The Best Thing About A Modern Road Bike?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- What is the best thing about the new road bikes we see on the market today? Is it disc brakes or electronic shifting, or something else?
@oldguyandabike is handing out lot's of opinion today on this Tech Tuesday video as he narrows down the line thing he thinks is the best part of ten years of progress for road based bicycles.
#bikelife #roadbike #cycling
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I would say the best things are sub-compact cranksets and larger cassettes that help more people enjoy climbing. All the other new techs, I can live without. I started riding with 53/39 & 12-26T gearing and rode hills with 8~12% gradient regularly, now I can't imagine going back to the style of grinding uphill. 48/31 + 11-34T is now my favorite combination.
Wide tires are nice, but I can put 25mm (nominal) tires on wide rims that give an actual width of around 27mm, and that's good enough for most road surface I ride on.
Totally agree - for those doing long rides with mountains or many hills, lower gearing is more important than disc brakes, electronic shifting, tubeless tires and even more important than carbon fiber.
Agreed. I'm running 46/30 on all my road bikes these days. My knees and back thank me for it!
I agree, love the 48/31 + 11-34 on my GRX.
I am enjoying the 46/33 with a 10-36 on that ADHX so far. You make a fine point, but I'll stick with poofy tires as my winner.
gg
Totally agree. I'm running a set of 34mm Vittoria Corsa N.EXT tyres set up tubeless at 50psi on one bike. I also have a rim brake bike with 23mm tyres pumped up to 100psi. Most of the time the rim brake bike just sits in the garage, gathering dust.
Anyone old enough to remember riding on 23c tires @90lbs will totally agree with this. It's nice to go for a ride and not rattle me teeth out.
23s at 125psi🥴
23c tyres at 90 psi* (= lbs (pounds) per quare inch). If you weigh 90 lbs you can of course run such tyres at a way lower pressure.
Carbon frames and forks, integrated shift/brake levers, super-small-packing-super-light TPU tubes, Look clipless pedals with power-enhancing Zen cleats, lightweight, pocketable torque wrenches indeed make road bike riding so much nicer.
The only thing I can truly say that I find an important change from the bikes I rode in the 60-70's was index shifting.
Agreed. So much so that I have switched 2 of my bikes to 10 speed indexed downtube shifters and don't miss the brifters at all 🤷♂️ (I'm not a complete luddite - have Di2 on another bike!)
@@trevekneebone369 I had a canyon with Di2, it hated the wet/cold in Volcano, so now back with trusty mechanical ultegra
Nice video! 100% agree with you. Wide tires / low pressures (enabled by disc brakes) is my favorite development. I can’t imagine going back to
I have to agree..,wide tires are a big help to getting the best ride, handling, and braking. My 28’s have made a big difference. 30’s are my next move and some carbon wheels…great video…
I just bought my first pair of 28s, Continental Grand Sports, and they are definitely more comfortable and not any slower than my 25s. Using 75psi but gonna try lower even.
For me, the frame design has been the biggest improvement. Specifically, moving the seat stay below the top tube on the seat tube. This change started with road bike, and is being seen in gravel bikes as well. The result is a significant improvement in handling, perhaps because the wheel base is shorter (?).
I would add that the “gravel bike“ geometry in general has been an awesome development. Even more relaxed than the endurance road bike, the gravel bike has become my all road bike that I use for almost every ride. Just feels more comfortable than my road bike.
Disc Brakes, Electronic Shifting, Wide Rims & Tires 💯👍😎
We only need wider tires on road bikes because we started making them so stiff. Let's talk about technologies which didn't add much value, like 1.5" crown forks. I built up an old school lugged steel frameset with 23mm tires and marvelled at how much smoother it felt than a ti frame with carbon 1.5" crown fork with 32mm tires. The larger tires have better cornering, but the old steel bike with steel fork was leagues more comfortable.
The most underrated bike part today is the compliant steel fork.
I have an old bike with 1-inch Look carbon fork, which is smooth as butter and almost a micro front suspension! 😄
Combined with a thin-walled carbon seatpost, that bike doesn't need tires wider than 25mm at all.
I totally agree that 1.5" fork is not necessarily better, it's just the byproduct of mega-sized down tubes of carbon frames.
Agreed to a point. I remember the first time I rode a disc brake gravel bike with a carbon, tapered fork that was "Gravel Tuned" ...it was a shock how stiff it was, even with a 38mm tire on it.
My steel rim brake bike was running a 25mm tire (almost 28mm wide) with tubes at 80psi. It has a carbon 1 1/8" straight steer, Enve fork and it is overall as compliant as my Time ADHX.
But, it has a much higher level of vibration on poor roads and over long days, it actually tires me out...buzz...buzzzzzz...buzz.
The challenge is making a steel fork still as compliant with the braking forces of a disc down there.
We gave some to gain some.
gg
@@oldguyandabike Indeed it's really a game of compromises. I personally have chosen to stay with mid-reach brake frameset with steel fork because the fork design is simply more compliant. If I need more than 32-35mm's of tire width, I've got a full carbon hardtail with carbon fork to use. However even with 2.1" tires, that bike still has a kind of stiffness to it that is more uncomfortable than my ti/steel all-road with 32mm tires.
I've got a Ritchey with his unique headtube design and I'm convinced that the butting profiles and tube diameters at the head tube junction are a big factor in the nice vibration damping of the front end of his bike designs.
Living in goathead country, I was getting 3-4 flats a week...sometimes not getting off my block without a flat. This is with robust, conti 4 seasons. Now I plug a tire 2-3x through its lifespan and I've only use 3 tubes in 80k miles. I'd probably quit cycling at this point if tubeless tires went away😅
Congratulations, see you are over 2000 subs, I think you'll be 5000+ before the end of 2024.
That would be pretty cool!
gg
My favorite thing is the longer, taller brake shifter hoods.
Right. My old 8 speed brifters work great but I have big hands and the hoods are pretty short. Considering an upgrade to a newer compatible model.
Another excellent vid! I agree, tires are #1, but a bike truly is nothing more than the sum of its parts. Do I need all this? Nooooo. But do I enjoy it all? You betcha! Until the next time........Cheers
Hey old guy, im an old guy too 👍 What do you think the next bike revelation will be? Nano tech, AI, rocket boosters. Im thinking nano tech. Making a strong frame that weighs nothing. Its coming. Just wonder if ill live long enough to see it. Ok, take care
You know, for years I have thought that one day, frames would pop out of an injected mold but so far, nothing! But here is the deal...tech is only as good as the bike is to ride. It still has to be a great bike or it is just a showpiece.
gg
@@oldguyandabike well, you've got a fine machine there. 100%
my 2 cents would say it would be the design of tubes in frame design . We had lugs to we can cad a bike if u wanted , belt drives and pions trnas is it
Bigger tyres and wider range gearing. No contest.
This. All of it!
Pinion gears with gates carbon beit !
Well that has appeal for a bikepacking deal....not interested in an all-rounder that way. I spent quite a bit of time on a Gates belt SS back in the day. It was interesting but not compelling for the dry conditions here....squeaky monster. Super high tension on that belt...and don't break it! No bike shop has an answer for that.
I would like to try a pinion but I don't see that as such a bargain for a faster gravel bike set-up. I think Pinion and a waxed chain with a straight chainline would be interesting.
But a pinion set-up is a looooong lasting, bombproof gearing answer.
gg
As a SoCal rider you missed an important advantage of disk brakes, riding in the rain.
Very true.
gg
I can't argue about the impact of index shifting, disc brakes and wider tyres. And that kind of incremental improvement will clearly continue.
For me, the most groundbreaking development in the last decade or so is probably digital tech -- specifically the emergence and integration of smart bike computers and online apps like Strava.
It's a massive advantage for training and motivation. It gives me something to shoot for, and compare against. Plus, all my riding pals are on Strava, so we can see who has done what, and fire off a few "Kudos" clicks and congrats. (Pathetic, but always welcome)
Don't get me wrong. I love new gear as much as anybody. I just think the biggest difference between road riding today vs a decade ago is the ability to accurately capture, compare and share the experience.
Although, if we were talking mountain biking, I'd say "dropper posts." They are a game changer.
Cheers
Interesting and fair point. I am just not that fired up about tech, but that is me. Mrs. Grannygear, she would be in your camp!
gg
Bigger tires at lower pressure.
Wider tires/rims
Dang! You’re making me want to add a road bike to my stable 😂
Spend you kids inheritance...the ultimate revenge...besides leaving your pets in your will!
gg
I have one for when the mtb trails are muddy.