drillium

[s.e.charles]

despite my prejudice against, does it not bring undesirable traits?

is it noisy - weaken components - collect dirt - allow water where it should not go?

it affects me like the impending doom of a carbon fiber bike roaring past me on the bike path.

drillium: the silence killer.

 

[Nob]

 

[daccordimark]

View attachment 901163

What a terrible thing to do to a beautiful crank!

 

[daccordimark]

despite my prejudice against, does it not bring undesirable traits?

is it noisy - weaken components - collect dirt - allow water where it should not go?

it affects me like the impending doom of a carbon fiber bike roaring past me on the bike path.

drillium: the silence killer.

Pretty much all those negatives apply. You could probably also add not at all aerodynamic and given that the fast time trial courses back then were pan flat a pointless exercise in weight reduction.

A friend of mine back in polytechnic days decided to drillium his steel frame, I'll let you guess what happened...

 

[novocaine]

A friend of mine back in polytechnic days decided to drillium his steel frame, I'll let you guess what happened...

He won that years UK TT season and went on to join the olympic squad?

 

[sjcprojects]

Personally I enjoy the delightful whistling sound my drilled brake levers make on a descent...

I have wondered before whether the small weight saving from drillium was in fact totally outweighed by the aerodynamic loss as @daccordimark says. Surely all the holes (especially in brake levers) create disruptions in air flow which are exactly what you don't want? I say that as someone with no real knowledge of these things, so I'm happy to be contradicted. It would be interesting to know if that is the case, anyway – as it's not done these days I've presumed that's the case, though perhaps there were also safety grounds for it falling out of favour, as it's not hard to see how it could go too far with nasty results.

Has anyone got any examples of people coming a cropper due to over-doing it? There must be some, I would think. I've certainly heard of people bending drilled chainrings.

 

[s.e.charles]

so basically it's for the "look cool" factor?

i mean, in certain circumstances it does, but it's a good argument for the 'less is more' point of view in my perspective.

i do like the derailleur photo which shows 3 dimples and they are paint filled.

as Alfredo would say "un poquito mas"

 

[sjcprojects]

so basically it's for the "look cool" factor?

i mean, in certain circumstances it does, but it's a good argument for the 'less is more' point of view in my perspective.

i do like the derailleur photo which shows 3 dimples and they are paint filled.

as Alfredo would say "un poquito mas"

It definitely started out as a weight-saving thing, particularity on TT bikes, but also more widely. But like anything in cycling, it then probably became just as much about looks/fashion for a while.

 

[greencat]

What a terrible thing to do to a beautiful crank!

Alternatively, what a beautiful thing to do to a terrible crank (is probably what was going through the driller's mind)

 

[Nob]

Alternatively, what a beautiful thing to do to a terrible crank (is probably what was going through the driller's mind)