NoMoreGears

Watt’s that

One of our bikes here at the Tour is equipped with the excellent SRM ergo meter. We are using that for our testing program together with a Polar Heart rate monitor. The SRM is great fun as it tell you you power output. Or maybe that is fun for some, less for me. Yesterday Joona managed to pull 560 watts just during filming. Today I cycled back after the start at Val d’ Isere to Tignes. I only managed 411 for a short period. Still it is good to know where you are and to get a wake up call to get fit again. Time to get back into the saddle.

Something only NuVinci can do…?

Today was a rest day at the Tour de France. Perfect for us to get to work and do some filming. Joona Laukka, ex Pro -he used to ride as the Lieutenant to Richard Virenque- took the ATC NuVinci bike for a spin in the mountains around Val d”Isere. Joona who now is manager of Polar’s cycling division knows a thing or two about the human body, especially the heart and the need of efficient cycling. Something the NuVinci hub brings in spades as it always allows you to ride at your optimum cadence. No more gears which are to high or to low. No more problematic gear changes.
Our camera man was also no slouch. Ex record holder of the world hour record before Induran. Both really enjoyed riding the bike and kept discovering new and amazing things about it. So I uploaded this little clip about Joona still having fun and discovering new things after nearly two hours of cycling in the full sun. Enjoy.
PS, obviously this was shot with our own camera. The real version will be available in a few weeks. I will try to show more in the next few days.

Tignes, will the favorites show their colours today.

So I am in the media park at the finish in Tignes. A few more hours before we expect the finish. Hope to find a screen to watch the last couple of climbs on. In a way it was predictable that yesterday the favorites stayed together. Watching each-other, trying to find out how they compare to the rest. So all favorites came over the finish more than three minutes behind the leader. What I did find strange is that they did not attack more on Vinokourov and Kloden. Each day they wait these two get a little bit better. Still despite all the negative publicity, it is here as packed as ever. People camping on the roadside, complete parties going on. Some bring their own beer tap and disco system. For some a climb is hell, for others it is party time. Time for me to go and find a screen. Enjoy the race.

skipping chains

Obviously I look now at different things then I used to. So this Tour I see different things. What I notice is how much a wrong gear change, a skipping chain changes the results of a race. it happened in the Tour de Suisse. it happened a few days ago with Kloden and then Vinokourov: “”I think that my chain skipped, and as a result I lost my balance.” So there goes to favorite of the Tour de France, because of the fragility of the current system. That is a real shame. I will do some more investigating and will write more about this later. Hopefully we can get some more people riding the bike.

Tour de France and

Haven’t spend time on the blog lately. Been in Taiwan, the US and every where in between. Working hard for the 2008 model year line up. NuVinci will be well represented in Europe next year. I am now at the Tour de France for some filming. We are working hard on defining the advantages of “always being in the right gear”. Always cycling at your optimum RPM is understood for electric motors and combustion engines alike. But it also goes up for your own motor. Consisting of your heart, lungs and muscles. So I am here for a few days to meet up with people of Polar (the heart rate monitors) and SRM, the ergo trainer, to translate the NuVinci advantage a more of a scientific translation.

Need power?

When we said that NuVinci would allow new bicycle designs and possibilities we weren’t kidding. But I have to admit that I did not see this one coming. Staton Inc of the USA sells a kit consisting out of a Honda GX35 1.6HP engine and the NuVinci hub. Only 1.6HP I thought? The NuVinci technology gives the motor some serious pulling punch though and is not to be stopped.

Pictures and pricing are on his site together with a write up of his experiences. As I mentioned, the NuVinci drive train really does help with its Under Drive: “Even then it would pull any hill that a car could ever climb and then some”. The tried to hold it down, but could not stop it. Not bad for no more gears.

Popular Science on NuVinci

Nice Article on page 20 in the July edition of Popular Science Magazine on the gear-less hub called NuVinci. Nice diagrams and explanation on how it works. Better yet, ride it and experience it yourself.

NuVinci and the Mac

I am a bit of Mac fan. Since I have been using the Mac I have been so much more productive. But what has this to do with the NuVinci blog? Last week was the Apple World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco. Most of it was all about the new Mac Operating System called Leopard which will be launched in October. Sad souls like me dream about this and follow all the blogs and web sites for the latest pics of the new OS. Apple, who loves to keep everything secret, tries anything to prevent any pictures of unreleased products. So it was a surprise when Wired magazine posted screen shots of the new Leopard. These screen shots where picked up by almost every major Apple technology site. But what caught my eye was what was on the picture. I could swear that this is a screen shot of Tony Ellsworh’s incredible “Ride” with the equally incredible NuVinci hub clearly visible. Agree or am I seeing things?

The other great race

Whilst I am trying to sneak some TV in from the Dauphiné Libéré or now the Tour de Suisse in the background. There is another great cycling event going on. On the 15th of this month, the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race started. The race follows the Great Divide, from the Canadian Rockies to the Mexican border.
The riders are not allowed any support and carry anything they need such as food, water, tools and shelter. Yet they ride this race in less than twenty days. Incredible.

Time, time time or priorities.

I have been neglecting the blog recently. Sometimes I wonder where time goes. So much to do, so much to cover. How do you set priorities? Sometimes I find it difficult to keep blogging about all the things we are doing. But I have a whole wave of updates coming. So after the info drought, we now can expect a info glut. Doesn’t make sense. Apologies.