Patents can be filed for the application of existing ideas and patents to other applications, so if the 79 patent is in reference to agricultural equipment only, then SRAM can file a patent for its use on bikes. That’s what Dyson did, applying existing industrial vortex filters to domestic vacuum cleaners

I know, and the “this reference” terminology in the first paragraph implies that. But what is the case when the original patent has expired – does the IP become generic or can you patent the same idea in a different context – that would seem crazy, but not completely unlikely!

The “or” in the second paragraph implies they think they have an additional claim which is likely to be an easier defence.

Either way, mainly just good news for patent lawyers. My general understanding on patents is that generally they are a lot more tightly focussed on a very specific implementation than the patent holder would like people to believe. And then it comes down to who has the deepest pockets/biggest IP library. Either way the little guy is screwed.

Based on this page, that I don’t think has been posted above, SRAM are asserting that they have something that goes beyond the ’79 patent.

http://www.bike-eu.com/Home/General/2013/5/SRAMs-X-Sync-Technology-Set-to-Open-for-Licensing-1245909W/%5B/url%5D

“In the case of the X-Sync technology, we are well aware of a 1979 patent describing a sprocket for agricultural conveyer equipment and are confident that we will obtain enforceable patent rights over this reference”, announces SRAM.

“Accordingly, competitors should consider whether their product is copying the agricultural conveyor sprocket or SRAM’s XX1 chainring with X-Sync technology.”

Spesh have a patent on the word “epic” ? nuts.

Trademark, not patent. Though still fairly nuts.

Ooh, sounds tempting, a sociable start time and I’ve been meaning to check out the new stuff at Swinley. Hopefully should be able to make it.

hhmmmm … nice to hear that some of you have found your soul mate online but rather scary too to hear some of the other stories …

Yes. Really should get a profile up on somewhere appropriate like Fitness Singles, but all these stories aren’t encouraging me!

Much as I prefer the idea of “something will happen when you least expect it”, working in IT with cycling and martial arts as spare time activities appears to add “but don’t hold your breath!” :)

I went through the same thing a while back. I wasn’t sure about acycles either, and in the end found it slightly cheaper on one of the german mail order places (about £17 I think).

Lost the email trail, but probably this one:

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1030/a9107/poploc-lever-left.html?mfid=45

20 Euros for that one, right hand and adjustable levers are more expensive. Arrived quickly, bike-discount are very good.

Oh and keep an eye on the grading of refurbished stuff – the lower graded units can be quite scruffy

More than enough for basic stuff, and ThinkPads are pretty bombproof. We use loads of them at work and I’ve had a T410 and now a T520.

If you want light and portable though, look elsewhere, these are relatively chunky and heavy laptops. My T520 rarely leaves my desk and wouldn’t personally have one for home use.

I’ve ridden in Nepal, Swiss alps and Alpes Maritimes with mine, not lost it yet.

I have noticed the elastic bands seem to get a bit stretched over time, so would be tempted to put new ones on but otherwise I think its a safer option than one of the out front options. I think the silicon covers may have a loop to get you attach a leash but not sure.

Lezyne all the way here – after years of various different shonky mini pumps the Lezyne ones are awesome.

A set here too – total bargain in CRC’s Black Friday sale last year, seen loads of miles commuting and general riding, still true and spinning impressively freely as above.

If I were to be picky, they feel a touch flexy but assuming you’re getting a good price I reckon they are hard to beat.

starbike.com seem to have best prices on Sapim spokes – 2 euros for CX-Ray, 0.90 for D-Light

Where would be a decent place to pick up DT swiss 240 hubs for a good price then? 15mm / 142mm

bikediscount.de were the cheapest when I was trawling around checking prices last week

Main benefit to the Shimano ones is the enclosed cam. Not many alternatives that work the same way – Tune AC14 do and work well, I’ve got a set that have been going strong for years, but they are kinda pricey now.

It’s around 10km, and there were 120 four-person teams, 50 pairs and 80 solo-ists. That makes approx 25 racers per km. How does that compare to other events? It certainly felt pretty quite after the first two laps or so of madness when everyone was bunched.

I thought it was fairly “quiet” on track, certainly as the day went on I had a couple of fairly clear laps with minimal need to overtake, and not much being overtaken.

I hope I was fairly considerate when overtaking – “can I pass when its safe?” rather than piling through, though I did see one hilarious moment of chaos as 2 people arrived behind me while I was waiting for a chance to overtake and proceeded to make a pigs ear of trying to get round 3 people in one go! On the whole people overtaking me seemed pretty sound too. I’ve certainly been to events where there have been more idiots.

Your friend knows its clipper time :)

#2 or less all the way since mid 20s here!

Good day out and a nice mix of new and familiar trails – thanks for putting it on!

I imagine Montane were committed for a certain number of years. Not that unusual to move marketing on to other things – just look at Mountain Mayhem over the years.

I had unfinished business with that 10h target too. Skipped last year as I figured having done it 3 years in a row I’d earned a rest, would probably have entered this years event in the next few weeks. Time to figure out an alternative plan I guess :(

Ah cool, was toying with signing up last night and then saw the online option was closed. May well swing over if this nice weather holds out, its been ages since I rode in the Purbecks.

I’ll take my hat off to anyone riding the last section to the Madone though!

Was that the bit after the Pont de Cros?[/quote]

The Madone d’Utelle is the chapel where the second food stop was, I was thinking of the detour back off road to reach that after the short road section. But yes plenty of nasty stuff after Pont de Cros too – and I just had a flash back to that stupid jungle section at the end :)

To defend Juan a little, I think if you take things out of the context of the race then a lot of the course would be more rideable in a technical challenge way. And some parts were definitely more rideable in better weather last year. I’ll take my hat off to anyone riding the last section to the Madone though!

How much the front runners can ride – best ask someone else, I was grovelling along near the back wishing I was faster at carrying my bike.

Purely by accident I came across an exhibition of photos from the 1953 exhibition while wandering along the south side of the Thames this afternoon.

Well worth a visit if you are in the vicinity – a stark contrast with the stories we’re used to seeing now.

Its in a gallery at the bottom of the Oxo tower : http://www.coinstreet.org/whatson/exhibitions-and-events/film-club-january.html

Seems like someone is getting setup to take over from Evans:

http://www.rockymountainuk.com/%5B/url%5D

Not much info, there is a facebook page too which has a bit of activity:

https://www.facebook.com/RockyMountainBicyclesUk

Gary, that lawsuit regarded a tapered seat tube. Squoval is a profile developed by Cervelo, a square with ovalised covered, which is designed to put an equal proportion of the carbon material at any distance from the centre of the tube, thereby offering the greatest resistance to twisting forces.

You’re right re: the different context, didn’t read the articles very closely. The point still stands though, there is a good chance there is more to a patent than an external shape, all good grey areas for patent lawyers to clean up on.

And a quick search doesn’t show up any Vroomen/White patents that seem to cover that profile, most are related to the time trial frames.

I believe Cervelo hold the patent for the Squoval tube profile. The R5-esque Deng Fu looks like they’ve copied the profile exactly.

If they have – as I suspect – taken a pair of calipers to an original, then they have infinged Cervelo’s patent.

Actually, patents are usually a lot harder to violate than companies would like you to believe. In order to get patents on this sort of thing you need to come up with some pretty precise “inventions” and generally “we used a square tube” won’t cut it. Doesn’t stop companies using the patent for marketing or the the patent lawyers from reaping the benefits of putting the patent together and defending it.

And in this case it’s Canyon’s somewhat questionable patent anyway:

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=11200
http://www.bikerumor.com/2011/01/14/canyon-and-cervelo-settle-seat-tube-patent-dispute/%5B/url%5D

Disclaimer : I am not a patent lawyer, though my name is on a patent, and I do own an FM066 frame.

Last year I said never again but I’m glad I went back to get the thing done. Don’t ask me about another time for a few months, I think this year was epic enough.

Matt – as far as the weather goes, I recall more rideable climbing last year (but not a lot more!), the snowy section certainly had more riding opportunities, and the descents were a bit less sketchy, but the character of the event is the same.

And as far as UK performances go, 2009 Trans Provence winner Dan Darwood looks highest placed in 34th and if the results PDF is right it was from the Challenger wave – chapeau!

I ordered a few of the small sachets from here for similar reason:
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/HNBBCCSL/beljum_budder_chamois_creme

I remove mech and rotors, and fit old axles to avoid squashed frame/forls. Never worried about calipers though.

The Evoc bags are good, but don’t seem 100% baggage handler proof; a couple of minutes to deal with easily avoidable problems seems well spent.

I’ll be travelling next week with a copy of this version of the page which handily doesn’t include the “no other items” line :)

http://easyjet.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4040

As above, my bike + Evoc bag is about 23kg so plenty of scope for the usual extra bits before getting close to 32kg.

Click on the word “here” and it takes you to the page I posted – which says cycles are exempt from excess baggage charges.

It says exempt from additional excess baggage charges. Not “exempt from the weight limits imposed by the fee you have paid”

But as you say, plenty of room for confusion.

G.

easy jets policy is 32 kg for bike and luggage but a maximum allowance of 50 kg.

so 32kg is included in the £25 you pay to take the bike but you are allowed to take upto 50kg if you pay the extra weight allowance.

Don’t believe that is the case anymore but given the various pages on the EJ website at cross purposes to each other, who knows.

This is the main “sporting equipment” page, and it says very clearly that if you pay for bike and a bag, the total is 32kg

http://easyjet.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4039

On the tyre front – my preference is for sufficient volume and robust enough sidewalls to be able to play point and shoot on the rocks. So Crossmark LUST at the back and Spec Butcher Control on the front.

I’ve not used snakebite versions of Ralphs so don’t know how substantial they are. I wouldn’t go near it on standard RRs.

I’ll be going with paranoid spares approach – I ended up with a broken gear cable for the first time ever last year and was left with a bent rear mech so there will be a spare mech hanger and cable in my camelbak

I saw this on the vtt34 forums – lots of info there if you speak French. One guy was suggesting that the best training for the TransV would be to go and do the local steep, rocky mountain descent three or four times and carry your bike back up to the top after each time

It did occur to me that going and doing a few “laps” on Snowdon or Cadair Idris would be spot on preparation, had no chance to actually put it into practice though :(

Rode last year, but missed the 30 mile time cut by a few minutes. Back again this year because I’m annoyed by not finishing!

Its got some proper rocky alpine descending and switchbacks so you need to weigh up how happy you are likely to be racing those kind of trails on a hardtail say vs a little bit of insurance with something more trail bike oriented. I think last years winner was on a Scott suspension bike, Jenn had a carbon Pivot 5.7 which she reckoned was spot on IIRC. That said, there were people surviving it on hardtails too.

I’m taking my trusty battered Heckler again as I have no idea how my new 29er will deal with switchbacks or proper rocky descents. But then my aim is just to get to the finish!

I would say a dropper post is a good idea, since you are going to be riding technical trails blind.

Last year it was pretty cold hanging around at the start (and my source of local knowledge says there is still snow around this year), then it was ptetty okay until the heavens opened in the afternoon.

Shoes that are good on mountains a better idea than carbon race soles!

Couple of english write ups that you may not have seen:
http://teamhpr.hpruk.com/blog/?p=89
http://andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/transvesubienne-race.html

Nowt with me yet. Not seen any evidence of anyone receiving one yet.

First ever Bivvy Trip on the South Downs last weekend. Its really good fun

I think I crossed paths with you guys when you were heading east between Winchester and QE park on Saturday? If not, it was a similar looking bunch with bikepacking setups :)

Cracking day for it!

Gary

I’m a bit 50/50 at the moment – I can put together a reliable set of wheels (but would have fun with thru axles and my wheel jig) but I’m quite sure that the Strada build would be better …. however I don’t have the cash in my hand right now so somewhat academic!

You know that the 1100 Fulcrums that photos were going around for were tubular only?

I’m quite tempted by the Light Bikes option at present, if I can find the time to build some wheels. From what I have read they seem to be good quality for the price.

The Strada rims look nice too – had a nice chat with Jonathan at the Bespoked show but thought it a bit too cheeky to ask if they were from Light Bikes! He did say that they are having them custom drilled with offset spokes (for more even spoke tension)

I’ve always just hopped on a train from Eastbourne, up to Clapham and then main London/south coast line down to Winchester. Best check the time of the last train though :)

Orange/salmon colour KoolStop for me. Cheaper than SwissStop, and for those with long memories, a lot like the old school scott matthauser blocks.