Note holes drilled into brake levers to reduce weight
For some reason Cycling (and other sports) can create a certain obsessive streak amongst cyclists.
These are some of the crazy things we cyclists can do:
Drill holes in equipment. Apparently, it is used to be all the rage to drill holes in equipment like brakes and even cranks. The theory was that drilling a hole would save weight and thus improve performance. 50 grams of weight barely make any difference to how fast you go. Maybe on a mountainous stage it is of importance, but for flatish races it is completely insignificant. You could also argue that holes disrupt the airflow and reduce aerodynamic performance.
Hours Looking at Equipment. Cyclists can easily spend hours pouring over Bike Catalogues weighing up the pros and cons of different groupsets.
3 Chain Ring Bolts instead of 5. This is an example of obsessive behaviour. In an effort to save weight, I know of cyclists who have taken out 1- 2 chain ring bolts to ride with 3 (done up very tightly) rather than the standard 5. If you weigh up the risks of the chainring becoming loose and the completely insignificant weight saving, it seems to lack reason.
Glueing on a race number. Race numbers come with safety pins. Most people are happy to pin them on. But, I know of time trialists who have spent hours glueing the number to the skin suit; this is to make the skin suit more aerodynamic, reducing airflow (and presumably saving weight). It’s not just the hours to glue it on, but, the hours to take it off.
Constant Tinkering with the Bike. Eddy Merckx was said to be a fanatic about his bike. He wanted to always be checking and rechecking it; sometimes even in the middle of the night. Some riders will barely clean the bike, others can become fanatic about making minor adjustments.
Going Training on Christmas Day (when it’s raining and -2 degrees)
See also:
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