Those slender steel wires are one of many deceptively simple pieces of bike tech we take for granted, but they're vital. The twunk of one breaking spoke can set off a domino effect, successive snaps warping a wheel into half Pringle, half Picasso. It's one of cycling's less welcome sounds; but, more melodiously, bike wheels have been played like a chaotically tuned harp by experimental musicians. (There's a quaint b&w video of US rock legend Frank Zappa, pre-moustache, doing just that.)
Wooden wheels first appeared in various places around 6,000 years ago, notably modern-day Iraq, no doubt quickly followed by arguments about whether narrower ones had less rolling resistance. Wooden spokes - hence the first broken spokes and tooth-sucking wheel-builders - arose about 4,000 years ago.
この記事は Cycling Plus UK の October 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Cycling Plus UK の October 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
GANARY A COALMINE
The James Brown tune 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' comes on the radio, filling the coach, and does nothing for my pre-event nerves as I sit surrounded by serious-looking, wiry, tanned men in Lycra. It's 6.30am, pitch black outside and I'm feeling very out of my depth as a relative newcomer to the world of clipless pedals and hurting for fun. Last night's stress dream involved being very unprepared to get married and being handed my great-grandmother-in-law-to-be's hideous silver dress with lace trim to wear minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I'll let you psychoanalyse that one.
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Joined-up thinking
Connecting more rail stations to the NCN is long overdue
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Castelli’s breathable, close-fitting yet waterproof and windproof jacket marked a watershed in cycle clothing
Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
