This article originally appeared on BikeRadar
Tom Boonen's name and photos have been plastered on the roads, stores, restaurants and hand-held signs across Belgium and into northern France all week, as the cobble-racing legend prepares to retire after his final Paris-Roubaix Sunday. Here is a look at the bike he will race from Compiegne north to the aging outdoor velodrome of Roubaix.
On Monday, BikeRadar reported on the pro-only edition of the new Specialized Roubaix that Boonen raced at the Tour of Flanders, and which world champion Peter Sagan raced Wedesday at Scheldeprijs. The immediately obvious differences to the consumer bike are the long-and-low geometry, the direct-mount brakes and — if you put a hand on it — the stiffer spring in the Future Shock suspension cartridge underneath the stem.
ADVERTISEMENT
At closer inspection, Boonen's extreme geometry is also noteworthy, too. For instance, 38mm center-to-center handlebars for a 192cm / 6'3" man?
Specialized Racing's Chris D'Alusio explained to BikeRadar today that Quick Step and Specialized worked together to test a variety of different springs for racing on the cobbles. The final product was a stiff, progressive spring that ramps at both ends of the travel; it's harder to initially engage and harder to bottom out than any of the three stock springs, but relatively softer in the middle of the 20mm of travel, like a parabola.
The hits from the cobbles are so jarring that the stiffest of the stock springs bottomed out too quickly, D'Alusio said.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://ift.tt/2oQbwTI
No comments:
Post a Comment