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Deleted member 121159
Guest
When I started in the 80s all bikes looked the same - custom steel round tubes.
Now they're flattish carbon fibre because that is what sells.
A modern bike is so much faster than the bikes of old. I dont think tech has plateaud at all.
This is only a guess, but what makes them faster seems to be 1) faster tyres, 2) more gears, 3) better ergonomics in a broad sense. But I think above all, it's possible that it's not the bike that has got faster, but the riders, i.e., better training, better understanding of nutrition, etc. None of this seems to show any genuine leap in technology. It took time to figure out the ergonomics (i.e., what's the best position to put a rider in to get the best result in a long ride), then the rest is just piecemeal improvements of existing technology.