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ZAP: ZAP'S BEST OF 2009 PART 1
Zap
December 29, 2009
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If it's the end of the year you gotta figure there would be a "best of" story somewhere... here's what I saw in 2009 that impressed me
Best Gloves: Like helmets, shoes and saddles, gloves are a highly personal item when it comes to fit and style. Longtime helmet maker Giro has jumped into the glove market with a Herculean effort with more styles and designs than most glove makers produce in a decade. From some wanky leather gloves best left on the fairway (or with the fixie crowd) to a nice range of winter gloves and my new personal faves, the svelte Rivets, Giro's rookie season in the glove world was impressive.
Best Hybrid Frame: BMC Racemaster SLX01 At 17 lbs. it wasn't carbon fiber light and it was just a tad noodly feeling compared to some of the stiff monocoque carbon bikes. In addition to its good handling, the cool looks and hi-tech frame, the cost/benefit analysis ($1995 frame & fork) was what helped make the carbon/aluminum bike a standout.
Best Creative Outlet: The hype over the “Fixie revolution” is of course, just that – hype (like the t-shirt said ”Singlespeeds – the new rollerblades!”). Still, one look at the Tange booth at the Eurobike show will prove that even overblown trends have the ability to bring good things, as in steel frames, to the world.
Best Person to be Stuck on a Desert Island With: If I had to be stuck on a desert island with any one person my first choice would of course be my daughter. But I know she would complain endlessly about not having Facebook handy and the lack of TIVO. Bobke also came to mind, but since life on a desert island is supposed to eventually drive you mad, I figured why start off with someone who is already insane? Eventually Wayne Lumpkin was my choice. Wayne has been in the bike industry for years and has just come back to it after years away due to a self-imposed exile (he sold his Avid brake company to SRAM). Sure, Wayne would drive me crazy with his car versus motorcycle bias and hyper-meticulous nature, but between his fetish for good red wine and all around rocket science intelligence, I figure he'd be just the guy capable of saving us by fashioning two coconuts and some seaweed into a some kind of island Internet service. Wayne is now back at single-speed bike company Spot and even though I could care less about that breed of bike, I'm confident that soon enough he'll start to tackle some road bike component projects and we'll all have something to covet for our own bikes. Good people (like Wayne) help make for a good industry.
Best Entertainment: In terms of being a pure racer with magnificent aggression, nerve and sheer bravado, no other rider made watching bike racing on TV more worthwhile than Mark Cavendish.
Best Chamois: This category was the only one where it was almost a tie. Back in June I tried on pair of Gore Xenon Sonic bibs and they offered up a great fit and ride. Chock full of cool features (four panel cut, abrasion resistant material at inside leg and saddle area, and shifted seams for less chafing), the icing on the lycra cake was their Sonic seat pad. Perfectly shaped and super comfortable.
Flash forward to Interbike and Castelli hands me their radical new Body Paint short. With their unique single panel design/construction and lightweight fabric, the feel is just like the name implies - painted on the body. Overall however, the tantilizing lack of feeling that the Castelli's provide is undone by the pattern they're cut to...a little on the shallow side from the the bottom of the leg to the mid-section and without any elastic thigh grippers, the shorts have a tendency to rise.
Since this is a “best of” list, there should be a winner and for me it's the Gore short. Additional kudos to chamois maker CTech for consistently offering the best chamois on the market as well.
Best Celebrity Effort: Over the years it seems we always hear about one celebrity or another who has discovered the bicycle and who A. precedes to hire a publicist to tell all the cycling journos about it, and then B. use the publicity to call a bike company to try to get a free bike. Worse, the extent of their riding is also so nominal as to make the whole endeavor stupid. Not so with Laird Hamilton. As if the stories of his physical exploits as a big wave surfer weren't already the stuff of legend, this year Laird participated in RAAM and started out the cross-country race by first paddling his surfboard down the Pacific Coast to the start. Laird is the real deal.
Best Technology: The details. Bicycles are such simple creations. Two wheels, some tubes, some random parts and a chain. And yet, there are few other consumer goods that still behold such an impressive level of detailed craftsmanship and ingenuity.
Best New Technology: Okay, so even though it's not entirely new since Shimano has been race testing it for the last two years, their Di2 electronic drivetrain is nonetheless a remarkable piece of componentry. The big question to me is how it eventually (if ever) becomes integrated into a lower cost Ultrega price point.
Best New Energy Device: Clif's White Chocolate Macadamia Nut energy bar. As good with coffee in the kitchen and it is with warm water on the road.
Best Man To Have In France: Hey, I'll admit it, if it wasn't for Chris Henry I'd probably still be in France, lost and sucking Citroen fumes! He spoke the language, he preferred to drive and enthusiastically worked long hours. The worst part of our time together was when we lost all of his CD's in Barcelona (did I do that!?), although (truth be told), I hated most of his music, I was bummed to know that he still faced two more weeks on the road with nothing but the French radio to listen to - sorry Chris.
Wheels: For years clincher fans have been left out of all the carbon hoop fanfare. But that has all changed because for as long as the tubular minority were able to feel even more precious than usual, sinister forces were at work creating carbon wheels for the masses – and now everybody with an inner-tube and tire iron can celebrate. From the good looking (made in Mexico) Easton rims to the super-duper, high-end (made in Germany) Lightweights and everything in between, the world of carbon clinchers has exploded and the carbon tubie geeks got nothing on the clincher crowd anymore.
Best Method of Aggravation: The world of C02 cartridges and inflators. From a short distance they all look alike...until you pull it out on a deserted expanse of highway only to then realize that the cartridge you have is threaded but the inflator isn't.
Look for the rest of my best of 2009, Stay Tuned
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