Beyond Premium This is an exciting one. SWI – as the name and the branding imply – are a Swiss enterprise. Swiss, but also Italian. All very good things in this particular instance and the brand is formed at an interesting intersection, both geographically and technologically. SWI is an ultra-premium cycling brand creating unique and remarkably beautiful bespoke, high performance custom carbon road bikes. Each SWI frame is engineered in Switzerland and fabricated in Italy…
Premium in a sea of premium In this job it is often easy to become numb to the marvels of high-end road bikes – being as I am, immersed in it daily. This ‘bike blindness’ has been difficult to shake in recent years with much of what I have been exposed to and ridden being all a bit same same.So you’re a snob Dave. Fussy. Absolutely!I’d have it no other way. I have no desire to…
So, it finally happened. It was bound to eventually. Only as a result of necessity mind. I had a New Bike Day.I have been riding a rim brake bike with mechanical gearing in an old race position, largely unchanged save for some tiny tweaks, for over 15 years. In that time three key things have happened. I have gotten older. I have gotten less fit. I have stopped racing.I did well I think. Up until…
There are many, many bike cleaning products on the market. Some have pretty colours, some smell good. They are, by and large, much of a muchness. Few do a really good job. At 700 we have been serially unimpressed with the level of product, range (either too small or WAY too big) of product and sad to say, quite often the lack of support from brands, on the bike cleaning front. There are some notable…
Hello people of the wheel.Firstly let me wish you all a very Happy New Year. Let us hope that 2023 brings plenty of positives to us all. I for one hope to renew my love affair with the bike after a distracted few years. It will be a slow (literally) but rewarding process, of that I have no doubt. I’m penning this partly as a catharsis but primarily to relay some thoughts and feelings and…
One of the most important elements any cyclist will consider along their cycling journey is shoes. If you want to enjoy cycling it is essential that all contact points are well addressed. Uncomfortable feet are ride killers, sense of humour slayers and have the potential to end your cycling career in favour of something stupid. Like running. (I started running, we’re cool!) So which should you buy? There’s a simple answer to that – the…
The Champs-Élysées We have our worthy Tour winner decided. Jonas Vingegaard put the final nail in the coffin securing his first Tour de France victory. He produced a dominant TT display to come in second place behind his teammate and more importantly 7 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar his nearest rival. Today is about procession and about the sprinters. The road leading to Paris will be full of joy and merriment as the teams chat…
The Race of Truth Only 40.7km lie between the riders and the ceremonial Stage around Paris. The course mostly suits your pure TT specialists such as Filippo Ganna and Stefan Kung however there are two short bumps at the end (1.6km@4.7% and 1.5km@7.8% respectively) which could swing the final result in favour of your slighter rider. Your sprinters and their lead out men will just make sure to avoid the time limit today and save all…
Hautacam! It’s D-Day for Tadej Pogacar, unless he takes significant time on Jonas Vingegaard today the tour is essentially over. He will very likely beat Vingegaard in the time trial however it will not be by 2 minutes 19 seconds unless Vingegaard has a technical issue. The parcours for today are very similar to yesterday but with a little bit more spice added to the climbs. The stage is 143.2km long, of which the first…
Today is the shortest road stage of the Tour at 129.7km however it will potentially be one of the most decisive. The first half of the route is flat with the second half littered with four categorised climbs. The racing will be ferocious, there is no doubt. Will Tadej Pogacar finally unhinge Jonas Vingeg-glue as he has become affectionately known? The evidence to date certainly suggest that he will not but with nothing to lose…
