Author Topic: UCI Bans elbows on bars  (Read 11844 times)

Davef

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #50 on: 15 February, 2021, 12:38:23 pm »
Dave, it gets curiouser and curiouser: you are right about front wheel being pasted (the kerb gives it away) but, as has been mentioned, how does the red flash on the tyre end up where it does?!
That is why I have shown the down then up at the right hand edge of the yellow line. That part of the tyre is from the second photo.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #51 on: 16 February, 2021, 11:40:55 am »
I think it's a second set of wheels or more likely a whole second bike. They've matched up the position of bike and rider as near as possible but it's inevitably a little bit different. You can see what looks like a chalk mark on the road by the front wheel in each photo but the camera angle is slightly different. It's an illustration (of a 'should' not a 'must) in a mistake agent's window the Highway Code, not high art.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #52 on: 16 February, 2021, 11:51:38 am »
Look at the blobs of chewing gum inside the front wheel in each pic. They're exactly the same. Ditto the alignment of the one spoke between the forks.

The Artist has chosen to hide the seam in the brake track.

Beardy

  • Shedist
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #53 on: 16 February, 2021, 12:03:47 pm »
The UCI, banning innovation in cycling since 1934.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Davef

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #54 on: 16 February, 2021, 01:24:00 pm »
I think it's a second set of wheels or more likely a whole second bike. They've matched up the position of bike and rider as near as possible but it's inevitably a little bit different. You can see what looks like a chalk mark on the road by the front wheel in each photo but the camera angle is slightly different. It's an illustration (of a 'should' not a 'must) in a mistake agent's window the Highway Code, not high art.
It is just of passing interest and I agree irrelevant but if it were just a different camera angle rather than a bit of photoshopping, then you wouldn’t get the same bit of kerb appearing twice in the second photo

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #55 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:13:33 pm »
The UCI, banning innovation in cycling since 1934.

Or, keeping cycling accessible and an athletic competition, not an arms race.
Cycle racing ( and that’s all the UCI is involved in) should be about the rider, not the technology.
It’s already difficult for young people from a less affluent background to get into cycling. Much more so than when I was young.
Time trialling ( not, in the U.K. within the UCI remit) is already becoming very expensive to be competitive within. £10-15,000 bikes are being used by under 18s even, together with wind tunnel testing etc. How dispiriting is it for a youngster who cannot ( or who’s parents cannot afford) the technology to get into the results?

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #56 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:37:18 pm »
The TT bikes the Pros use are massively expensive, inside UCI rules, and faster than the cheaper ones. Same with track bikes. Wind tunnels are within the UCI rules. Being Graham Obree and brazing your own bikes - not inside UCI rules. The UK TT scene is weird - the amount of money people will throw at going a little bit faster (at a non-elite level) astonishes me.
In tech terms, the UCI has a really difficult job - it needs to define a bicycle in a way that allows a rough level playing field, while not restricting manufacturers too much so they go away. They created the "athletes hour" to try to square the circle, and no-one would do it because their sponsors weren't interested and wouldn't pay for it. Since they changed that we've had a bunch of different pros spend significant time and cash attempting it.

Zed43

  • prefers UK hills over Dutch mountains
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #57 on: 16 February, 2021, 06:11:35 pm »
"complete bicycle excluding pedals and saddle must be for sale to the general public for less than 3000 euro" would make a nice rule  :D

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #58 on: 17 February, 2021, 12:11:02 am »
"complete bicycle excluding pedals and saddle must be for sale to the general public for less than 3000 euro" would make a nice rule  :D

Ooh. I like that idea.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #59 on: 17 February, 2021, 08:33:15 am »
"complete bicycle excluding pedals and saddle must be for sale to the general public for less than 3000 euro" would make a nice rule  :D
So no more prototype parts in the pro ranks?
Cycling is symbiotic. Why would any bike brand sponsor a team where they have to give them less than top end equipment? It just makes them look bad.
I understand that if you are an amateur racer who can barely afford any bike, having people show up to your race with a £10k bike has to feel unfair. That's unlikely to be a UCI sanctioned race though. And if you don't race, what does it matter how much what the racers are riding costs?

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #60 on: 17 February, 2021, 08:41:42 am »
"complete bicycle excluding pedals and saddle must be for sale to the general public for less than 3000 euro" would make a nice rule  :D

Yeah. And let's have Formula One racing Dacia Sanderos. Cos that'll make it fairer on people who can't afford Ford Fiestas. Daft? Well, that's kind of what you're proposing.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #61 on: 17 February, 2021, 09:39:48 am »
Not so much. If the pros were all riding 3000 euro bikes the race would look no different to what it does now. Not sure that would be the case with F1 where technology is half the battle.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #62 on: 17 February, 2021, 10:20:27 am »
"complete bicycle excluding pedals and saddle must be for sale to the general public for less than 3000 euro" would make a nice rule  :D

But what happens when components are replaced, either because of wear or upgrading?

Will people be riding 'Trigger's broom' bikes to get round the ruling?
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #63 on: 17 February, 2021, 10:35:33 am »
Remember folks, it's not about the bike.

Davef

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #64 on: 17 February, 2021, 10:45:51 am »
Part of it is volume related in the TT market. You make money by selling at high profit margin or high volume but competition tends to prevent them simultaneously.

Nobody is going to make their money by trying to sell high volumes of disk wheels or TT frames.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #65 on: 17 February, 2021, 10:53:04 am »
Here's the actual press release:
https://www.uci.ch/inside-uci/press-releases/the-uci-reinforces-rider-safety-and-its-commitment-to-sustainable-development

Loads of stuff on barriers, safety changes, race convoys, road furniture, event safety and organiser responsibility, data collection for future safety improvements, concussion, Covid etc.

Naturally, everyone focusses on:
Quote
The UCI Management Committee also decided to reinforce the regulation concerning potentially dangerous conduct of riders, including throwing a bottle onto the road or within the peloton (which may pose a danger for following riders), and taking up dangerous positions on the bike (especially sitting on the top tube).

Edit - note the "reinforce" part - it's always been illegal:
https://inrng.com/2021/02/new-safety-measures-supertuck/#more-38485

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #66 on: 17 February, 2021, 11:16:46 am »
Sounds sensible to ban bottle-throwing (I guess into the crowd for souvos is okay).
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #67 on: 17 February, 2021, 11:20:38 am »
Sounds sensible to ban bottle-throwing (I guess into the crowd for souvos is okay).
I've always wondered what pro riders do with their bidons when they're on their long 5 -6 hour
training rides. I suppose there's no-one to police their littering. :hand:

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #68 on: 17 February, 2021, 11:53:45 am »
Sounds sensible to ban bottle-throwing (I guess into the crowd for souvos is okay).
I've always wondered what pro riders do with their bidons when they're on their long 5 -6 hour
training rides. I suppose there's no-one to police their littering. :hand:

If they’re out with the team they get handed back to the car. On their own, they can only take 2 usually, so just re- filled, or meet up with coach/ partner.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #69 on: 17 February, 2021, 11:59:36 am »

Sounds sensible to ban bottle-throwing (I guess into the crowd for souvos is okay).

I've always wondered what pro riders do with their bidons when they're on their long 5 -6 hour
training rides. I suppose there's no-one to police their littering. :hand:


If they’re out with the team they get handed back to the car. On their own, they can only take 2 usually, so just re- filled, or meet up with coach/ partner.
I've seen a couple of riders do that in races on telly. I'd like to think it happens more regularly.

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #70 on: 17 February, 2021, 12:36:32 pm »
"complete bicycle excluding pedals and saddle must be for sale to the general public for less than 3000 euro" would make a nice rule  :D

Yeah. And let's have Formula One racing Dacia Sanderos. Cos that'll make it fairer on people who can't afford Ford Fiestas. Daft? Well, that's kind of what you're proposing.

Let's have the America's Cup guys sailing Lasers  :thumbsup:

Of course, even in a one design class like the Laser, you can spot the guys who can spend money: they're the ones who can afford a brand new suit of sails ever year rather than having to use old saggy ones, and who can afford to shop around until they find a good boat (because Laser production values are famously slack).

It's rather like a comment I remember from Chris Boardman, after the UCI had banned something or other a few years ago, to the effect that this was good for UK/Sky, because while anyone could have spent a few hundred quid buying whatever component it was, only UK/Sky/Boardman could afford to take the UCI-legal 'basic' design and spend endless resources optimising it in a wind tunnel.  Building a fast bike is much cheaper than building a fast bike that looks slow.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #71 on: 17 February, 2021, 03:58:33 pm »
Not so much. If the pros were all riding 3000 euro bikes the race would look no different to what it does now. Not sure that would be the case with F1 where technology is half the battle.

God you're boring when you take me literally ;D

The point is not so much the quality of the racing, but the quality of the component trickle-down to the general market. If professional teams were forced to use cheap bikes, there would be little incentive (or money) for the manufacturers to put much effort into R&D, and there would be far fewer aspirational bikes for people to buy or to lust after. I can see that there might be some appeal to that for some people, but imagine if this had been the case since cycling started - we'd still be on hobby horses or ordinaries.

The bike market is self-fulfilling to a degree - make expensive stuff for pro teams and lots of ordinary folk will buy it. We don't need Di2 or AXS, or hi-mod carbon gravel bikes, but we like to have them. Making pro teams ride clunkers wouldn't make that go away, but it would make it a lot more expensive for that stuff to be developed and to buy, and thus would end up costing the industry in lost sales.

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #72 on: 17 February, 2021, 04:05:35 pm »
Does your car look like this?



No?  Then I don't see where your analogy is going.

Sorry to bore you btw. Although your response to my posts never really comes across as motivated by boredom  :)

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #73 on: 17 February, 2021, 04:07:26 pm »
Well, I respond because I've got nothing better to do just now. My car is rather prettier than that Mercedes (or indeed any Mercedes).

Re: UCI Bans elbows on bars
« Reply #74 on: 17 February, 2021, 04:10:04 pm »
If you really have nothing better to do in life than respond to my posts then I offer you every sympathy  ;D