Our recent invitation to the Hillingdon racing circuit to see the Raleigh 2012 carbon road bikes bought to light that they were planning to offer in the UK a selection from the very interesting steel-based niche machines developed for the US market. One in particular, the Clubman which our Dave only saw as images and a spec list really caught his eye inclined as he is to bashing off the odd hilly Century on finely-wrought steel. This week Raleigh came good on their promise to show us the first one that arrived.
It seems odd that the company celebrating next year their foundation in Nottingham in 1887 should be focusing attention on America but that's been the apparent priority these last few years as they've clawed back a place for themselves in the world's largest bike market and upon which the strength of the brand is necessarily based.
The fact that Raleigh's heritage is partly based on what the Americans used to call "English Racers" isn't doing them any harm at all now that road bikes, 'Gran Fondo' rides and commuting to work are back on the Stateside agenda.
In what might be called 'carbon racing' they're as up against it as any company in that scary field where balancing the tightrope of low weight, competitive price, sufficient strength and the dreaded lateral stiffness/vertical compliance is the stuff of a bike company product manager's nightmares.
In the area where customers are looking for something else - certain undefinable aspects filed under 'character' - as well as extremely measurable features like price, longer-term performance and the ability to be repaired by a blacksmith up a track in the Gironde, the Raleigh folks can call on in-house memory; they haven't had to reinvent the wheel, as it where.
Despite the tradional-handling geometry, the modish sloping top tube will please bike shops used to sizing customers on mountain bikes and help riders with a comfortable, slightly raised front end. In short, Clubman looks like it should be great for everything except actual racing, heavy touring or traversing muddy fields. If you're the sort that plans on riding 5,000 - 10,000 road miles next year, mostly commuting with longer weekend rides, you'd likely have a very satisfactory year on a Clubman and just need to change the chain, cassette, tyres and brake blocks ready for another year.
OK, the Reynolds 520 cro-mo tubing isn't the lightest but neither are the fitted Vittoria 25mm tyres and Brooks Swift saddle; this is about going faster for longer and in comfort. The important thing is that the whole package comes in under the grand at 950 and we guarantee that if you bought this as a first proper road bike and later graduated to some flighty seducer for big rides, you could still be happily doing most of your daily mileage on this Clubman years later.
Up-to-date components like Shimano's latest 2x10-speed Tiagra transmission with a 50/34 crankset and 12-30 cassette will surely be appreciated for their deft shiftability, spares availability and interchangeability in the long run; that's a lot of abilities. Older touches to complement that saddle are traditional metal mudguards and looped stainless 'guard stays although we're less certain about how practical those painted 'guards are but, hey, they're going to look good in the showroom to match that neatly-finished frame.
2011年11月20日 星期日
2011年8月29日 星期一
A distinctly maternal air apparent on this year's show
The most memorable moment from Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards wasn’t a fight, or an interruption, or even a kiss. When we think back about the 28th annual VMAs, we’ll remember pop star Beyonce beaming onstage, rubbing her pregnant belly as if it was already an infant, while papa Jay-Z and well-behaved uncle Kanye West cheered her on from the front row of the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.
Beyonce had roared through “Love on Top,” a standout cut from her excellent “4” album about marital fidelity and the joys of impending motherhood. She’d danced purposefully, but cautiously (one might even say parentally), looking throughout like a woman with a secret she was dying to spill. After modulating her way through five choruses, each time reaching — and hitting — higher notes, she pulled open her glittering purple blazer to reveal what she’d already half-given away on the pre-show.
The VMAs used to belong to pop’s bad boys: Eminem, Kanye, Van Halen, Aerosmith. But beginning with Rihanna’s protective “Umbrella” in 2007, a solo female performer has taken the most coveted Moon Men every year.
Top honors in 2011 went to Katy Perry’s “Firework,” a deadly earnest self-empowerment ballad that plays like the advice a well-meaning mom might give an offbeat child who’d been bullied on the schoolyard. The video matches the sentiment. Perry inspires a child with leukemia, a shy young gay man, a victim of domestic abuse, and an overweight teenager; in a clumsy but well-meaning metaphor for personal expression, sparks erupt from her chest as she sings.
Because MTV targets a younger audience than the one that tunes in for the Grammys, the Video Music Awards show reflects the state of contemporary mainstream pop better than any other single event. For the past two years, the Billboard Hot 100 has been dominated by female voices with supportive messages for young misfits. It is telling thing that the most prominent male presence at the 2011 Video Music Awards was the fictitious greaser “Joe Calderone” — the drag alter-ego of Lady Gaga, the Mother Monster herself.
Beyonce had roared through “Love on Top,” a standout cut from her excellent “4” album about marital fidelity and the joys of impending motherhood. She’d danced purposefully, but cautiously (one might even say parentally), looking throughout like a woman with a secret she was dying to spill. After modulating her way through five choruses, each time reaching — and hitting — higher notes, she pulled open her glittering purple blazer to reveal what she’d already half-given away on the pre-show.
The VMAs used to belong to pop’s bad boys: Eminem, Kanye, Van Halen, Aerosmith. But beginning with Rihanna’s protective “Umbrella” in 2007, a solo female performer has taken the most coveted Moon Men every year.
Top honors in 2011 went to Katy Perry’s “Firework,” a deadly earnest self-empowerment ballad that plays like the advice a well-meaning mom might give an offbeat child who’d been bullied on the schoolyard. The video matches the sentiment. Perry inspires a child with leukemia, a shy young gay man, a victim of domestic abuse, and an overweight teenager; in a clumsy but well-meaning metaphor for personal expression, sparks erupt from her chest as she sings.
Because MTV targets a younger audience than the one that tunes in for the Grammys, the Video Music Awards show reflects the state of contemporary mainstream pop better than any other single event. For the past two years, the Billboard Hot 100 has been dominated by female voices with supportive messages for young misfits. It is telling thing that the most prominent male presence at the 2011 Video Music Awards was the fictitious greaser “Joe Calderone” — the drag alter-ego of Lady Gaga, the Mother Monster herself.
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