[Closed] I say, that's really too much!! (Paris-Roubaix tech)

+1 Agreed. That is a significant piece of tech.

I'd be interesting to know what the optimal cobble-pressure is, as most of the attacks in P-R tend to take place on the cobbles.

I'm wondering if it'll provide enough air to mitigate against some punctures.

As using a tubular (tend to puncture less anyway) with sealant (to plug whatever punctures you do get) and this system (to control the air pressure) could allow a lot more risks to be taken with tyre pressures and lines taken.

UCI are all over the place the past few years. I'm not sure whether to criticise them for stifling innovation or allowing too much... 😀

On the road, apart from Paris Roubaix, a bit pointless, but for gravel and mtb could be a good idea.

The longest section of pave in PR is under 4k, and most are well under 3km, I suspect you’d lose more time on the tarmac in between waiting for your tyre to re inflate to optimum road psi than you gain by dropping a few psi for a few minutes of cobbles.
I reckon there’d be more marginal gain from having a standard q/r for when you do puncture.

Yeah. I think it's of limited value to roadies apart from at PR. The size of the cobbles and the difficulty in getting a spare wheel to a leader (which might be at a better pressure etc) make it unique. It just feels like something else to fail when a bike is being brutally knocked about over cobble sectors. More numbers to look at.....I'm oot.

I reckon there’d be more marginal gain from having a standard q/r for when you do puncture.

I saw a guy at Scheldeprijs stop with his team leader and furnish him with an Allen key. They had his wheel off by the time the mechanic got out the car. Saved him about 15s I reckon.

I saw a guy at Scheldeprijs stop with his team leader and furnish him with an Allen key. They had his wheel off by the time the mechanic got out the car. Saved him about 15s I reckon.

Yeah, I saw that in Flanders as well. Clearly a domestique tasked with carrying the correct allen key - stopped and got the wheel out then started rolling slowly while the leader had the wheel replaced. By the time the leader was pushed off and getting rolling, the domestique was up to speed and ready to pace him back.

I've seen some truly abysmal wheel changes though - not all teams are that well drilled.

Paris-Roubaix annoys me with all the fawning over specific tech and stories about mechanics curing tyres for years in a basement and one-off bar tape and other assorted shite. I remember in 2016, loads of teams bringing P-R specific wheels and tyres and frames and all sorts and then Matt Hayman went and won it on a bog-standard aero road bike. Didn't even have a second layer of bar tape.

And yet the UCI are obssesed with sock height...

The UCI’s statement also says “the system does not alter the structural integrity of the wheelset and does not contain any moving parts or compressors.”

...so how does it work then?

Because opening any valve will only allow air pressure to equilibrate between two chambers. So I can see how this might work to remote-deflate your tyres, but the only way to get air back into them is to increase pressure in the chamber that is not the tyre, i.e. to compress that chamber. :/

…so how does it work then?

From Cycling news article:

This is done using an air reservoir housed within the hub, which is then linked via mechanical valves and a hose to the rim, and tubeless tyre.

So, you blow the little reservoir in the hub up to shock pressures? That only gives a few inflations I'd have thought. Sadly not enough to keep a slow puncture topped up as a get-you-home bit of tech in the real world.

The longest section of pave in PR is under 4k, and most are well under 3km, I suspect you’d lose more time on the tarmac in between waiting for your tyre to re inflate to optimum road psi than you gain by dropping a few psi for a few minutes of cobbles.

The first 100km is tarmac, so I suspect you'd deflate the tyres slightly when you got to the worst of the cobbles, and leave it at that pressure until you re-inflate ready for the sprint, if there is one. I can't imagine that the system would carry enough compressed air to allow constant fiddling with pressures.

I'm already looking forward to seeing a rider forlornly looking at a completely flat tyre that he managed to deflate while being bumped up around on the pave. 😀

The first 100km is tarmac, so I suspect you’d deflate the tyres slightly when you got to the worst of the cobbles,

Josh Poertner of Silca has a lot of thought on this, they used to calculate the natural airloss in tyres to be optimal for when the pave was about to start,

loads of interesting (if you like that think) podcasts about it "Marginal Gains"

and last year was point enough, Moscon clearly had a tyre pressure that was too high when he had to swap bikes

Because opening any valve will only allow air pressure to equilibrate between two chambers. So I can see how this might work to remote-deflate your tyres, but the only way to get air back into them is to increase pressure in the chamber that is not the tyre, i.e. to compress that chamber. :/

1 HP chamber plus option to vent the tyre to atmosphere (or into a a second chamber I guess) ?  The hub doesn't look huge though - either VHP (hard to control tyre filling accurately unless it's pretty slow ?) or else maybe only 1 top up available

Does the hub have to be full of compressed air for reinflation? Liquid nitrogen? Frozen bearings anyone?

Deflation to atmosphere obviously, no matter what is used to inflate.

the system… … does not contain any moving parts or compressors.

and

which is then linked via mechanical valves…

Are mechanical valves not moving parts?

But this seems like a real gamechanger that could detract from one of the key parts of Paris-Roubaix!

Detract? They’ve made something to theoretically give an advantage over a well publicised race route.

The bonkers traditions and unwritten rules of road cycling really detracts from my enjoyment of trying to follow it.

The bonkers traditions and unwritten rules of road cycling really detracts from my enjoyment of trying to follow it.

This is the bit I love, the mystique!

There’s been more tech that’s spectacularly failed at P-Rx than anywhere else like Museeuw’s full-sus Bianchi that broke, effectively losing him the race whilst in the lead group. 1992/3 Duclos-Lasalle won on Rockshox but the following year the Mapei 1-2-3 on Colnago C40s pretty well finished off the fancy tech for at least a decade.

Adjustable tyre pressure could be beneficial on critical sectors like the entry into Arenberg, where the speed can hit 50-60kph onto the run in as everyone fights for position, but you then want to dump 30 psi coming onto the stones to help kill vibration and improve grip. Same again at Carrefour and Mons en Pevele the 4 and 5* sectors.

Everyone’s favourite bogeymen the UCI, but their aim is to keep the playing field as level as possible to allow smaller teams to compete / not be disadvantaged

but their aim is to keep the playing field as level as possible to allow smaller teams to compete / not be disadvantaged

I’m a bit ambivalent about this bit of tech and at 3000E (not sure if that’s a set of hubs or per hub) even for well financed teams that’s a large additional cost.

In terms of the tech itself. One article said no moving parts, another said can be recharged with a usb cable (ie onboard compressor- which doesn’t really make sense). Initially it looked like there was tech being developed which recharged by hub rotation. Either way most road bike tech has come from MTB in recent years so let’s see where this goes.

There’s been more tech that’s spectacularly failed at P-Rx than anywhere else like Museeuw’s full-sus Bianchi that broke, effectively losing him the race whilst in the lead group. 1992/3 Duclos-Lasalle won on Rockshox but the following year the Mapei 1-2-3 on Colnago C40s pretty well finished off the fancy tech for at least a decade.

Good article and some interesting old pics here of some of the tried and failed tech:
https://cyclingtips.com/2020/04/road-suspension-and-innovation-paris-roubaix/

I had a friend that designed something like that and the idea wasn't to have a compressor but there was a small pump that moved air between two places so you weren't having to fully reinflate the tyre each time.  There were moving parts though.

All very well until you need a wheel from neutral service.

But _something_ needs to compress the air, to push it back into the tyre...

Unless, as others have said, you have essentially a couple of chambers with pre-compressed air in the hub, like those CO2 cylinders, in which case you've definitely only got a very small number of decompression / compressions available to you.

this is a great picture!

The 'road', the mud, the cyclist the same colour as the mud with clear evidence he's been off the bike. Before we get to those Rockshox forks and the fact that he won!