Bike radar live 2010 Brands Hatch 10 and 11 july

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Joe Breeze checked over the Cleland with the curiosity of an English plumber inspecting a French central heating system. He recognised the Deore XT bits, but had never seen many of the components before, and even the Woods' valves looked strange on a mountain bike. I explained why its French moped hub brakes did not overheat and melt the bearing grease, and that they use a floating cams to self-centre the brake shoes just like hydraulic disk brakes do. There was however one frame design detail that Joe was so impressed by that he talked of incorporating it into his 2011 Breezers. Though due to reasons of commercial confidentiality I won't discuss the details here.

Below is a picture of the latest Breezer 29er, the The new carbon Cloud 9. These use Shimano's BB92 press-fit bottom bracket. These fit a 92mm
wide bottom bracket shell so as to improve the chain-stay/tyre clearances and allow for less bending and narrowing of the chain-stays. .

My 1983 Cleland Aventura was manufactured with a 90mm wide bottom bracket shell for the same reasons.

What's the connection? Well last July, when Joe Breeze was looking over my Cleland at BikeRadar Live, he said that he intended to copy it's extra wide bottom bracket on his 2011 bikes.

My Cleland may be 28 years old, but even after all the years its design is as inspirational as ever.