This past weekend I rode all three of the BSNYC/RTMS/Tan Tenovo Enterprises, Ltd. 2024 Bike of the Year finalists:
And as I rode the crabonium LeMond, something occurred to me:
I put it more succinctly here, but basically what I realized was that the road bike reached its pinnacle in the early 21st century and that since then we’ve spent the last 20 years totally ruining it.
Now, keep in mind I’m speaking specifically about road bikes. What is a road bike? For the purposes of this post I am defining it thusly:
Road Bike [Rode biek] (n): A lightweight, simple, timeless style of bicycle with drop bars designed for racing and for longer rides where you don’t stop except for coffee and to make pee-pee. Usually ridden in special clothes and shoes to maximize on-the-bike comfort and performance with little concern for modesty since you’re only stopping for coffee and to make pee-pee. Not designed to carry bags or fenders since you’re basically just riding it for several hours with the bare essentials either strapped under your saddle or in your jersey pocket. Road bikes prioritize efficiency over all else, and while they’re not uncomfortable, they are only comfortable within the context of efficiency. Not limited to paved roads–road can be dirt or gravel–but still, generally meant for roads.
Please note that, despite its name, a bike like the Roaduno is not a road bike by this definition. Please note I’m also not saying road bikes are inherently superior to other types of bicycles–in fact in many ways they’re arguably inferior. I’m just saying the road bike is timeless, and distills cycling to its essence, and in a way all other bikes are defined in relation to the road bike. (The Roaduno may not be a road bike, but it owes its existence to the road bike.) As such, the road bike remains a convenient yardstick by which to measure the evolution (or degeneration) of cycling in general. Does that make sense?
Probably not.
With that out of the way, here’s why I posit the road bicycle attained something close to perfection in the early 21st century. For one thing, you had your choice of high-quality lightweight frames in either steel…
…or aluminum:
…or titanium:
…or carbon:
And those are just the bikes that were readily available from mainstream companies–obviously there were all sorts of custom options too. Oh sure, there were warning signs of what lay ahead, such as those proprietary “wheel systems,” and bikes that came with electronic drivetrains:
But in the aughts, not only did you have your choice of material, but regardless of that material all the frames basically took the same parts. Sure, maybe they used different seatpost diameters, and different headset diameters was starting to be a thing, and of course there was always the English/Italian bottom bracket consideration, but for the most part there was still a high degree of interchangeability.
As for those parts, they had arguably reached their apotheosis by 1996:
Obviously drivetrains are highly subjective, and nothing beats the simplicity-to-functionality ratio of friction, but in many ways the 9-speed Dura-Ace was the greatest road drivetrain ever made. The integrated shifters worked great, but you could also still opt for bar-end shifter or even downtube shifters, each of which I believe still had a friction mode. It was thoroughly modern, yet would not look out of place on a classic steel frame. It was even largely compatible with the mountain bike stuff. What have we really gained in the ensuing 30 years, apart from the need for charging?
And yes, while I’d give 9-speed Dura-Ace the edge for simplicity and the cross-compatibility with mountain bike stuff, everything else also applied to the Campagnolo components of the era:
Maybe it even had an edge thanks to the more straightforward square taper–though of course nothing was stopping you from using a Campy crank with a Shimano drivetrain or vice-versa. (Though I suppose in certain circles they may have excommunicated you.)
And how about the brakes? Well, the road brake was so highly evolved and refined by 1996 that the only choice they had was to completely destroy it and start in with this disc brake nonsense:
No bleeding. No squealing. Extremely lightweight. Ultra-fast wheel changes. Nearly idiot-proof. In a pinch you can adjust it while you’re riding. Of course, the one major misstep was that by the late ’90s the industry had settled on the short-reach caliper instead of the superior-in-every-single-way medium-reach caliper:
But even a short-reach Shimano brake will typically take a 28mm tire, which for a road bike is almost always Wide Enough.
Oh, I must also acknowledge the other fatal flaw of many otherwise perfect road bikes of this era, which is chainstay clearance:
[A 28mm rear tire on the LeMond is too close for comfort]
But even that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, since nowhere is it written that you can’t use a 25mm tire out back and a 28mm tire up front, which is exactly what I’m doing on the LeMond.
The upshot of all this is that the road bikes of this era (late ’90s to early 2000s) are the sweet spot between the serviceability and component interchangeability of the old days and the light weight and ergonomic convenience of the modern era. Go ahead, tell me how this isn’t the perfect road bike? I’ll wait:
[Photo: Classic Cycle]
Oh, I know what you’re going to say: the gearing. (Though I suppose plastic threadless fork might also be acceptable.) Certainly it works for a pro, but the average recreational rider might struggle to get on top of it:
[From here.]
But the truth is that it wasn’t at all difficult to achieve low gearing on a road bike in those days. Not only did you have your triple:
But you could also use mountain bike derailleurs and cassettes:
[From here.]
Yes, if you insisted on buying a complete high-end racing bike as a non-racer it wasn’t going to come with real-world gearing, but by no means was it hard to attain it, either. And by the early 2000s the compact road crank had arrived to save all those people who were self-conscious about riding triples, which eventually ended the era of delusional gearing on stock bikes. (Though really it’s the customers who were delusional, since so many non-racers insisted on buying top-of-the-line race bikes to ride once a week for three hours on Sunday.)
Anyway, all this peaked around the time the critanium LeMond was current, and soon after we began the descent into the valley of despair. Integrated headsets, integrated bottom brackets, electronic shifting, thru-axles, disc brakes… Now they’d have you believe this is a road bike:
Speaking of gearing, can someone please tell poor Russ from Path Less Pedaled, who seems to be suffering from a persecution complex, that he’s being simply being trolled and gear-shaming hasn’t been a thing since at least the advent of the compact?
While you’re at it, can you also tell him that the industry has been great about creating lower gearing, and that the real problem is they’re now charging $600 for cassettes and making shifters and derailleurs that require batteries?
Thank you.