Categories: Accessories and GearDefining MomentsLa Vie VelominatusNostalgia

Defining Moments: Dust Caps

Rollin' Dirty

I genuinely miss the eighties. Funny Bikes, which I say without thinking this though. Then again, time trial bikes today are basically road bikes with a position for tuned for “more speed”. In other words, switching to your TT bike today is like switching from your road bike to a slightly less comfortable road bike, with your arms sticking out. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, switching to your TT bike was roughly the same as swapping out your warmblood for a dragon.

There are many more reasons I miss the 80’s, for the record. Black shorts, off the top of my tiny brain. Also the adorable electrical tape patterns mechanics made over the valve stem hole on disc wheels, for more speed, as generously modelled by little Andy H. Also those Lycra covers on the hairnets they used to wear, also for more speed.

I don’t have to tell you that the shades back then make my heart go pitter-patter. I still have a pair of Factory Pilots/Eye Shades; I also rushed out to the store to buy a pair of Jawbreakers last week, just because they look so old school. Also because they are orange and white and I am a sucker for orange and white.

Everyone has a “shades sponsor” these days, but if you lacked one back then, it was all-in on the sweatband sponsor. “Wow! You make a double-tall sweat-band? These ‘roids make me sweat ‘double-tall’ so…YES PLEASE.”

Then there were the gears and chainsets. The first version of a “compact” was introduced in the 80’s; it was a 52/39, downgraded from the usual 52/42. Which was a downgrade from a 44 which was the smallest chainwheel my 70’s-era Raleigh’s Wiesmann crankset accepted.

But my favorite thing about the 80’s was the missing dust caps on cranksets; Andy doesn’t have one here, and I didn’t have one either. The day I realized I could shed 0.0032 grams by pulling out the dust cap was the day I became a Velominatus.

Fuck Yeah Eighties. Fuck yeah.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Voyeurs »

Previous « Guest Article: Science Project

View Comments

Bruce Lee says:

May 26 2015 at 11:05 am

Hinault was such a bad-ass, dustcaps or not he was going to beat the living crap out of his 753 frame and anyone who dared to sit on his wheel. Moser, on the other had, knew that the only way to keep up with the Badger was to show up with a set of disc wheels, a swim cap, and drop the 42t chainring off the bike to save weight. Moser's frame, outweighs Hinaults twice over with all the extra tubing. But both are running bitchin' cool Campy aero brake levers, so with aerodynamics properly equalized the pair dealt out a drubbing to the rest of the Barrachi Trophy field.

The 80's ruled.
Ron says:

May 26 2015 at 11:10 am

Nate - '84 Chevrolet Caprice Classic wagon with a maroon-on-maroon color scheme. Considering I went to a $ private college, I was a top oddball. Mercedes, Range Rovers, Audis...and a big old station wagon. We'd ride around campus 3 in the front seat, three in the middle, a few in the back.

The sad part was when my parents finally got rid of it by donating it to Salvation Army. Every few months I'd see it go by on the road. Argh, seeing it still out there but it was not longer mine, so tough.
Nate says:

May 26 2015 at 11:31 am

@Ron

Nate – ’84 Chevrolet Caprice Classic wagon with a maroon-on-maroon color scheme. Considering I went to a $ private college, I was a top oddball. Mercedes, Range Rovers, Audis…and a big old station wagon. We’d ride around campus 3 in the front seat, three in the middle, a few in the back.

The sad part was when my parents finally got rid of it by donating it to Salvation Army. Every few months I’d see it go by on the road. Argh, seeing it still out there but it was not longer mine, so tough.

Mine was metallic charcoal with burgundy interior.

I was popular for having a very useful wagon. I was involved with the college radio station and I'd transport and set up the mobile DJ unit at the weekend parties -- $75 bucks a pop, for a half hour of work.

Also drove back and forth from the midwest to New England and other points many times. Never put any money in it other than gas and oil changes. It had a great carburated 3 liter V6 in it.
chuckp says:

May 26 2015 at 11:57 am

No dust caps. F**k yeah!
wiscot says:

May 26 2015 at 12:00 pm

@Bruce Lee

Hinault was such a bad-ass, dustcaps or not he was going to beat the living crap out of his 753 frame and anyone who dared to sit on his wheel. Moser, on the other had, knew that the only way to keep up with the Badger was to show up with a set of disc wheels, a swim cap, and drop the 42t chainring off the bike to save weight. Moser’s frame, outweighs Hinaults twice over with all the extra tubing. But both are running bitchin’ cool Campy aero brake levers, so with aerodynamics properly equalized the pair dealt out a drubbing to the rest of the Barrachi Trophy field.

The 80’s ruled.

Moser won the Baracchi Trophy twice - once with Hinault (1984),and once with Hans Henrik Orsted (1985). Both top-flight TT men. Even though this was a bit of a "superstars" type gig, the top names ALWAYS rode with someone of equal value. No-one wanted to be shamed by riding with a sub-par partner.

As a lesser comparison, when I raced TTs in Scotland in the 80s we had a series of late season races called "Gentleman's" Races. These involved a veteran rider (over 45 I think was the age limit) and a younger rider, racing two-up style over non-standard courses. The pairing got a time allowance based on how much older than 45 the rider was - so there were kinda two winners - actual time and compensated time.Theoretically, the young guy was supposed to pace the old guy around. Problem was, some of the "old" guys were super fast and fit and it was game on for a take-turns TT. Most of the old guys had been racing against each other for years and they always picked a fast young guy to ride with. A nice wee drubbing in a "gentleman's race" was always good bragging over the winter. Good times indeed!
Teocalli says:

May 26 2015 at 12:32 pm

@chuckp

No dust caps. F**k yeah!

What's the story with the left shifter/lever?
Chris says:

May 26 2015 at 1:14 pm

@Teocalli

Non-indexed go faster leaver for the big ring was easier to trim, lighter and used so rarely it didn't need to be cluttering up the brake lever?
Chris says:

May 26 2015 at 1:18 pm

@wiscot

@Bruce Lee

Hinault was such a bad-ass, dustcaps or not he was going to beat the living crap out of his 753 frame and anyone who dared to sit on his wheel. Moser, on the other had, knew that the only way to keep up with the Badger was to show up with a set of disc wheels, a swim cap, and drop the 42t chainring off the bike to save weight. Moser’s frame, outweighs Hinaults twice over with all the extra tubing. But both are running bitchin’ cool Campy aero brake levers, so with aerodynamics properly equalized the pair dealt out a drubbing to the rest of the Barrachi Trophy field.

The 80’s ruled.

Moser won the Baracchi Trophy twice – once with Hinault (1984),and once with Hans Henrik Orsted (1985). Both top-flight TT men. Even though this was a bit of a “superstars” type gig, the top names ALWAYS rode with someone of equal value. No-one wanted to be shamed by riding with a sub-par partner.

As a lesser comparison, when I raced TTs in Scotland in the 80s we had a series of late season races called “Gentleman’s” Races. These involved a veteran rider (over 45 I think was the age limit) and a younger rider, racing two-up style over non-standard courses. The pairing got a time allowance based on how much older than 45 the rider was – so there were kinda two winners – actual time and compensated time.Theoretically, the young guy was supposed to pace the old guy around. Problem was, some of the “old” guys were super fast and fit and it was game on for a take-turns TT. Most of the old guys had been racing against each other for years and they always picked a fast young guy to ride with. A nice wee drubbing in a “gentleman’s race” was always good bragging over the winter. Good times indeed!

By all accounts it was an "exciting" race. Skip to the last paragraph.

A great read btw.
gilly says:

May 26 2015 at 1:41 pm

@Chris

@gilly

Le Dandy was a thing of the ’90s

@Chris, while not wanting to turn this into pedants corner, his first pro team was Mengoni in 1985, followedby La Vie Claire in 86. I'll give you that his best years were in the 90's.
Gianni says:

May 26 2015 at 1:48 pm

I know why I stopped with the dust caps. They were screwed in with a small allen wrench. The dust caps were aluminum or sometimes plastic and stripping the allen key hole was easy to do. Then once you did find a screw extractor or some other barbarian tool, and unscrewed the cap, it was f'ed, and binned. Surely the TT people would have left in the cap for aero sake if they weren't such a headache for general maintenance.