Attention to detail…

I am a stickler for detail on a bike. Bikes have to look “right.” And for a road bike, that means that looking right starts with the bar tape. I finally got around to reading the newest issue of VeloNews this morning and within the first bunch of pages saw two ads where the poor bar tape job just jumps out at me. These companies spend a lot of money for ads. Why don’t they spend an equal amount of time making sure the bikes look “right?”

This Giant ad literally is a giant ad, covering two pages. The bar tape job is just okay but the circled area is a spot I would have gone back and made the wrap more consistent. The front brake cable housing is also too long. Looks like Giant was in too much of a hurry to be the first to photograph their bike for an ad with the new Dura Ace 7900 group. Probably can’t walk into a Giant dealer and pick one up, though.

While the Giant ad had a poor tape job, at least they didn’t leave a holiday in the bar tape. A holiday is what we called a gap in the tape which exposes the bar. Holidays are like the eternal sin of bar taping. You love your bike. Take pride in it and make sure your bike leaves the house with a proper tape job. Not only is there a small holiday on the left side, but the tape doesn’t overlap on the right side as well. This photo was taken digitally. You’d think somone would/could have spotted that moments after the photo was taken and correct it – either by retaping the bars or by covering the gap in photoshop. Oh well, that’s just me being picky I guess.

Not all was lost in this issue of VeloNews though. There is a great shot of a pack of riders flying through some twisties at the Criterium du Dauphine Libere. You can just feel how much fun that section of road would be to ride through the photo.

And there is a good interview with Sean Kelly, one of my heroes of the sport. Here’s a highlight.

Sean Kelly: I don’t think race radios are a good thing. It takes some of the sport out of the race. We had to race on instinct and, to a degree, that is gone today. I see a lot of guys in the races that just don’t know how to ride a race if they haven’t got an earpiece in.