Bikes are getting uglier

[BroDeal]

New Specialized Roubaix.

The curved top tube makes the front triangle look like a beach cruiser. It creates an inconsistent design of curved and straight tubes, The tapering front triangle tubes are ugly. The seat stays have an unnecessary and visually jarring kink in them. The fork extends straight from the head tube and then suddenly changes angle near the drop outs instead of curving. The drop bars have a very unpleasing, almost compressed looking, curve and do not drop much.

 

[Oldman]

I don't think this old school version could have been uglier. Or heavier. Or more flammable.

http://www.firstflightbikes.com/KirkPrecision.html

 

[Black Dog]

Designs become more and more outrageous in order to drive the marketing. Change the shape and it is the new next best thing. You can then use multiple empty marketing buzz words and invented 'technologies'. Even the zert inserts are now cosmetic and not at all functional. As long as it is vertically compliant and laterally stiff............

 

[Race Radio]

Look at the size of that headtube.....was that thing designed by Ben Serotta?

 

[flyor64]

I hate to say it cuz I'm a fan of their Titanium rigs...but the Archon C3 could/should join the Roubaix...

 

[Anonymous]

I hate to say it cuz I'm a fan of their Titanium rigs...but the Archon C3 could/should join the Roubaix...

+1

Just because you can make a cabon bike with unusual shapes does not mean you should. That thing is hard to look at.

 

[Oldman]

+1

Just because you can make a cabon bike with unusual shapes does not mean you should. That thing is hard to look at.

And it could cut you in half in the right accident.

 

[BroDeal]

Both use the same ugly bars. It looks like the saddle to bar drop is too much for the rider, so a very shallow drop bar is required to make the drops usable.

Could the "LITESPEED" on the down tube be made more obnoxiously large?

 

[richwagmn]

Both use the same ugly bars. It looks like the saddle to bar drop is too much for the rider, so a very shallow drop bar is required to make the drops usable.

Could the "LITESPEED" on the down tube be made more obnoxiously large?

The think the saddle to bar drop on the Specialized is almost non-existant. Drag a straight line from the top of the bars back to the saddle. The head tube on this bike is huge.

BTW, I love my shallow drop bars. My bike has the opposite problem and the shallow drops have made riding on the drops far more comfortable. I think a few teams are riding these bars now (Garmin comes to mind).

 

[180mmCrank]

No - this was the pits IMHO

 

[xmoonx]

I don't think this old school version could have been uglier. Or heavier. Or more flammable.

http://www.firstflightbikes.com/KirkPrecision.html

Damm, should be called First Fright Bike; and deserves to be set afire. Magnesium burns pretty~~

 

[SpartacusRox]

New Specialized Roubaix.

The curved top tube makes the front triangle look like a beach cruiser. It creates an inconsistent design of curved and straight tubes, The tapering front triangle tubes are ugly. The seat stays have an unnecessary and visually jarring kink in them. The fork extends straight from the head tube and then suddenly changes angle near the drop outs instead of curving. The drop bars have a very unpleasing, almost compressed looking, curve and do not drop much.

I don't agree with you on much, but on this topic I couldn't agree more..that is one ugly bike! The only thing missing on it is a chopper flag for the back. Being a large frame also accentuates the drop from the TT to the seat tube, making it even more hideous.

 

[SpartacusRox]

+1

Just because you can make a cabon bike with unusual shapes does not mean you should. That thing is hard to look at.

It looks like it has melted a bit in the mold!

 

[usedtobefast]

i disagree. i like the new designs. "You kids get off my lawn!"

i'll take the Tarmac, please.

 

[Anonymous]

Bikes have been getting progressively uglier since about 1993.

That one is hideous.

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Seems the bigger the brand the uglier you're bike has to be, it's almost a prerequisite. The short history of ugly; you can blame big annoying logos on Cannondale, then Specialized took it further by adding the lame look-at-me swoopy graphics. "ZERTZ" Damn, what a joke! Chalk it up with the million other gimmicks that the big brands like to make you believe you're actually buying into some real tech.

 

[SpartacusRox]

Seems the bigger the brand the uglier you're bike has to be, it's almost a prerequisite. The short history of ugly; you can blame big annoying logos on Cannondale, then Specialized took it further by adding the lame look-at-me swoopy graphics. "ZERTZ" Damn, what a joke! Chalk it up with the million other gimmicks that the big brands like to make you believe you're actually buying into some real tech.

Speaking of logos, i have a team issue Scott and they have managed to put a 'Scott' sticker on almost every part of the frame. There are 10 'Scott' stickers in all! A little overkill methinks.

 

[pedaling squares]

I agree that this new Roubaix is an awfully ugly bike. The frame shape alone sucks, the zig-zag stays and paint/decal scheme are just hideous. You know marketing, new and different = better. The sponsors would never let it happen, but I'd like to see a pro ride a Master X Light (or your favourite steel frame with traditional geometry) on the cobbles. With the right equipment choices and setup I wonder if the rider wouldn't arrive just as quickly and just as fresh.

 

[Anonymous]

Speaking of logos, i have a team issue Scott and they have managed to put a 'Scott' sticker on almost every part of the frame. There are 10 'Scott' stickers in all! A little overkill methinks.

I'm actually surprised the number is that low.

Really.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that this new Roubaix is an awfully ugly bike. The frame shape alone sucks, the zig-zag stays and paint/decal scheme are just hideous. You know marketing, new and different = better. The sponsors would never let it happen, but I'd like to see a pro ride a Master X Light (or your favourite steel frame with traditional geometry) on the cobbles. With the right equipment choices and setup I wonder if the rider wouldn't arrive just as quickly and just as fresh.

Yes.

Yes they would.

 

[rhubroma]

Modern design, in the realm of machines, generally sucks. The uglier bicycles have been getting, for example, is in direct proportion to the uglier cars have become. I have not been able to find a decent looking car on the roads for years now. Everything looks like an egg without any of the design quarks and pecularities which had made cars of the past so interesting as we see them now when in comparison with today's car design uniformity.

And there is this terrible trend to "re-produce" old classics like the British Mini and the MG. But when we see a so called Mini of today, or, worse, a so called MG of these retro lines, we only want to throw-up and ask ourselves how can these so called manufacturing plants and so called corporate product development staffs have taken us all for morons?

 

[Oldman]

Speaking of logos, i have a team issue Scott and they have managed to put a 'Scott' sticker on almost every part of the frame. There are 10 'Scott' stickers in all! A little overkill methinks.

The Felt DA is restrained by those standards. My retired aerospace engineer Dad loves all the little cable routing labels and torque limit labels on it. It's not attractive but also not garish. Very fun to ride.

 

[Aus_Orca]

Whilst i can understand that the aesthetics are clearly not to mosts liking in this case, there must be some purpose. A bike like this is not just sold on name, the price determines that most people will check out the reviews before they buy so i guess there must be some fuctional reason for the shape otherwise a crappy review will spring forth, less units will sell and people will be fired for making something that they thought looked 'progressive' but road like a dog!!

P.S some of you guys are also stuck in the past anyways so that precludes you opinion from meaning much anyways

 

[rhubroma]

P.S some of you guys are also stuck in the past anyways so that precludes you opinion from meaning much anyways

No it merely has to do with the corporate world dictating the new aesthetic, which sees every design metomorphosis as a means to "improve" upon the past, for which tradition is thus viewed as antithetical to sales objectives that are based upon the notion of "innovation." Change means everthing now because the old is merely seen as out-dated. The Futurist movement of the early 20th century had had its basis in and was a response to the industrial technologies that had really revolutionized society, by contrast the market economy of today that industrialization had begoten has now created a tech culture that is merely driven by the corporate universe and their profit margin interests: where design no longer has the function of actual improvement, but is a sales pitch. And sales pitches after a while, usually laps into the realm of the ridiculous and the ugly.

 

[Notso Swift]

The bars are supposed to be a "middle" step between classic and Ergo shapes
Giving a longer flat on the drops than Ergo's to support the hand better.
Get use to them, because you will be seeing a lot in the next couple of years