It’s crazy to me how fast two months from peaking goes by. At Christmas time I remember thinking how distant the Keepers Tour 2012 felt and that I’d have plenty of time to train. Now that time is measured in weeks instead of months and my feelings tend more toward doubt about my form. Cycling in Northeastern Minnesota in January, February, and March entails a mix of trainer time and wondering how well skate skiing will translate to riding a bike fast and far. I hope those frites are fried in clenbuterol.
Of course there are myriad other ways the other Keepers and I have been preparing for the Keepers Tour. Aside from the mundane tasks of making plane reservations and figuring out train schedules from Amsterdam to Lille, there are the fun tasks of acquiring new gear for our #1 Steeds which we’ve chronicled on these pages. We’ve had numerous shouting matches that have ended with at least one of us storming out of the boardroom over t-shirt designs, Gianni’s VMH has been frantically sewing musettes (they live on Maui so how frantic could it be?), Brett has been scouring travelogues of Amsterdam’s red light district in between training and racing with Rigid in the Austral summer, and I shudder every time I think of what Frank’s to-do list is like. I’ve seen it – it’s three pages long. All this, when executed perfectly, is surely going to amount to the most rad week of drunken debauchery Flanders has ever known and that’s really saying something. There’s no way they’ll let us back there which is why we’ve also begun planning the next Keepers Tour in Italy for the Giro.
With these preparations we are excited to announce fi’zi:k as the official contact point supplier of the Keepers Tour. We’ve extolled the quality, style, and passion fizik has for cycling since we started this site. In fact, I’d say most of us in the community ride, at a minimum, their bar tape. As it happens, the good folks at fizik aren’t offended enough by what we do and are followers of the site; a partnership was the next obvious step for two groups of people so unyieldingly devoted to Cycling.
What this partnership represents to us is affirmation of our community from the broader cycling world – a community that has grown with us and continues to contribute to our identity and which challenge us to be better. fizik values what we do and have agreed to support us in doing more of it, in style, with rad gear. This partnership doesn’t mean tiles or ads cluttering up the clean look of the site any more than fizik clutters up the clean lines of their saddles and shoes with unnecessary accouterments. It does mean that you’ll see more Keepers riding with more fizik gear and consequently a few articles related to fizik products, some tweets, friendfacing, and a few embedded links (per usual). Keepers Tour attendees will also find a few fizik goodies tucked inside their Velominati Mussette. And, if you haven’t already noticed, pay attention the next time you type “f-i-z-i-k” into a post, our boy-genius programmer did something nifty there as well. We’ll also emphasize that it is our strict policy that no Reverence article will ever be written by request of a vendor and, while we may elect to continue to Revere the fizik line of products, designation of a product as Reverence-worthy is solely at the discretion of the author.
For our part, we approached fizik because we believe in their products. Reverence for the best gear available is the domain of the Velominatus and we know that while you may disagree with our specific choices, you feel the same way in principle. That’s why you’re here. fizik is one of us; have a look at their site, check out the feedzone newsletter, even subscribe to them on twitface if you’re so inclined. They do a lot of insightful and behind the scenes posting about some of our favorite teams and riders – stuff you won’t get from the usual suspects.
What it boils down to is that fizik is Rule compliant. That’s something we can all get behind.
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View Comments
@Marko
Its like the ancient Tibetan saying: "Don't start none, won't be none."
@Monkeyscat
I am 99% sure there are two men in that picture.
@prowrench
While I agree with you on the direction of wrapping the bar tape I have seen many pro mechanics do it the other way round.Doing everything like pro mechanics do can get you in a lot of shit like rinsing the bike from the pressure karcher etc.Time is important to pro mechanics and not how long will your bike or your bearings last.
Same goes for bar tape.One per week is a standard so who cares about direction?I do for sure however this pro mechanic clearly doesn't care about what you said
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FHfCPfcUD8
Here's the bike wash video.Time is important and not how long your bike will last.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es4-i1fHBbs
@Oli
@frank
Strong work to the both of you. My personal technique is to wrap towards the outside ("backwards" according to Frank) finish with black electrical tape under the fizik finishing tape , lettering oriented right side up when looking at the bike from the front (it's way more important what the bike looks like to others than what it looks like to me). I end the wrap right where the bar starts to taper up to the stem clamp and overlap the finishing tape so that the OD of the final wrap is exactly the same as the OD of the bar at the stem clamp, i.e. a straight, flat transition. And I always make sure the k: on the plugs are correctly oriented. We probably need a bar tape pron gallery somewhere on the site btw.
@TommyTubolare
Great vid and indeed, Grom (the mech in the 3T vid) is wrapping the direction I wrap. Incidentally, we interviewed him a few years back. Garmin's Kris "Grom" Withington.
On the subject of bike washes - not sure I can go as quick as that vid, but I do a brush and bucket wash that gets the bike spotless in 15 minutes or less. Maybe we'll do a video of it at Keepers Tour; its not a comprehensive wash, but it gets it looking great and in good order in no time flat.
@sgt
Hm. That's something I need to pay attention to. Mine are all cockeyed.
@frank
Brush and bucket system is always good but not the karcher or other pressure rinsing.You see in the video how strong the pressure is.Normal rinse with a sponge will take just a bit longer and you avoid a lot of trouble with water getting into bearings and washing out the grease.
If your bar tape feels and looks good to you it's all that matters.I always insert the plugs straight though.It might be only the picture however the k on the fizik bar plug logo appears upside down?
@Oli
Very nicely wrapped and finished tape Oli.
@frank
Pics when I retape this week (Nate had me feeling self-conscious about my moderately worn tape this weekend)
@sgt
report coming soon I hope?
@frank
At the risk of sounding like a total butt kisser, I can't agree more with Frank on this one. Tape rolls to the outside on the drops, and over toward the front on the tops. There is a very steep learning curve on tape application. As I noted above, I just put new fizik tape on this weekend. It is not perfect, but is better than the 2 year old OEM Bonti that it replaces. I do like the look of the stripe of color inboard, as it shows off the attention to detail on the cut. I have seen some bar top rings though. They look nice, but the fizik tape is better.
Interestingly, by box of fizik tape did not include that finishing piece. Is this standard with a certain type of fizik tape? Perhaps only with the white tape?
And may it please the Keepers - would custom V-Cog end plugs be rule compliant? I know a source....