Recently, Escape’s Ronan McLaughlin surfaced from a multi-month outdoor tyre testing project. That test not only sought to find which fast road race tyres were fastest, but also to study the testing itself.

All of this was only made possible with the expertise and instruments made available by John Buckley of Streamlines. As a former lead aerodynamicist at Mercedes F1, Buckley brought a unique skill set to cycling, and works with a number of professional cycling teams and national federations to find performance gains.

In this bonus episode of Geek Warning that crosses over with Performance Process, Dave Rome peels back the layers to better understand the science and methodology behind Streamlines’ approach to outdoor testing. The conversation covers topics such as why drum testing alone doesn’t provide the full story, and where there may be limitations in the Virtual Elevation method of testing (aka, the Chung method).

Happy geeking!

Every other Geek Warning episode typically ends with the geeks answering 3-4 technical questions submitted by members. This week, we’re opening up our usual Member-Only ‘Ask a Wrench’ section to everyone.

For this episode, Dave Rome is joined by US tech writer Jack Duncan and mechanic Zach Edwards of the Boulder Groupetto. The episode starts with some tech news from the week, and then gets into answering member-submitted questions.

If you like this format, please know we offer a shorter version of it every week – you just need to be on the member-only feed to see it.

Time stamps:

• 00:02:00 - Cannondale USA headquarters to close
• 00:07:00 - Reserve goes 32in
• 00:11:00 - Ohlins enters gravel
• 00:15:45 - Ask a Wrench, an extended version
• 00:16:00 - Why are there so many wheel brands?
• 00:23:00 - Is the Corsa Pro Speed causing crashes?
• 00:32:00 - Buying a budget e-bike in Australia
• 00:36:00 - What else to consider other than the Oneup EDC pump?
• 00:40:30 - Better gravel wheels for a heavier rider
• 00:47:00 - How should I store my dropper post?
• 00:49:00 - Capping open hydraulic brake hoses
• 00:55:00 - What to use for sticky SRAM D1/D2 brake lever pistons
• 01:02:00 - How to fix a torque wrench with a slipping ratchet?
• 01:07:00 - Should mechanics charge more for emergency and weekend repairs?

This week on Geek Warning, Dave chats with Ronan about his extremely comprehensive road tyre test, published a week ago. The conversation covers how the test was run and why the data is so reliable.

Then, Ronan and Dave chat about Silca’s acquisition and re-release of the analogue-watch-lookalike Omata cycling computer.

Midway, Escape's US-based tech writer Jack Duncan jumps on to discuss Colnago’s new Colnago gravel bike and a somewhat peculiar wheel release from Cadex.

Lastly, members of Escape Collective (on our exclusive member-only feeds) get access to Ask a Wrench, where we answer technical questions submitted by our members.

Time stamps:

• 2:30 - Ronan’s big and tiring project
• 25:30 - Silca acquires Omata
• 36:00 - Switching locations to Jack
• 39:00 - Colnago’s new G5-X gravel bike
• 45:00 - Cadex’s XC wheelset is a little weird
• 55:45 - Ask a Wrench with Zach Edwards (Member-Only)