Bikes are getting uglier

[ustabe]

I used to play a lot of golf. One of the founding principles of golf is a proper grip; in fact, it's your only real connection to your club. If you take proper lessons, the instructor probably spends a few weeks getting your grip right. You know why? A properly gripped club is done in the fingers, not the palms. Beginners tend to palm clubs, but this is kills any chance of striking with power. Beginners prefer this because it's comfortable; gripping with your fingers is painful at first. However, after a few weeks of adjustment (hands getting stronger and more limber) the position is natural, and the ball is struck cleanly.

Why isn't that the goal in cycling? A good riding position is one where the saddle is some distance above the bars. There's some leeway for a person's particular physique (knuckle dragger vs stumpy arms) but we're at the point where we know what a solid position is. I'm not advocating everyone suddenly set their bike up like Spartacus does, but there is a ballpark and bars level with the saddle ain't it.

edit: I will qualify that I'm talking about the average person here. Obviously people with bad backs, fused vertebrae, etc are exceptions and have special needs.

Difference is, new golfers know nothing so they're open to trusting their pro. Everybody (just about) learned how to ride a bike as a kid, so any change has to fight a lot of prior conditioning.

But there is a lot of thinking that just because you aren't racing you should be able to sit up on a road bike like you're driving a bus. There is a middle ground.

 

[Parera]

Specialized concept bike. They claim that this is what road bikes would look like if there was no 3:1 rule and the UCI are just a bunch of haters:

Guess the UCI is useful after all.

 

[Benotti69]

Specialized concept bike. They claim that this is what road bikes would look like if there was no 3:1 rule and the UCI are just a bunch of haters:

Guess the UCI is useful after all.

.......nice break levers, chain, derailleurs, hubs, spokes and wow look at those cables.

 

[ustabe]

I read somewhere that the amount of energy lost in frame flex is pretty much nil, and a little flex helps smooth the peddle stroke and improves handling over rough stuff, much like lower pressure tires have less rolling resistance than super high pressure tires. Sounds truthy to me.

A softer frame never seemed to slow Sean Kelly. Outside of some bikes that are total noodles, I would say that it makes sense most of the time. The exception might be in a big sprint underneath a strong, heavy guy like, say, Thor Hushovd. A lighter rider has more options.

 

[ustabe]

.......nice break levers, chain, derailleurs, hubs, spokes and wow look at those cables.

I can here some old fart now: "Can I have it with a riser stem?"

 

[Benotti69]

I can here some old fart now: "Can I have it with a riser stem?"

i was pointing out what i liked and it aint the frame

 

[laziali]

no they ain't - fugly then, fugly now ...

where to start with this one - the frame, the wheels, the stem, the bottle, the comedy of a tri-bike on a 20% climb

 

[laziali]

Or Fignon's time-trial rig

 

[usedtobefast]

Or Fignon's time-trial rig

i think that bike looks fast standing still. and very nice to look at,as all of these socalled "ugly" bikes are. so what is the standard? a 1978 Colnago? really? no,way too modern back then... no this is what we think you need to ride

 

[laziali]

i think that bike looks fast standing still. and very nice to look at,as all of these socalled "ugly" bikes are. so what is the standard? a 1978 Colnago? really? no,way too modern back then... no this is what we think you need to ride

The standard is the subjective view of the poster. Obviously. Some people

 

[pedaling squares]

Specialized are trying their best to corner the market on ugly frames. This is just hideous, it looks like the massive head tube, the hunched "seatop stube", and the broken-saber seat tube were reclaimed from the dump and glued together. And stealthy matte black is so 2011 .

To be fair to Specialized, Zipp and Sram are doing their best to make the whole bike look ugly. Looks like engineers from Makita designed that chainring. On the bright side, if the 2012 Sram is as reliable as the old stuff, the rider can skip rope with the derailleur cable housing to keep the HR up while waiting for the team car.

 

[Boeing]

Specialized are trying their best to corner the market on ugly frames. This is just hideous, it looks like the massive head tube, the hunched "seatop stube", and the broken-saber seat tube were reclaimed from the dump and glued together. And stealthy matte black is so 2011 .

To be fair to Specialized, Zipp and Sram are doing their best to make the whole bike look ugly. Looks like engineers from Makita designed that chainring. On the bright side, if the 2012 Sram is as reliable as the old stuff, the rider can skip rope with the derailleur cable housing to keep the HR up while waiting for the team car.

that bike could hump my leg any day of the week

 

[Boeing]

no they ain't - fugly then, fugly now ...

where to start with this one - the frame, the wheels, the stem, the bottle, the comedy of a tri-bike on a 20% climb

we have a winner

also ever notice the people who ride these bikes were hit with the ugly stick themselves

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Specialized concept bike. They claim that this is what road bikes would look like if there was no 3:1 rule and the UCI are just a bunch of haters:

Guess the UCI is useful after all.

I can't quite read the writing on the downtube.

If these bikes ever go into production, I can't wait to take pictures of people riding these getting thrown across the road in a crosswind. Especialy those with 80mm carbon wheels.

 

[Fatclimber]

no they ain't - fugly then, fugly now ...

where to start with this one - the frame, the wheels, the stem, the bottle, the comedy of a tri-bike on a 20% climb

That gallon jug on it makes it perfect for quadruple-centuries. How do you shift the dam thing?

Just plain nasty.

 

[BroDeal]

That gallon jug on it makes it perfect for quadruple-centuries. How do you shift the dam thing?

That looks like old school Gripshift on the ends of the aerobars.

Zipp's version below. There is still a top triathlon pro who uses one of these even though Zipp stopped making them circa 2001.

 

[laziali]

Specialized are trying their best to corner the market on ugly frames. This is just hideous, it looks like the massive head tube, the hunched "seatop stube", and the broken-saber seat tube were reclaimed from the dump and glued together. And stealthy matte black is so 2011 .

To be fair to Specialized, Zipp and Sram are doing their best to make the whole bike look ugly. Looks like engineers from Makita designed that chainring. On the bright side, if the 2012 Sram is as reliable as the old stuff, the rider can skip rope with the derailleur cable housing to keep the HR up while waiting for the team car.

Yup, all those ugly factors PLUS white saddle with black handlebar tape. The ultimate sin!!!

 

[Fatclimber]

That looks like old school Gripshift on the ends of the aerobars.

Zipp's version below. There is still a top triathlon pro who uses one of these even though Zipp stopped making them circa 2001.

Great water bottles there, must be the ones that shave off 27 thousandths of a second every 40k without even trying. This bike must have one helluva a suspension system, that saddle looks like it would destroy anything that touches it.

 

[DirtyWorks]

To me, no seat tube seems like a logical way to gain some wind efficiencies. Will someone please go full-bike-geek on us all and post the aerodynamic benefits, or not, of eliminating the seat tube? It seems to me Speshulized used what's left of a seat tube as a fairing for the back wheel more than anything else on that bike that breaks UCI rules.

I'm going to break The Cycling Fashion Rules and claim those softride stems are awesome for grinding away at long miles. Comfy!

 

[labratty]

Rotating wheels are one of the worst things for aero. A well shaped and very tightly fitted seat tube will smooth the airflow onto the leading edge of the wheel. In straight frame vs. frame test and open wheel would be worse.

However... (always one of those) the differences are less when you are testing in turbulent air rather than a clean flow, and the legs spinning create a lot of turbulence. I would still expect it to be worse, but by less, the frame makes a very small contribution to aero and the rear wheel only a little more.

the rider position >>>>> front wheel >>> rear wheel >> frame

And that is generally beaten by comfort to deliver the power for anything past a medium distance, which is the thing I notice, the seat to bar drop is pretty big. And the seat is sloping at quite an angle, a lot of pressure on the arms, ouch.

 

[BroDeal]

Team Britain shops at Hong Fu.

 

[ustabe]

And we have a winner.

 

[Bala Verde]

That looks like old school Gripshift on the ends of the aerobars.

Zipp's version below. There is still a top triathlon pro who uses one of these even though Zipp stopped making them circa 2001.

Holy cow. Is that saddle made to ensure your @$$crack stays fixed in one position?

Team Britain shops at Hong Fu.

Is that a normal "new" stem? Looks like a flightpanel in a cockpit.

Must be part of the team SKY's/GB computerized roboriding; with one button, it can calculate how long competitors can sustain certain wattages for what number of minutes; includes time differences to breaks via GPS and recommends average speeds to catch the break within the last 10k, 5k, 3k; instantly graphs your power output, heart rate, speed, rpm, and plots it against prior max training results, so in one instance you can see if you match your 'best efforts'; and most importantly, since it's a deadly boring way of racing and/or you are forced to stare at your teammate's **** for hours, it includes netflix....

No wonder Froome kept on looking at his stem every second. Madagascar 4 was on and he didn't want to miss a second.

 

[lostintime]

Face it .... narrow tubes and wheels of steel/titanium/AL etc. are sexy .... I have yet to see one CF frame and wheels that look like anything but a bloated mess.

 

[taiwan]

If they relaxed the rules on carbon frames, form could follow function and we might not have all these just diamond frames with gimmicky tube shapes like the Specialized bikes.