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 bikes of my younger years that I miss, and why I miss them.
00:11 I'm also going to have a look at some of the things that I definitely don't miss, and I'm glad to see the back of.
00:15 Just look at this beautiful Colnago Master Olympi. Is there anything more beautiful than that?
00:24 It's the traditional geometry that gives it a lovely sort of form, has a horizontal top tube, straight down tube, seat tube, and seat stays that aren't dropped.
00:33 They go directly up to meet the top tube at the back. It's just got a sort of lovely stability and integrity,
00:38 even an honesty that modern bikes with dropped seat stays and funny shaped tubes just don't have.
00:44 And while I'm on the subject of beauty, have a look at the paint. I mean, this is just incredible.
00:48 This is what Colnago call the Art Deco paint, and you really don't see anything like that anymore.
00:53 This Colnago, perhaps controversially, but actually Team Mappe used Shimano, has Dura-Ace groupset.
01:00 It's the Dura-Ace 7700 9-speed groupset, and it's just beautifully polished.
01:04 I mean, you don't get polished groupsets anymore, and I think that's a shame because, you know, that just is lovely.
01:11 It's not just about the shape of the tubes, but it's about what they're made from.
01:18 Now, good quality steel tubing, like this Columbus Gilco tubing, this Colnago is made from, just has a lovely ride quality.
01:25 It's so smooth that it doesn't need dropped seat stays or funny shapes. It just has a ride quality that's like nothing else.
01:31 This bike just has exactly the right blend of comfort and stiffness, and a lot of the ride quality is down to the steel fork,
01:37 which just soaks up road vibrations perfectly.
01:39 A frame builder once said 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 really light.
01:54 But now, with the arrival of disc brakes, the gap's narrowed again, and actually this bike weighs just over 9 kilos, or 20 pounds in old money.
02:01 And really, you're getting some top disc brake road bikes, race bikes, weighing upwards of 8 kilos.
02:07 So the difference is really not that massive anymore.
02:13 Okay, so an Italian bike like a Colnago really was the pinnacle, but you used to see names like Geoffrey Butler, Bates, Roberts, Bob Jackson,
02:22 Brian Rourke, Mercian, and all of these British names were associated with regions and local cycling communities.
02:27 You don't really see that anymore.
02:29 Once you got to a certain level in your cycling, you went to see a local frame builder, one of these guys, and you got a frame made to measure.
02:35 And it was not only a rite of passage, but it was also supporting local industry.
02:39 The name on the downtube told a story, as did the bike, which was unique, like nobody else's.
02:44 I don't think anybody would disagree with me that life was much simpler before the era of the proprietary component.
02:54 Shimano Campagnolo compatibility was all you had to worry about.
02:57 Properly established standards, like the ones specified by ISO, the International Standards Organization,
03:03 meaning you can get parts for a bike years after it's no longer the current model,
03:06 which is why it's so easy to buy a bike from the 70s, the 80s, or the 90s like this Colnago and just restore it very simply.
03:13 But there's light at the end of this particular tunnel.
03:15 The bike manufacturers themselves are coming back round to the idea that there are benefits to a 68mm threaded bottom bracket,
03:21 a 27.2mm seat post, even Cannondale, the inventors of the BB30, have gone back to a 68mm threaded bottom bracket shell on the new Synapse.
03:30 [Music]
03:35 Anybody could build up an old bike like this Colnago.
03:38 All you might need a bike shop to do is to press in the headset and the rest of it you can do yourself
03:42 with a set of Allen keys and the right bottom bracket tool.
03:46 Even internal cable routing didn't used to present any kind of problem.
03:49 Now this is an internally routed rear brake cable that just goes straight through the top tube.
03:54 It's literally the cable just pushes straight through, comes out the other side.
03:58 Now you've got a sort of spaghetti of cables, wires, hoses that go through the bars and the stem and down in front of the head tube.
04:05 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?
04:11 A clean looking front end?
04:13 [Music]
04:18 I think disc brakes are dominant enough, but it's possible to say that you miss rim brakes.
04:22 They were just so simple to set up.
04:24 All you need is an Allen key and for this you just need a pair of cable cutters and there you go.
04:28 The brake pads are right there. Easy to see, easy to check the wear and easy to replace.
04:33 There's no bleeding necessary. There's no working out what kind of fluid you need.
04:37 The brakes are just there. And the other thing about rim brakes is that they work really well.
04:41 People seem to forget that they're really all you need on a road bike.
04:44 I mean, ask yourself, how many times do I stop on a standard hour ride?
04:48 For me, it's probably less than 10 times if I'm riding on my own or even with a mate.
04:53 I stop at junctions and that's all I need the brakes for.
04:55 If you live in the Alps or if you ride technical gravel, then it might be a different scenario
04:59 and then there's a good case for the disc brakes.
05:01 But for a road bike, for ordinary road riding in Britain, this is all you need.
05:06 [Music]
05:10 One of the reasons why rim brakes are disappearing is because tyres are getting too fat for them.
05:15 Why are tyres getting too fat? Because frames are getting too stiff.
05:18 It's a vicious circle.
05:19 Now, with a steel frame, there was enough comfort in the steel frame itself
05:23 that you didn't need balloon tyres unless you were touring and carrying heavy panniers.
05:27 You might think I've gone mad saying I miss skinny tyres,
05:29 but the difference in performance between an expensive skinny tyre and a cheap skinny tyre
05:33 is not as great as the difference in weight and performance between a cheap 30 or 32mm tyre and an expensive one.
05:40 Fat tyres are great if they're supple, lightweight and tubeless,
05:43 but cheap heavy ones with thick inner tubes just dull the ride and add weight.
05:47 So to sum up, I'd say that a cheap narrow tyre is less detrimental to the performance of your bike than a cheap fat one.
05:54 [Music]
05:58 Now, some people might think I'm going too far here, but I'm going to add to the list of things I miss - aluminium wheels.
06:04 Now, there used to be wheel builders at the back of bike shops who would build you the wheel you wanted.
06:08 You chose the hub, the spokes and the rim and he built it for you.
06:12 Now you buy a carbon wheel set that was made in China or Taiwan and it's incredibly expensive and it's the same as everybody else's.
06:18 Okay, so the carbon wheel set might be a little bit more aerodynamic, a little bit lighter,
06:23 but really is that a priority over serviceability, durability, individuality and price?
06:30 [Music]
06:35 Talking of price, the top road bikes today can cost over £12,000.
06:39 Now, looking at the inflation rate in the UK over the last 30 years, it's just over 100%,
06:44 which would mean that a top road bike in 1990 would cost £6,000 and I certainly don't remember them costing that much.
06:51 And if they had, would any cyclist have actually been able to afford one?
06:54 Now, if you want a prestige classic bike like this one, the good news is that you can get one off eBay pretty cheaply.
07:00 I bought this Colnago as a frame and fork off eBay for £450 in 2014
07:05 and I sourced all the rest of the components separately, all the Dura-Ace 7700 groupset,
07:10 all that came off eBay as well and the whole thing cost me just under £1,000.
07:14 [Music]
07:18 And finally, will I be standing here in 2052 praising whatever it is, in my opinion, makes the 2022 bike better than the 2052 one?
07:27 Well, hopefully I'll still be here, but I really doubt that many bikes from 2022 will be, or at least in a rideable state.
07:33 Even if I was able to replace the proprietary components, would the carbon fibre have suffered from some sort of galvanic corrosion
07:39 from being next to metal parts, metal inserts and bolts?
07:42 Would it have been damaged? You can't always see it. I'm not so sure.
07:46 Whereas a steel bike will last a lifetime if it's properly looked after and cherished, as it should be.
07:51 And when it does come to the end of its life, it can just be recycled.
07:54 It's not going to end up in landfill or even worse, in the sea.
07:58 So those are some of the things I miss, but that's not to say old bikes were perfect.
08:02 I might have been suggesting that the cycling industry has been fixing things that ain't broke,
08:06 creating solutions in search of a problem and generally charging us too much money.
08:11 But there are certain things about old bikes that I'm really definitely glad to see the back of.
08:15 [Music]
08:19 We've done a quick bike change just to illustrate the things that I don't miss.
08:23 And the first of these is toe clips and straps.
08:26 Now, strapping your foot into a steel cage and then pedalling, that sounds like torture and it does feel like torture.
08:32 And it's pretty dangerous as well, I would say.
08:35 So, thank God for the clipless pedal, which has been around for the last 35 years, pretty much unchanged
08:39 since Look came up with the original ski binding-derived pedal.
08:42 And only Speedplay have messed with the design.
08:45 And they've really just turned the whole thing on its head with the spring mechanism in the shoe rather than the pedal.
08:50 And that works really well, so thank God.
08:53 [Music]
08:57 For racing bikes, a 53/39 chainset or a 52/42 even was standard.
09:03 That was fine as long as you had a decent spread of gears at the back.
09:06 But you generally didn't, which meant that if you were going uphill
09:09 and at the same time you wanted a reasonably close ratio, then you'd have to really put your back into it.
09:14 And you can see that literally that's how it used to be.
09:16 If you look at footage of old racers going up hills, it's like...
09:21 So, good riddance to big gears.
09:23 [Music]
09:27 Down tube levers.
09:28 Now, I had to think hard about whether to include these in my list of things I don't miss
09:32 because some people really like them.
09:34 Some people actually enjoy that you have to finesse the lever
09:37 and even listen to whether the chain is on the correct cog or not.
09:40 But for me, I mean, no, no thank you.
09:43 I appreciate the fact that there's a really nice direct connection,
09:46 just this cable running straight to the derailleur, and it's lightweight as well.
09:50 But really, I don't want to sit down every time I want to change gear.
09:53 I just want to do it with a button.
09:55 That's all I want from shifting. I don't care.
09:57 Some things are best consigned to history, and sadly, down tube levers, they're one of them.
10:02 Or two of them.
10:03 [Laughter]
10:05 So those are the things I miss and don't miss about old bikes.
10:08 If you think I'm just a nostalgic old fool, then let me know in the comments underneath.
10:12 And if there are things that you miss and don't miss about old bikes,
10:15 then let me know about those too.
10:17 And don't forget to like and subscribe.
10:19 [Engine Revving]
10:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]