the solution to supporting wives and kids and men who don't ride. In contrast to the FEGA report, their research analysts claimed that their extensive use and abuse experience taught them that bicycles could never be unintelligently eaten, raped, tortured, teethed with or orally molested. What CPSC says next remains to be heard. We have our ears covered.

Meanwhile, Chinese painter and lead patron Ping Lee continues to promote the toxin in his harebrained TV show "Rare Earth : How Lead Can Renew & Revitalize Life". I can definitely understand how it will renew, as poisoned humans will die off and rot, adding manure to the soil promoting vegetative growth which will then be food for butterflies and cows. Ping's show is banned by all major broadcasters throughout the world.

What does all this mean for the rest of us? While we honor marriage and family, and protect bicycles against misuse by perverts, lets stop pointing fingers at other shady people in the UK and get screened for lead ourselves. We're all born sinners.

Happy New Year. Enjoy the Moskau Song and pass on the beer pitcher, mate!

6 UPS Bike Deliveries & Merry Christmas!

I'll be taking some much needed vacation in the Big Apple, so before I take off, Merry Christmas and have a fabulous 2009!!

Now if you happen to be in certain areas of Washington or Oregon in the U.S, you just may find your Christmas presents being delivered by a UPS person riding a bike! Videos are floating on the internet of one such rider named Tina Brubaker. You can watch it here, courtesy of Bike Portland. It is a great way to meet people and get things delivered in a densely packed community. UPS claims its doing this primarily for the cost savings by replacing one delivery truck with 3 bikes and hiring two more employees on part time to ride. For each truck avoided, 17 gallons of fuel is supposedly saved per day. (fyi : gas is very cheap in Portland now so the initial press statement of the savings figure - 50 dollars per day per UPS  truck - may not hold anymore)

I'm sure some industrial engineers for UPS must have calculated the time it should take for these riders to get from point A to point B with a package if they're to deliver X number of packages per day. This is because for UPS and its customers, on-time deliveries would be on top of the priority list, regardless of whether the company is marketing itself as "green" or not. So in keeping with such tight schedules, I hope these riders are not 'pushed' to ride at some unsafe pace that could put both them and the valuable packages in their trailers at risk.  To put things in perspective, they have to handle the weather, face multiple stops, learn routes, lift weights, and go back and forth between delivery locations and the designated storage hub. In between, if a tire punctures in the middle of the road, there goes a good 30 minutes fixing a flat. All this for 8 or 9 bucks an hour. So by placing more men and material instead of the initial one employee and his truck, you may be introducing inefficiencies in the system of its own.

From some initial eye witness reports on Bike Hugger, some of these riders also didn't appear properly clothed for the weather and weren't equipped with features on their clothing/bikes to appear visible in low light conditions. I hope someone takes a look at that.

Personally, while I think the company may save a few dollars with this measure, keep the air in chosen districts cleaner for 40 days and provide some exercise to part time workers, I feel this whole experimental bicycle operation could have been introduced by UPS sometime earlier in the year when business wasn't so high, weather was better, and gas prices were way up there. Atleast the riders wouldn't have found themselves pressured like they may be now. But so far, all of them appear to be enjoying what they're doing! So I guess thats great news.

Keep reading Cozy Beehive. Ciao!

24 Bontrager Carbon Fiber Fork Failure

In my email today, I found the picture of a failed Bontrager fork submitted by Daniel Forrest from Malawi, Africa. Thank you and Merry Christmas from across the Atlantic.

High Res Pic Here

He didn't give me a specific model for the fork. Maybe some of my readers can help me out. Anyway, this is what he wrote to me. 

"I had an accident in May where the actual blades suddenly failed. It was a bontrager carbon fiber fork. The bike was a friend's, and had been ridden quite a bit. It failed right as I got up to sprint. Nonetheless, it was on flat ground, and wasn't involved in a crash."

He asked me specifically what my thoughts are on the failure. Here's a few : 

1. If I were him, I would not take a friend's carbon fiber equipment to use for sprinting, without knowing its history and what it has been through. Perhaps the bike may have sustained his weight but not yours? You may have done things like this as a kid with BMX bikes, but this isn't BMX. Carbon fiber is unsafe to use after a point determined by the possibility of catastrophic failure due to some trigger factors. Infact, very dangerous. Note that you don't need an exceptionally high force to cause carbon fork failure. The ones that cause fatigue are frequently forces of lower magnitude, below those that cause irreversible plastic deformation.

2. There are many variables to consider in trying to assess carbon fiber failure after it occurs. Hence, it is an involved task. I have talked about some of them in a previous post on a broken steerer tube. Here in this case, my first instinct tells me that this failure is a product of delamination. This is the most typical path to failure for a carbon composite. Delamination is a loss of interlaminar shear strength, initiates at the tip of a tiny crack that you may not notice and generally grows with increasing load cycles. Its like a cancer for carbon. In this case, it had to come to a sprint where the cyclic forces acting on the fork, which it could have otherwise handled, amputated it a little above the midsection. Same scenario for both forks. The fact that both forks failed the same way leads me to consider the fact that that this equipment could have gone through a period of harsh use prior to the user getting it in his hands. What that was, we do not know.

3. This fork is junk now. Evaluate the rest of the bike, if its carbon, carefully with a torch light or magnifying lens and use your Private Eye skills. Watch some of Hitchcock's movies to gain inspiration.

4. As for Bontrager, I want to know a bunch of things from their spec sheets. (Like they'll ever give it to us.. :)  )

• a. What kind of fiber they used : Unidirectional? Bi-directional woven fabric?
  
• b. What was the nature of the core?
  
• c. What type of resin and fiber/resin ratio did they use? Often, resins are the environmental weak link in a failure. Epoxies have very balanced properties. But some other types of resins are environmentally degraded on contact with high temperatures, corrosive liquids, grease and oils. This is if they are not suitably protected from the environment by a surface film. But an impact, scratch or nick is enough to erode this protective layer of paint/finish/clearcoat off, exposing the underlying material to the environment, moisture, corrosion etc. Especially in its just-cured state, the part must be handled carefully on the manufacturing floor. That is something to consider. [Source of information : ASM Handbook, Volume 21 on Composites, Page 359]
  
• d. Where was this job sourced?
  
• e. Is there any evidence of past failure of this nature on the same product?
  
• f. What does their in-house statistical data on testing of samples indicate?
  

Solutions? From a quality standpoint, I already ranted about solutions in a previous petition to the bicycle industry.  

I have two others I can think of but may be practical or impractical depending on how you look at it. These are just ideas.

a. Sensor : Can a sensor (strain gage?) be embedded inside critical points of the composite structure such that an unwarranted damage or unusually high load can be detected by a resistance change, which can then be transmitted as a signal to a receiver on the handlebar where it'll then be processed into sensible information? I dreamt of this in a previous post and named the idea "Smart Bicycle". Take a look here. 

b. Camera : Okay. Maybe more down to earth this time. Failures generally start inside the material that you cannot see. Could a very tiny camera installed with a source of light inside the fork work in conveying useful information? Images could be conveyed to a handlebar monitor so you can get a glimpse of whats happening inside critical hollow structures in the bicycle.You know, like a CCTV for your bike. However, I'm not saying such a surgical technique might not be inexpensive.

Carbon fiber is a very interesting material. The fact that it starts off like a fabric allows designers to be very imaginative with their designs. However, I'm wondering whether some of them are stepping out of bounds and playing with fire. This is what was essentially the subject of my rant in my past petition to the bicycle industry. Any yahoo can build a carbon fiber composite bike in his basement. Its not very difficult. However, making something structurally safe to use is totally another matter. Moreover, my rant was not just considering carbon components. Faulty welding, crappy helmets, breaking pedals, cracking rims, lightweight brakes that fail to function properly etc are all children of poor design, and an over obsessiveness with the lightweight philosophy.

Remember the guy who wanted to break the downhill speed limit record on his bike, and chose a mountain bike made of composite? The videos are all over the web. After he attained a speed of a little above 100mph, the bike disintegerated into two sending him flying over the handlebars like a ragdoll at 100mph. He survived somehow, but what the heck was the need for a lightweight bike in the first place in order to go downhill??

Carbon fiber composite products are generally made for on-the-edge performance. The sacrifice you pay in having purchased such a thing is knowing that durability is way down there, not only in terms of major damage but also minor damage! A tiny nick or suspicious hair line crack is enough to start a bad chain reaction upon further loading. That could inevitably send the material breaking like a biscuit without warning the next time you're on it. The mechanics of this failure is the subject of research in university circles, and often involves complex microstructure dynamics, mechanics and math. Although we won't go to that point, it is upon some of us to find quick preventive measures and solutions to combat this problem before anyone gets seriously hurt. Even dies. Serious. So take care of your equipment and yourself.

12 How TIME Makes Carbon Reinforced Bike Parts

TIME Sports in France makes carbon fiber bike products. They have been a leading brand since the early 90's. Time's forte is that they weave their own carbon fiber, instead of buying flat pre-preg sheets from someone else like the rest. They did this by mastering Resin Transfer Moulding, a type of moulding process that enables the manufacture of high performance and complex fiber reinforced composite parts with two moulded surfaces. 

Some characteristic features of this method differentiates it from other processes :

1)  A two part, matched metal mold is filled the pre form of the part (a fiber reinforced skeleton of the actual part) and is closed before resin is injected to fill the inter-fibre spaces. While this produces components with superior dimensional tolerances on one hand, it also reduces the dangerous emissions that workers will otherwise face in traditional methods such as spray or hand layup. Note that the heat curing of the resin for polymerization requires the use of a metal mold.

2) Low viscosity resin (200-600 centipoise typically) is injected into the mold at moderate pressure (50-100 psi typically) which ensure wetting of all reinforcing surfaces and filling in all voids.

3) A longer range of flow of resin through the fiber tow or fabric as opposed to the shorter range from other manufacturing methods. 

All this high tech allows TIME to charge a premium for its bikes. Hence, its not cheap. Some of the higher end bikes are in the 6000-7000 dollar price range. Mamma mia!

A month back, a video was posted on the internet describing how Time makes carbon reinforced composite parts. It was very interesting, to say the least.

From a technical standpoint, I found the information on Time's website not bad for learning about this technology. Other carbon bike makers hardly have the time to provide you with this kind of literature.

Enjoy the video (courtesy ucallrt), and the supplemental reading from TIME's website.

I. MAKING THE BRAIDS AND POSITIONING

TIME uses two types of tubular braids for its carbon products: unidirectional and bidirectional. The threads kaleidoscope into an unending tubular weave that is later cut according to the required dimensions. The weaves of the tubular braids differ in both the direction of the weave and the threads used.

1) Bidirectional braid : Tubular weaving of the carbon strands, varying the weave angle between 15 and 60°  depending on the desired dynamic flexural and torsion properties. This type of braid offers very good crack resistance and carbon fibers can be mixed with other type of fibers such as Vectran or Kevlar. 

The mechanical properties of a tubular braid depend on 4 parameters :

a) Quality of the actual fiber: HM, HR, Vectran, Kevlar, …
b) Number of filaments: 3000, 6000, 12000
c) Number of threads in a braid : 24, 48, 96, 120, 144, …
d) Angle of the weave : The mechanical characteristics of the braid vary depending on the angle of the weave, vary between 15 and 60°. The closer to 45°, the better the torsion properties of the braid. The smaller the angle, the better the resistance to flex.

2) Unidirectional braid : Tubular weaving of the carbon fibers in which the carbon strands are parallel. This type of braid offers excellent flexural properties and can be fully customized according to the desired mechanical properties. Polyamide fibers with special shock absorbing properties are incorporated in some of these braids. These filter out the imperfections of the road.

The mechanical properties of a tubular braid depend on 3 parameters:

a) Quality of the actual fiber: HM, HR, Vectran, Kevlar, …

b) Number of filaments: 3000, 6000, 12000

c) Number of threads in a braid : 24, 48, 96, 120, 144, …

The manufacture of unidirectional and bidirectional tubular braids from pre-selected fibers allows TIME to accurately position them on the basis of the properties sought without disturbing their continuity. 

This is the first stage of TIME’s Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) technology, a three-step process that enables TIME to fully control the content and quality of its carbon fiber tubing.

II. MANUAL FIBER LAY-UP

The second step of RTM technology is manual fiber lay-up. Fiber lay-up starts with either steel or wax mandrels which act as the molding components that form the interior shape onto which the carbon braids will be cast, specific to the tube or joint being produced. The most complex designs use wax mandrels, which are melted out, after the carbon-setting process.The mandrel is sheathed with 5 to 8 layers of carbon fiber weave. The final layer is bonded with adhesive powder that stops it from moving against the other layers and prevents distortions of the weave pattern, despite the complex nature of various joints, including the bottom bracket. This guarantees the cosmetic appearance of the carbon fiber, visible through the clear finish.

III.  MOLDING

Molding is the third part of the RTM process. It is done with a two-part epoxy resin that is injected into the mold and left to harden. This phase is named polymerization and lasts approximately 30 minutes. 

A standard carbon fiber molding process using an inflated bladder to form the interior shape of the part tends to produce a part that looks perfect from the outside but can contain inconsistencies within. TIME’s RTM process prevents this because the resin penetrates completely into the fibers throughout the mold, with the part's design shape strictly controlled by the use of both outer and inner molds. This technology is extremely useful because, unlike steel and other metals, the carbon fiber is stronger where it is thinner and where all layers have achieved ideal fiber compaction, rather than thicker, where they haven’t.

IV. MACHINING

After the three-phase RTM process, TIME’s head tubes, lugs and bottom bracket shells are then sent out to be machined. Machining guarantees total dimensional precision and the flawless surface of all the parts prior to the bonding stage. Both the carbon parts and the aluminum alloy parts are machined. The machined tubes and lugs are then laboriously and meticulously hand sanded.

V. BONDING

The different machined parts and tubes are then bonded by hand. Latex gloves are used all times to ensure that even the smallest amounts of grease that might affect bonding are not transferred across onto tubes and lugs. Tubes and lugs are bonded using an aeronautical quality epoxy adhesive. Each tube is produced based on its specific position and the stresses the entire frame is subjected to. Temperature is kept at a constant 23°C in the bonding shop so that the adhesive used by TIME remains at the right level of viscosity to ensure an ideal bond.

Once bonded, the tubes and lugs are installed onto a pressurized jig and stored for a minimum of eight hours. This process both results in completely secure joints and the perfect alignment of the frame.

After bonding, we are left with a crude version of the final frame. Until 2006, TIME had used aluminum dropouts on all of its models, Carbon Matrix technology (CMT) has been introduced to the top of the range models. CMT is also used for other small parts such as screws.

VI.  PAINTING AND DECALS

After bonding, all that remains in the production is painting and the application of decals.

The paintwork, application of stickers and varnish is what gives the TIME modules their identity, a combination of toughness and refinement, responsiveness and sensuality. All of the details that make up this aesthetic racer are applied in a crucial and time-consuming operation. During the last stage of finishing and testing, of production, TIME conducts rigorous and comprehensive checking of the finish quality of the module and its components.

The final parts are also attached (front/back derailleur hangers, housing stops, seat collar, seat clamp…) and the module is assembled (fork, stem, seat post).

Additional Reading : Lecture C6 : Resin Transfer Moulding , Composites And Design Manufacturing Course Taught by John Summerscales, UK.

9 Marketing Junk : Specialized Transition Vs Cervelo P3C

Bicycle companies will often put glossy promotional advertisements on their websites while putting forth their sales pitch. Sometimes, they'll even go ahead and even compare a bicycle model from their line to that of a competitor's. 

As an example, I was stumped by the frontal view of these two bikes. It was put on Specialized's website in a tutorial pdf called "The Importance of Aerodynamics In Cycling". The idea was to show how 'skinny' the Transition looked from the front compared to Cervelo's P3C. 

Fig 1 : Side by side frontal area comparisons

As you can see, there is no rider on the bikes, and no pedals either (hardly the case in the real world). 

Specialized makes a big deal out of Cervelo's cables sticking out in the front end. They also critique its flared out seatstays and commend the tucked-in design on same in their bike. If you put things into perspective, these things are probably going to make negligible differences to your power output at constant speed. 70-80% of the drag is from the cyclist, not even shown in this picture, much less from the bike, and still much lesser friction drag from cables.  Unless you're fighting for a mere tenths of second or a couple of feet with a your opponent, cable drag is hardly an issue. Even then, remember top pros back in the days had cables sticking out like the antlers on a deer. They did fine, and even broke plenty of records. Armstrong, Lemond and Valverde are just a few specific names.

Anyway, the real interesting thing happens when you flip the Transition sideways. Like in the following image. This isn't on the promotional pdf.

Fig 2 : Exposed cable in side view of the Transition

If Specialized is so keen on discussing exposed cables, perhaps they should have talked about the segment of ugly cable housing peering into the air from the downtube. But they won't. For all they did with ultranarrow stays, integrated brakes and 1 inch steerers on this bike, you'd think they wouldn't overlook this obvious detail.

Getting back to Fig 1, they compare some fat ugly wheelset on the Cervelo p3C with their aerodynamic Roval hub. If Rovals are so good, why aren't they used on the top of the line Transition, as shown in Fig 2 and in the component listing for the bike on their website? Apparently, Rovals aren't good for the best bike in the time trial lineup and they shamelessly stick with Zipps. 

Now lets view the P3C from the side. 

Fig 3 : P3C Side View

Compare and contrast this clean look with the bent proportions of Fig 2. Which is better? Since Specialized makes a big deal out of frontal area, perhaps they would know that sloping top tubes actually increase frontal area and is generally a bad profile for aerodynamics. But they won't tell you this either.

Only someone like Bike Sport Michigan will thoughtfully critique this sort of bad aero design.

Fig 4 : Bad design elements for TT aerodynamics

Don't get me wrong. I have no overwhelming affections for Cervelo. But this was just a poor show from Specialized against one of the best time trial designs in the market. Cervelo created a benchmark with the P3C, and I'm sure you'll agree with me. 

So here's the bottomline : A company will only highlight some couple of points of a product that are favorable to their proposal. These will generally look good. If they highlight bad points, then whats the point in selling it in the first place, right? 

Well, turns out that this is really a limited view for the audience who see it. For customers and interested parties pouring over advertisements and promotional product materials such as these, it pays to do some good critical reading and cross checking information before falling too easily. 

As for Specialized, it seems like they should really study some aerodynamics themselves first before writing "tutorials".

12 Call Of Duty 4 Has Many Bicycles

While hunting down masked gunmen in Call of Duty 4 on the PS3, only a silly bike lover like me would notice the good number of bicycles in various maps in the first person shooter. Whether terrorists care about cardiovascular fitness, or whether they are simply patrons of green transportation options, I do not know.

However, someone hasn't done justice to the two wheelers as they turned out to be largely old and non-branded bikes with what seemed like rusty frames and crappy rod brakes. Interestingly, the saddles on all of them stood out like they were of nice brown leather. You know, those fancy, comfy made in England types. Apparently, given a choice between enduring ugly saddle sores or blowing themselves up, I guess terrorists would take the latter.

So I forgot gunfights and flash grenades for a moment, and kept staring at the biciclettas in mundo virtual. Which explains the headshot I took right into my bloody cranium seconds later. Sniff sniff....ok, whatever. I fell for the brothers. Anything for the team.

Looks like a post Sunday morning Jihadi group ride. Might the shells from my M249 rattle their recovery luncheon inside?

Wow...look at all those bikes up in this shop! Okay, mental reminder to check for IED's....

I stalked this one at night, kept next to a shoddy mattress. Now don't get any ideas...

As me and my partner get ready to inflitrate this house, I spot another one kept outside. "Hey, take care of them in there will ya....I'm going for a ride."

Does Flying Pigeon export to the Middle East?

As I switch sniping positions, here's another one with training tires. Someone's doing basemiles for Tour de Terror. And he better be stopped!

Speaking of video games, watch this old grandma play her PS3. Buhahahaha... 

(Language Warning)

34 A Petition To the Bicycle Industry On Safety Of Products

Spread the word!

Here's my petition :

While others extoll the bike industry and the good products that have come from them, I want to pitch in with my own opinions on the other half of the products. 

I have prompted myself to write this as a result of all the terrible failures on bicycles and related components I have been seeing over the past 3 years. The nasty injuries associated with them have turned my stomach upside down. Some of these failures are almost laughable, inspite of how dangerous they look; like the rim failure I mentioned just a couple of days back. I was literally laughing, and jokes were going around on the web for its new use! I don't want to be an alarmist, but I don't think I'm the first.

LIGHT, LIGHTER, LIGHTNESS.....breaak!

The general outcry nowadays is for lighter, aesthetically pleasing products in cycling. I think in the early days, this was more prominent with the racing scene but now the push for svelter, lighter products seems to have gripped everyday, mundane mainstream cycling. Lighter tubes, tires, bolts, cables, bags, saddles, shoes, jerseys, shorts, bottle cages...and the very thing that protects your head - helmets. I guess you can lose business and money by not following the trends, but you can follow trends while keeping best practices in mind too.

I feel we're losing logic and sight of reality by going to extreme lengths to lighten every single thing out there while ignoring structural stability. Machining away the last bit of material to lower the weight of the item by 10 grams? Please. That last bit of material might have been the last thing on earth that would have given the product sufficient strength to survive the everyday rigors of cycling. 

CYCLING HAS ITS DANGERS

Cycling as it is, is risky activity. This is inherent in the sport. Riders are :

a) Out in the elements, largely unshielded from the forces of nature. Too much sun, wind, pollutants or rain showers can make it a bad day for anyone.

b) Riding with traffic which are largely huge pieces of machinery weighing in tons. Defensive riding simply won't cut it now, as motorists these days are handing a very cold shoulder to cyclists out on the road. Drunk driving is becoming a huge problem, and sadly cyclists have to pay the huge price in a collision.

c) And if you're talking about mountain or downhill biking, then the risks associated with riding on the offroad terrain come into consideration. Its not uncommon for these riders to bunnyhop over big/sharp obstacles and even jump their bikes several feet in the air.

Now if you're telling me that as a company, you'll go ahead and make my life more dangerous by producing faulty, flimsy products to use in the first place, I simply have to stand up and fight for my rights. I take it that others will agree with me.

FALSE MARKETING

It is incredible how companies will go to great lengths to market these flimsy products downstream, by brainwashing the customer using words like DURABLE, LIGHT BUT STRONG, STIFF BUT COMPLIANT and yada yada, when they really aren't. Sometimes, junk science also crawls in and takes its pitch and the end result is a fairly attractive wrapping for an ugly present.

INJURIES

Injuries that are associated with cycling are nothing short of troublesome. The order of the day has been broken collarbones, wrists, knees, ribs, necks, and deep and bad bruises that take days and months to heal. They also make you look like a casualty of war. I like to be healthy, but I don't want to look like a clown in the process. I'd also like to keep my life so that my family can be with me again when I return home with my bike. Damn, is asking for my life a little too much? Am I overstepping here?

An example of facial injury as a result of handlebar failure. 

CONSEQUENCES FOR A BUSINESS

Failures, and product defects aren't good for any company. You make all that investment to establish yourselves and now you blow all that away with a tiny mistake which could be a huge one, since life and money are often involved in the equation. However good your reputation will be, it takes only one bad thing ... and customers generally don't forget when shit happens. It lingers. And nowadays, with web 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever.. that shit will be pasted all over the internet. Want to know how good a product, say x is, before you purchase it? Just Google with the search term "x product sucks", and see what people are saying. 

And if you're in China or other Asian countries, it pays to look up a list of terrible products that have come out of your country including lead paint, adultrated food items etc. If I found my food messed around with, hell I'd beat the crap out of whoever was responsible.

Personally, I work in the oil and gas industry and we work with a number of clients who specifically tell us things like 'we don't want anything from China or India. Period'!! I think that this is  turning out to be the emerging trend across many industries as there is really a lot of bad press and many disappointed people in the wake.

BUSINESS PRACTICES

I'm also often confused by a couple of things. One is company behavior regarding bad designs. Think of it this way. It seems like companies are deliberately putting bad products out there, wait until some dissatisfaction arises from the customer's side, and then make some more money by making the improved version of it. Why couldn't they get things right the first time? Well, if the product was good the first time, I guess they wouldn't flick money from your wallet over improvements.

The other is that in keeping with the trend to introduce new products for the next year, the onslaught of the new incoming designs kill some of the favorable and proven products in the old line. Suddenly, those disappear from the market and you have a new line of less durable and expensive products. This is happening so rapidly, that essentially next year's products are appearing in the market around August or September of the previous year. Why can't companies use some form of feedback, and keep the proven products still in their line? Do you really have to rout out everything old to make your products look new for the next year?

Another disturbing trend is the use of exotic materials when they aren't even understood properly. A lot of the failures in carbon fiber happened largely because designers and manufacturers didn't understand its properties and the way it will behave in the end product, not just by itself.

I guess my point is, just to make a few more bucks to make things marginally lighter, the entailing risks are not emphasized. Suddenly, in the end, people get hurt or injured and you get lawsuits and counterlawsuits and what not and suffice to say, the situation is a complete mess. The risk of someone not doing business with you as a result is even a bigger embarrasment.

SOLUTIONS?

1. GOOD DESIGN AND TESTING : I cannot emphasize this enough. Good design is at the crux of good, ethical engineering practice.  Good design comes out of good ideas, and good concepts and it adheres to engineering ethics. It doesn't come overnight. It looks good on paper, and it works in real as well. Good design establishes a clearly defined NEED, and makes products for that application. Make it known to the end user that if he or she uses this product outside its application scope, risks are present and you may or may not partake in that risk. And as for testing, if you spot something through thorough and extended testing, chances are you can attend to correcting it before its too late. Before its too late, and an 8 year old kid falls and breaks his neck. Or before a baby boomer pushing his 60's crashes and falls and finds out he can't plan to retire so soon! 

2. STANDARDS : I'm ever so confused about this one. Who're the standards authorities who govern the design of cycling products? Is there one in every country? Do you understand their standards? Do you take exceptions to their standards? And if so, how risky to an end user is your decision to take exceptions?

3. QUALITY : Get your act together on quality. See who you do business with. Who are your suppliers? Who are their suppliers? What are their business practices? Did you take a tour at their plant? Do you know how they treat their employees? Understand the cost of poor quality. They are unnecessary engineering changes, scrap and rework, extra setups, longer cycle times, warranty claims, lawsuits, lost sales, lost credibility and the list goes on. This is serious for your business.

4. PREACH WITH INTEGRITY : Get your marketing straight. Make it say whats right. Who're the guys doing this marketing stuff in the first place? Do they know the product? Do they understand its intended use? Do they know who the audience is? In other words, do they know who they're fooling? 

5. FEEDBACK : I don't know if there's enough of this element. Get people's honest opinions on a product. Make it open and transparent to others instead of twisting it to your own liking and displaying it like a false trophy on your website. Get a grip on what were the most liked products and replicate good designs or keep them in the market. 

6. APPLY NEW TECHNOLOGY WITH CAUTION : This is a tricky subject and I'm not even sure how to approach it. What I would say is that, if a new material or new design has not been understood properly, or if its still a half baked cookie in some University research laboratory or a Science Journal entry, please spare the health of the public and some of your own personal embarrasment by falling back, and doing some more extended research before licensing and releasing it to market. Unobtainium alloy X shouldn't make my life unobtainable to me if its going to crumple like a beer can the moment I try to use it.

7. RECALL FAILURES AND DEFECTS IMMEDIATELY : Inspite of all the above I have mentioned, there will be failures out on the field. I understand that. Hey, I'm not saying anything can last forever. But if someone out there is genuinely calling out a defect or a premature failure long before the lifetime limit of the product, swallow your pride and call in that particular product and all similar designs for an investigation. STOP the flow of these products to the market. The longer these dangerous products are out there, the longer the public at large is at risk. Once you get it in, do a root cause analysis (RCA) of the problem and aim to tackle it. Often, its process inefficiencies in the upstream that lead to defective products down the line.

8. A WORD TO CYCLISTS : Dear cyclists, stop abusing your equipment for something it wasn't made for. No point in sitting and crying over something thats your own fault. Be responsible users, keeping in mind your own safety and that of the people you ride or race with, since cycling is often a group activity as well. Bad things will happen to you if you use your equipment beyond its design limits.

As a conclusion to this post, allow me to reiterate. Cycling has inherent risks associated with it, as any experienced cyclist would tell you. But I think we can survive that, even fight it. All we don't want are faulty, defective products on top of all this to supplement the D in Dangerous. Thank you very much.

Moreoever, all this nonsense is not even sending the right idea to newcomers to cycling, who already may have an idea of bad things happening to cyclists. So before advocating safe cycling, check to make sure if the very products you sell are safe to use.

Its simple. Keep bad things from happening from your end or don't do business at all. 

Lets all hope that for 2009 and the years to come, we don't hear of people getting unnecessarily hurt or injured, however light it may be, from the use of defective cycling products.

UPDATE, 12/19/2008 :

I found a great intro video on Poka Yoke, a quality term used for mistake proofing in industry processes. You can read more about it here.

23 Bizarre H Plus Son Rim Failure In Japan

Our friend from Japan was gleefully skidding on his track bike with what seems like a black, SL42 anodized deep section rear wheel from H Plus Son. Then he heard the explosion. Kaboooom! Damn, I need my props. Like KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A friend of his noted on his blog :

"Last night, we rode bikes and had tons of fun. But when he was doing skid, I heard big explosion I've never heard. Then, the rim has bursted. Inside of rim has collapsed and tube was bursted. But tire has not bursted. Rim was just only two weeks used. It's almost new."

It looks like he had a Latex tube on

If you study these pictures closely, you'll notice that the rim blew apart right across the centerline. I have not seen a failure like this before. Its almost as if it traced a prior crack or a groove along the bed of the rim. The data we have about the size of tire that was used, along with tire pressure are not available from the user or his friend, so I won't unnecessarily take a stab at why this happened. More pictures of the failure on his Flickr page here.

The Wheel And Cross Section. More rim specific information here.

The folks at RBT are discussing this failure in more detail, along with the usual digress. Some are alluding to excessive side hoop forces while skidding, while others are theorizing at heating of an overpressurized tube and subsequent bursting causing rim failure, all during the momentary skidding. I highly doubt that scenario but what else can you expect from a debate?

0 Quarq Powermeters Sponsor Cervelo TestTeam

Along with the news that Quarq is sponsoring the Cervelo TestTeam, engineer and company founder James Meyer also informs me that his second generation of powermeters called Saturn are out and in stock (1,495 bucks a piece). I'm not sure if the newer models are just aesthetically pleasing or if there's any other genuine improvements in the hardware and software. For now, you'll just have to stick with their stock cranksets and 130mm bolt circles strictly. It is incompatible with any Shimano or Campagnolo based crankset, since they have an integrated spider and crank arm assembly. Hmm... so suffice to say, I'm waiting for Jupiter.

UPDATE 12/17/2008

The new Saturn design supposedly improves the stability of the calibration when changing chainrings and also is more consistent and faster for the company to produce. All the electronics are the same as the first generation CinQo.

3 On Bike Musical Instruments, Bicycle Design For The Military, Steam Bikes & More....!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Well, here's some pollinations for this week, straight from the C to the O to the Z to the Y!


1. SAUDI OIL ON 60 MINUTES (WARNING : P is for PLENTY!) : The first part of last week's CBS 60 minutes explored the Saudi Oil kingdom, and their push to produce more oil in the era of the Obama Presidency. It was a jaw breaking revelation of the Kingdom's oil resources and technology, like something out of a Star Wars movie. The low oil prices you're seeing now will climb back up since its not stable at this point. Realistically, this important commodity is very necessary for the development of the modern world, of countries, economies and their people. However, that should not deter anyone from exploring and developing alternative, cleaner sources of energy which I believe is one of the biggest engineering challenges of our times. Oil by itself has been and is doing plenty of damage to the world on its evil side.

Part 1 :


Watch CBS Videos Online


Part 2 :


Watch CBS Videos Online




2. COMPANIES GOING 'BUST' : According to the story on Finanical Times yesterday, 62000 companies will go out of business next year. This, when compared to last year's 28,000 and this year's 42,000 seems like a dangerous linear trend. It'll be interesting to see if bicycle businesses are truly recession proof or will they join the long list of the jobless. We already saw what happened to RevoPower, in a previous post on this blog.



3. FEM ON HEADTUBE :

This isn't modern art but a depiction of the loading on a bicycle headtube during front brake activation. It'd be nice if there was a legend and some more things to make it look sensible. Courtesy : Rational Engineering



4. SOUND FROM WIND FOR BIKE MUSIC :




Korean designer Joseph Kim, in a new concept, imagines two tube like channels on the handlebars that create music by controlling the amount of wind that blows through them. Interesting. Look here for more information.



5. BICYCLE PLANNING GUIDANCE FROM WISCONSIN : I was fortunate enough to fall on an lengthy bicycle planning guide from the transportation guys in Wisconsin, courtesy of National Transportation Library (NTL). It could make for interesting reading, especially for those of you interesting in some transportation engineering for our good old two wheelers. Click here to read.



The NTL also houses other free literature, like the latest 2008 reports on the National Survey of Bicyclist and Pedestrian Attitudes and Behavior. See a snipshot below, and to check out all the reports , click here.




6. SEN. JOHN KERRY TEACHES BICYCLE SAFETY :


Yup, that's definitely the way to go about it!




7. BICYCLE DESIGN FOR THE MILITARY :


How do you design bicycles and accessories for the men and women serving on the front lines, in the rough conditions that they encounter? Ease of maintenance, portability, and sturdiness could never bang on your doors here louder. Enter bikes for the Light Bicycle Infantry (LBI) that are rugged, all terrain, and electric and mountain bikes in nature.


Here's a video on bicycle tools accessories for the military :



Lots of colorful history and bicycle design inspirations for the military here.




8. STEAM BIKES!


The MAKE blog explored the history of steam powered bicycles. Check it out here.






In these bad times we're all going through, I just want to end with a good note :




And....for your next season....


You have to work hard like Boonen...



But just don't injest so much caffeine that you can't get a handle on yourself :




Calm down bro.

Chill. Ride.