To those worried about getting all the new gear this year....

[Hairy Wheels]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/vuelta-a-cuba-2-2/stage-2/photos/105655

It's funny, but not having electronic shifting or 11-speed hasn't stopped this guy from being in the break. Hmmm....maybe all of the marketing isn't worth as much as it would have us believe?

 

[TheDude]

I'd be more impressed if he had downtube shifters - but I absolutely see your point. 99% legs, 1% gear. If I had the legs, I wouldn't need the gear.

 

[Comobosques]

amen to that

i lived in Chile for 4 and a half months and was lucky enough to get a bike down there that i could train on. I found a small group of guys (el club de ciclismo de Valdivia) that rode their asses off. Their bikes were at the very least 10 to 15 years old, only a few were clipped in, nothing was carbon . . . but they rode with an impressive passion which i will never forget. although my 3000 dollar race bike was halfway around the world, they inspired me to do some of the best riding of my life. if you dont know how to suffer, technology is useless.

 

[laziali]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/vuelta-a-cuba-2-2/stage-2/photos/105655

It's funny, but not having electronic shifting or 11-speed hasn't stopped this guy from being in the break. Hmmm....maybe all of the marketing isn't worth as much as it would have us believe?

Nice call Hairy. It wasn't so many years ago that Mavic Zap was supposedly going to dominate the market. What a joke. The miniscule precision gains of eletronic shifting don't offset the extra weight from the battery and the risk of failure at a critical moment in a race.

 

[lostintime]

Correct Hairy, the only ones who are helped by the techno-crap that has come along are the manufacturers and vendors. It's like they're trying to reinvent every part of the bicycle because they discovered the public is stupid enough to buy them. The public is like a mass of cattle ..... tell them anything and mooo ...... they follow.

 

[gregod]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/vuelta-a-cuba-2-2/stage-2/photos/105655

...

notice also the mismatched fork, the shimano (105?) shifters, the campy center pull brakes and dirty water bottles.