Nice.
There don't seem to be any good cheap tubs really for outside use - I don't mind Vittoria Pistas but they're only good for the track. I don't mind my Conti Sprinters on the track but they're probably not great for outside either as they have no puncture protection.
I've got a set of Sprinter Gatorskins glued up ready to go on a ride tomorrow so I'll report back on how those go. They're not "cheap" but are cheaper than some tubs at least...
Yeah, I've quickly realised this. Track tubs are a fair bit cheaper but it looks like it's because there is nothing of them and they wouldn't last 5 minutes on a road. Bah.
wiggle have continental giros for 16.99 atm as well
They're going to be my next choice (though they get equally mixed reviews), then the Tufo's. I ideally want a tan wall but it's no problem if I have to use the blackwall Tufo. I'm in no hurry to get the bike on the road and it's no financial penalty to me by buying them through Wiggle because they'll take them back and refund them at no extra cost if they're faulty. I'm sort of disappointed in Wiggle at stocking rubbish like these Rallys, they really ought to quality control their product lines.
I've got one like that but a bit older and a Fenix L2D. Essentially the difference between it and a higher quality torch like a Fenix is:
-Cheap one has no rubber seals;
-Cheap one has a plastic lens which scratches easily. Fenix has a crystal lens which hasn't scratched after 5 years use and is still completely clear;
-Light colour is better in the Fenix;
-I think the beam pattern is better but that's a purely subjective thing;
-Low light modes are better on the Fenix as the switching frequency is higher. I could see the flicker on the cheap one.
I wish someone independent (i.e. not a manufacturer or bike magazine) would do a Chinese v "proper" frame test. The only real scare stories I've seen are from Specialized and Wilier and I feel like you have to take that with a pinch of salt.
We really want to do one here. The problem is the cost which would string into several £k for the frames, but then the setup and testing time which would probably use up a week of one person and one of our Instron machines, so the total cost would be well into five figures.
Looking at those strength figures though, there really isn't that much difference in the grand scale of things. The Chinese parts are consistently lower which I'd say is pretty representative, but I'll point out that the variation in even the highest quality carbon fibre specimens we can make is more than 20%. Basically you could put another Willier frame in there and test it again and it could spit out the same figures as that Chinese frame.
There will be no instant failure compared to the Willier frame. Carbon fails immediately and catastrophically. It doesn't plastically deform like steel or aluminium - it just breaks when it gets to its UTS and that's that. Both will do it. Where it does it is purely down to the design strength of the frame.
What you see in that fork steerer is that they have tested the Chinese fork to destruction but not the Willier one. I don't know why they would do that. To put it into perspective, it looks like they have loaded the fork up until it broke while it was hanging out a fixture halfway down the steerer tube. It folded when it got to 3795N which is about 380kg. That's quite a whack and would have to be a pretty serious head-on crash.
Increasing the efficiency of the muscles you have is very much the way forward if you're at a relatively low BF%. If anything, adding extra muscle (and therefore extra mass) is counter-productive.
