When comparing cycling to other industries, I assume that the next "innovation" will be some kind of subscription model: You'll get a certain amount of free shifts per month and if you exceed that, you either have to upgrade to a premium subscription or watch an ad on your bike computer
Indeed, my wife, then girlfriend was riding a Peugot, it was a a RR town bike with price to match. Heavy, but very good. I was riding my 1973 Motobecane Grand Record, Brooks swallow, Campagnolo Record that I replaced about 1980 with Super Record. Man that Campag tool box cost as much as the bike, I still ride, & nowadays I have a sensational collection.
@@ianwhitehead3086 eh. Been sold at least once and current owner is Dutch. Pon holdings owns bicycle brands Caloi, Cannondale, Cervélo, Derby Cycle (owner of Focus), GT, Gazelle, IronHorse, Kalkhoff, Mongoose, Santa Cruz, Veloretti, and Schwinn, among others.
I love how the first winning bike with a brake lever has the cable running UNDER the handlebar tape - a cool feature that would not return until about 1985!
The golden age for me was when Tour bikes resembled those ordinary club riders owned. The difference between an off the peg Reynolds, Tange or Columbus steel tubed bike, and one made for professionals was minimal. It was a cheap sport for working people.
Started out with alcohol, by the 30's alcohol & antisetics were the buzz. 50's onwards we got the anabolics and amphetamines and they were the standard till the 80's when blood tranfusions and then EPO came along.
Double triangulated bike resembles Egyptian pyramids of torture till your spinal cord forms like a Camel back and a prostate illness. No one beats Francis Fauré on his UCI's world record of 40+ mph in the 1930s using lowracer road Recumbent bicycle. Exodus from Egyptian pyramids bike frame then heading towards the Promised Land of milk and honey laidback on road Recumbent bicycle on pain-free, natural curvature of spinal cord and a prostate cancer-free racing...a win win combination.
pretty sure that back in the stone ages they did not move their chain over, as you stated, but used a "flip-flop" hub with 2 different cogs on the rear wheel. THey then undid the massive wingnuts holding the wheel on (by hand), turned the wheel around, and put the chain back on. Maybe that last bit is what you were referring to, but to me it sounded like you implied that they moved the chain over to a different gear, which would be on the front chainrings, not on the rear cogs which were, as I mentioned, flip-flopped. Just want folks to have a clear picture of what these folks endured for their sport.
Well, I go back to toe straps and leather helmets in the early to middle 1970s. I would like to add, NO ONE wore a helmet during training. MASI, was the premier bike. It cost a whopping $750.00 USD. Man, what a bike. Then there was a black frame bike that was suppose to be super light, but very brittle. They had one hanging on the wall of the bike shop here in Corpus Christi. It was called "space age" material. Still riding, but now on a hard tail because it is safer for me, to keep me from falling. Age is 76. When I had my hip replaced even the doctor could not believe how fast I recovered. Biking has more benefits than you might know. The morning of my surgery I was out doing an easy 4 miles just to loosen up. Took about a week to get back on.
I go back to that time too, I've been riding for just over 50 years, I still have some bikes with toe straps on them, but I no longer have the proper shoe with the proper cleat, so I just use freestyle shoes for those. Those cleats are still available but I don't ride them enough to care. I saw those leather helmets on a few riders, but I never got one because I knew they were worthless in a crash so why buy one?! But a few years after I started seriously riding I got a Bell Biker helmet when it came out in the mid-70s, that was actually a good helmet, it just didn't have the airflow that more modern ones had, but the outer plastic covering was tough as nails not like that thin crap we have today, of course, the Biker did weigh more than modern helmets mostly because of the thick outer plastic covering, but I was young, the weight didn't bother me.
Hi. “It’s the men on the bikes who win, not the bikes.” This statement was not always true in the very long history of the Tour. The perfect example in modern times of the Tour is that of the Tour 1989. The last stage of the Tour 1989 is a time trial, this is rare and this is therefore also the case for the Tour 2024. Before this last stage, two great champions are at the head of the Tour, the US Greg LeMond (1x Tour winner in this time) is second, the French Laurent Fignon (2x Tour winner in this time) is first with 50 seconds ahead of LeMond. During this last stage Fignon uses an almost "classic" bike, two wheels almost full and a little lighter than the bikes in normal stages. But LeMond uses a revolutionary bike for the time! Very light materials (carbon for example), a single solid rear wheel and above all a lightweight streamlined helmet and especially a very long handlebar in the shape of a cow's horn which allows it to run practically lying down with therefore much better aerodynamics than that of Fignon. LeMond won the time trial with 58 seconds ahead of Fignon, second in the stage, and therefore won the Tour with only 8 seconds ahead of Fignon, the smallest gap in the long history of the Tour de France! A great memory for US fans, a nightmare for French fans. That year, these 2 champions were of equal strength. LeMond was perhaps slightly stronger than Fignon in the time trials on flat roads, but throughout the Tour Fignon was superior to LeMond until this last stage (even if, few know it, at the end of the Tour Fignon suffered from severe irritation in his crotch due to excessive friction for 2 weeks, which nevertheless handicapped him a little during this final time trial). And it was LeMond's revolutionary bike for its time that allowed him to win the Tour 1989. To limit the importance of bikes, the following year the Tour organization banned all innovations on bicycles that had not been controlled and authorized by it and by the world cycling authorities. QED Video on this last terrible stage of the Tour 1989 here -> th-cam.com/video/2CAVEqbQzJ0/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for providing some very interesting history. I’m 80 and have loved cycling since I was a kid. My first good bike was a Raleigh Superbe. A very pretty bike in all gold. I then moved on to a Trek 2300, a carbon fiber tube bike with aluminum lugs. Next I bought a Trek LeMond Chambery. This is the most attractive bike I own. Last I bought a Trek Lance Armstrong 1999 US Postal Commemorative bike. This hangs on my wall never having been ridden. It’s been a great life and much of this I owe to cycling.
@@1shelbygt07 hi mate. I am also 80, and I have never given up cycling. In fact, I have just done a 20 k ride. Some days I do less. I still have most of my old bikes which all work. My latest squeeze is a Look 765 Optimum roadbike, with Shimano Ultegra Di2 wireless shifters, disc brakes,the lot. It has given me a whole new lease of cycling life! Like riding on a cloud! Try it! It works! It will be a great life again!
@@lesbois53 my 78 year old friend climbs Mt. Diablo in the SF Bay Area every week. And in a month, I will be riding two weeks in Slovenia with my 82 year old neighbor who is also the assistant ride leader. Excellent examples in health and living life to the fullest. A lifelong cyclist, I learned to unicycle just before turning 50. At almost 59, I'm still bunny hopping, trials riding, wheelieing, "shredding the gnar" and keeping the rubber side down. Road, mountain, single, or tandem, it's ALL fun! Hope to keep it up much, much longer! Kudos to you and everyone else who keeps those wheels spinning! PS I'd LOVE to see your old bicycle collection. Hard to let them go, right?
You never mention 531 tubing, or don't you know about it. The bikes might have been made in Italy or France, but they all used it? It was made in UK. And the guy who used it was Reg Harris, the world sprint champion for 14 years!
Reynolds actually made the script, but it was one of several areas we ended cutting while editing to keep the video length a bit shorter. They’ve definitely had an undeniable impact in cycling though!
@@99spokes You shouldn't have cut it because that would have been cool. Also the tech involved in welded, brazed and lugged bikes would have been nice to hear about. No one here is complaining about the video being too long.
The video is official tour-winning bikes, so I kind of get it, but going through the Indurain, Pentani, and Riis bikes and then saying that the Lance Era was the darkest time in cycling is weird.
Thanks for the video! I’ve got some more information on Greg LeMond’s Tour winning bikes 1986: Bernard Hinault branded steel frame for flat stages, Look/TVT carbon for mountain stages - both using Campagnolo components 1989: Bottechia steel frame using Mavic components 1990: TVT carbon using Campagnolo components
In 1986, on the final stage into Paris, I saw LeMond ride across le Pont de la Concorde. But it all happened so quickly that I could not spot the details of the frame of his bike. I certainly could not see through the paint.
It wasn't a dark time.... These grand tours riders now aren't clean. Should have gone into the trek bikes more. Still a great film though. I really enjoyed it. Thank you 😀👍
Really wasn’t a “dark time” unless you want to label ALL years of cycling a dark time. Back in early years the riders were all using amphetamines ,cocaine and other drugs. Drugs have evolved over the years and if anyone does not think these guys are 100% clean today they are nuts.
Fair enough! As a kid I looked up to Lance a lot, so I think it hit me hard when everything came out, and was probably too young and naive to gather the big picture
@@99spokes I still look up to Lance. The things he did for cancer research fundraising were amazing, plus he managed to get so many Americans onto bikes.
I was highly disappointed at the time he came out with it even though it seemed impossible you wanted to believe. But once i watched enough shows about history of the tour etc. and just came to reality that 98% on tour were doping then and throughout basically EVERY tour you just take it for what it is. Like body building. Am i going to hate against Arnold Schwarzenegger for Roids when it was accepted and given everyone was juicing in body building? Sucks but it is what it is.
I rode my Peugeot 979 with pride, I think dura ace ax was the dogs. Can't work out why it cost me @£750 back in 1986 to have a decent bike with brand new campy group set. Today it appears fashionable only to buy a bike over $10,000. Then stay in the big ring. I don't see the hype, it is the rider.
I still own my 1981 Team Raleigh copy of Zoetemelks bike . Only difference mine has Campagnolo Record where Zoetemelk used the Super Record group . It weighs 9.1 kilogram !
Great video; you covered a lot of ground in a short time without feeling rushed. I want to point out that all metals used in bike frames are alloy, not just aluminum. Alloy is simply a mix of more than one metal. Steel, aluminum, titanium, magnesium, and any other metals I missed, are all mixed with small amounts of other metals and therefore, are alloys. And I don't know how I have missed videos from 99 Spokes up until now, I will be subscribing!
True! Here in the US many manufacturers refer to their aluminum models as “alloy,” so that’s the vernacular we’ve stuck with, albeit it not the most literally accurate haha
@@99spokes I'll attest to "alloy" being the equivalent of "aluminum" in the US bike scene for a long time. "Alloy nipples" is still the standard term for aluminum.
I still have my 1975 Peugeot PX 10, with the gold drilled Mafac brakes, and Simplex/Stronglight drive train. Bernard Thevenet won the Tour du France on this bike in 1975. It was definitely the fastest bike back in the day, and can keep up with my Specialized Tarmac Pro carbon fiber, Dura Ace with Boyds 60mm carbon wheels. I was soooooo much faster in 1975. LOL Time is always the winner.
Eddy rode Eddy Merckx-labeled bikes from Masi (1969), then Giuseppe Pela (1970), then Colnago, Kessels, and De Rosa. His own bike company started after he retired, in 1980.
Indurain didn't use Pinarello when he won his first Tour in 1991; for this year he used Spanish brand Razesa, and TVT for mountains. He's the only cyclist winning Tour with three materials (Steel, carbon and aluminum)
I don’t know for sure, but with some riders using titanium in the 90s / 2000s (think Armstrong’s litespeed), could t there be any riders having used carbon / titanium and a 3rd frame material winning the tour?
The next generation of bike would be the ones that UCI will accept; many radical changes exist but only that or that could come; it's up to them. Cycling should stay 100% mechanical; what electricity do in this wonderful mechanics?!!
You showed my Merckx I rode the Eddy for 8 years and 300 races. Couple of different wheel sets. I also had a really nice Frejus from the early '60s. That was one of the best riding bikes I've ever had. But I've owned every kind of bike so I guess I can just keep going.
Drug use is still more common than not. Armstrong just was a jerk and bully and was setup to be the fall guy. He still beat everyone else also doing drugs.
Fair enough! According to the ASO, there is no winner (and hence no winning bike) from 1999-2005. That was largely what led to our decision, but we knew it’d be controversial!
The internet and TH-cam is rife with duplicates. This is more than interesting and very well researched, written, and produced; it is, insofar as I know, a truly singular exposition of bikes in the history of the Tour. Chapeau! One addition I would make: I think there have been some number of "winning bikes" that were re-decaled to carry a sponsor's name but were built by others. Craig Calfee built LeMond's first winning carbon frame. (John Slawta of Land Shark built Andy Hampsten's re-decaled, Giro "winning" frame.) (And congratulations to you again for stating bikes don't win; riders do. Having created the advertising for Campagnolo, Continental, Basso, et al., it unfailingly galls me to see ads that speak of products winning.)
Fair enough! According to the ASO, there is no winner (and hence no winning bike) from 1999-2005. That was largely what led to our decision, but we knew it’d be controversial!
Hi nice vid, just a bit of info; Merckx's Faema was made by Masi, 1st Molteni Merckx was made by Kessels, then Colnago and finally De Rosa. Fiat Merckx made by De Rosa. In 88 Delgado actually rode a TVT badged Pinarello most of the time. Le Mond won 89 TVT (Badged Bottecchia) and 90 TVT (Badged Le Mond), Indurain on TVT in 91 and maybe 92 (can't recall) badged Pinarello. Indurain's steel bikes by Dario Pegoretti. As a side note, Stephen Roche was the last winner on a LUGGED steel frame with toe clips. Keep up the good work!
Nice work digging out all the old photos and video 🙂 I’m a mt biker but road bikes have gotten neat looking over the last years and always enjoyed TdF. But is there any part left that can really be upgraded or improved?
That’s a great question! Like we mentioned at the end of the video, a lot of companies are merging their aero and climbing bikes; a great example of that is the new Trek Madone, and with it the end of the Emonda
@@LordAus123 Narrow bars and short cranks are just fads, and already proven to work only for tiny riders. 1x on road bikes is complete nonsense. It simply does not provide the same gear range as 2x, you either have to compromise towards climbing gears or sprinting gears.
@@LordAus123 okay thank you for the info. I wonder how long before we can’t tell the difference between an electric assisted and regular bike by looks, will always be heavier I would assume. Can hide motor in crankset/hub area, not sure what it’s called, and then smaller and more powerful batteries in downtube, riders will have a new way to cheat! So I spose there’s always some way to move forward.
I understand you don't want people to criticize your pronunciation of the brand names, but could it have killed you to at least look up approximately accurate pronunciations? It takes two seconds. You're literally adding syllables that don't exist
Fair enough! True! Our reason was for skipping over was because for other tours when the winner was caught doping the race organizers listed the runner up as the champion. But since, like you said, doping was so wide spread in this era and Lance's titles were stripped years down the rode, the ASO officially states no winner for those years. No winner = no winning bikes
I enjoyed this, but it's dumb to exclude Lance and act like those were "dark times." Those times were some of the tour's most popular in the eyes of the lay public, and it's dumb AF that you didn't talk about the bikes.
Glad you enjoyed it! Nothing to do with Lance, like we said in the video, we Lance was one of many. But according to the UCI/ASO there was no official winner from ‘99 to ‘05, so no winners means no winning bikes 🤷♂️
Next innovation has gotta be dropper posts for Tour bikes. Since they've made sitting on the top tube illegal riders need a way to get lower on the descents. Dropper post would do that for them without adding much weight.
Good job with this video. Very entertaining review of this history. Bike tech is a pretty good reminder of how recent the industrial/technological society really is.... The first bike type thing, really like a balance bike for kids made of wood was what 1877? Then the safety bicycle is 1880s... then they're racing the TdF in early 1900s! Then I actually lived and road and raced bikes through late 1980s and 1990s when all the experimenting was going on. My first real road racing bike was a steel frame with downtube shifters and toe clips. I swapped the toe clips for clipless pedals maybe one season later, then STI swept away the downtube shifters in no time too, then much better helmets wiped away the classic hairnets. There were vast dumpsters filled with failed bike junk in those years too, like biopace chainrings. The bike tech of the 80s mirrored the innovation in other industries too. Back then people were really cognizant, I think that they were living in "the future", I remember it, and can recognize that type of thinking when I watch TV shows and movies from back then.
I still have the biopace rings on my Schwinn Voyageur, lol. I've done tens of thousands of miles on them over the last few decades, so hearing they're junk is always news to me because I never had a problem with them. Never bothered upgrading to special fancy shoes either, and I'm still using downtube shifters. Not to critique your post, but I don't think the racer based tech filtering down onto recreational riders has necessarily been a good thing, other than for bike companies. If you're a pro that's one thing, but what has pushing all these chubby, non-athletes into neon spandex and onto bikes with harsh racing geometry really accomplished, aside from the comedic factor? The dumpsters of the future will be fill with carbon fiber bikes because they're too risky to ride used, while any 1970's Raleigh frame will still be safe to ride 100 years from now. Was the 3lbs or whatever difference between a good steel frame and carbon fiber really worth it?
@@jimmyjakes1823 spandex has NOTHING to do with racing. It's function. I've decided that the shunning of Lycra in the mountain bike community is horrible. I've been cycling in Lycra for 45 years. I live in a hot climate. I also "run hot," so riding in "baggies" is stupid. I just spent a week in the Sierra where temps were 85-90. Climbing 1,800 feet of technical Sierra single track baking in the sun? Sorry, won't be wearing gym shorts for ya! Simply too hot for me to wear clothing based on "fashion sense" instead of FUNCTION. So I'm wearing Lyra with pride. This is EXACTLY what American football payers wear - and they don't have a chamois to cover their "bits," so I'm less "out there" than the beloved "studs" on the football field. But that won't stop your average male pickup truck driver from shouting "fag" at cyclists as he passes them dangerously close to get home to watch football! So stop the Lycra bashing. It's not for "racing," but for those cycling long and hard hours on the bike who need FUNCTION over anything else. And I also don't buy into the endless shaming of the male physique. Terrible side-effect of some great strides for gender equality. I'd prefer the latter without the former, thank you.
@@dudeonbike800 I'm shocked you got the f word through moderation. That aside, those truckers are only standing up for good taste and public aesthetics. Imagine driving along, minding your own business until suddenly you see some appalling, fat middle aged man bent all the way over and stuffed into neon spandex, that's covered in obnoxious advertisements. Of course the truck driver will be traumatized. What did they do to deserve that? Is it any wonder people sneer at cyclists when we behave this way? Look, maybe we can find some middle ground here? I do ride with black shorts and a solid colored riding shirt, but only in hot weather and only on randonneur rides or extended multi day tours. Even then, I'll throw on basketball shorts if I'm going to spend time off the bike in civilization, and of course I'm not wearing ridiculous clippy shoes either. This seems reasonable to me. Fundamentally, this idea that you need special riding clothes to go for a 20 mile ride on a nice day is totally absurd. Cycling is a normal activity that normal people should be able to do without dressing up like power rangers.
@@jimmyjakes1823 I'm glad I was able to quote the homophobia RAMPANT in our country. Why censor the truth? Apparently you haven't been any of the THOUSANDS of Walmarts, Dollar Stores or other mass merchant retailers across the country in the last ten years. Endless trauma as far as the eye can see. Obesity is epidemic. Stop playing the victim. Or perhaps you should promulgate legislation that dictates who should be allowed to wear what sort of clothing. Been using "clippy shoes" for 37 years and appreciate them on every ride. After using flats, then toe clips & straps, then toe clips with cleats and then toe clips with double straps, I found the most ideal solution: The Clipless Pedal. They're so good for me I even use them on my urban assault vehicle. Not only tandem riding, but tandem mountain biking. Haven't dropped my partner in 30 years. They aren't for everyone (many get scared riding with them), so I don't fault others who choose alternatives. I wonder why you feel the need to? Been riding in "normal" clothing for 51 years. Yet when I want to ride more than what normal clothing would be conducive to wear, I pick the more appropriate choice. Why would I play soccer in slacks and dance shoes? Your endless moaning is hilarious. Explains a lot of douchery among idiot cyclists I see and hear about. You've obviously forgotten what cycling is and should be all about.
@@jimmyjakes1823 I'll add that it's funny you make the SAME false conclusions that cycling-ignorant members of the public make: "That cyclist MUST be wearing Lycra to 'shove it in our faces,' as that clothing obviously serves no purpose other than to show off and pretend to be a 'racer'." Amazing that you cannot comprehend why cyclists choose appropriate clothing. I've corresponded with a BUNCH of motorcyclists who simply cannot believe we scream down mountains "practically naked." The Lycra skin suit is indeed useless when the worst occurs. They recoil in horror imagining the road rash we'll get if things go wrong. But then I point out that I'd never GET TO THE TOP OF THAT EPIC CLIMB wearing leathers in the first place. So I'd never get the opportunity to UTILIZE the leathers on the screaming descent. Kinda makes 'em moot. Once I explain this, the light bulb comes on. They then get it. I wonder if your light bulb will ever come on?
That era of high-end carbon bikes, are just brutal riding, but so fast and pretty 😂 Had a Focus Izalco Extreme from 2009, with the integrated seatpost. That thing beats you up, like you owe it money.
Pogacar himself is only 176 cm tall. If you are over 180 cm the "less hip flexion" thing does not apply, any supposed aero benefit is negligible and if you are already used to pedal fast (+90 rpm) there is no need to go any faster. Short cranks are a fad, probably even more than oval chainrings.
I'm 175cm tall and have been mountain biking with 175mm cranks for 35 years. Road riding with 172.5mm. Seems to be working well so far. (I laugh at all the crank strike marks on rocks on the trails - lots yesterday in Tahoe. Apparently people don't know about this thing called "technique" while riding off road.) My 190cm friend has been road & track riding with custom 198mm cranks for the same time to avoid previous injury caused by short (180mm) cranks. Seems to be working well so far.
Fair enough! Maybe that’s more of a personal sentiment on my part; I looked up to lance a ton as a kid and it was tough to see denounced. But I was likely too naive to understand the big picture at the time. But alas, my feeling remains 🤷♂️
For a video that's suppose to be about a history of bikes, you have way too many seconds of flipping back to your face talking. Staring at you literally adds nothing to what you're showcasing and takes away moments your audience could have spent studying the bike pictures.
Fair enough! According to the ASO, there is no winner (and hence no winning bike) from 1999-2005. That was largely what led to our decision, but we knew it’d be controversial!
To change gears on old pre-war bikes you had to take off the rear wheel and turn it around to use the sprocket on the other side of the hub. I had a couple very old bikes with this feature, threads for gears on both sides of the hub. Some had a freewheel on one side and fixed, track style, gear on the other.
A fun fact I read was that the Enve bikes used by Total Energies this TDF had mounts for mudshields, contrary to all the other bikes used in the peloton!
It wasn't hair spray that spurred development in the 80s, it was the US desire to dominate the Olympics. Previously, aero development was very much in the vein of "looks like that might work" - make tyres skinny a few gussets thrown into the frame for "streamlining," that sort of thing. Gitane did some research in the early 80s, but it was still in its infancy. Wheels had seen progressively fewer spokes, but the few disc wheels were made of metal and therefore heavy. Manufacturers had no real incentive to spend huge money on cutting edge technology where there was little payoff. Then the USA was awarded the 1984 Olympics, and suddenly huge amounts of money were being thrown at advanced technology for all sorts of sports. Cycling finally had the funding it needed, all sizes and shapes and materials of frames, wheels, helmets and clothing were designed and tested, people could see what worked and could copy it, and the aero benefits couldn't be ignored. On another note, it would be interesting albeit difficult to list where a lot of the frames were acutally made, compared to the labels on the frame. Most of Merckx's frames, for instance, were built by Ugo De Rosa (as were many others in the peloton), the Gitane, Raleigh and Hinault frames were most often built by Cyfac, TVT frames were often rebranded (as, variously, Bottechia, Pinarello and others), as were the aluminium and carbon Vitus'.
@@99spokes to give you some idea, the US Cycling team budget for the 1984 Olympics was $5 million....what's that in modern money? They had handmade aluminium frames using aerospace alloys, the team pursuit bikes had smaller than standard wheels to allow them to get closer together in line, very long aero helmets. The irony was the team pursuit squad was beaten by the Australian team, on bikes built in a shed in Sydney, with spoked wheels, using off the shelf helmets, primarily due to the unfortunate Dave Grylls pulling his foot at the start - the only thing on the US bikes that was still old school was the leather straps on the pedals!
I would love to see AI shifting. It reads your power, cadence, angle of the bike (up or downhill), in and out of the saddle, etc. My least favorite part of riding is the constant shifting.
Interesting! I think the biggest thing holding that back right now is anticipating changing terrain (ie shifting before getting to a hill, not during), but I believe the technology exists to have it change based on pedaling cadence
Funny thing in that picture of Pedro Delgado and Stephen Roche @10:06 is that Roche has Peugeot branding on his shorts, but he is riding a Battaglin branded frame. Can anyone tell me the story here?
@@99spokes 'doping' actually started with the domestiques. Their jobs were HARD as HELL. They started off with alcohol . . . then the Team Leaders realized that they too can 'cash in' on the vibes. Before you know it . . . EVERYONE is doping!
Look up the history of doping. It’s pretty interesting! In the ‘30s, the TdF invitations specifically warned teams that the organizers would _not_ be providing any! 😂
very insightful video, especially the evolution of gear changes was really cool i did expect more pictures of the winnig bikes tho, as if something in the title promised that there would be a list of bikes by year
@@99spokes yea i was guessing this was the case, maybe teh solution could be to have a slide at the end of each era with the pictures you were able to find (like 4-6 different winning bikes) so that we get some visual queues and then the differences in the next era are easier to spot
I think I observed STI prototypes at the 1987 Tour in Stuttgart. If memory serves, I was mystified by the extra cable housing extending from the brake hoods. But that was a long time ago and I may be mistaken.
Good video. I would love to see more equipment videos. Rather than bike manufacture, where the area bars started? All carbon bike started. Even just the frames.
Fascinating! I'm an old fat motorcyclist, but the speeds that some of my friend go on their bicycles is amazing. My bike will do an easy 280kph, but anyone who does over 70kph just, even the thought terrifies me. And they've been down hill at over 110kph. Ahh! Those TdF bicycles are just like science fiction. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Was descending a pass at Lake Tahoe 20 years ago on our mountain tandem. Had no expectation of going too fast. Then a dude on a motorcycle sidles up beside us and shouts, "Good job guys! You're doing 55!" Nice! (55mph is 88kph) Not.even.trying. I know we've hit over 65mph on the road tandem (104kph) And the Flexy Racer as a kid? Pretty sure I topped 70 on that insane death trap!!!! Not sure I'll be hitting those speeds again though...
1956 Tour De France was won by Roger Walkowiak riding a Riva Sport bicycle built by Alphonse Thomann who built several TDF bicycles. I own a 1956 frame built by Riva Sport Cycles. It has Vitus tubing and Nervex Lugs. I set this frame up as fixed gear with a rim choice that will support large tires. I run 33cm tires. i ride this bicycle regularly and is a great ride. Btw, it was 1965 that Gimondi rode the Bianchi with all the new Campagnolo parts like new hub and brakes. Great video and thanks
the BMC you show at 14'04" is - as you said - equipped with Shimano Dura Ace DI2, but the BMC that Cadel Evans rides in the picture before has a Campagnolo group set
That was excellent. You handled the EPO very well. For me, I would emphasise the change in geometry in the last 15 years ( eg sloping top tube, more compact frame geometry vs high seat, lower attachment points for rear stays etc. ). I remember when carbon wheels came in in the mid 1980's, first as TT wheels ( MAVIC ! ) ... Looks like one bike for all stages, and 11/12 gear cassettes with one chain ring is the way forward now. I really hope there are no hidden motor cheaters in the pack.
Funny I never made the Raleigh/1980 Tour connection. The movie "Breaking Away" cemented my love of cycling by prompting me to get a road bike in 1979. By 1980 I was a road riding fanatic. I took my Raleigh Super Course everywhere! Funny coincidence that Raleigh won its only Tour that year. If it weren't for that frame failing at the rear brake bridge and the WRONG size warranty order, I'd most certainly still have that bike today. Oh well.
As a 20th century retro grouch I think bike innovation driven by advent of mountain bike development in the 1980s. Not interested in 21st century. But searching for 1990s aluminum bikes like Cannondale's when they used to be made in the USA in Pennsylvania.
Great video 👍 Next innovation? With electronic shifting now so common , how about auto shifting gears based on a preset cadence threshold, especially for regular cycling nerds like myself 🤷🏻♂️
I never liked cervelo after I watch the chainstay snap in half right in front of me in a field Sprint and the dude went down hard. Never could get that out of my mind every time I see that cervelo the Jonas rides
Bikes DO NOT win any race! Wake up! You have also a committed a crucial carbon bike and component designer and manufacturing company TIME. This company was supplier of fits carbon forks for major racing teams, and started developing carbon frames, pedals as far as 1987. Without TIME and its founder Mr Roland Cattin his passion, and revolutionary technology the bike industry would not have a benchmark.
Thank you for the video. Each year if the tour, bikes are very much the same across the board. If there’s an innovation, you can bet all teams are on it. So, it’s not so much the bike that wins a race, but the rider sitting on it. Let’s not forget that. 😊
Love the old pix. FYI, elliptical ("oval") chain wheels had been used and found wanting back in the '70s, if not earlier. Bad things forgotten always creep back. Elliptical chain rings are cycling metaphor for the history of the human race.
I think the tour should have a retro stage where they ride single speed bikes for the day.
That would be gnarly!!
Yeah the kind where you stop and flip the rear tire around to change to a slightly different gear.
RAD idea!!!!😎
I like it! Plus wool jerseys!
@@larchman4327 gears?, ride it fixed gear and brakeless like the first years! jk
When comparing cycling to other industries, I assume that the next "innovation" will be some kind of subscription model: You'll get a certain amount of free shifts per month and if you exceed that, you either have to upgrade to a premium subscription or watch an ad on your bike computer
lol nice 😂😂
Shhhhhhh, don't get them thinking!
I quess you'll still be able to shift manually but for the AI enhanced auto smart shift you have to pay a monthly subscription fee.
You tried too hard to be funny
Piracy becomes rampant in the cycling industry suddenly.
Peugeot was actually a relatively well-known bike brand back in the 70’s.
I rode a PX-10
And 80's.
Indeed, my wife, then girlfriend was riding a Peugot, it was a a RR town bike with price to match. Heavy, but very good. I was riding my 1973 Motobecane Grand Record, Brooks swallow, Campagnolo Record that I replaced about 1980 with Super Record. Man that Campag tool box cost as much as the bike,
I still ride, & nowadays I have a sensational collection.
Plenty of old chromoly steel Peugeot frames are still on the roads in Europe
As a kid starting to love bicycles in the early 70's I lusted after the Schwinn Paramounts in the bike store rack.
No R in Peugeot. Cervelo is Canadian not European. 13:40
And 7:20 Mercier is French, not Italian
Good catch, thank you!
“Was” Canadian
@@aemediainceh?
@@ianwhitehead3086 eh. Been sold at least once and current owner is Dutch. Pon holdings owns bicycle brands Caloi, Cannondale, Cervélo, Derby Cycle (owner of Focus), GT, Gazelle, IronHorse, Kalkhoff, Mongoose, Santa Cruz, Veloretti, and Schwinn, among others.
The weight of the first Tour de France winning bike is the equivalent of riding a modern bike with two more modern bikes strapped to your back.
Haha for real, that’s a crazy way to think about it!
And on fixed drivetrain no less!
@@yukiko_5051 Superior fix gear
I think the biggest weight difference could be on some riders ;)
I love how the first winning bike with a brake lever has the cable running UNDER the handlebar tape - a cool feature that would not return until about 1985!
The golden age for me was when Tour bikes resembled those ordinary club riders owned. The difference between an off the peg Reynolds, Tange or Columbus steel tubed bike, and one made for professionals was minimal. It was a cheap sport for working people.
Can you do : Tour de France winning drugs: 1903-2023 ?
.....and the best trains to catch!!
Started out with alcohol, by the 30's alcohol & antisetics were the buzz. 50's onwards we got the anabolics and amphetamines and they were the standard till the 80's when blood tranfusions and then EPO came along.
😂😂
@@DavidStacey-tx7on If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying!
Double triangulated bike resembles Egyptian pyramids of torture till your spinal cord forms like a Camel back and a prostate illness.
No one beats Francis Fauré on his UCI's world record of 40+ mph in the 1930s using lowracer road Recumbent bicycle.
Exodus from Egyptian pyramids bike frame then heading towards the Promised Land of milk and honey laidback on road Recumbent bicycle on pain-free, natural curvature of spinal cord and a prostate cancer-free racing...a win win combination.
How this hasn’t absolutely popped off is criminal. Well done dudes
Haha thank you, glad you like it!
Because cutting to a face talking all the time is obnoxious.
@@RHelenius haha okay bro I dunno what else you expect from TH-cam but these videos often have a face. Jog on.
@@burgess_and_his_bike Not liking the truth, bro?
@@RHelenius it literally does not impact me at all. I do not care what you think, like, at all chief.
Love those old pictures of the riders having a cigarette....crazy
Nutty!!
Ha ha ha. You used to see that in World Motocross too.
They would also stop in to a restaurant and pick up a few bottles of wine and share them.
It was believed that smoking helped "expand your lungs" so you could breathe more easily.
Yes, you must open your lungs before you get to higher altitude.
I’m sure you spent many hours researching this so you deserve a Hearty Well Done!
Hey I appreciate it, thank you!
pretty sure that back in the stone ages they did not move their chain over, as you stated, but used a "flip-flop" hub with 2 different cogs on the rear wheel. THey then undid the massive wingnuts holding the wheel on (by hand), turned the wheel around, and put the chain back on. Maybe that last bit is what you were referring to, but to me it sounded like you implied that they moved the chain over to a different gear, which would be on the front chainrings, not on the rear cogs which were, as I mentioned, flip-flopped. Just want folks to have a clear picture of what these folks endured for their sport.
Good catch, thank you!
Well, I go back to toe straps and leather helmets in the early to middle 1970s. I would like to add, NO ONE wore a helmet during training. MASI, was the premier bike. It cost a whopping $750.00 USD. Man, what a bike. Then there was a black frame bike that was suppose to be super light, but very brittle. They had one hanging on the wall of the bike shop here in Corpus Christi. It was called "space age" material. Still riding, but now on a hard tail because it is safer for me, to keep me from falling. Age is 76. When I had my hip replaced even the doctor could not believe how fast I recovered. Biking has more benefits than you might know. The morning of my surgery I was out doing an easy 4 miles just to loosen up. Took about a week to get back on.
I go back to that time too, I've been riding for just over 50 years, I still have some bikes with toe straps on them, but I no longer have the proper shoe with the proper cleat, so I just use freestyle shoes for those. Those cleats are still available but I don't ride them enough to care.
I saw those leather helmets on a few riders, but I never got one because I knew they were worthless in a crash so why buy one?! But a few years after I started seriously riding I got a Bell Biker helmet when it came out in the mid-70s, that was actually a good helmet, it just didn't have the airflow that more modern ones had, but the outer plastic covering was tough as nails not like that thin crap we have today, of course, the Biker did weigh more than modern helmets mostly because of the thick outer plastic covering, but I was young, the weight didn't bother me.
Hi.
“It’s the men on the bikes who win, not the bikes.”
This statement was not always true in the very long history of the Tour.
The perfect example in modern times of the Tour is that of the Tour 1989.
The last stage of the Tour 1989 is a time trial, this is rare and this is therefore also the case for the Tour 2024.
Before this last stage, two great champions are at the head of the Tour, the US Greg LeMond (1x Tour winner in this time) is second, the French Laurent Fignon (2x Tour winner in this time) is first with 50 seconds ahead of LeMond.
During this last stage Fignon uses an almost "classic" bike, two wheels almost full and a little lighter than the bikes in normal stages.
But LeMond uses a revolutionary bike for the time! Very light materials (carbon for example), a single solid rear wheel and above all a lightweight streamlined helmet and especially a very long handlebar in the shape of a cow's horn which allows it to run practically lying down with therefore much better aerodynamics than that of Fignon.
LeMond won the time trial with 58 seconds ahead of Fignon, second in the stage, and therefore won the Tour with only 8 seconds ahead of Fignon, the smallest gap in the long history of the Tour de France! A great memory for US fans, a nightmare for French fans.
That year, these 2 champions were of equal strength. LeMond was perhaps slightly stronger than Fignon in the time trials on flat roads, but throughout the Tour Fignon was superior to LeMond until this last stage (even if, few know it, at the end of the Tour Fignon suffered from severe irritation in his crotch due to excessive friction for 2 weeks, which nevertheless handicapped him a little during this final time trial).
And it was LeMond's revolutionary bike for its time that allowed him to win the Tour 1989.
To limit the importance of bikes, the following year the Tour organization banned all innovations on bicycles that had not been controlled and authorized by it and by the world cycling authorities.
QED
Video on this last terrible stage of the Tour 1989 here -> th-cam.com/video/2CAVEqbQzJ0/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for providing some very interesting history. I’m 80 and have loved cycling since I was a kid. My first good bike was a Raleigh Superbe. A very pretty bike in all gold. I then moved on to a Trek 2300, a carbon fiber tube bike with aluminum lugs. Next I bought a Trek LeMond Chambery. This is the most attractive bike I own. Last I bought a Trek Lance Armstrong 1999 US Postal Commemorative bike. This hangs on my wall never having been ridden. It’s been a great life and much of this I owe to cycling.
Read The Midlife Cyclist by Phil Cavell and you'll be taking that bike off the wall and riding it again.
@@1shelbygt07 hi mate. I am also 80, and I have never given up cycling. In fact, I have just done a 20 k ride. Some days I do less. I still have most of my old bikes which all work. My latest squeeze is a Look 765 Optimum roadbike, with Shimano Ultegra Di2 wireless shifters, disc brakes,the lot. It has given me a whole new lease of cycling life! Like riding on a cloud! Try it! It works! It will be a great life again!
Kudos to you 80 year olds from a 72 year old with 40+ years of cycling. You guys are my heroes.
@@lfdavis keep on treading! It never ends!
@@lesbois53 my 78 year old friend climbs Mt. Diablo in the SF Bay Area every week. And in a month, I will be riding two weeks in Slovenia with my 82 year old neighbor who is also the assistant ride leader. Excellent examples in health and living life to the fullest.
A lifelong cyclist, I learned to unicycle just before turning 50. At almost 59, I'm still bunny hopping, trials riding, wheelieing, "shredding the gnar" and keeping the rubber side down. Road, mountain, single, or tandem, it's ALL fun! Hope to keep it up much, much longer!
Kudos to you and everyone else who keeps those wheels spinning!
PS I'd LOVE to see your old bicycle collection. Hard to let them go, right?
News flash: Tour riders have been cheating since the second tour in 1904.
Tour de France on a fixie, wood wheels and no brakes, my god!
Crazy huh!!
You never mention 531 tubing, or don't you know about it. The bikes might have been made in Italy or France, but they all used it? It was made in UK. And the guy who used it was Reg Harris, the world sprint champion for 14 years!
Ah yes - Reynolds 531 double butted steel tubes - the sign of a great, hand made, racing bike.
Reynolds actually made the script, but it was one of several areas we ended cutting while editing to keep the video length a bit shorter. They’ve definitely had an undeniable impact in cycling though!
@@99spokes You shouldn't have cut it because that would have been cool. Also the tech involved in welded, brazed and lugged bikes would have been nice to hear about. No one here is complaining about the video being too long.
The video is official tour-winning bikes, so I kind of get it, but going through the Indurain, Pentani, and Riis bikes and then saying that the Lance Era was the darkest time in cycling is weird.
Thanks for the video! I’ve got some more information on Greg LeMond’s Tour winning bikes
1986: Bernard Hinault branded steel frame for flat stages, Look/TVT carbon for mountain stages - both using Campagnolo components
1989: Bottechia steel frame using Mavic components
1990: TVT carbon using Campagnolo components
Great insights, thanks for sharing!
Was the 1986 bike a Roland Della Santa under the paint?
In 1986, on the final stage into Paris, I saw LeMond ride across le Pont de la Concorde. But it all happened so quickly that I could not spot the details of the frame of his bike. I certainly could not see through the paint.
It wasn't a dark time.... These grand tours riders now aren't clean. Should have gone into the trek bikes more. Still a great film though. I really enjoyed it. Thank you 😀👍
Fair enough! We were definitely torn on how to handle that. Glad you still enjoyed it though 🤙
How is it the same as now? You mean they are still doping? That's a very unfounded conspiracy with no evidence to back it up, pipe down flat earther.
I agree. Ignore the rider but could have covered the bikes still from that era. Seems silly not to.
Really wasn’t a “dark time” unless you want to label ALL years of cycling a dark time. Back in early years the riders were all using amphetamines ,cocaine and other drugs. Drugs have evolved over the years and if anyone does not think these guys are 100% clean today they are nuts.
Fair enough! As a kid I looked up to Lance a lot, so I think it hit me hard when everything came out, and was probably too young and naive to gather the big picture
@@99spokes I still look up to Lance. The things he did for cancer research fundraising were amazing, plus he managed to get so many Americans onto bikes.
I was highly disappointed at the time he came out with it even though it seemed impossible you wanted to believe. But once i watched enough shows about history of the tour etc. and just came to reality that 98% on tour were doping then and throughout basically EVERY tour you just take it for what it is. Like body building. Am i going to hate against Arnold Schwarzenegger for Roids when it was accepted and given everyone was juicing in body building? Sucks but it is what it is.
@@chad85100body building isn’t drug tested so it’s a bit different so no one’s breaking rules doping there.
UCI or it's equal banning innovation since 1903
Bikes don´t win - doping does !
I rode my Peugeot 979 with pride, I think dura ace ax was the dogs. Can't work out why it cost me @£750 back in 1986 to have a decent bike with brand new campy group set. Today it appears fashionable only to buy a bike over $10,000. Then stay in the big ring. I don't see the hype, it is the rider.
I still own my 1981 Team Raleigh copy of Zoetemelks bike .
Only difference mine has Campagnolo Record where Zoetemelk used the Super Record group .
It weighs 9.1 kilogram !
I have one from the late 1970s I’ve had it since new and love it
You flipped me out.... I ride a 1948 Legnano Grand Prix to work every day, bought the frame and turned it into a single speed...
Great video; you covered a lot of ground in a short time without feeling rushed. I want to point out that all metals used in bike frames are alloy, not just aluminum. Alloy is simply a mix of more than one metal. Steel, aluminum, titanium, magnesium, and any other metals I missed, are all mixed with small amounts of other metals and therefore, are alloys. And I don't know how I have missed videos from 99 Spokes up until now, I will be subscribing!
True! Here in the US many manufacturers refer to their aluminum models as “alloy,” so that’s the vernacular we’ve stuck with, albeit it not the most literally accurate haha
@@99spokes I'll attest to "alloy" being the equivalent of "aluminum" in the US bike scene for a long time. "Alloy nipples" is still the standard term for aluminum.
I still have my 1975 Peugeot PX 10, with the gold drilled Mafac brakes, and Simplex/Stronglight drive train. Bernard Thevenet won the Tour du France on this bike in 1975. It was definitely the fastest bike back in the day, and can keep up with my Specialized Tarmac Pro carbon fiber, Dura Ace with Boyds 60mm carbon wheels. I was soooooo much faster in 1975. LOL Time is always the winner.
Eddy rode Eddy Merckx-labeled bikes from Masi (1969), then Giuseppe Pela (1970), then Colnago, Kessels, and De Rosa. His own bike company started after he retired, in 1980.
Chrome molobiium was extremely strong and light and used on frames in the 80s and 90s
Indurain didn't use Pinarello when he won his first Tour in 1991; for this year he used Spanish brand Razesa, and TVT for mountains. He's the only cyclist winning Tour with three materials (Steel, carbon and aluminum)
Thanks for that catch, and a cool stat at that!!
Four materials: steel, carbon, aluminium and EPO 😁
@@ToddBrittain1963EPO isn't a material used in bike construction
@@roadcyclist1 you don't say LOL
I don’t know for sure, but with some riders using titanium in the 90s / 2000s (think Armstrong’s litespeed), could t there be any riders having used carbon / titanium and a 3rd frame material winning the tour?
The next generation of bike would be the ones that UCI will accept; many radical changes exist but only that or that could come; it's up to them. Cycling should stay 100% mechanical; what electricity do in this wonderful mechanics?!!
Modern race bikes look like clumsy instruments, nothing of the elegance of historic bicycles.
I feel the need to complement the presenter on his clear precise articulate expressions. Good job.
Haha thank you! It was a fun one to work on, I learned a lot!
I agree. He did an excellent job!
You showed my Merckx
I rode the Eddy for 8 years and 300 races.
Couple of different wheel sets.
I also had a really nice Frejus from the early '60s. That was one of the best riding bikes I've ever had.
But I've owned every kind of bike so I guess I can just keep going.
That’s awesome!!
Nibali won in 2014 on a Specialized. Froome crashed out.
Good catch, thank you!
To quote Lance “it’s not about the bike” but the doper riding it among all the other dopers
I can finally say my single speed road bike was a race bike😅👍
Drug use is still more common than not. Armstrong just was a jerk and bully and was setup to be the fall guy. He still beat everyone else also doing drugs.
Fair enough! According to the ASO, there is no winner (and hence no winning bike) from 1999-2005. That was largely what led to our decision, but we knew it’d be controversial!
Since 20 years, the bike with most hidden space for drugs wins.
The internet and TH-cam is rife with duplicates. This is more than interesting and very well researched, written, and produced; it is, insofar as I know, a truly singular exposition of bikes in the history of the Tour. Chapeau! One addition I would make: I think there have been some number of "winning bikes" that were re-decaled to carry a sponsor's name but were built by others. Craig Calfee built LeMond's first winning carbon frame. (John Slawta of Land Shark built Andy Hampsten's re-decaled, Giro "winning" frame.) (And congratulations to you again for stating bikes don't win; riders do. Having created the advertising for Campagnolo, Continental, Basso, et al., it unfailingly galls me to see ads that speak of products winning.)
Glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for the feedback!
How naive it is to think that cyclists did not dope before the Lance era, that they did not dope after it, and that they don’t dope today.
Fair enough! According to the ASO, there is no winner (and hence no winning bike) from 1999-2005. That was largely what led to our decision, but we knew it’d be controversial!
Hi nice vid, just a bit of info; Merckx's Faema was made by Masi, 1st Molteni Merckx was made by Kessels, then Colnago and finally De Rosa. Fiat Merckx made by De Rosa. In 88 Delgado actually rode a TVT badged Pinarello most of the time. Le Mond won 89 TVT (Badged Bottecchia) and 90 TVT (Badged Le Mond), Indurain on TVT in 91 and maybe 92 (can't recall) badged Pinarello. Indurain's steel bikes by Dario Pegoretti. As a side note, Stephen Roche was the last winner on a LUGGED steel frame with toe clips. Keep up the good work!
Right on, thank you for sharing!!
Nice work digging out all the old photos and video 🙂 I’m a mt biker but road bikes have gotten neat looking over the last years and always enjoyed TdF. But is there any part left that can really be upgraded or improved?
That’s a great question! Like we mentioned at the end of the video, a lot of companies are merging their aero and climbing bikes; a great example of that is the new Trek Madone, and with it the end of the Emonda
@@99spokes okay thanks, Madone is neat looking, looks smaller than the road bikes I remember riding years ago
Road will probably go 1x mainstream. Full wireless electronic shifting is starting to go mainstream. Narrower bars (
@@LordAus123 Narrow bars and short cranks are just fads, and already proven to work only for tiny riders. 1x on road bikes is complete nonsense. It simply does not provide the same gear range as 2x, you either have to compromise towards climbing gears or sprinting gears.
@@LordAus123 okay thank you for the info. I wonder how long before we can’t tell the difference between an electric assisted and regular bike by looks, will always be heavier I would assume. Can hide motor in crankset/hub area, not sure what it’s called, and then smaller and more powerful batteries in downtube, riders will have a new way to cheat! So I spose there’s always some way to move forward.
Fascinating history lesson gents! Really enjoyed it, well done 👍🚴🏽♂️
Glad you enjoyed it
At 14:16 it's stated that the Tour was won on a Pinarello bike from 2012 to 2019, however the Tour of 2014 was won on a Specialized bike.
Good catch, thank you!
All bikes are the same, it's the riders that make them go.
I think Indurains road race bikes were steel up to '94. He made the switch to alloy in '95.
Correct, I believe the Keral Lite didn’t come out until ‘95
Holy crap! Check out his legs!!! 4:07
I understand you don't want people to criticize your pronunciation of the brand names, but could it have killed you to at least look up approximately accurate pronunciations? It takes two seconds. You're literally adding syllables that don't exist
Fair enough! True! Our reason was for skipping over was because for other tours when the winner was caught doping the race organizers listed the runner up as the champion. But since, like you said, doping was so wide spread in this era and Lance's titles were stripped years down the rode, the ASO officially states no winner for those years. No winner = no winning bikes
Was riding Cannondale back when they were USA made. I was surprised to see the USA woman win the Olympics this year (2024) on a Cannondale. 🚴
Yes! Their EF team is pretty successful, one of their riders, Richard Carapaz won the polka dot jersey at this year's Tour as well!
Nibali was on a specialized tarmac in 2014.
Nibali won the tour in 2014 on a specialized so you're going to have to redo the video... :p
Haha whoops! Thanks for the correction!
I enjoyed this, but it's dumb to exclude Lance and act like those were "dark times." Those times were some of the tour's most popular in the eyes of the lay public, and it's dumb AF that you didn't talk about the bikes.
Glad you enjoyed it! Nothing to do with Lance, like we said in the video, we Lance was one of many. But according to the UCI/ASO there was no official winner from ‘99 to ‘05, so no winners means no winning bikes 🤷♂️
Next innovation has gotta be dropper posts for Tour bikes. Since they've made sitting on the top tube illegal riders need a way to get lower on the descents. Dropper post would do that for them without adding much weight.
I can't help but agree, especially as it seems like teams can easily build bikes under the UCI limit, why not get it back into code with a dropper!
I've always been looking for a video like this.
Good job with this video. Very entertaining review of this history. Bike tech is a pretty good reminder of how recent the industrial/technological society really is.... The first bike type thing, really like a balance bike for kids made of wood was what 1877? Then the safety bicycle is 1880s... then they're racing the TdF in early 1900s! Then I actually lived and road and raced bikes through late 1980s and 1990s when all the experimenting was going on. My first real road racing bike was a steel frame with downtube shifters and toe clips. I swapped the toe clips for clipless pedals maybe one season later, then STI swept away the downtube shifters in no time too, then much better helmets wiped away the classic hairnets. There were vast dumpsters filled with failed bike junk in those years too, like biopace chainrings. The bike tech of the 80s mirrored the innovation in other industries too. Back then people were really cognizant, I think that they were living in "the future", I remember it, and can recognize that type of thinking when I watch TV shows and movies from back then.
I still have the biopace rings on my Schwinn Voyageur, lol. I've done tens of thousands of miles on them over the last few decades, so hearing they're junk is always news to me because I never had a problem with them. Never bothered upgrading to special fancy shoes either, and I'm still using downtube shifters. Not to critique your post, but I don't think the racer based tech filtering down onto recreational riders has necessarily been a good thing, other than for bike companies. If you're a pro that's one thing, but what has pushing all these chubby, non-athletes into neon spandex and onto bikes with harsh racing geometry really accomplished, aside from the comedic factor? The dumpsters of the future will be fill with carbon fiber bikes because they're too risky to ride used, while any 1970's Raleigh frame will still be safe to ride 100 years from now. Was the 3lbs or whatever difference between a good steel frame and carbon fiber really worth it?
@@jimmyjakes1823 spandex has NOTHING to do with racing. It's function. I've decided that the shunning of Lycra in the mountain bike community is horrible. I've been cycling in Lycra for 45 years. I live in a hot climate. I also "run hot," so riding in "baggies" is stupid. I just spent a week in the Sierra where temps were 85-90. Climbing 1,800 feet of technical Sierra single track baking in the sun? Sorry, won't be wearing gym shorts for ya! Simply too hot for me to wear clothing based on "fashion sense" instead of FUNCTION. So I'm wearing Lyra with pride. This is EXACTLY what American football payers wear - and they don't have a chamois to cover their "bits," so I'm less "out there" than the beloved "studs" on the football field. But that won't stop your average male pickup truck driver from shouting "fag" at cyclists as he passes them dangerously close to get home to watch football!
So stop the Lycra bashing. It's not for "racing," but for those cycling long and hard hours on the bike who need FUNCTION over anything else. And I also don't buy into the endless shaming of the male physique. Terrible side-effect of some great strides for gender equality. I'd prefer the latter without the former, thank you.
@@dudeonbike800 I'm shocked you got the f word through moderation. That aside, those truckers are only standing up for good taste and public aesthetics. Imagine driving along, minding your own business until suddenly you see some appalling, fat middle aged man bent all the way over and stuffed into neon spandex, that's covered in obnoxious advertisements. Of course the truck driver will be traumatized. What did they do to deserve that? Is it any wonder people sneer at cyclists when we behave this way?
Look, maybe we can find some middle ground here? I do ride with black shorts and a solid colored riding shirt, but only in hot weather and only on randonneur rides or extended multi day tours. Even then, I'll throw on basketball shorts if I'm going to spend time off the bike in civilization, and of course I'm not wearing ridiculous clippy shoes either. This seems reasonable to me. Fundamentally, this idea that you need special riding clothes to go for a 20 mile ride on a nice day is totally absurd. Cycling is a normal activity that normal people should be able to do without dressing up like power rangers.
@@jimmyjakes1823 I'm glad I was able to quote the homophobia RAMPANT in our country. Why censor the truth? Apparently you haven't been any of the THOUSANDS of Walmarts, Dollar Stores or other mass merchant retailers across the country in the last ten years. Endless trauma as far as the eye can see. Obesity is epidemic. Stop playing the victim. Or perhaps you should promulgate legislation that dictates who should be allowed to wear what sort of clothing.
Been using "clippy shoes" for 37 years and appreciate them on every ride. After using flats, then toe clips & straps, then toe clips with cleats and then toe clips with double straps, I found the most ideal solution: The Clipless Pedal. They're so good for me I even use them on my urban assault vehicle. Not only tandem riding, but tandem mountain biking. Haven't dropped my partner in 30 years. They aren't for everyone (many get scared riding with them), so I don't fault others who choose alternatives. I wonder why you feel the need to?
Been riding in "normal" clothing for 51 years. Yet when I want to ride more than what normal clothing would be conducive to wear, I pick the more appropriate choice. Why would I play soccer in slacks and dance shoes?
Your endless moaning is hilarious. Explains a lot of douchery among idiot cyclists I see and hear about. You've obviously forgotten what cycling is and should be all about.
@@jimmyjakes1823 I'll add that it's funny you make the SAME false conclusions that cycling-ignorant members of the public make: "That cyclist MUST be wearing Lycra to 'shove it in our faces,' as that clothing obviously serves no purpose other than to show off and pretend to be a 'racer'."
Amazing that you cannot comprehend why cyclists choose appropriate clothing.
I've corresponded with a BUNCH of motorcyclists who simply cannot believe we scream down mountains "practically naked." The Lycra skin suit is indeed useless when the worst occurs. They recoil in horror imagining the road rash we'll get if things go wrong.
But then I point out that I'd never GET TO THE TOP OF THAT EPIC CLIMB wearing leathers in the first place. So I'd never get the opportunity to UTILIZE the leathers on the screaming descent. Kinda makes 'em moot.
Once I explain this, the light bulb comes on. They then get it. I wonder if your light bulb will ever come on?
You look like Joe dirt’s long lost little brother
That’s a new one 😂 I’ll take it!
13:45 isn’t Cervelo a Canadian brand? Or at least back then?
Good catch, thank you!
I still ride a 2010 BMC SLX01, thing beats me up but I'm too cheap to upgrade.
That era of high-end carbon bikes, are just brutal riding, but so fast and pretty 😂 Had a Focus Izalco Extreme from 2009, with the integrated seatpost. That thing beats you up, like you owe it money.
L´Auto is not pronounced Luto! LOL!
you missed Specialized/Nibali in 2014 - super cool video though!
Good catch, thank you!
Older steel bikes are the nicest
Pogacar is riding 165mm cranks this tour. More aero, less hip flexion, higher cadence. Seems to be working well so far.
Pogacar himself is only 176 cm tall. If you are over 180 cm the "less hip flexion" thing does not apply, any supposed aero benefit is negligible and if you are already used to pedal fast (+90 rpm) there is no need to go any faster. Short cranks are a fad, probably even more than oval chainrings.
until next year
@einundsiebenziger5488 Yes, of course, you know more than tadej and his entire team tasked with giving him every benefit possible. Zzz
@@roadcyclist1Vingegaard uses 172,5 in the 2 tours he won. Goes to show it’s all relative and rider - dependent.
I'm 175cm tall and have been mountain biking with 175mm cranks for 35 years. Road riding with 172.5mm. Seems to be working well so far. (I laugh at all the crank strike marks on rocks on the trails - lots yesterday in Tahoe. Apparently people don't know about this thing called "technique" while riding off road.) My 190cm friend has been road & track riding with custom 198mm cranks for the same time to avoid previous injury caused by short (180mm) cranks. Seems to be working well so far.
Darkest time in cycling?? More like used Lance as their scapegoat when he really is the true goat.
Fair enough! Maybe that’s more of a personal sentiment on my part; I looked up to lance a ton as a kid and it was tough to see denounced. But I was likely too naive to understand the big picture at the time. But alas, my feeling remains 🤷♂️
Marketing puppetry which WORKS 😅 lance exposed THEM still he cut his strings long ago 🐐
LA is a psychopath and would have sold his grandmother to cannibals if that had made him only one second faster than his competition.
Lance is a big time cheat. His actions lead to many bad things happening in pantani's life. Lance's name should never be mentioned in cycling.
For a video that's suppose to be about a history of bikes, you have way too many seconds of flipping back to your face talking. Staring at you literally adds nothing to what you're showcasing and takes away moments your audience could have spent studying the bike pictures.
11:05 that Bianchi bike... So many memories, rest in peace Pirate
Lance is still the best. The rest have not been caught… simple
Fair enough! According to the ASO, there is no winner (and hence no winning bike) from 1999-2005. That was largely what led to our decision, but we knew it’d be controversial!
2024 : Colnago V4Rs
To change gears on old pre-war bikes you had to take off the rear wheel and turn it around to use the sprocket on the other side of the hub. I had a couple very old bikes with this feature, threads for gears on both sides of the hub. Some had a freewheel on one side and fixed, track style, gear on the other.
A fun fact I read was that the Enve bikes used by Total Energies this TDF had mounts for mudshields, contrary to all the other bikes used in the peloton!
Sorry to hear that, thanks for sharing your expereince!
It wasn't hair spray that spurred development in the 80s, it was the US desire to dominate the Olympics.
Previously, aero development was very much in the vein of "looks like that might work" - make tyres skinny a few gussets thrown into the frame for "streamlining," that sort of thing. Gitane did some research in the early 80s, but it was still in its infancy. Wheels had seen progressively fewer spokes, but the few disc wheels were made of metal and therefore heavy. Manufacturers had no real incentive to spend huge money on cutting edge technology where there was little payoff.
Then the USA was awarded the 1984 Olympics, and suddenly huge amounts of money were being thrown at advanced technology for all sorts of sports. Cycling finally had the funding it needed, all sizes and shapes and materials of frames, wheels, helmets and clothing were designed and tested, people could see what worked and could copy it, and the aero benefits couldn't be ignored.
On another note, it would be interesting albeit difficult to list where a lot of the frames were acutally made, compared to the labels on the frame. Most of Merckx's frames, for instance, were built by Ugo De Rosa (as were many others in the peloton), the Gitane, Raleigh and Hinault frames were most often built by Cyfac, TVT frames were often rebranded (as, variously, Bottechia, Pinarello and others), as were the aluminium and carbon Vitus'.
Interesting, I had know idea how that shift aligned with the Olympics, thanks for sharing!
@@99spokes to give you some idea, the US Cycling team budget for the 1984 Olympics was $5 million....what's that in modern money? They had handmade aluminium frames using aerospace alloys, the team pursuit bikes had smaller than standard wheels to allow them to get closer together in line, very long aero helmets. The irony was the team pursuit squad was beaten by the Australian team, on bikes built in a shed in Sydney, with spoked wheels, using off the shelf helmets, primarily due to the unfortunate Dave Grylls pulling his foot at the start - the only thing on the US bikes that was still old school was the leather straps on the pedals!
1:10 Ootomobile.
talking about internal cable routing that's a huge thing now
Very true!!
I would love to see AI shifting. It reads your power, cadence, angle of the bike (up or downhill), in and out of the saddle, etc.
My least favorite part of riding is the constant shifting.
Interesting! I think the biggest thing holding that back right now is anticipating changing terrain (ie shifting before getting to a hill, not during), but I believe the technology exists to have it change based on pedaling cadence
@@99spokes There are some group sets out there that shift best under load.
I like to see the bikes. I wish the would show it on the broadcast
Well then you’ll love our latest video, check it out! th-cam.com/video/-tkOxvqkOTE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=X_GN9gNW53ivNcCn
mine's a Pinarello
Why the pic of the consumer-level Peugeot Tourmalet to illustrate the steel bike era? No similar pics of actual Tour-winning bikes available?
It was definitely tricky tracking down high-res photos! But you’re right, I probably should have used something else there
Maurice also smoked 20 ciggies a day 😂😂😂
Funny thing in that picture of Pedro Delgado and Stephen Roche @10:06 is that Roche has Peugeot branding on his shorts, but he is riding a Battaglin branded frame. Can anyone tell me the story here?
An interesting follow-up video: How Doping has Evolved since 1903! Cheers!
Oh boy, that would be an interesting one for sure!
@@99spokes 'doping' actually started with the domestiques. Their jobs were HARD as HELL. They started off with alcohol . . . then the Team Leaders realized that they too can 'cash in' on the vibes. Before you know it . . . EVERYONE is doping!
Look up the history of doping. It’s pretty interesting! In the ‘30s, the TdF invitations specifically warned teams that the organizers would _not_ be providing any! 😂
very insightful video, especially the evolution of gear changes was really cool
i did expect more pictures of the winnig bikes tho, as if something in the title promised that there would be a list of bikes by year
Gal you enjoyed it! That was the initial plan, but ended up being a bit tough to track down, so went with more of the overview approach
@@99spokes yea i was guessing this was the case, maybe teh solution could be to have a slide at the end of each era with the pictures you were able to find (like 4-6 different winning bikes) so that we get some visual queues and then the differences in the next era are easier to spot
@@mihaelverk9507 Just trying to be helpful, it is "visual CUES".
@@gerryc3112 hahahaha fair enough, thx
I predict doping makes a comeback and is declared the winner.
💀😂
I think I observed STI prototypes at the 1987 Tour in Stuttgart. If memory serves, I was mystified by the extra cable housing extending from the brake hoods. But that was a long time ago and I may be mistaken.
Good video. I would love to see more equipment videos. Rather than bike manufacture, where the area bars started? All carbon bike started. Even just the frames.
Glad you liked it, and thanks for the idea, I like it!
Tardej will be the next winner 🤟🏻
Looking like it right now!
Fascinating! I'm an old fat motorcyclist, but the speeds that some of my friend go on their bicycles is amazing. My bike will do an easy 280kph, but anyone who does over 70kph just, even the thought terrifies me. And they've been down hill at over 110kph. Ahh! Those TdF bicycles are just like science fiction. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
Was descending a pass at Lake Tahoe 20 years ago on our mountain tandem. Had no expectation of going too fast. Then a dude on a motorcycle sidles up beside us and shouts, "Good job guys! You're doing 55!" Nice! (55mph is 88kph)
Not.even.trying.
I know we've hit over 65mph on the road tandem (104kph)
And the Flexy Racer as a kid? Pretty sure I topped 70 on that insane death trap!!!!
Not sure I'll be hitting those speeds again though...
1956 Tour De France was won by Roger Walkowiak riding a Riva Sport bicycle built by Alphonse Thomann who built several TDF bicycles.
I own a 1956 frame built by Riva Sport Cycles. It has Vitus tubing and Nervex Lugs. I set this frame up as fixed gear with a rim choice that will support large tires. I run 33cm tires.
i ride this bicycle regularly and is a great ride.
Btw, it was 1965 that Gimondi rode the Bianchi with all the new Campagnolo parts like new hub and brakes.
Great video and thanks
Nice, thanks for sharing!!
The losers of current Space Shuttle tech racing bikes has to be .... the consumer 😮
Great video though.
the BMC you show at 14'04" is - as you said - equipped with Shimano Dura Ace DI2, but the BMC that Cadel Evans rides in the picture before has a Campagnolo group set
Whoops! Tricky finding the correct photos, thanks for the correction!
That was excellent. You handled the EPO very well. For me, I would emphasise the change in geometry in the last 15 years ( eg sloping top tube, more compact frame geometry vs high seat, lower attachment points for rear stays etc. ). I remember when carbon wheels came in in the mid 1980's, first as TT wheels ( MAVIC ! ) ... Looks like one bike for all stages, and 11/12 gear cassettes with one chain ring is the way forward now. I really hope there are no hidden motor cheaters in the pack.
Good points, thanks for chiming in!
Funny I never made the Raleigh/1980 Tour connection. The movie "Breaking Away" cemented my love of cycling by prompting me to get a road bike in 1979. By 1980 I was a road riding fanatic. I took my Raleigh Super Course everywhere! Funny coincidence that Raleigh won its only Tour that year. If it weren't for that frame failing at the rear brake bridge and the WRONG size warranty order, I'd most certainly still have that bike today. Oh well.
As a 20th century retro grouch I think bike innovation driven by advent of mountain bike development in the 1980s. Not interested in 21st century. But searching for 1990s aluminum bikes like Cannondale's when they used to be made in the USA in Pennsylvania.
Great video 👍 Next innovation? With electronic shifting now so common , how about auto shifting gears based on a preset cadence threshold, especially for regular cycling nerds like myself 🤷🏻♂️
I never liked cervelo after I watch the chainstay snap in half right in front of me in a field Sprint and the dude went down hard.
Never could get that out of my mind every time I see that cervelo the Jonas rides
Bikes DO NOT win any race! Wake up! You have also a committed a crucial carbon bike and component designer and manufacturing company TIME. This company was supplier of fits carbon forks for major racing teams, and started developing carbon frames, pedals as far as 1987. Without TIME and its founder Mr Roland Cattin his passion, and revolutionary technology the bike industry would not have a benchmark.
Pinarello is the best.
Cannondale better
Thank you for the video. Each year if the tour, bikes are very much the same across the board. If there’s an innovation, you can bet all teams are on it. So, it’s not so much the bike that wins a race, but the rider sitting on it. Let’s not forget that. 😊
Love the old pix. FYI, elliptical ("oval") chain wheels had been used and found wanting back in the '70s, if not earlier. Bad things forgotten always creep back. Elliptical chain rings are cycling metaphor for the history of the human race.
I think computers, race radios, and power meters have made for less exciting racing