We’ve been testing a base layer for a couple of months now and we’re pleased to be able to say that it is now in stock.

As regular visitors to this site know, we like to give as many of the products we sell some abuse before we put them up for sale.  We’ve rejected several suppliers wares because they were not up to scratch (i.e. something we would buy ourselves) because we like to think of Velotastic as somewhere we would buy from.

When it came to base layers the easy option would have been to test it in winter, say blimey that kept us warm and put it up for sale. However, from experience winter is only half the story. We wanted something we could wear not only in winter but in summer too under vintage jerseys which would stop us feeling clammy.

Having been blown away by the Sportwool fabric that Road Holland use in their jerseys we thought this would be a good starting point for material choice.

A little history lesson

Sportwool was originally developed in Australia by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation or CSIRO for short. They are Australia’s national science research organisation and amongst other things invented the foundation for WiFi. Being Aussies they have a vested interested in all things sheep, so they got sponsorship from the Woolmark company to study the moisture uptake properties of wool and synthetic fabrics.

As a result they came up with Sportwool.

A knitting technologist from The Woolmark Company was a member of the team, advising on integration of Sportwool’s two layers which are bound together back-to-back to form a single fabric.

The complete separation of the two component fibres on each face of the fabric ensures that a continuous layer of wool is in contact with the skin, producing an exceptional moisture management system that a 100 per cent synthetic product cannot match.

Sportwool™ manages the effects of sweating in two ways.

A few minutes after vigorous exercise starts, athletes begin to sweat. At this point the skin is dry but humidity near the skin begins to build rapidly. Because wool absorbs moisture, the inner wool layer of Sportwool™ absorbs water vapour, slowing the rise in humidity, and also delaying the appearance of liquid sweat.

Then, as liquid sweat forms on the skin, the soft, comfortable inner wool layer ‘pumps’ it to the outer synthetic fibre layer, where it spreads out and evaporates, creating a cooling effect.

 The Baltic Base

Like all our products, we like to know where they are manufactured. This enables us to sleep at night knowing that the folks who made our goods are treated fairly and the factories they work in are not impacting on the environment in an bad kind of way.

The Baltic Base is made in Europe from Scandinavian fabrics. The Sportwool blend that is used is a 25% merino 75% polyester mix. It has a fairly loose fit – we’ve tried compression type base layers before and we prefer this cut as it gives you room to breath. As we said before we’ve been using it for a couple of months now through the summer period including for the Eroica Britannia where we wore it under a 1970’s acrylic jersey and it’s become an essential piece of kit.

Get yours here.

A big thank you to everyone who came and visited our stand at the Tickhill Grand Prix.

It was a great, well organised event and chapeau to all the team behind it.

The next event we’ll have a stand at is the Grindelford Goat Sportive on 13th September. Set in the heart of the beautiful Peak District and using many of the roads we regularly ride, this event is definitely one to do.

The British Film Institute (BFI) recently made a wealth of archival and historical films on the subject of cycling available free to access online for the first time.The films are a brilliant snapshot on the history of cycling within the U.K.

A great example is Six Days in Romandie.  This film follows the fortunes of the TI Raleigh Campagnolo racing team, led by Peter Post, during the 1982 Tour of Romandie in Switzerland. 

There’s a wealth of classic films on the BFI site that are of interest to cycling fans. Loose yourself for an hour or two on their site. http://bfi.org.uk

One of the most common debates amongst cyclists is how hard a climb is and how to quantify this.

The traditional method is 4th,3rd,2nd,1st, HC catergories in which climbs which are subjectively based of the road condition, length, steepness, position in the race and what the higher powers had for lunch. Rumours are that the grading was even originally based on what gear a 2CV would use to get up the hill ! For example the last climb on stage 2 of this years Tour – the infamous 30% Jenkin Road was only a Cat 4.

This afternoon I was having a discussion on Twitter regarding the Ride London event and the severity of Box Hill. One of my cycling buddies Dan, came up with a formula related to one of the Peak’s most famous climbs – Froggatt.

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Froggatt is not a climb by alpine standards – 5.7 km and 233 m of climb or thereabouts depending on where you start and finish (which is a totally different debate), however it is regarded as Sheffield’s equivalent to the Poggio on the Milan – St Remo – the final climb before the long descent back into the city and is hotly contested by local hitters.

Climbs can be broken down into two parts – their distance and height gain, a multiple of which will give you an idea on how much you are going to suffer. The multiple for Froggatt is 5.7 x 233 = 1328.1

The F factor is a very approximate and non-scientific method of calculating how hard a climb is. It is simply the multiple for a climb based divided by Froggatt’s multiple.

Here’s some examples below (all based on Strava segments  – climbs can be longer or shorter, it depends where you start !):

Name	Length (km)	Height (m)	Multiple (L x H)	F Factor
Froggatt	5.7	233	1328.1	1.00
Curbar	1.8	182	327.6	0.25
Winnats	1.7	192	326.4	0.25
Beeley	2.6	182	473.2	0.36
Rowsley	1.1	135	148.5	0.11
Riber	1.7	158	268.6	0.20
Holme Moss	2.2	212	466.4	0.35
Box Hill	2.5	125	312.5	0.24
Hardknott	2.2	298	655.6	0.49
Beallach na Ba	9.3	627	5831.1	4.39
Galibier	17.6	1200	21120	15.90
Tourmalet	16.5	1211	19981.5	15.05
Alpe d’Huez	11.9	1031	12268.9	9.24

Obviously this very crude method does not take into account the weather, cake stops, fatigue etc, but it comes across as a more logical and mathematical approach to grading climbs than the traditional dark art. Some of the climbs listed above are a lot steeper than Froggatt, but don’t have the length, as stated above it is a combination of the two factors of length and height (in my very unscientific opinion) that add to a climbs toughness.

Update 18th August 2014

This problem of Dan’s formula got several people on Twitter thinking about how to overcome the steepness issue and how to build this into the F Factor. One of the people that started to think about this problem was another sometime riding buddy of mine – John.

Now John is a nuclear physicist so is a bit better than me at numbers as my maths ended in a big fat fail at college level. John tweaked the formula to the following:

1. Calculate the tangent of climb

2. Multiply by 100

3. Square this value

4. Multiply by length

First of all we have to work out the tangent, which as any school kid will tell you is opposite side of a triangle over the adjacent side of a triangle. However whilst we know the opposite value (it’s the height gain), we have to use Pythagoras to work out the adjacent value as the distance measurement we’ve got is the length of the climb (hypotenuse side of a triangle)  and not the horizontal distance moved.

After feeding the data into a spreadsheet the numbers come up as:

Name	Length (km)	Height (m)	Roberts Number	New F Factor
Froggatt	5.7	233	95.40	1.00
Curbar	1.8	182	185.92	1.95
Winnats	1.7	192	219.65	2.30
Beeley	2.6	182	128.03	1.34
Rowsley	1.1	135	168.22	1.76
Riber	1.7	158	148.13	1.55
Home Moss	2.2	212	206.21	2.16
Box Hill	2.5	125	62.66	0.66
Hardknott	2.2	298	411.20	4.31
Beallach na Ba	9.3	627	424.65	4.45
Galibier	17.6	1200	822.00	8.62
Tourmalet	16.5	1211	893.61	9.37
Alpe d’Huez	11.9	1031	900.00	9.43

The Roberts number is John’s formula (Roberts is John’s surname)  and as before the F factor is the climb divided by Froggatt’s Roberts number.

This seems to give a more balanced result as any Peak District rider will tell you Winnats and Rowsley are a lot more painful than Froggatt !

If nothing else this formula creates a debate and gets you thinking is a climb harder if it’s long and steady or short and sharp ?

Has your local climb got the F factor ? Do the sums and see how it adds up.

Thank you for Dan and John’s help with this post.

 

We’ve just had a new shipment of Yorkshire jerseys in. Made by Bioracer in Belgium, these jerseys have been one of our consistent best sellers since their introduction last August.

Get yours here….

We’ve decided to concentrate on clothing and smaller accessories and want to clear our remaining Rikulau frames to make space in our stock room.

As a result we’ve dropped our prices on all of the frames we’ve got in stock to little over what we paid for them.

If you want to grab a bargain and get yourself a quality steel frame with Easton forks you are at the right place.

More….

We’re not a big fan of saddle bags. We just can’t imagine the giants of the peloton having one on the back of their bikes. Plus given the opportunity we all carry more stuff than we actually need.

We hunted down these tool rolls as we thought they were the ideal balance between carrying things in our back pocket and putting things on our bike. They have the capacity for an inner tube, a multitool and a couple of tyre levers – the stuff you normally take with you on most rides. This frees up space for jelly babies and cake money – proper ride essentials and stops you stretching the pockets on your prize wool jersey.

Made in Los Angeles, the roll attaches to your saddle using a quick release buckle so it’s easy to put on and take off your bike.

There are three different colours, black and blue made from cordura and orange – made from recycled road sign.

Get yours here….

A quick update on some of the events that we’ve pencilled in our diary and are planning on having a stall at.

July 13th Chiltern Cycling Festival

The Chiltern Cycling Festival is a new event and combines vintage and more modern cycling. Held in the picturesque Buckinghamshire town of Amersham. this event is sure to be a great day out for the family. website

24th August Tickhill Grand Prix 

For one day the Yorkshire village of Tickhill is transformed into a closed criterium circuit. Was the rising stars of British cycling race the streets. website

13th September. Grindleford Goat

One of our local sportives with all proceeds towards the village community shop, this event is in it’s second year and offers riders a choice of  three routes through the stunning Peak District National park. website