What the *#^% is up with modern road bicycles?

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Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I'm the same with weight. Look how many fat gits obsess about the weight of their valve caps. Provided a bike isn't a complete anvil I'm not interested.

I obsess about the colour of my valve caps. Does that count?
 
I'm not a cyclist that needs a performance road bike but from all the evidence I've seen most high end bikes only have marginal gains that only benefit competitive pro cyclists. Safety is impacted when you make a bike as light as possible. Components wear out faster and are more likely to fail in use.

Looking on Halfords you can get a carbon fibre road bike with Shimano 105 that is comfortably a long way under 10kg for £1200 but Halfords rollercoaster pricing and the use of cashback sites, halfords giftcards and any other discount scheme you can make use of, might bring the price down to £900 if purchased at the optimum time.

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road...road-bike-2021---s-m-l-xl-frames-365462.html?

Anyone who has looked at the Quest Composite site who make Canyon and Trek carbon fibre road bikes will see a very basic factory with questionable quality and worker conditions.

I admire people far more who use old bikes maximising their use and benefitting the environment rather than people who spend huge money on plastic bikes destined for landfill in a few years and adding more money to our national debt for all of us to pay back.
 

ExBrit

Über Member
I never understand this line of thinking - you can still get a 105 carbon equipped bike for a reasonable price.

I ride a Dolan DI2 - which is probably amongst the cheaper Di2 bikes - I couldn't justify spending 3 or 4 times that amount on a lighter more aero , fancy paint job bike. Sure they look fantastic - but for my limited cycling abilities I couldn't justify it. I don't think think Im missing out (Well not much anyway)

You but the best bike that you can afford / justify - There will always be one you hanker that it is out of budget - thats just how it is.

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That's a pretty fancy looking bike there with yer disk brakes and fancy aero wheels. You've even got fancy clippy pedals ye great southern pansy. 'ANDLEBAR tape? We never 'ad no 'andlebar tape. We used barbed wire. RUSTY barbed wire at that. And we thought we were lucky to 'ave that.
 

the_mikey

Legendary Member
Much has been said a bike thats a couple of kilos heavier is not that much slower on hills but you know about it if your output is "normal "

Case in point i went out on sunday on my old alloy bike with heavy wheels as i thought it was going to be a steady ride but it turned into a right heads down ass up ride and on the hills i certainly felt the extra weight .


One of my bikes is a Ribble CGR and it's a heavy old lump, admittedly it's only 10.5kg but for a road bike it's pretty heavy, and whilst I can wind it up to speed , it happily sheds all of that speed at the first sign of a mild incline, it's very unrewarding when you're lugging it up a hill in 36/32 and hoping it doesn't get any steeper. The same hill but riding a lightweight Giant TCR is a completely different experience, they are only related in as much as they're both bikes, but their performance is worlds apart. Some might argue that the 2.5kg difference isn't much and you could lose that through diet, true, you could, but it doesn't make the bike feel better when you do! (I recently lost about 10kg through disciplined dieting and the Ribble CGR is still a heavy, unyielding lump, whilst the giant TCR is just awesome)
 
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Peter Salt

Bittersweet
Location
Yorkshire, UK
Absolutely nothing was given this frame for training up a mate to do a few Etape du tours.
Build was Campag record and Mavic anniversary wheels. Tom Bonnen said this when he moved from a Time bike to Specialized , i have moved from a Ferrari to a Fiat.😂 https://www.cyclingweekly.com/reviews/road-bikes/time-rxr-ulteam-vip
Time bikes are in a different league. You can look at one of those frames, costing circa £4k, and say it's probably actually good value. Expensive, but you know what you're paying for.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Left a road bike with aero wheels for dead, on my recumbent today. Bet he wished he’d bought a properly aero setup rather than pissing around with wheels.
 
I've bought two bikes in the last few years - one gravel bike that is my winter bike and off road bike - gets a good 6 months use.
Lately I've bought a new aero bike - first road bike in 11 years or so. I'm smashing my strava PB's on it - the bike must be making a difference cos I'm not getting any younger or lighter.

Club riders have always been buying flash bikes - or they have as long as I can remember - so that's 40 years or more. Nobody is forced to buy a bike. I'll be keeping these for a good few years I hope !
 
That's a pretty fancy looking bike there with yer disk brakes and fancy aero wheels. You've even got fancy clippy pedals ye great southern pansy. 'ANDLEBAR tape? We never 'ad no 'andlebar tape. We used barbed wire. RUSTY barbed wire at that. And we thought we were lucky to 'ave that.

Is that you Jacob ? 🤣🤣
 
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