If you are a cyclist in, ahem, late midlife, you remember the “drillium” craze of the 1970s and early 1980s. Some component manufacturers offered “holey” stuff—usually chainrings (which sometimes looked quite nice, especially if they were black and the holes were silver) and other non-weight bearing parts. Most manufacturers, however, advised against customers drilling at home: They claimed that their parts were already as light as they could be without compromising safety.
The “drillium” craze also included fluting and slotting parts like brake levers, stems and seatposts. Then there is this Zeus crankset, which I recently saw on Craigslist:
During the time this crankset was made, one of the ways Zeus tried to appeal to racers and weight weenies was by offering stuff that was “lighter than Campy.” (They were one of the first manufacturers to use titanium.) To me, this crankset represents the heights or depths, depending on your point of view, of “drillium,” just as some listeners will say that Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” which came out at around the same time, highlights the best or worst things about progressive rock.
Back in the day, we referred to it as "suicide gear": something that would be unwise to ride in a mass-start race. This included the usual milled & drilled crankarms, carved-out saddles, and 24-spoke radial front wheels. Basically stuff that might get one through a couple of 25mi time trials before something broke.
ReplyDeleteAt least in a time trial, one was less likely to take anyone else to the tarmac with them.
Mike—Your insightful comment got me to thinking about my racing experience, however limited, and governing bodies’ equipment regulations.
ReplyDeleteI participated in a few mass-start races and saw how an equipment failure could—and did—lead to a mass crash. That, I believe, is one reason why the UCI has a weight “floor” of 6.8 kilos, or slightly less than 15 pounds. While it might also be intended to keep rich riders, teams and countries from having unfair technological advances, I also think the folks at UCI, for all of the organization’s cynicism and corruption, realize that having half of the peloton tumble down due to someone’s collapsed wheel or broken seatpost wouldn’t be good. And I think they realize that there is an even greater risk of such a scenario if riders or mechanics try to alter carbon frames and parts: Carbon is woven before being encased in plastic, and in trying to lighten a part or frame, someone could break a fiber or weave and thus compromise the integrity of the part or frame.
I have never done any track racing (at least not formally 😆) but I have ridden in velodromes, individually and in groups. So I know that because tracks are steeply banked, and riders are even closer together, there is less room for error—or equipment failures. That is a reason why Japan’s Keirin equipment regulations are, arguably, the strictest in the world: a racer can’t use a part—not even a toe clip— that isn’t approved by the NJS. Some have criticized the organization from sticking to technology from the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. While not the lightest available, the equipment is time-tested and unlikely to break under such extreme conditions. The NJS is not only thinking about rider safety: Bets are placed on Keirin races and bettors want to be sure that races won’t be decided by broken equipment.
I think the reasons I mentioned for other equipment regulations also factored into the ban on wooden rims. While lighter and as strong as alloy rims available at the time of the bans (around 1960), they were also more brittle Moreover, they were usually laced very tautly and ridden with tubular tires pumped to extremely high pressure . A crash or other failure that “pretzeled”‘or “taco’ed”’a metal rims caused their wooden counterparts to shatter, sending jagged or razor sharp shards not only in the direction of other riders—or spectators.
—Justine