Sometimes we get a little nostalgic about old road bikes and what they offered to the world. In this day and age simple steel frames brandishing local names and aluminium wheels feel like a far cry from what is available to buy today. So, tech writer Simon Smythe took a trip down memory lane to reminisce on some of his favourite things about old road bikes but also a few things which he doesn't miss as much!
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00:00 In this video I'm going to go all retro grouch, as you can tell by my moustache,
00:04 and I'm going to take a pedal down memory lane and have a look at some of the things about the
00:07 bikes of my younger years that I miss and why I miss them. I'm also going to have a look at
00:12 some of the things that I definitely don't miss and I'm glad to see the back of.
00:14 Just look at this beautiful Colnago Master Olympia. Is there anything more beautiful than that?
00:24 It's the traditional geometry that gives it like a lovely sort of form,
00:27 has a horizontal top tube, straight down tube, seat tube, and seat stays that aren't dropped,
00:32 they go directly up to meet the top tube at the back. It's just like got a sort of lovely
00:36 stability and integrity, even an honesty that modern bikes with dropped seat stays and funny
00:42 shaped tubes just don't have. And while I'm on the subject of beauty, have a look at the paint. I
00:46 mean this is just incredible. This is what Colnago called the art decor paint and you really don't
00:51 see anything like that anymore. This Colnago, perhaps controversially, but actually team Mappe
00:56 used Shimano, has Dura-Ace groupset. It's a Dura-Ace 7700 9-speed groupset and it's just
01:03 beautifully polished. I mean you don't get polished group sets anymore and I think that's a
01:07 shame because you know that just is lovely. It's not just about the shape of the tubes but it's
01:16 about what they're made from. Now good quality steel tubing like this Columbus Gilco tubing
01:21 this Colnago is made from just has a lovely ride quality. It's so smooth that it doesn't need drop
01:26 seat stays or funny shapes. It just has a ride quality that's like nothing else. This bike just
01:31 has exactly the right blend of comfort and stiffness and a lot of the ride quality is
01:35 down to the steel fork which just soaks up road vibrations perfectly. A frame builder once said
01:40 to me that every other material tries to emulate the ride quality of steel and he was right,
01:45 although obviously he had a vested interest. Sure steel's heavier than carbon and aluminium
01:49 and there was a time about 10 years ago when the gap was actually pretty big when carbon bikes were
01:53 really light but now with the arrival of disc brakes the gap's narrowed again and actually
01:57 this bike weighs just over nine kilos or 20 pounds in old money and really you're getting
02:02 some top disc brake road bikes race bikes weighing upwards of eight kilos so the difference is really
02:07 not that massive anymore. Okay so an Italian bike like a Colnago really was the pinnacle
02:16 but you used to see names like Geoffrey Butler, Bates, Roberts, Bob Jackson, Brian Rourke, Mercian
02:23 and all of these British names were associated with regions and local cycling communities.
02:27 You don't really see that anymore. Once you got to a certain level in your cycling you went to see a
02:32 local frame builder, one of these guys, and you got a frame made to measure and it was not only a
02:36 rite of passage but it was also supporting local industry. The name on the down tube told a story
02:41 as did the bike which was unique like nobody else's. I don't think anybody would disagree
02:50 with me that life was much simpler before the era of the proprietary component. Shimano Campagnolo
02:55 compatibility was all you had to worry about. Properly established standards like the ones
02:59 specified by ISO, the International Standards Organization, meaning you can get parts for a
03:04 bike years after it's no longer the current model which is why it's so easy to buy a bike from the
03:08 70s, the 80s or the 90s like this Colnago and just restore it very simply. But there's light at the
03:13 end of this particular tunnel. The bike manufacturers themselves are coming back around to the idea that
03:17 there are benefits to a 68mm threaded bottom bracket, a 27.2mm seat post, even Cannondale,
03:24 the inventors of the BB30, have gone back to a 68mm threaded bottom bracket shell on the new Synapse.
03:34 Anybody could build up an old bike like this Colnago. All you might need a bike shop to do
03:39 is to press in the headset and the rest of it you can do yourself. Get a set of allen keys
03:43 and the right bottom bracket tool. Even internal cable routing didn't used to present any kind of
03:48 problem. Now this is an internally routed rear brake cable that just goes straight through the
03:53 top tube. It's literally the cable just pushes straight through, comes out the other side.
03:57 Now you've got a sort of spaghetti of cables, wires, hoses that go through the bars and the
04:02 stem and down in front of the head tube. And really, who's going to make any sense of that?
04:07 And it's all for what? For the sake of, well, a watt. A watt or two. A clean looking front end.
04:12 Now I think disc brakes are dominant enough but it's possible to say that you miss rim brakes.
04:21 They were just so simple to set up. All you need is an allen key and for this you just need a pair
04:26 of cable cutters and there you go. The brake pads are right there, easy to see, easy to check the
04:30 wear and easy to replace. There's no bleeding necessary, there's no working out what kind of
04:36 fluid you need. The brakes are just there. And the other thing about rim brakes is that they work
04:40 really well. People seem to forget that they're really all you need on a road bike. I mean,
04:44 ask yourself, how many times do I stop on a standard hour ride? For me it's probably less
04:49 than 10 times if I'm riding on my own or even with a mate. I stop at junctions and that's all
04:54 I need the brakes for. If you live in the Alps or if you ride technical gravel then it might be a
04:58 different scenario and then there's a good case for the disc brakes. But for a road bike, for
05:02 ordinary road riding in Britain, this is all you need. One of the reasons why rim brakes are
05:11 disappearing is because tyres are getting too fat for them. Why are tyres getting too fat? Because
05:16 frames are getting too stiff. It's a vicious circle. Now with a steel frame there was enough
05:20 comfort in the steel frame itself that you didn't need balloon tyres unless you were touring and
05:25 carrying heavy panniers. You might think I've gone mad saying I miss skinny tyres but the difference
05:29 in performance between an expensive skinny tyre and a cheap skinny tyre is not as great as the
05:34 difference in weight and performance between a cheap 30 or 32 millimetre tyre and an expensive
05:39 one. Fat tyres are great if they're supple, lightweight and tubeless but cheap heavy ones
05:44 with thick inner tubes just dull the ride and add weight. So to sum up, I'd say that a cheap
05:48 narrow tyre is less detrimental to the performance of your bike than a cheap fat one.
05:55 Now some people might think I'm going too far here but I'm going to add to the list of things
06:01 I miss - aluminium wheels. Now there used to be wheel builders at the back of bike shops
06:06 who would build you the wheel you wanted. You chose the hub, the spokes and the rim and he
06:10 built it for you. Now you buy a carbon wheel set that was made in China or Taiwan and it's
06:15 incredibly expensive and it's the same as everybody else's. Okay so the carbon wheel
06:19 set might be a little bit more aerodynamic, a little bit lighter but really is that a priority
06:24 over serviceability, durability, individuality and price?
06:29 Talking of price, the top road bikes today can cost over £12,000. Now looking at the inflation
06:40 rate in the UK over the last 30 years it's just over 100% which would mean that a top road bike
06:45 in 1990 would cost £6,000 and I certainly don't remember them costing that much and if they had
06:51 would any cyclists have actually been able to afford one? Now if you want a prestige classic
06:55 bike like this one the good news is that you can get one off eBay pretty cheaply. I bought this
07:00 Colnago as a frame and fork off eBay for £450 in 2014 and I sourced all the rest of the components
07:07 separately, all the Dura-Ace 7700 groupset, all that came off eBay as well and the whole thing
07:11 cost me just under £1,000. And finally, will I be standing here in 2052 praising whatever it is in
07:22 my opinion makes the 2022 bike better than the 2052 one? Well hopefully I'll still be here but
07:28 I really doubt that many bikes from 2022 will be or at least in a rideable state. Even if I was able
07:33 to replace the proprietary components, would the carbon fibre have suffered from some sort of
07:38 galvanic corrosion from being next to metal parts, metal inserts and bolts? Would it have been
07:42 damaged? You can't always see it. I'm not so sure. Whereas a steel bike will last a lifetime if it's
07:48 properly looked after and cherished as it should be and when it does come to the end of its life
07:52 it can just be recycled. It's not going to end up in landfill or even worse in the sea.
07:56 So those are some of the things I miss but that's not to say old bikes were perfect. I might have
08:02 been suggesting that the cycling industry has been fixing things that ain't broke, creating
08:06 solutions in search of a problem and generally charging us too much money but there are certain
08:11 things about old bikes that I'm really definitely glad to see the back on. We've done a quick bike
08:19 change just to illustrate the things that I don't miss and the first of these is toe clips and
08:24 straps. Now strapping your foot into a steel cage and then pedalling, that sounds like torture and
08:30 it does feel like torture and it's pretty dangerous as well I would say. So thank god for the clipless
08:35 pedal which has been around for the last 35 years pretty much unchanged since look came up with the
08:40 original ski binding derived pedal and only Speedplay have messed with the design and they've
08:46 really just turned the whole thing on its head with the spring mechanism in the shoe rather than
08:49 the pedal and that works really well so thank god. For racing bikes a 53/39 chainset or a 52/39
09:01 even was standard that was fine as long as you had a decent spread of gears at the back
09:05 but you generally didn't which meant that if you were going uphill and at the same time you wanted
09:09 a reasonably close ratio then you'd have to really put your back into it and you can see that literally
09:14 that's how it used to be if you look at footage of old racers going up hills it's like... so good
09:21 riddance to big gears. Down tube levers, now I had to think hard about whether to include these in
09:30 my list of things I don't miss because some people really like them some people actually enjoy that
09:35 you have to finesse the lever and even listen to whether the chain is on the correct cog or not
09:39 but for me I mean no no thank you um you know I appreciate the fact that there's a really nice
09:45 direct connection just this cable running straight to the derailleur and it's lightweight as well
09:49 but really I don't want to sit down every time I want to change gear I just want to do it with a
09:53 button that's all I want from shifting I don't care. Some things are best consigned to history
09:58 and sadly down tube levers they're one of them or two of them. So those are the things I miss and
10:05 don't miss about old bikes if you think I'm just a nostalgic old fool then let me know in the
10:10 comments underneath and if there are things that you miss and don't miss about old bikes then let
10:14 me know about those too and don't forget to like and subscribe
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