FSA's 11-speed road group coming into focus?

When SRAM was making the debut of the Force group a couple years ago, there was nearly equal level talk about Full Speed Ahead bringing its own complete road groupset to market. Of course, SRAM went gangbusters, and FSA, well, the line "it's coming" has been getting long in the tooth.

Then I came across this, at rouesartisanales.com...



By the looks of these patent drawings, something is in the pipeline for an 11-speed road shifter. I have contacted FSA and while they don't deny that they're working on something, they are quite mum about any details whether regarding function, dates of release, and what the group is to consist of.

Regarding the shifters, Roues Artisanales makes an interesting note: while conventional shifters sees the cable wind mechanism in the shifter in a perpendicular fashion (since the levers push and pull in that direction, the cable spool on this FSA shifter lay in front-to-back parallel with the cable run. How the shift lever winds the cable in that orientation (since the inboard shifters typically push inward will be interesting to see, as will shift cable placement, which may port directly out the back of the shifter as it does with the brake cable, eliminating the need for under bar shift cable routing, thus making for an even cleaner, potentially easier-operating cable run, with less cable and housing needed.

The rear derailleur, instead of pivoting up and down the cassette via a standard parallelogram, has mechanical pivot on either end of the spanning bar that would normally be a parallelogram.

There is also word that there will be a bar end shifter that will go with this group, and that it may very well depart from standard function—but no further details were provide.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I am sure Interbike next year will be an interesting one—if the drama lasts that long. The media—well, at least me—will be harassing FSA at Sea Otter at the very latest.

Merry Christmas...

...and enjoy the wonders of the season (even you guys paralyzed by snow in Seattle)

Cheers, Jay

The Perfect Last-second Gift

If it wasn't for my wife, I would be, as they say, late for my own funeral. If I say I'm gonna be somewhere in 10 minutes, add 20 minutes to that, and that'll be my arrival.

So with days till Christmas, I announce the wickedest holiday gift for a triathlete, the one who has everything. It's not a $12,000 carbon thing. It's not even a $200 carbon thing. It's a jacket. Not just any jacket, mind you. If that was the case, I'd be pimping my wool-lined, corduroy O'Neill jacket that wards off cold, chill and hollow-tip bullets.

No, this one, the T-Zero is better. I used this tri-specific transiton area jacket just before one of notoriously chilliest—and bone-chilling—races in North America: Escape from Alcatraz. It's put together by the guys at True Motion, and took design and feature cues from pro triathlete Jordan Rapp, a guy who is one of the most tech-saavy athletes out there. True Motion sent me one to test, and my first thought is "how do you test a jacket? It zips up, it zips down."

Well, with Rapp's involvement (as well as that of Paul Bashforth of True Motion, a guy I finally got to meet at Ironman Arizona No. 2 a few months ago when he numbered my wife before the race), it goes without saying that the thing will be tech loaded. But the biggest feature for me: two zippers. At Alcatraz—shit, at any cold-ass morning race—the one thing I look forward to least beside the line for the porta-loo is the line for body marking. Because once you make the front, you have a minute of unendurable chill as you take off your hoodie and freeze as the volunteer puts your number on your arms.

The T-Zero solves for it with a simple solution: zippers on the shoulder. No need to take off the jacket, just unzip, number, and zip up. As we waited to board the Hornblower, with the cold air coming off the bay, it was a pleasure to get to "test" this jacket.

But the thing is packed with other stuff. First, it's inside is a nice, warm, brushed twill. But the outside is a nice windblocking outer. Points there. There's a clip inside one pocket, allowing you to lock your keyring to it, so after the race you're not hunting around for your keys that fell out of your jacket.
MP3 pocket with internal cable run and external headphone port, check. Partitioned rear zip pocket, internal mesh pockets for your phone..... there's a place for everything on this one. A long tail, a high collar... there's no way cold is getting in.

It's $130. Not a bad price to pay for a jacket that will keep you focusing on just the porta-loo... and your start. And if you are looking for that last holiday gift for a loved one, just order it direct online at true-motion.com, drop an IOU in their stocking to let 'em know it's coming, and tell them you were late... but that it was my fault. I'll take the hit—I'm used to it.

Ain's High-tech Sponsorship Search

I remember the first time I saw Ain-Alar Juhanson race, at Ironman Lanzarote. The Estonian, six-foot-three or something, was just grinding his teeth down, riding up to Bjorn Andersson and away from else. Sitting on the back of a moto, I quickly snapped a couple pics and bailed out, for fear he'd bite my head off. Once on the run, I was shocked to see this big, focused guy moving pretty good down the road on the run.

He won the race, like he typically has at Lanzarote, which, with its heat and wind, is largely regarded as the toughest Ironman on the circuit.
But for his gap-toothed grimace on the bike, I expected someone with the charm of a NFL linebacker, a typical cold Eastern European. I found interviewing him he was quite the opposite; he was friendly, comical, an all-around good guy. I had heard he had been on a ferryboat that went down, taking some of his triathlon colleagues with him, and he spoke openly about it—it was clear his motivation was to honor them.

The above shot is from Kona this October; I had been faced down the Queen K awaiting the lead women when I heard "Jay!" from behind—Ain had clicked off the fastest bike of the day (an amazing 4:26:14), and was running out of the Energy Lab and back into town to a great 14th-place finish. If you can go well in Lanzarote, Kona can—can—be an easier prospect.

He recently pinged me on Skype and proved that while our Triathlete mag publisher John Duke is espousing how our sport is so vibrant, that we are not the ones being laid off, we are doing the laying off, it sure ain't recession-proof for the pros. He lost his previous title sponsor, and the hunt was on.

But instead of doing like most pros, sending resumes out, Ain went tech. Posting a YouTube video, he wondered what I thought. If I could figure out how to put a YouTube video up, I'd do so.

But it's just as easy to click HERE to check it out. I thought it was a pretty clever way to seek out a brand that might want to align with a big, smiling monster.

While some thing the life of a pro is a luxurious one, I can attest, it is as close to the poverty line for many of these guys, even Ironman champs like Ain. Hopefully it's just a blip in his program. Because while there's lots of good guys in this sport, there are few like Ain, who can win with a massive, gap-toothed smile.

Done...finally

The race season is finally over, at least over here in North America. I've just attended and covered the last race of the season. I love covering the trips international, but it's always nice having one in my proverbial backyard, which was the case for Ironman Arizona part deux.

Despite being the last race, it didn't fail to disappoint. I got to see a few things I think few have picked up on, including a prototype Bontrager/Hed wheelset aboard Chris Lieto's ride... which is above. I'll be doing a blog update soon on a recent trip with Steve Hed to the San Diego wind tunnel, the day before he provided councel to Lance Armstrong. With Bjorn Andersson there, and lots of prototype work going on (some of which I'll be permitted to show you), you can be sure Steve is pushing Zipp to be top brand in the market.

I also saw this guy. I think maybe he was confused that it was the new Ironman Sahara. We saw no sand dunes (or coyotes, roadrunners or rattlesnakes on the Tempe course for that matter), so I think we can be sure his grill stayed grit-free. I ran into Fletch Newland from Cervelo roadside on the race course, who did a bike count at Ironman Arizona, and he said he saw a BMX bike in the racks at Ironman Arizona... right down to the race number plate on the front of his bars, held by a gooseneck. Not a stem, a gooseneck.

He said he talked to the guy and he was not only an Ironman first-timer, he was a first-time triathlete. Talk about trial by fire. We saw him cruise by out on the Beeline Highway, and as I marveled, I should have tried to catch up and have him pop a wheelie and do a tabletop off some berm.

I observed several other things. First, the race was the deepest* pro of the year outside Hawaii, with nearly 90 pro men and women. Note the asterik—for pros, there was some pack fill. But as always, the cream rises to the top. My wife Donna, who did the swim and bike and passed on the run due to a calf tear, knew that "depth," particularly on the mens side, would off the ratio of the seven available Kona slots. With about 60 pro men, five spots went to the men, two to the women. It wasn't surprising when she came out ahead of many of the pro men. But when she found she was passing several "pro" men on the bike, that spoke to the fact that of the 60-something pro guys, maybe 10 were real contenders. The rest? I just wonder how they got a pro card.

I think Jordan Rapp is on the creep-up. He raced in Tempe both times it was on this year, and had solid podium results against solid fields. For as skinny as he is, he's unbelievably strong. I think Joanna Zeiger will be sticking to 70.3s for a while—she admitted as much that as much as she loves them, Ironmans aren't her bag.

I think people are pathetic. Kona was awesome, with drafters getting pinged. I think we all heard Clearwater was a challenge. But with the multi-lap format on the bike, I saw lots of good, but wham, I saw three instances of pack riding that was abysmal. Jimmy Riccitello is doing a good job, and I know some courses, like Arizona, make it hard to put multiple motos out there—one wobbling rider caused a rider behind to swerve into the path of a course moto, ending the athlete's day and breaking the front cowling off the moto. It's tight out there.

I'm sure there's those who are cheating for that elusive Kona slot. But these mid-pack guys (and girls mixed in) have nothing to gain. I think the four-minute penalty is too slack. For many, it's just a nice rest, with little effect on their day on the whole. Eight minutes would be a proper first offence. 10 minutes would be brilliant. When people get caught now, they figure it into the minutes they saved being in the pack—it's a net-zero loss, a wash. If the rules could change, if officials would err on the side of being too harsh, well, the world would be a better place. And less people would be capable of cheating... themselves. Honestly, I wonder how they can smile as they sleep, knowing their new PR was the result of cheating. I couldn't do it.

I think the rockstar award for the day in Tempe goes to Kieran Doe. Everyone has their reasons for finishing a race. But from mile one, he was experiencing foot pain and decided to pull off his race flats and did the entire run in just a pair of socks. For those that don't know the Arizona course, half is on cement path, and the other half is on crushed rock. Either way, it was painful.

He said he did it for friends and family, he had to finish for them, tearing up a bit as he told me. Clearly, it was more that being that simple. Whatever the reason, it was an impressive show; being first out of the water, leading most of the bike alone, then soldiering through the run. He'll have more Ironman wins than his first in Canada a year ago, but this year, Arizona wasn't in the cards for him.

The last thing I noticed was German Andreas Raelert. This guy is like so many that have segued from ITU racing, and found out they have a natural affinity to distance racing. He was an Olympian in Sydney and Athens, and quite honestly, I only remembered him by name from short-course, because the sport is so.... so not our sport, as competitors.

But he made a bit of a name for himself by almost running down Terenzo Bozonne in Clearwater at 70.3 Worlds. Then he firmly made a name for himself with a balanced, dominant race in Tempe. In the finish chute at Ironman Arizona, representatives from different brands were approaching him—I'm sure to congratulate him, but also to pass their cards and interest in sponsoring him. As a journalist I found him to be a great personality, excited about this new chapter in his sport, with the same excitement that we heard from Andy Potts about racing Kona. He nearly earned it by winning in Clearwater, but he removed any technical doubt in Arizona. This guy is a rising star.

Now it's on to winter (which has already seen snow with a trip to Halifax to see family), will be tempered by several projects, and which is also the perfect time to play with the new positons I found in the wind tunnel, as well as tweak and adjust to changes with Donna's setup. Granted, Ironman Western OZ is on soon, as will Ironman New Zealand, Pucon and the rest of races going on Down Under. But soon enough, the season will start again.

Newsflash: Macca to Zipp!

News you can use...

Blue Carolina: A company's quest to make you—literally you—faster

I’ve returned from my East Coast swing to A2 Wind Tunnel. Chance Regina of Blue Competition Cycles hosted me on the trip to Charlotte, N.C. The goal: experience just what the Blue Triad buyer will: an hour of time in the wind tunnel.

That is, a free hour of time in the wind tunnel. To do whatever I wanted. Get fit, play with parts, whatever. Or pretend I was Jimmy Riccitello and break wind, which he found comes back around and gets you, right in the grille.

The last time I had been tunnel fit tested was about six years ago. Then, I was given a VHS tape of my runs. That’s like Betamax and regardless, I’ve evolved my fit so much in those six years that it would have been moot anyway. It was time for a new fit. Beyond that, I wanted to try some different equipment and positions.

A2 is adjacent to AeroDyn Wind Tunnel. If you’ve listened to me before, you’ll know AeroDyn does all the aerodynamics testing for the NASCAR teams, with the tunnel rented out by the big teams on a literal 24/7 basis. With that business locked down for the next year and a half, tunnel owners decided to build a second, smaller tunnel next door, catering to the rest of the industry outside cars. And, says A2 engineer Mike Giraud, about 80 percent of his business now is bike-related, whether it’s athlete fitting or manufacturers coming in to test prototype gear.

What’s great about Giraud, is that in his other life, he was a triathlete and a fitter. He spent several years as the team mechanic on the Saturn road team, then wrenching and fitting for the Timex Triathlon Team. The guy knows bikes and fit. To the right is Regina on the left, and Giraud on the right, both setting up my test bike.

So if you do the Blue Triad deal, the value is apparent; wind tunnel time at tunnels around the nation ranges from $700 to $1800 per hour. They will pump out numbers you have to decipher yourself. After you get yourself to Carolina for your tunnel test, you could bring your own coach or fitter with you to break down your numbers, but barring that, Giraud has the capabilities. I’ve been around enough fitters to know he knows his stuff.

So what’d I find? I thought my aero position was pretty damn good… but I wasn’t that good. Giraud was able to determine that because I have long forearms, I tend to prop up on them and crawl across my aerobar, perching on about the front two inches of my saddle.

My test bike for the baseline was the one any Blue buyer will be aboard: the Triad. It’s the same bike I’ve been testing with for the last few months for a Triathlete magazine Bike of the Month review in San Diego, so I had lots of quality time on it in my baseline position. It’s set with a three-position seatpost, allowing a seat angle as shallow of 74 degrees and steep as 80 degrees. A2 also has any variety of wheels, aerobars, aero bottles to swap and try if you so desire. I ran my tests with the spec Aerus aerobar with s-bend extensions, and the spec Zipp 808 rear/404 front clincher set.

My notes:

• I tested two helmets I was most interested in; the Specialized TT2, and the Giro Advantage II. While the Specialized helmet is not available to the market, at least not yet, the nice cats at Specialized set me up for one to test. Between the two, the Specialized was most aero for me. And I say for me, because as Giraud reminded, every athlete’s flexibility and aero position will dictate what helmet will fit best and flow wind off it and onto a rider’s back.
• Aero helmets are not the end-all, be-all. Craig Alexander did an aero versus road helmet test at A2 earlier this year, doing a fit working with biomechanics expert Todd Carver of Retul fitting. For Crowie, it wasn’t about what was the faster helmet; he knew the aero helmet would be faster. He wanted to know by how much, and use that data to determine if it was worth the potential heat buildup an aero helmet brings about racing in Kona. The gains being too negligible, he opted for the vented helmet, Smart choice; he won Kona. So did Chrissie Wellington. It seems to me that TeamTBB coach Brett Sutton didn’t need to visit a wind tunnel to know that aero helmets won’t win the race—but they can certainly lose you one.
• The Praying Landis position didn’t necessarily work for me. It was the one thing that got me to duck my head (trying to replicate the images in my head of Levi Leipheimer shoving his face into his hands), but flexibility and just general comfort limited me.
• Ducking the head can yield massive, massive drag savings. Giraud noted that no matter how my bars dropped or extend, my head rise was seemingly locked into place for every run. It wasn’t until I attempted the Landis position that I consciously made an effort to dive my head down. Suddenly was taken out of the wind for a significant drop in drag.
• I also got a chance to test the new Vision aerobar hydration system. While it had a drag coefficient of 2.891 ft squared in a zero-yaw test, those numbers dropped to 2.571 when I was kicked over to a 15-degree yaw—a realistic crosswind situation. Just like Zipp’s test finding in the Sub 9 that the disc’s numbers dropped all the way to positive drag at a certain yaw angle, The increased surface area on the Vision unit meant more opportunity for laminar air flow, and thus lower numbers.

Bottom line, and need to practice tucking my head, and I can go lower in front. If I do that, I could manage to get my baseline drag coefficient of 2.792 ft squared down to 2.667. At least I ruled out a bunch of arm and aerobar positions that saw my coefficient rise to as much as 2.807. I have all winter to practice. Even for a guy who has access to coaches and fitters left and right, nothing can substitute or replicate the data you get when wind tunnel testing—what a valuable experience.

So you have to ask yourself, how valuable is it to drop massive drag watts through your position, or to buy a wheel that will get you maybe an extra six watts versus your existing race wheelset? Until now, the best a company could do to sweeten the pot of their bike sale is to bump up a spec. Or throw you a water bottle.

Blue has -gone one better—way better; they realize that the bike is a part of the equation, but the largest part of it is the rider. Optimize the fit, and aerodynamics, and you optimize the results in the race—which optimizes your experience. You can buy speed, and like many brands, Blue has that in the Triad with a tunnel-designed, engineered scythe of a ride. But Blue is throwing more speed—the opportunity to find your best position, to play with different options, whatever you want—to you for free.

Beyond that, Blue, along with Zipp and SRAM, is soon doing a giveaway, run in Triathlete magazine through March of next year: a draw for what they call the “Pro Treatment,” which they did for their sponsored pros Heather and Trevor Wurtele and Brent McMahon earlier this year. One person will win a Triad, and get a paid flight to North Carolina for two free hours of fit time at A2 Wind Tunnel. Someone’s gonna get lucky.

After the testing, Regina, having gotten wind of my affinity for NASCAR, pulled some strings. A drive through from A2 to an undisclosed location led us to Joe Gibbs Racing. For those that don’t follow sports, let me explain: Joe Gibbs is the legendary coach of the Washington Redskins from 1981 to 1993, earning three Super Bowl rings.

After the NFL came NASCAR team ownership, with Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin racing under his flag. In ’09, youngster Joey Logano will be driving the Home Depot car as Tony Stewart starts his own team.
And all those cars are headquartered in Huntersville, North Carolina. Eric Groen was just off the plane from the race in Phoenix for Tony Stewart as one of his over-the-wall wheel changers. Groen took Chance and I around the facility.

And the facility was gorgeous. The main garage floor was pristine, with several of the cars lined up meticulously along the walls. Eric pointed out Stewart’s car that won Talladega a month ago. As we walked down the row, I saw one of Denny Hamlin’s cars, crunched to bits. “Is that….”

“Yep, that’s Denny’s car from Talladega,” Groen said. At that race, Goodyear was having a tread compound problem with its tires, and no matter the camber they set up on the cars, the tires were going right down to the cords—and blowing up. Denny’s was one that saw the front passenger quarter panel explode like a bomb had gone off. It's over there on the right.

After watching all the bump-drafting, I walked around for a look at Denny’s bumper, which was as scuffed and scratched as I thought it would be.

Eric took us through the fabrication room, where they build the cars from flat squares of sheet metal. Saw the TRD engines, and a room full of CNC machines cutting parts that any bike engineer would only be able to dream of having at their disposal. Saw the transport trucks, rows of Goodyears, and crankshafts in the engine room so beautifully polished, so sexy, I wanted one for my coffee table. Not only could I not have one as a souvenir, I couldn’t take pictures of it. Ah well.

Eric said that the guys working on engines would basically spend the day in a locked room for six hours, concentrating on just assembling that one engine. And for an engine room, it was, again, pristine. The solvent basins were without a spot of dirt.

Another interesting element; you know how the UCI has a frame measurement gauge that it uses at races to makes sure TT bike saddles and aerobar extesions don't go to beyond its regulations for legality?

NASCAR has the same gauge. Except it's massive, and they call it the claw. They drop this thing, *which you see below above Tony Stewart's car) onto the cars at races.

It has to be within an eighth of a centimeter, Groen said, at each of the points when it is winched down onto a car's body, for the car to be legal. If extends out, or flares in, the car can't go out for practice until it is spot-on, and the team has to hammer in or pull out the sheet metal to get it compliant. "Any little thing like that can be a big aerodynamic advantage for the car at the speeds they're going," Groen said.

So I left now knowing what a pro motorsports operation looks like and now its time to go back to work. Having been in two wind tunnels in the same week (I was at the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel last week with Steve Hed and was there the following day during the Lance Armstrong test) I’m back to the grill. Got a cool wind tunnel story to write.

ADDENDUM:

Oh, one more thing I forgot to put in this story, which is on the homepage: being a wicked mechanic, Giraud is a clever one. I've included two things he did; one was a little "pigtail" which he put on the rear derailleur to keep it in one gear, allowing him to change out bars during our test.

Another was a wicked-cool Craftsman compressor gun that he rigged with a hash pipe. Voila, the ultimate, portable, no-effort pump for your garage or the races. It even has a digital gauge on it, showing readings in tenths of PSI, until it reaches 100, where it goes in individual PSI. Show up to your local Ironman and it'll be like a guy walking through a sorority with a puppy: you'll be the most popular person in transition, guaranteed.