Sphinx position

I still see people holding on to the gear cables. I laugh

Oh Jesse, gear cables. Definitely don't trust any "facts" I post up. It's been a long week. And it's only Wednesday.

I used to pretend I was cool by holding onto my brake cables!.

Was this roughly the same period as the long hair in a pony tail? Surely the amount of cool one man can achieve is limited. Nice to see that NZ omnium rider still models his appearance on you when you were 15 though!

Be careful. Geniune, first-hand knowledge from experience isn't the norm on this forum and is treated with distrust.

I make most of it up tbh, you'd be right to treat me with distrust, and probably disgust if you were to meet me in person.

Oh Jesse, gear cables. Definitely don't trust any "facts" I post up. It's been a long week. And it's only Wednesday.

Clearly a track rider so it's acceptable for you to have no knowledge of those silly gear cables ;)

I had a geared racing bike when most of you lot were still a glint in the old man's eye. It was a proper 10 speed.

That's ten in total, not just at the back.

It must have had an effect on me because it I didn't touch another geared road bike for about 16 years!

I didn't touch another bike for about 16 years!

You can tell!
prepares to look like a fool when you retain your London champs team sprint title

No chance. Age has caught up, I'm fat and old. Let that be a lesson to you.

I actually spent far too many years "enjoying" playing about on bikes and not racing. Failed framestands on the skyway didn't bless me with a standing start of doom, and plopping an Azonic mtb down stair sets in town then going for 5 pints of guinness did not help my top speed.

You're never too old

I'm too old for a club 18-30 holiday!

I wonder how many people's bikes won't pass muster? it's usual at the nationals to have league riders made to move their set up just before an important race (Stelle, remember?) so it kinda makes sense to toe the line beforehand so you are not used to an illegal position.

Agree totally - but I didn't even know there was a line to toe before I got there! (yes, I should have know with BC there would be a rule about it)

I did subsequently get a morphological exemption, which just adds more confusion to the situation - how do riders know if they can get a morphi-wotsit wotsit, and if you do, how do you know if your bike complies within that sub-rule? The method they used looked pretty random and involved measuring bits of space before going 'yeah, that's ok'. I think they might just have been bored of seeing me.

And Rob? You're NEVER too old for an 18-30 holiday ;)

well, if the front of your knee does not extend past a vertical line taken from the pedal spindle when the pedals are horizontal, you can have your saddle past the 5cm rule (but not past the BB vertical), useful for people with short femurs!

I believe there are also similar rules about the aero bar positions but I don't know exactly what they are without searching

And Rob? You're NEVER too old for an 18-30 holiday ;)

Or too young judging by the '18' (15) year old a mate of mine once pulled on one.

Your 'mate' guy. Yeah, yeah, we all believe you.

he's got some dodgy "mates" by the sound of it!

To be fair to him, he was only 18 at the time.

Morally retrospectively forgiven, legally guilty as charged then.

All measurements are in the UCI and BC rule book.

I was taught as a youth rider to to know the rulebook back to front because most times the coms don't and take chances. If you know the rules you know how to use them to your advantage. It's also your responsibility as a rider to know them.

Say "I did not know" on the day ain't gonna help.

:-(

I have just taken a set of these of my TK2 and replaced with airwings. Just wondering about this sphinx position though. Whats so different about these bars? They dont seem that much different to a drop bar?

Have a closer look.

the biggest effect of them is to extend the position forward, as well as to create the new hand position. also you can't really hold the tops cos of the aero shape. Think they are also a bit flexy in the drops. overall, not particularly awesome for a novice, and really quite a weird thing that Felt decided to put a 230 quid bar on the TK2 as standard.

http://www.3tcycling.com/files/Briefing-%20Sphinx%20for%20UCI%20comp.pdf

the biggest effect of them is to extend the position forward, as well as to create the new hand position. also you can't really hold the tops cos of the aero shape. Think they are also a bit flexy in the drops. overall, not particularly awesome for a novice, and really quite a weird thing that Felt decided to put a 230 quid bar on the TK2 as standard.

I was thinking exactly the same thing regarding price, especially considering its about a quarter of the price i paid for the bike, thats a lot to set aside for bars.

Mick

http://www.3tcycling.com/files/Briefing-%20Sphinx%20for%20UCI%20comp.pdf

Cheers for that, it explains it nicely. What does the slightly further forward position do tho, does it improve power or something?

Watching the Euro's at the weekend, I can't seem to remember many (if anyone) using Sphinx bars in the endurance events. Lots of people resting their hands over the top of the bars though.

Have they not been adopted wholesale becauce of the above UCI ruling ? If you have to run a shorter stem, it's going to mess up your position in the drops ?

UCI don't like the bars and have started getting really tough on the rules. Most bike will fail even with a short stem.

Many riders, including my brother and Richard Prince (Planet X team mate) failed bike check at the Masters Worlds recently and had to change bars.