5 Worst Road Bike Tech Trends | Cycling Weekly
There are hundreds of road bike manufacturers out there, and this results in road bikes which miss the mark for a multitude of reasons. All of these reasons end up with the consumer being left with a product which doesn't deliver the correct amount of value or just has inherent problems with the quality of the build. Sam Gupta takes a closer look at some road bikes which just should not exist. What do you think about his choices? Can you think of any other bikes which shouldn't exist?
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00:00 In a world where there are hundreds of road bike manufacturers, there will of course be some road
00:04 bikes that may not meet the needs of the consumer. From odd spec decisions to bizarre views on
00:10 pricing, I've pulled together a bunch of bikes that I wish just didn't exist.
00:15 The same generation of bikes that enjoy integrated cable routing, disc brakes and fancy carbon
00:25 shapes seem to have a few occupants that also play host to steering stops. If you're unaware,
00:31 steering stops are a mechanical feature often found within the head tube of a bike which
00:36 stop the bars turning after a certain point. The theory is that by stopping the bars from
00:42 turning excessively, you reduce the risk of causing damage to the brake lines and you also
00:47 stop the potential of the handlebars to swing into the top tube. However, there is a reason why
00:52 steering stops have been included on this list. And that's because I have seen multiple cases
00:58 where the handlebars have been turned with such force that the steering stops have then ripped
01:04 into the frame itself, essentially killing it. Now, this rarely happens through normal riding,
01:10 but instead it can happen when the wind catches the front wheel when the bike is lent up and
01:15 stationary, or when you're putting the bike in the back of a car and then the fork catches
01:20 something or perhaps an overzealous mechanic may yank on the bar slightly too hard and cause some
01:25 accidental damage. Happily, some bikes that did adopt steering stops are already starting to ditch
01:32 them. For example, the fourth generation of the Cannondale Super 6 lost them after they were
01:37 debuted on the third generation of the bike. Also, as integrated cockpits evolve and cable routing
01:43 methods improve, the positioning of those hoses can be threaded in ways that mean that oversteering
01:49 won't damage the hoses. My view on this is quite simple. Steering stops should just be a flash in
01:56 the pan of road bike tech trends and hopefully in the next few years will eventually disappear.
02:01 Too many bike frames end up having to be warrantied after innocuous accidents. I'm sure
02:07 that when manufacturers start to realise how much money the steering stops are going to be costing
02:11 them, they'll be as fast to remove them as they were to install. Certainly one innovation to forget.
02:18 [music]
02:23 We recently made a video about the biggest false economies in cycling. In that video,
02:27 I discussed the recent upsurge surrounding the incredibly cheap bikes that can be found from big
02:33 generic retailers. Now, I'm sure to some, those bikes do serve a purpose, especially for those
02:39 who don't want to or can afford to spend any more money on a new bike. However, I'm a strong
02:45 believer that you should spend that same amount of money but on a secondhand bike instead. You'll
02:50 get something that originally costed much more and you'll be giving a bike that already exists
02:56 a new lease of life. Should you have any issues, most bike shops will be able to help you out.
03:01 I believe that these bikes are awful for the environment. Bikes are supposed to last for many,
03:06 many years, but the way that these bikes are constructed and the components that they're
03:11 kitted out with mean that you're essentially buying a disposable bike and one which will
03:16 only last for as long as the rider can bear to deal with its problems. In my opinion, these bikes
03:22 should just not exist and we should all be buying secondhand bikes when we can, especially if
03:29 monitoring cost is a large contributing factor to your purchasing decision. Right on the other end
03:38 of the spectrum, we are now seeing bikes hit the market that seemingly cost more than the sum of
03:45 all their parts. In my opinion, this is a pretty big problem. I think it also shows that the shop
03:51 increases in prices are far outpacing the rest of the price increases that we're seeing in other
03:57 areas of the industry. And there are a couple of pretty high profile examples of this. First is the
04:04 Cannondale Lab 71 Super 6 Evo. It retails at £12,500 here in the UK, but I've been able to
04:12 create an equivalent build for £11,000. Unsurprisingly, there are some caveats to
04:18 that price. Yes, that is by utilising the best prices that I could find all over the internet
04:24 for all of the components. For example, I found the Dura-Ace groupset for £200 off at one retailer.
04:31 Also, I didn't opt to spec the same wheels as the Lab 71 stock build. Instead, I chose some
04:37 Zipp 303S Firecrest, which some may argue is actually a better wheel set. Also, I wasn't quite
04:43 sure how much their Momo handlebars would cost, so I went for an estimate and did a worst case
04:48 scenario of £600. I did also factor in a £300 labour cost to cover the cost of having a mechanic
04:55 build up the bike in its entirety. The Specialized S-Works Aethos is another example.
05:01 Here, I'm able to save about £350 over the cost of the stock build. It's worth highlighting that
05:08 on this build, I actually spec some Zipp 353 NSWs, which again, some would argue are a much
05:14 better wheel set than the Roval Alpinist CLX wheelset that is found on the stock build.
05:20 Also, I actually added in the Roval Alpinist integrated cockpit to really take the build to
05:25 the next level. But if you weren't to upgrade the components and you were to mimic that stock build,
05:31 you'd actually be closer to saving £1400. In the case of the Lab 71 Super 6, at full retail
05:39 pricing of all the components, the build came in at £11,700, and that's still cheaper than the £12,500
05:47 asking price of the stock bike. So we really have to wonder, what are we getting for our money at
05:53 this level? In the lower echelons, it is more like business as usual, where the bike manufacturers are
05:59 able to pull on their economies of scale and create bikes which we wouldn't be able to go out
06:04 and create for less money. Perhaps even the bike manufacturers are struggling to buy things for
06:09 the right price. We have no evidence to support this, but it would be one explanation as to the
06:15 obscure situation that some top-end bikes have found themselves in. While I'm sure that there
06:20 will be plenty of comments surrounding the fact that brands are just charging silly money for
06:24 the sake of it, and you may well be right, I wouldn't be surprised if they need to sell at
06:29 those levels just to maintain the margins that those products need to achieve to make them
06:34 commercially viable. You cannot forget and disregard the impact that Covid, Brexit here in
06:40 the UK, and shipping issues will have had on the cost of some of those products. Pair that with a
06:45 struggling world economy and you can have a little understanding. Plus, if there are customers out
06:51 there who want to buy those bikes, who are we to stop them? While I understand that there could be
06:56 reasons outside of the control of the bike brands, meaning they have to charge such high prices,
07:01 I don't think I'll be a customer for a bike that I know I can build up for less money and
07:06 also enjoy the ability to spec some of my own parts.
07:14 As I'm sure a lot of you know, not all bikes are created equally. Some are created by artisan
07:20 frame builders who can spend weeks creating a bike which has been handcrafted to perfection.
07:26 On the other end of the scale, we have bikes which maybe haven't quite seen that same level
07:30 of care and attention. Much like my issue with bikes that are too cheap, bikes which are created
07:36 without the appropriate amount of due care should not be hitting the market. They will always have
07:42 inherent problems because if strict manufacturing tolerances aren't adhered to, the components that
07:48 then get mated to that frame will never operate as they should. Happily, frame facing, which is the
07:54 process of removing excess material from a frame to ensure that a flat surface is achieved, is
08:00 something that can be done by most mechanics. Frame facing is something that's actually really
08:05 important to do anyway because it ensures that when bottom brackets, headsets, brake calipers
08:11 and the like are bolted to a frame, they are mated to a perfectly flush surface. Also, the process of
08:18 re-tapping threads is something which can be done after a frame has been built if needed. But,
08:24 if the bikes have deeper, less rectifiable problems, that's when things get serious.
08:29 The bottom line is, when considering the energy and materials required to produce a bicycle,
08:36 manufacturers should be ensuring that it does not go to waste.
08:43 I love riding on semi-deep carbon wheels for so many reasons. They look good, they're generally
08:51 pretty light, they sound cool and of course, they help you go everywhere faster. It's rare
08:58 for a set of these wheels to actually make the experience of riding your bike any worse.
09:03 However, these tend to be wheels that you upgrade to, rather than having them on your bike from
09:08 stock, unless you're spending a pretty serious amount of money. My issue lies in the bikes that
09:14 come with alloy deep section wheels, and I can understand why the brands want to fit those wheels
09:19 to stock bikes. I'm sure that the brands would argue that the profile of the rims
09:24 do offer a speed advantage over box section rims, and I'd be inclined to agree with them.
09:30 I'm sure that they also fit them so that the much larger tubes of a carbon bike don't look
09:35 quite so unbalanced and odd against the wheel choice. And of course, by fitting alloy wheels,
09:41 they can sell the bike looking as they want it, but offer it at a more affordable price,
09:47 and some may see this as a pretty fair exchange. For example, Oro sell the Venturi Evo in a 105
09:54 specification with Fulcrum DB800 wheels, and it's hard to deny that on the face of it,
10:00 the bike does look fast. But to be honest, I would rather opt for a box section rim as it
10:06 will be lighter and more practical in the short term before I have the chance to upgrade the
10:11 wheels to something that I really want. Plus, the extra circa 300 grams that you'd have to
10:17 carry around just to have something that numbs the ride and is harder to spin up
10:22 just isn't a good trade-off. Happily though, wheels are easy to change, so the problem's
10:27 never terminal. Let me know down below what bikes or trends do you wish didn't exist. I've no doubt
10:35 it's going to get pretty feisty down in the comments section. If you enjoyed the video,
10:39 then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content, and I will see you again
10:43 very soon.
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