Resident speed merchant Monsieur Miller is our man out and about on the new SRAM Red. Here are his impressions thus far. Cheers Matt!!

Riding competitively and honing my abilities via a structured coaching program over the last 12 months or so has invariably caused me to open my eyes to alternative components, in the never ending search for that ‘competitive edge’. Your friends can talk all they like to you about how they find ‘this and that’ but you never really know until you bite the bullet and try things for yourself.

Angus and Chris certainly knew what I should be looking at when it came to groupsets, so I bit the bullet and went for the new SRAM Red.

Coming from a history of using a well known European groupset, I was cautious in the first instance to make the change, however my first ride with the new SRAM red eased all of my fears quicker than that of a diving soccer player, who hasn’t even been fouled.

“Short, sharp and extremely attractive” were qualities that I first thought that Angus and Chris saw in myself, as I dropped off the bike for the conversion. Fortunately the fellas were not talking about me, but that of the characteristics of the new SRAM red… and they were not lying. I have now had the pleasure of riding this groupset for the last 4-5 weeks.

The gear changes are shorter than the dwarf from Jackass, trigger finger sharp, you get that grippy “thhhhhhuuuuuuunk” when it slams down the rear cassette and it looks better than Scarlett Johanssen in tight leathers. The single pivot braking works a treat and puts on the anchors with a fair amount of fury, which is great for blokes like me who like to throw the bike into corners.

I do not have the advantage of riding the previous SRAM Red groupset, so I can not compare new with old. What I can do however is argue that it is streets ahead of its European cousin. If SRAM are claiming a much evolved, outstandingly refined and improved groupset in the new SRAM Red – I am already convinced. I know from feedback within the peloton on the streets of Perth that SRAM needed improvements to front derraileur shifting in the new SRAM Red. I treat the gears on my bike with distain and I’m not a rider known for my climbing ability, so my front chainrings get a smashing most days. I can advise you that the front derrailuer hasn’t let me down once and the new yaw system has made chain rub non-existent no matter what gear is selected.

I raced the new SRAM Red at a local criterium on Anzac day and the double tap system was far more intuitive than anything else I have ever ridden.

Go and get the new SRAM Red – NOW!

Not sure where this photo came from. Possibly Tony Lendrum.

A young firebrand by the name of Cliff has been frequenting our humble abode of late and was good enough to purchase a very nice Caad10 Liquigas Replica model. He also got himself a pair of these locally made ON Straps which he was kind enough to review for us….I hand you over to Cliff.

ON toe strap review.

First off they look very inconspicuous and stealth. Great for a city bike or a bike that’s locked up in strange places and out front pubs a lot. Very straight forward to attach as well. Just Velcro the suckers on and then adjust as you see fit.

One of the reasons you’d consider straps like these is that you’re sick of the toe part on your old pair dragging across the ground when your  still getting your feet in. Well good news.. Problem solved, there’s none of that anymore.

Once you’re in nice and tight they do exactly what you need them to do. I tested them on a fixie and they helped with speed control immensely. I could accelerate faster, brake quicker and charge up hills better. When it comes to getting out of them they’re easy too. Slide your foot out backwards and you’re sweet. It takes a little bit of time to get used the fact that pulling up the pedal with a more vertical foot, like you’d do on a road bike slides your foot straight out. The solution I found was to quickly relearn your pedal strokes so that you keep more of a solid ankle and pull up with your toes rather than your heel.

The straps have a plastic insert that helps keep them open. For the most part this worked excellently but there’s a couple of design oversights. First on a regular toe strap/clip combo the clip is made of metal and helps weight the pedal so its pointed down. This makes it really easy to find your way into them without looking. What happens with the straps I reviewed is that all of the weight is on the strap so they just flip over, which makes it harder to find your way in without looking. I’ve been told some mountain bikers have special bearings in the pedal that keeps them horizontal as they go around. That would be an awesome solution to the problem if price permitted. Also, if you’re having problems it’s easy to temporarily ride on the side without the strap but as you later try to get in again I sometimes found myself  very clumsily stepping on the strap which just pushed it closed and made my life a little harder. They also have a bit of a tendency to twist forward, which again makes it a little harder to get in. That could probably be solved by making the bit of fabric that goes through the inside of the pedal much stiffer or just made out of metal.

Those minor problems aside I did get used to them very quickly and all in all they’re great.

Cliff.j

Our pagan god, our silent mistress, our confidante in times of woe, our joyous friend that always listens.
Well this has been a long time coming…..a beer review. I thought about getting fancy and finding an obscure ale fermented in dwarf spittle but how could we neglect our old favourite, we may not be many things but we are brand loyal.

Coopers Pale Ale has been the life blood of Bar Bespoke since the dawn of time, it’s only fitting that our first beer review goes to them.

Coopers packaging is simple without being plain, their circular target is colour coded, red for Turbo Reds, mustard for Sparkling and green for Pale. They come in brown bottles which serve a purpose to prevent the beer from being ‘skunked’.
Clear and green bottles offer beer very little protection but brown bottles do by filtering light and ultraviolet rays that react with the hops and sulphur used in the fermentation process to form a chemical almost identical in smell and composition to Skunk spray….not how you want your beer to smell.

Coopers Pale is fermented using the ‘Burton-upon-Trent’ method. By adding sulphate, often in the form of gypsum, to the water used in the brewing process the hops flavour is accented. This was discovered when Sam Allsopp of Burton-upon-Trent produced a popular pale ale noted for its crisp, clean, bitter flavour in the early 1800′s. When the local water was analysed it was found to be sulphate rich a method known as Burtonisation or the Burton Snatch.
Coopers goes further to add a secondary fermentation giving its trademark sediment that requires the drinker to roll or turn the bottle to cloud the beer.

But how does it taste you ask? Like a thousand tiny angels dancing on my tongue is all I can respond. Best served cold, Coopers has a smooth, refreshing, almost fruity taste. It does not have an overpowering after taste but rather a crisp snap that ends with the last gulp. I would not say Coopers is a summer beer (like Corona is marketed) but instead is a beer for all seasons. It doesn’t excel with any particular meal but goes well with all be it fish, fowl, meat or salad, a coopers beer batter or maybe one of these recipes.

Coopers is like one of those friends that require no ’3 hour getting to know you again sessions’ it just picks up where you left off. And when the dregs of the last bottle are slurped it’s a sad moment where you stop to reminisce of good times past.

Coopers we salute you.

I recently took up a program in preparation for the Perth Crit Series and was advised that I would need a heart rate (hr) monitor to undertake the training.  Several friends already use them and thought I would see what they were all about.
When it comes to hr  bike computers Polar and Garmin are to 2 main contendors. I probably could have gone either way but the large screen and customisable display appealed along with the Garmin Connect website to archive/map your rides.

Out of the box the very quick setup was great, even for a technophobe the Garmins are a doddle being that they operate on GPS there is no wheel size setting etc. Basically charge it up enter some personal details when prompted and off you go. The only annoying thing is that they come with manual pause as default so you have to remember to turn it off so your timer doesn’t keep running when you stop for a coffee. A cool feature to turn on is the ‘auto lap’, being that it uses GPS it will detect laps done when on a circuit such as crits races or the Early Bird TT’s in Kings Park

The Edge 500′s display has several pages that you can customise according to the data you want to monitor while riding with heaps of information options to choose from along with the regulars. At the end of the ride, after opening up a Garmin Connect online account, you can upload your ride.
The ride is plotted on a map which in turn can be used to see what you were doing and when ie what hr at what speed at what part of the ride. All this data is displayed graphically and also in a numeric table on the side.

The Edge 500 can be charged from a wall outlet or from usb via the ‘puter and lasts about 4-5 rides of around 2-3hours.

While I don’t use one the Edge 500 is compatible with all third party ANT+ enabled power meters. Check the link out for all the tech and spec features. You can buy the head unit alone alone with all the accessories or as a bundle that has it all.

Edge 200
The Edge 200 is going to make it very hard to sell any other computer. Wireless is the way forward but sensorless is even better. This is a simplified version of the more advanced models and is a ‘real plug in and play’. Charge it up and you are ready to go. While it doesn’t store cadence and heart rate is does store all the normal bike computer features then maps your ride via GPS on Garmin Connect to view. Check out the link to the specs.

Please note our pricing is inline with the Garmin Australia site.

Matt Radich has been good enough to put a few words together about is handbuilt Jonesy specials! Check out his bike over in the Gallery.

After the guys at Bespoke got me rolling on a nice steel DeKerf it was time to get some new wheels to do the frame justice. After many hours internet research and dreaming of what wheels to buy, I eventually decided to go handbuilt. With a few months riding on the new hoops I’m convinced I made the right decision.

So after I told Jonesy what I wanted and him telling me what I needed, we compromised and came up with a great all round wheelset.

The specs – White Industries H2/H3 Hubs, Velocity A23 Rims, 24 DT Swiss Revolution spokes on the front wheel laced radial and 28 spokes on the rear with DT Swiss Revolutions non drive side and DT Swiss Competitions on the drive side all laced 2 cross.

So how do they ride? In a word. Great. The White Industries Hubs roll very smooth and seem to be getting better day by day. The 23mm wide A23 rims are another highlight; they give a very nice round profile to a 23mm clincher which really has made a noticeable difference in comfort and grip around the corners. They also allow you to run quite low tyre pressures to improve the ride when the road gets rough. I’ve run them as low as 75 psi on the back roads of Chittering Valley without them feeling at all sluggish but reducing road buzz coming through the bike markedly. I’ve recently managed to get into the hills on the wheels and they don’t seem to give up much in the climbing department either. Jonesy’s decision to go for heavier spokes on the rear drive side comes into play here, keeping the rear wheel nice and stiff for those out of saddle efforts.

But the big factor in the handbuilt wheel must be the build quality and Jonesy has done a great job of putting these together. They ran beautifully true when I got them and never made a sound, apart from that wonderful whir from the rear hub when freewheeling. Three months later and they are running just as true as the first day I fitted them and I can’t see that changing for sometime.

So for roughly the same cost as a set of mid range aluminium clinchers from any of the big manufacturers why not consider a set of handbuilt wheels that will suit your needs perfectly and be a much better long term investment.

Cannondale has received the tick of approval from November’s Cycling Plus see below.

In the age of cosmic fibre I say “Go Alloy People!” go alloy! Admittedly I haven’t ridden the latest and greatest from Cannondale, the Evo, but I’m ok with that cos I got me a CAAD10-1.
We chose Cannondale because we wanted something we could ride ourselves day in, day out, model to model…..And they have delivered.
I had been on a SuperSix for about 10 months and they are a superb bike but my experience on one was a lesson in how the wrong set up can effect your ride.
The CAAD10 and SuperSix are identical in geometry however the SuperSix came to me via Chris with a 25mm setback post and 175mm cranks.
I normally run a 120mm stem, but I use 172.5 mm cranks and 20mm setback post (the SuperSix had a 25mm and I didn’t realise. Duh!).
Anyway I never felt quite comfortable and found myself fidgeting while in the saddle especially when tired.
Once I jumped on the CAAD10 with it’s stock components  (to the measurements above) I realised what had been the problem, proof that a couple of millimetres in setup can make a big difference.
The CAAD10 came with a redesigned frame weighing in @ around 1050g. Tapered 1-1/8″ to 1-1/4″steerer, BB30 bottom bracket and shaped tubing for rider comfort and frame stiffness being the major points .
You can read all the tech speak on the ‘Dale website but how it translates to the ride quality is you get a bike that is very stiff and responsive out of the saddle with great power transfer via the bottom bracket. The tapered steerer makes the bike feel stable at high speed and precise when cornering or on technical sections. When hauling on the bars while climbing you don’t get that flexy front end feeling that some bikes get which makes muscling up climbs a bit more positive.
Anyone who has doubts about the comfort of alloy can rest assured that the CAAD10 offers great rider comfort. On the epic known as THE BAYSOICA we did a 120-ish kms the majority of which was on dirt fire and access roads and not once did I need to stand up in the saddle and stretch out my back nor post ride was I sore. The full carbon forks and the shaped stays can be credited for this.
All in all the CAAD10 fits me like a glove. They come with various build options to accommodate different budgets, there are only cosmetic changes for 2012 but we still have a few 2011′s in stock.

It’s been a while since I have used a hydrapak, but since I have been riding my Mach 4 which, on a medium frame only really allows for one 500ml bidon and also due to the increasing amount of enduro events, I have finally invested in a Lezyne Firebreak 2L pack. I did so a little reluctantly because in general I don’t like things bouncing around while a ride not to mention the accompanied rattle of Co2 cartridges, muti-tools, keys etc.
I went for this pack for while it is super small it still carries 2L which for me is plenty. Lezyne as always have specific pockets for various tools making this the quietest pack I have ever used. Enough room for phone, wallet, keys and the need repair essentials to get you home if you have a mechanical.
The bladder uses an entire width zip lock system to fill then seal up reducing the chance of spillage…just make sure the zip lock is fully closed.
At first I was not impressed with the valve/hose system, I struggled to take water in and the nozzle seemed to slip through the loop on chest strap. However after some fiddling over a few rides I came to find that if I used a rubber band (something supple as as opposed to a zipp-tie) around the loop, the nozzle stayed in place near my chest. I also discovered that a combination of my build had how tight I had adjusted the should straps was causing the hose to kink when I lifted the nozzle to my mouth. Simply disengaging the plastic shoulder strap hose guide solved that problem without making the hose flop around…..Water intake is no longer an issue.
So all in all this pack is pretty damn good. I’m sure it will get a good work out over summer. It comes in stealthy easy to keep clean black with minimal badging.