What is the real speed difference between high to low end road bikes?

[Grant Fondo]

What about positioning tower wheels? There's seven of 'em!

OOh hang on, found something cheaper AND it fits people from 5' 2" to 6' 4" !!
If I can hunt down some of those Yongfs wheels and race tyres, my winter riding will be improved no end

 

[Alex321]

You can get that 10% improvement just by changing to fast tyres like GP5000 from touring tyres. Pretty much all of the increase you’ve seen will be the tyres. Assuming your average speeds are in the 10-20 mph punter range.

I have gone from Schwalbe Marathon Plus on the hybrid to Conti Grandsport Race on the Cube. Which are a couple of steps down (at least) from GP5000 I believe.

Yes, my speeds are in that sort of range. The routes I rode regularly I varied between 15 and 16.5 mph average speeds, depending on how hilly (plus of course weather and my daily variations in strength played a part). The same routes vary between about 16.5 and 18 mph on the Cube.

 

[bonzobanana]

You seem to be "grading" bikes by their Groupsets, when in reality the Groupset is relatively unimportant particularly in terms of speed of the bike.

Yes its a generalisation but it seemed the most logical way of creating four or five catagories. I realise you might get something like Shimano 105 with a huge range of different frames and wheels at different price points but there is a general banding I feel on which type of bikes commonly have which groupsets. You aren't going to get Ultegra on a very basic unbutted aluminium frame with steel forks or Claris on a super high end aero bike with the highest cost carbon fibre.

 

[bonzobanana]

What about this 14.5kg beauty? The specification is hilarious
View attachment 607643

I see in some GCN videos they have used a similar bike to show the bottom end of the road bike market so they keep their sponsors happy which means this must be a pretty terrible bike. The Carrera Virtuoso is probably the most popular road bike in the UK, its Halford's best seller and Halfords have about 40% of the market by volume (about 25% by value) but you would never know the bike existed by watching GCN. Saying that a video posted yesterday had the GCN crew running a bike shop and a Carrera bike did manage to sneak in as Hank was doing a bike fit and the customer had a Carrera bike possibly a Virtuoso.

I'm not sure its the same bike but I saw a video on youtube where someone I think in the Philippines bought a similar bike and basically it started rusting quite quickly with bubbles in the paintwork. It appeared the frame and forks hadn't been phosphate dipped which is common with many super cheap steel bikes nowadays and showed the bike came from a very basic quality factory. I believe some of the Argos bikes have had similar rusting issues.

 

[rivers]

I currently have 3 bikes- an aero road bike with the old 105 groupset (5800), a gravel bike with mostly new 105 (r7000), except for the cranks, and a TT bike with old ultegra (6800). They all weigh roughly the same. The TT bike is fastest- but it isn't due to the groupset. It's because it's a TT bike and made for speed. Add some deeper section wheels/disc cover and some fast tyres and it's a bit faster. Then the aero road bike- again tube profiles, my position,and tyre choice make it faster than the gravel bike. My gravel bike is also my commuting bike, so I have a second set of wheels with 32mm slick tyres. As I commute on it, the tyres are a bit more robust than on the road and TT bikes. So it's a it slower. Position wise, I am also a bit more upright and less aggressive. If I put faster tyres and adjusted my position so it was more aggressive, I could probably achieve similar speeds on the road and gravel bike for a similar power output. But I think the aero road would still be a bit faster, with its older groupset. And again, it's down to geometry and position mostly.

 

[sasquath]

Road test of 9k? Bike Vs £90 and Vs 1k bikes. Pretty much lines up with my expectations.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdb7KEc7xJI

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3HmVQCAjBE0

 

[Dogtrousers]

I do very little in the way of unstructured cycling with the vast majority of my riding being training sessions. Depending on the session and weather I will take different bikes. When training on the road ine of the biggest factors that helps me is having electric gears. It makes changes quicker and more accurate and means I can better hit my target power numbers.

That's really interesting. Something I didn't know.

I've often wondered if electronic shifting actually had a performance advantage, rather than just usability and all round techno-coolness. In other words, when the pros swapped over to electronic gears did they do so enthusiastically for some real racing benefit, or did they do so just because the sponsors said. I guess it's the former.

I'm sure I'll get an electronic drivetrain sometime. But in my case it will just be for the love of techy toys.

 

[FishFright]

Been using a Revoshifter on my touring bike for fifteen years. Still works fine.

Maybe they were decent 15 years ago but the ones around nowadays are a brittle pile of pants, I replace loads at the bike recycling place I volunteer at.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Maybe they were decent 15 years ago but the ones around nowadays are a brittle pile of pants, I replace loads at the bike recycling place I volunteer at.

Yeah, they look like they come out of a christmas cracker.

 

[DRM]

I need a four nail stand horn handle in my life, as well as the seven positioning tower wheels,

OOh hang on, found something cheaper AND it fits people from 5' 2" to 6' 4" !!
If I can hunt down some of those Yongfs wheels and race tyres, my winter riding will be improved no end
View attachment 607653

 

[Milkfloat]

That's really interesting. Something I didn't know.

I've often wondered if electronic shifting actually had a performance advantage, rather than just usability and all round techno-coolness. In other words, when the pros swapped over to electronic gears did they do so enthusiastically for some real racing benefit, or did they do so just because the sponsors said. I guess it's the former.

I'm sure I'll get an electronic drivetrain sometime. But in my case it will just be for the love of techy toys.

I disagree completely, I have Di2 and whilst it is lovely to use and is (so far) incredibly reliable with no need to fettle or change cables it offers almost zero speed advantage. It can change a micro second faster and is does not tire out the fingers on a really long ride, but I would not say it makes me anything other than a tiny, tiny percentage faster. Fitness, weight and aerodynamics are the only way that happens.

 

[Milkfloat]

Interesting to see different viewpoints of the same thing.

As I say, when I get electronic gears, which I surely will one day - it will have nothing to do with speed.

It could do if your battery goes flat and leaves you in the big ring.

 

[mattobrien]

That's really interesting. Something I didn't know.

I've often wondered if electronic shifting actually had a performance advantage, rather than just usability and all round techno-coolness. In other words, when the pros swapped over to electronic gears did they do so enthusiastically for some real racing benefit, or did they do so just because the sponsors said. I guess it's the former.

I'm sure I'll get an electronic drivetrain sometime. But in my case it will just be for the love of techy toys.

I love electric gears, it means I just don't think about changing, if I'm in the wrong gear it's a fraction of a second away from being in the right one. It's no bother or effort, which when you ride menial gears it takes a little longer and you might not change it you're going to have to change back shortly afterwards. When trying to maintain a specific power output during an interval in a training session I find it an advantage. I wouldn't even consider getting a bike without electric gears moving forwards.

 

[Blue Hills]

when you ride menial gears it takes a little longer and you might not change it you're going to have to change back shortly afterwards.

menial?
is this how you electrogods refer to us traditional types?

 

[DaveReading]

I often ride in menial gear.