Rule #31 was conceived out of necessity, aesthetics and plain good taste. Seeing an oversized saddle bag hanging limply by velcro under a Flite, Arione or Regal just isn’t right. Frame pumps, while they undoubtedly do the finest job of inflating a tube, add nothing but bulk and clutter to the lines of a frame (and aren’t compatible with the majority of curvy, plastic frames prominent today). While a folded tubular held under the seat with a Christophe toe-strap may have been de riguer and kinda cool back in the day, running tubs nowadays is not only uncommon, but an exercise in futility should one ride on any road less smooth and glass-free than a baby’s bum. So you see, Rule #31 was a no-brainer.
But even this most important of Rules has its drawbacks; stuffing the three pockets of your jersey can leave you looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, albeit with the hunch on the lower back, and more akin to a series of tumours across the hips and lower spine. Not a pretty sight. My usual pocket-stuffing routine would entail a tube and tyre levers bundled together with a rubber band, stuffed in the middle pocket, with a mini pump accompanying it. The phone would go in the right hip pocket, along with a camera (if there were to be some photo ops along the route, or blatant bike porn shots) and gels and bars in the left. Any extraneous clothing shed en route (arm warmers, cap, gloves) would then be forced in wherever they would fit. If a jacket was required, then all hell would break loose.
But recently I happened by chance upon an item that has made my life, and my riding experience all the easier and clutter-free. Lezyne products were having a season launch of their new, cool gear, and everyone attending received a free gift; in my case, I was handed the Caddy Sack, a simple PVC pouch. Inside was a metal patch kit with glueless patches, and a pair of mini tyre levers. I took it with a degree of dismissal, thinking it would just end up in the pile of superfluous bike crap scattered around my house. But I decided I’d see how much I could load it up, and was surprised to find that it holds a veritable shitload of gear. There’s room aplenty for a tube, levers, patch kit, multi tool, card wallet and phone. But if I want to, I can easily ft in another tube, a bar or two and a couple of gels. And it fits with ease into the middle pocket of all my jerseys, especially the sweet V jersey which is always the go-to garment of choice. This leaves the two outside pockets with more room than ever for whatever the ride requires from the aforementioned list-of-crap-one-may-carry.
Sitting alongside the 31 Sack is always the best mini pump I’ve ever used, the Lezyne Pressure Drive M (for medium). Why is it the best? Just look at it! It’s sexy, yeah, but for such a small unit it packs plenty of air into each stroke, and I can get a geniune 100PSI into my tubes during any roadside repair. But the best feature is the flexible screw-in hose, which eliminates the chance of breaking off the screw-on end of Presta valves, as has happened to the best of us when vigourously hacking away with a fixed-head pump. C’mon, admit it, you’ve done it. No more chance of that with this little beauty. Quite simply, it rules (31 especially).
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
Not a recommended deer-season approach to riding.
@Nate
I've got a bright red Mt Hardware wind jacket that serves me well, but you're right, it's not blaze orange - the universal color of "don't shoot my ass, I'm not a deer". That'd be worse than a YJA though, no thanks, I'll take my chances.
I'm really diggin' Il Progetto. Since that first shakedown I've probably got 300k or so on it. I'd say I worked out all the bugs but there haven't been any. It works really well. I'd say it feels just (or at least remarkably) like a steel frame but it's been so long since I've ridden a steel frame I don't want to push it. I will say it's hella smoother (compliant if you speak Huang) than any Alu frame
I've ever ridden. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with the tapered seat and down tubes with a little bit of carbon fiber seat post and 28's thrown in. At 19/20 pounds it's a scale tipper but climbs well for its weight. Shifting is flawless, handling is rock solid, and the bike just feels bomber, is totally silent, and guiltily I wonder if I like it more than #1 sometimes. Of course bike #1 hasn't seen any action in a couple weeks due to weather and the fact that I blew my last 60mm stem tube and am awaiting more. Oh, and BTW, the Elite Ciussi cages are pimp, yellow nubbins and everything. Thanks for asking.
Thinking about the physics, when you are climbing out of the saddle, you whole mass is on your legs. This change in mass is one reason why it is both harder/more tiring and also why you generate more power. If you have your pockets crammed with a million things, you are adding mass to yourself, thus requiring more force to lift yourself against the force of gravity when climbing out of the saddle.
How much extra force? I don't know. Does it counterbalance the adding moving weight on the bike? I don't know as it depends on how violently you toss your bike about while climbing. As the saddlebag is not rotational weight, the only motion it sees that the rider might not see is some side-to-side swaying.
All that said, as an engineer I choose function over form when the two have competing utilities. I don't let aesthetics get in the way of the quality of my ride. If I break a few rules, that's fine because I'll still be adhering to the mother rule: The V.
@frank
Maybe we can tempt those french guys who obsessively test tire rolling resistance to expand their research interests.
@Collin
So, could the answer depend on your climbing style?
Explain please Frank how inertia applies to the rider's pockets as opposed to under the saddle or in a bottle cage? The only difference would be if you had your saddle bag strapped to your rims. Even if you're standing you still have to move exactly the same amount of mass - the energy expenditure of moving it on the bike would be the same as in the pockets.
@Marko Trigger-happy hunters are a sore point down this way - young teacher from local school killed recently by moron shooting at night from pick-up truck who mistook her for a deer. Am reasonably comfortable it will not happen to me, as I wear one of these http://www.exelite.co.nz/recreational.html?product=lumisash (regardless of whether or not it is Rule-compliant). Unless anyone is out hunting moving Christmas trees, I think I am safe. Deer are not a hazard here, either - they stick to the bush and run away before you even see them. (Wild goats and pigs are less flighty, and I have nearly tumbled off my MTB after being surprised by a goat leaping onto the track just ahead of me.) I did, however, have an "oops - nearly" moment on my ride last night. A glorious evening for a ride, I climbed from the 'burbs into the country with the reflections of the city lights in the ironing-board flat harbour gradually receding from view until I was all alone on an unlit country road. Just as I started to grin uncontrollably with the tranquilo of it all as I rolled downhill into the darkness, a piercing bleat right beside me shattered the stillness - the protest of a grumpy sheep disturbed by my intrusion on its own moment of peace. The sudden shock resulted in the predictable flinch and consequent sudden loss of on-board stability. Very glad there were neither vehicles around to collide with, nor people around to witness it and record it for posterity.
@Oli Brooke-White
Isn't the point that the amount of energy used in shifting a given mass depends on how much you shift it - so that, if it gets shifted more on the body than the bike as a result of side-to-side and up-and-down body movement relative to bike, more energy will be expended than if it was just attached to the bike (or vice versa, if your body is still and your bike moves a lot)? Having said that, I am not sure that any effect would be material relative to other factors more easily addressed (wheelset, how fat you are, etc).
@Oli Brooke-White, @G'phant
G'phant, that's exactly right; the bike moves quite a bit more than the body, hopefully - for example if you're standing and swaying the bike back and forth, or if riding over bumps, the bike would move up and down and your body would use your arms and legs to absorb shock and would itself move less than the bike. I'm not saying it's a lot, but it would be a measurable, if insignificant, difference.
As a thought experiment, imagine a really heavy saddlebag that is filled with, say, a kilo of lead. Attach it to your saddle very loosely with a soft bit of Velcro or something so that it does not stay put very well. Then, if you stand and sway the bike back and forth, there would be a noticeable and significant effect caused by the bag moving about.
If you instead put the kilo of lead on your back, you'd definitely feel the strain of the added weight on your back and in your legs, but it would be constant and less prone to the effects of movement and therefor take less energy to transport it.
Now, the lighter the bag and the more firmly it's attached to the frame the less you'll notice, but the effect still exists, even if it's negligible.
@G'phant
I couldn't read anything after clicking your link to that abomination of a vest because I blacked out and only just came to. I hope you're joking, else there will be a new Rule in your honor detailing the extent to which that violates The Rules.
While I expect you ride in your V-Kit under normal circumstances, I pray to Merckx that you you have the decency to wear other kit when you don that thing.