Has the quest for lighter and lighter gone to far?

[TheCyclingRooster]

Hi to you all out there. After spending a great deal of time catching up with watching recordings from earlier in the year and more recently the Tour de France early stages I ask the above question!!!
I have pondered for some time that 'top heavy' cycling surely cannot be stable and especially when conditions are - to say the very least - dodgy.
Bikes have become progressively lighter and lighter and more and more twitchy over the last 10yrs or so and unless I have got it very wrong -so have the spills that we witness on a daily basis in graphic colour and often enhanced by HD TV.
Will it take a tragic death brought about by a multiple slide and pile-up, and God forgive a rather closely following 'Support Vehicle' running over a suddenly created heap of bodies and bikes to drive reality home?

 

[Dogtrousers]

That's why the UCI have a weight limit of 6.8(?)kg ...to stop the unbearable lightness of bikes

 

[Cold]

That's why the UCI have a weight limit of 6.8(?)kg ...to stop the unbearable lightness of bikes

On one of the GNC videos on youtube recently they said that they are reviewing the weight limit and will more than likely do away with it.

 

[TheCyclingRooster]

On one of the GNC videos on youtube recently they said that they are reviewing the weight limit and will more than likely do away with it.

Hi Cold. Does this mean that professionals bikes will get even lighter? If so where is it going to be taken from?
Unfortunately I cannot quote figures but going back in time to the early/middle 60's and my 19.5" 1937 Hetchins Vibrant Triangle (Curly) track frame.
I had it converted for road use and the rear stays widened to accommodate a 5spd block and coupled with a Stronglight double ring set-up and all running on Sprints and Tubs with Aerlite large flange hubs,the bike was as light as anything of the day and very very much lighter than most.
When I look at my current steed ( 50cm Bianchi Via Nirone7 Alu Carbon )/( my avatar) with a 9spd cassette and triple Stronglight rings weighing in at 10kgs it does not seem far from my old Hetchins if at-all it is but it is most certainly a friskier and slightly twitchier ride.
In the greater scheme of things my Bianchi is simply a newer version with a different name on the frame to that of my old Hetchins.

 

[Smokin Joe]

That is more part of their aim to keep cycling about the rider rather than a technological battle.

The UCI have attempted to keep bicycles in the dark ages and minimise as many technological advances as they can, hence the stupid rules on frame tube profiles, the banning of the most efficient aero positions, disc brakes and smaller front wheels. The only reason we have electronic shifting is because Shimano and Campag are too powerful to mess with. Thankfully this attitude is changing under Cookson.

Cycling will always be about the rider rather than the bike because when everyone knocks a kilo off the weight and has a more slippy profile it will still be about the riders ability. The advantage of technological progress is that bikes become easier to ride over longer distances and if cycling is to retain and grow it's current popularity progress in that area is essential.

 

[_aD]

Petersfield Ups and Downs charity bike ride today:

"Has the quest for lighter and lighter gone to far?"
Yes.

 

[StuAff]

That is more part of their aim to keep cycling about the rider rather than a technological battle.

Indeed. The UCI have in the past made noises about the weight limit being maintained on safety grounds (i.e. frame and components sufficiently strong), on 'manoeverability' grounds (i.e. a lighter bike being potentially/allegedly less stable), and cost grounds (someone there has no sense of irony, in view of (i) the price of any pro-level machine and (ii) the amount the big manufacturers spend on marketing and promotion). But technological advances have rendered all three of those planks increasingly irrelevant to the bikes manufacturers can make in mass production, let alone in low volume like Cervelo's RCA. Strength and weight are not necessarily interconnected (and the UCI's technical regulations make clear that equipment must meet applicable quality and safety standards, such as the EN14781 rules that cover every bike sold in the EU). The world's lightest bike (2.7kg ready to ride including a twenty speed drivetrain and pedals) was ridden by its original owner for over 20,000 km in two years before he dismantled it and sold it off. Trek's new Emonda is 4.65 kg (and £11k) in its highest end SLR 10 form. Still carries exactly the same lifetime warranty as every other Trek, still has to meet every applicable legal requirement. The weight limit looks plain stupid when pro teams are using SRM cranks and such like in effect as ballast, and still have to add weights to meet the regulations.

 

[TheCyclingRooster]

That is more part of their aim to keep cycling about the rider rather than a technological battle.

Hi Adrian. Picking up on your point,I wonder what the likes of some of the old greats like Jacques Anquetil,Fausto Coppi,Tom Simpson,Marco Pantani and many others including our Greg LeMond and Sean Kelly would achieve on some of the current machines?

 

[StuAff]

Hi Adrian. Picking up on your point,I wonder what the likes of some of the old greats like Jacques Anquetil,Fausto Coppi,Tom Simpson,Marco Pantani and many others including our Greg LeMond and Sean Kelly would achieve on some of the current machines?

There wouldn't be much difference, particularly once one allows for the pharmaceutical element (be it coke, heroin or both in the early days, amphetamines in the fifties and sixties, EPO and transfusions in recent times) and the simple fact that (purely in relative terms) the Tour de France (and pretty much every other race) is 'easier'. The TdF distance is considerably less, typically around 2100-2300 miles in recent years, 2276 this year. Froome last year: 2115 miles at 25.2 mph (21 stages).When LeMond won in 1986, 2559 miles at an average of 23.1 mph (23 stages plus a prologue). Bahamontes in 1959: 2728 miles, 22mph, 22 stages. The early riders had it really, really tough of course, in no part due to the many arcane rules created by founder Henri Desgranges. Riders had to carry their own tools and make their own repairs, exchanging a damaged bike was only allowed in 1923, up to three stages in one day, single speed bikes when derailleurs had become commonplace.... Octave Lapize's average speed over 2943 miles in 1910 (15 stages, the longest 263 miles) was at 17.8 mph. With a single speed bike, on dirt roads, no support.......

 

[Cold]

Hi Cold. Does this mean that professionals bikes will get even lighter? If so where is it going to be taken from?
Unfortunately I cannot quote figures but going back in time to the early/middle 60's and my 19.5" 1937 Hetchins Vibrant Triangle (Curly) track frame.
I had it converted for road use and the rear stays widened to accommodate a 5spd block and coupled with a Stronglight double ring set-up and all running on Sprints and Tubs with Aerlite large flange hubs,the bike was as light as anything of the day and very very much lighter than most.
When I look at my current steed ( 50cm Bianchi Via Nirone7 Alu Carbon )/( my avatar) with a 9spd cassette and triple Stronglight rings weighing in at 10kgs it does not seem far from my old Hetchins if at-all it is but it is most certainly a friskier and slightly twitchier ride.
In the greater scheme of things my Bianchi is simply a newer version with a different name on the frame to that of my old Hetchins.

Yes I believe so they were talking about some of the new bikes and how the frames were getting lighter and lighter I'll see if I can find the video.

 

[bpsmith]

They would arguably achieve the same, on the basis that all of the guys around them would also have modern bikes.

 

[Pale Rider]

I read somewhere the concern with allowing disc brakes is unequal stopping power.

A couple of disc bikes at the front of the peloton haul on the anchors causing the rim braked bikes behind to pile into the back of them.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I read somewhere the concern with allowing disc brakes is unequal stopping power.

A couple of disc bikes at the front of the peloton haul on the anchors causing the rim braked bikes behind to pile into the back of them.

It never happened when dual pivot brakes came in, and if you ever rode with single pivot you'll know the difference in stopping power between the two were planets apart. And the change over wasn't instant by any means, Campag equipped teams never got DP brakes till after those equipped by Shimano.

 

[machew]

The next Sky bikes will be made from pure Drillium, this is lightest material known to man. In fact by converting a Catrike Speed to Drillium a weight saving of 13.7 pounds from the normally 30 pound Catrike Speed was obtained

 

[Dogtrousers]

I read somewhere the concern with allowing disc brakes is unequal stopping power.

A couple of disc bikes at the front of the peloton haul on the anchors causing the rim braked bikes behind to pile into the back of them.

Someone on the telly (don't recall who ... Eurosport I think ... in the past couple of days) said that one of the objections to discs is that they get very hot and could be dangerous in a crash. Dunno if that makes any sense.

Cookson said that the Lugano charter would be revisited when he was elected. I'm sure there is much murky dealing with manufacturers going on there.