Le tour du monde à vélo, de Françoise et Claude Hervé est le récit de voyage, en vingt chapitres, d’un couple qui, partis en 1980 pour trois ans autour du monde, est revenu quatorze années plus tard, avec 150 000 kilomètres au compteur et… un enfant !
To fit the cleats, you’ll need to make sure your cycling shoes are compatible with the two-bolt SPD cleats preferred for mountain bike shoes and urban riding, not the three-bolt cleats used on road cycling shoes.
There’s an arrow at the front of each cleat to make sure you attach them to your shoes the right way round. They’re interchangeable between left and right shoes.
The only clue as to which type of cleat you have is the SH51 cleats are black, whereas the SH56 cleats are silver-coloured, plus there’s an M embossed on the rear-facing tab of the SH56.
On the other hand, most riders find it relatively easy to get used to single-release SH51 cleats and the twisting-out action necessary to disengage. The learning curve is a lot less steep than with the road-going SPD-SL pedal system.
If you’re riding on more technical terrain, particularly off-road, having multiple release angles may be a disadvantage, because you’re much more likely to come unclipped when you don’t want to. That’s why Shimano’s off-road pedal range comes with SH51 cleats rather than SH56.
When comparing Shimano SPD SH51 and SH56 cleats, the main distinction lies in their release mechanisms. The SPD SH51 cleats offer a single-release direction, allowing riders to disengage from the pedals by twisting their heels outward. This design provides a secure and reliable connection, making them a popular choice for off-road cycling and mountain biking.
On the other hand, the SPD SH56 cleats feature a multi-release design, enabling riders to disengage from the pedals by twisting their heels outward or pulling their feet directly upward. This versatility makes them well-suited for riders who may encounter challenging situations or prefer a quick and easy release, such as commuters and recreational cyclists.
Chromoly is a chrome-alloy steel with a medium carbon content and .8% – 1.1% molybdenum for strength. It is a steel that is stronger than carbon steel (more commonly used in bike manufacturing), so we can use thin wall tubing, giving you a lightweight frame that will last through years of riding.
The sport started in Japan and dates to 1948, when it was created specifically as a betting sport. Even now it remains just one of four sports upon which betting is legal (the others being horse racing, boat racing, and Formula 1).
The sport is highly regulated in Japan, because of the gambling involved. Before each race, cyclists announce their tactics so people know how to bet. For example, a rider may say he will ride seiko, staying out front but not getting aggressive until the very end. Riders’ positions within the pace line often play to specific strengths, like sprinting or blocking. The sport requires exceptional endurance, as top-tier racers—who can earn many hundreds of thousands of dollars annually—may compete in as many as a dozen races a day during meets that last four days. Competitors are housed in dormitories and denied access to the Internet or phones, to prevent cheating or other shenanigans that may affect the betting.
You might gain a more comfortable ride using 650B wheels and tires, since the increased volume in the tires might allow you to use a lower pressure than with the 700X 28mm-30mm tires. Traction is another area where this swap might make sense for the rider, as a bigger, wider contact patch results when a lower pressure 650B tire is used over that of the 700c X 28-30mm tire.
I could always feel that I was pedaling more with the 650B wheels versus a set of 700c X 38-40mm wheels and tires. Momentum can be an important thing on looser gravel, or softer terrain, and in these cases, I feel a 700c wheel set has a bit of an upper hand. That said, it is hard to argue that a 650B and fat tire set up tubeless does not have a better ride feel than anything 700c X 40mm or so.
I feel a smaller diameter wheel is a bit less stable in terms of getting knocked off line, or in terms of lateral stability on loose gravel, than a 700c wheel and fat gravel tire.
The move to form the Cycling Marketing Board comes after research showed the potential in engaging new audiences, many introduced to cycling through the COVID-19 pandemic. New cyclists were 59% male and 41% female, it was found, with women having been twice as likely to start cycling during the pandemic. New cyclists were twice as likely to be from a BAME group.
The concept is simple. A neutral track racer—not a derny motorcycle as used at the Olympics—starts in front of a peloton of nine racers and sets the pace for about a mile. He systematically increases the speed to 50 kilometers per hour and leaves the track half a mile before the finish. That’s when the keirin racers start jostling for position before making their sprints to the finish line.
World War II left Japan in massive debt. Money was necessary for the country to rise up from the debris of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so, in 1948, the Japanese government introduced the sport of keirin, with the intent of gaining from the gambling that accompanied it. The same goes for keiba (horse racing) and keitei (powerboat racing).
That is why the keirin rulebook has remained unchanged since its introduction 70 years ago. This is the opposite of the rules in western sports, where they are ever changing. So today, every keirin race in Japan is still based on nine identical steel-framed track bikes, the only difference between them being the seat’s height.
It’s a gambling sport, so the money the racers make depends on the bets made by keirin fans. At the beginning of each race, those fans receive information on the competing cyclists, including their condition, the thickness of their thighs, their blood type, their race tactics and, in some cases, their zodiac sign. For the people watching this is more than a sport.
Injuries are very common here—the average keirin racer breaks his collarbone twice in his career. That’s understandable if you know about all the contact allowed during the sprints. You even see the occasional head butt, which in turn explains why the helmets are the size of an astronaut’s.
The monastic life on the Izu peninsula prepares the students for the loneliness of a keirin tournament. Before each tournament, they go into a kind of quarantine, to counter match fixing. Again, the riders have to hand over their mobile phones and laptops to the organizers, and just a bed, a bicycle and a series of races await them. For days, they can only talk to each other.
I’ve found tires make much more a difference in ride quality over frame material. In fact, I’d be willing to bet an honest blind test would reveal the steel/alum/carbon frame debate null. Agree with fit being your best indicator.
For gravel, steel all the way. If you can get on wider tires, all the better.
Au niveau des matériaux, on trouve principalement de l’acier, de l’aluminium du carbone. L’acier, solide, est plutôt destiné à un usage loisir, pour la randonnée ou les parcours un peu cassants alors que le cadre carbone, plus léger et nerveux sera plutôt destiné à la route ou à un usage très sportif. L’aluminium représentant un excellent compromis entre les 2.
From a functional/practical stand point I think there are many instances where carbon forks do not make sense (e.g., commuter bikes), but manufactures include them because of the public perception out there (which ironically manufacturers helped create). For most regular bikes, I think a steel fork is a more sensible choice: It typically offers a compliant ride and is more robust to physical damage than carbon; but many would view a steel fork as a step backwards simply because steel is colloquially viewed as an «old» material.
