This previous weekend I rode all three of the BSNYC/RTMS/Tan Tenovo Enterprises, Ltd. 2024 Bike of the 12 months finalists:
And as I rode the crabonium LeMond, one thing occurred to me:
I put it extra succinctly right here, however mainly what I spotted was that the highway bike reached its pinnacle within the early twenty first century and that since then we’ve spent the final 20 years completely ruining it.
Now, consider I’m talking particularly about highway bikes. What’s a highway bike? For the needs of this submit I’m defining it thusly:
Highway Bike [Rode biek] (n): A light-weight, easy, timeless type of bicycle with drop bars designed for racing and for longer rides the place you don’t cease apart from espresso and to make pee-pee. Often ridden in particular garments and footwear to maximise on-the-bike consolation and efficiency with little concern for modesty because you’re solely stopping for espresso and to make pee-pee. Not designed to hold baggage or fenders because you’re mainly simply using it for a number of hours with the naked necessities both strapped beneath your saddle or in your jersey pocket. Highway bikes prioritize effectivity over all else, and whereas they’re not uncomfortable, they’re solely snug inside the context of effectivity. Not restricted to paved roads–highway might be filth or gravel–however nonetheless, usually meant for roads.
Please notice that, regardless of its title, a motorcycle just like the Roaduno isn’t a highway bike by this definition. Please notice I’m additionally not saying highway bikes are inherently superior to different sorts of bicycles–the truth is in some ways they’re arguably inferior. I’m simply saying the highway bike is timeless, and distills biking to its essence, and in a approach all different bikes are outlined in relation to the highway bike. (The Roaduno will not be a highway bike, but it surely owes its existence to the highway bike.) As such, the highway bike stays a handy yardstick by which to measure the evolution (or degeneration) of biking on the whole. Does that make sense?
Most likely not.
With that out of the way in which, right here’s why I posit the highway bicycle attained one thing near perfection within the early twenty first century. For one factor, you had your selection of high-quality light-weight frames in both metal…
…or aluminum:
…or titanium:
…or carbon:
And people are simply the bikes that had been available from mainstream firms–clearly there have been all types of customized choices too. Oh positive, there have been warning indicators of what lay forward, similar to these proprietary “wheel techniques,” and bikes that got here with digital drivetrains:
However within the aughts, not solely did you’ve got your selection of fabric, however no matter that materials all of the frames mainly took the identical components. Positive, perhaps they used totally different seatpost diameters, and totally different headset diameters was beginning to be a factor, and naturally there was all the time the English/Italian backside bracket consideration, however for essentially the most half there was nonetheless a excessive diploma of interchangeability.
As for these components, they’d arguably reached their apotheosis by 1996:
Clearly drivetrains are extremely subjective, and nothing beats the simplicity-to-functionality ratio of friction, however in some ways the 9-speed Dura-Ace was the best highway drivetrain ever made. The built-in shifters labored nice, however you would additionally nonetheless go for bar-end shifter and even downtube shifters, every of which I imagine nonetheless had a friction mode. It was totally fashionable, but wouldn’t look misplaced on a basic metal body. It was even largely suitable with the mountain bike stuff. What have we actually gained within the ensuing 30 years, aside from the necessity for charging?
And sure, whereas I’d give 9-speed Dura-Ace the sting for simplicity and the cross-compatibility with mountain bike stuff, every little thing else additionally utilized to the Campagnolo elements of the period:
Possibly it even had an edge due to the extra simple sq. taper–although in fact nothing was stopping you from utilizing a Campy crank with a Shimano drivetrain or vice-versa. (Although I suppose in sure circles they might have excommunicated you.)
And the way concerning the brakes? Effectively, the highway brake was so extremely advanced and refined by 1996 that the one selection they’d was to utterly destroy it and begin in with this disc brake nonsense:
No bleeding. No squealing. Extraordinarily light-weight. Extremely-fast wheel modifications. Practically idiot-proof. In a pinch you’ll be able to alter it when you’re using. After all, the one main misstep was that by the late ’90s the trade had settled on the short-reach caliper as a substitute of the superior-in-every-single-way medium-reach caliper:
However even a short-reach Shimano brake will usually take a 28mm tire, which for a highway bike is sort of all the time Extensive Sufficient.
Oh, I have to additionally acknowledge the opposite deadly flaw of many in any other case good highway bikes of this period, which is chainstay clearance:
[A 28mm rear tire on the LeMond is too close for comfort]
However even that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, since nowhere is it written that you would be able to’t use a 25mm tire out again and a 28mm tire up entrance, which is strictly what I’m doing on the LeMond.
The upshot of all that is that the highway bikes of this period (late ’90s to early 2000s) are the candy spot between the serviceability and element interchangeability of the outdated days and the sunshine weight and ergonomic comfort of the trendy period. Go forward, inform me how this isn’t the proper highway bike? I’ll wait:
[Photo: Classic Cycle]
Oh, I do know what you’re going to say: the gearing. (Although I suppose plastic threadless fork may additionally be acceptable.) Actually it really works for a professional, however the common leisure rider would possibly battle to get on high of it:
[From here.]
However the reality is that it wasn’t in any respect troublesome to attain low gearing on a highway bike in these days. Not solely did you’ve got your triple:
However you would additionally use mountain bike derailleurs and cassettes:
[From here.]
Sure, when you insisted on shopping for an entire high-end racing bike as a non-racer it wasn’t going to come back with real-world gearing, however not at all was it onerous to realize it, both. And by the early 2000s the compact highway crank had arrived to avoid wasting all these individuals who had been self-conscious about using triples, which finally ended the period of delusional gearing on inventory bikes. (Although actually it’s the shoppers who had been delusional, since so many non-racers insisted on shopping for top-of-the-line race bikes to experience as soon as per week for 3 hours on Sunday.)
Anyway, all this peaked across the time the critanium LeMond was present, and shortly after we started the descent into the valley of despair. Built-in headsets, built-in backside brackets, digital shifting, thru-axles, disc brakes… Now they’d have you ever imagine it is a highway bike:
Talking of gearing, can somebody please inform poor Russ from Path Much less Pedaled, who appears to be affected by a persecution advanced, that he’s being merely being trolled and gear-shaming hasn’t been a factor since not less than the arrival of the compact?
Whilst you’re at it, are you able to additionally inform him that the trade has been nice about creating decrease gearing, and that the actual drawback is that they’re now charging $600 for cassettes and making shifters and derailleurs that require batteries?
Thanks.
