Experimental technology in road cycling

[Rob3rt]

it works in the wet

The same cannot be said for your sarcasm detector

 

[Falco Frank]

I cant help wondering what would happen on the Canyon if the battery ran out?

But, its a gorgeous looking bike and i applaud their efforts.

 

[Citius]

The UCI puts the stops on any innovation anyway.

They don't. They just ensure that nobody gets an unfair advantage by having a bigger R&D budget. A bit of a 'level playing field' type of thing. Often misunderstood though..

 

[Piemaster]

Doesn't seem to be any barriers to tech development in the mtb world. Disc braked road race bikes will be allowed at some point, when UCI catch up with what is actually happening in the rest of the world
Would be interesting to see what would happen to road bikes if unlimited development was allowed.

 

[Citius]

Doesn't seem to be any barriers to tech development in the mtb world. Disc braked road race bikes will be allowed at some point, when UCI catch up with what is actually happening in the rest of the world

UCI has already published the schedule for this.

 

[mythste]

Awh come on you miserable lot, I love this stuff!

No, it's probably not answering any massive problems, but if people don't try new stuff out every now and then we'd never have anything new! People always whinge about concept car shows being nothing like the production models, but if you look at the concept cars of yester-year - we're not far off!

 

[nickyboy]

UCI has already published the schedule for this.

FWIW, I get the distinct impression that the cycling industry and the bodies that run competitive cycling are inherently conservative and resistant to change. You only need to look back at the history of technical innovation and it's uptake by the cycling governing bodies. History and tradition are important, but it gets in the way of taking the industry/sport forward

 

[annirak]

Awh come on you miserable lot, I love this stuff!

No, it's probably not answering any massive problems, but if people don't try new stuff out every now and then we'd never have anything new! People always whinge about concept car shows being nothing like the production models, but if you look at the concept cars of yester-year - we're not far off!

Absolutely! I'd love to see pro cycling be the test bed for consumer cycling. The sort of situation where technology gets proven out in the competitive landscape, then shows up a few seasons later for semi-pro and enthusiast bikes.

Too bad the UCI is so conservative.

But back to the topic of the thread, what other high tech innovations have you seen on a bike?

 

[Citius]

FWIW, I get the distinct impression that the cycling industry and the bodies that run competitive cycling are inherently conservative and resistant to change. You only need to look back at the history of technical innovation and it's uptake by the cycling governing bodies. History and tradition are important, but it gets in the way of taking the industry/sport forward

Governing bodies - by definition - have to be conservative. It's the nature of governing bodies, not just the UCI. They are desperately trying to keep the sport rider-centric, rather than techno-centric. I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[annirak]

Governing bodies - by definition - have to be conservative. It's the nature of governing bodies, not just the UCI. They are desperately trying to keep the sport rider-centric, rather than techno-centric. I don't see anything wrong with that.

As much as I agree that keeping a sport rider centric may be a laudable goal, I fail to see how their antics achieve that. Take disc brakes as an example. Why should those make the sport techno centric? They don't affect performance in a measurable way, except braking confidence. If that's the case, then why the long moratorium on road discs, particularly in events that frequently have wet weather?

And what about frame geometry? There's a really interesting set of bikes made by GT: the Grade series. They're not UCI legal because the seat stays attach to the top tube instead of the seat tube. How does that make the sport rider-centric?

The UCI may have the goal of making the sport rider-centric but, IMHO, they just ban anything new, simply because it's new.

 

[Citius]

As much as I agree that keeping a sport rider centric may be a laudable goal, I fail to see how their antics achieve that. Take disc brakes as an example. Why should those make the sport techno centric? They don't affect performance in a measurable way, except braking confidence. If that's the case, then why the long moratorium on road discs, particularly in events that frequently have wet weather?

And what about frame geometry? There's a really interesting set of bikes made by GT: the Grade series. They're not UCI legal because the seat stays attach to the top tube instead of the seat tube. How does that make the sport rider-centric?

The UCI may have the goal of making the sport rider-centric but, IMHO, they just ban anything new, simply because it's new.

Disks don't make the sport techno-centric - I don't think anyone is arguing any different. The GT grade doesn't currently conform, but there's nothing to say that it might not in the future. People are hardly queuing up to race GTs in international competition anyway.

The UCI has a duty to study and implement these things carefully and with due consideration to the potential impact on riders. But to say they simply ban 'anything that is new' is patently absurd.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Banning new technology is stupid in my opinion. Bikes are, and by the nature of being pedal powered always will be, very simple machines. Any innovations that are expensive to begin with soon drop dramatically in price when R&D costs are recovered and production increases. The first integrated shifters were out of the reach of most people, but within a few years they had become the norm even on BSOs. Anything that enables us to travel further and faster for the same effort can only be good for cycling, and archaic rules insisting on a double diamond frame and outlawing certain tube profiles among other things are simply ridiculous.

 

[Citius]

I must have missed something. What technology has been banned?

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I must have missed something. What technology has been banned?

 

[Citius]

I meant more recently - I assumed that something had been banned recently, the way people were carrying on. The UCI lifted the ban on monocoque frames in 1990 - are we really moaning about a ban the UCI lifted 25 years ago?