I’ve seen the way forward for highway bikes and it’s ugly as shit:
That’s clearly a huge chainring, and it’s used at the side of a two-speed rear hub hub as an alternative of a entrance derailleur:
Then after all there’s the more and more common teeny-weeny-handlebars-with-turned-in-shifter thingy he’s additionally doing:
That used to meant you had been a noob who dropped his bike too many instances and didn’t know the way to readjust your shifters. Now it means you’re a professional.
To be clear, I acknowledge that there’s an enormous distinction between what skilled racers do and most different riders do. Moreover, in relation to going quick for cash, the methods through which riders try to achieve an edge right here and there is among the extra entertaining elements of the game from a gear perspective. Roadie bike setup traditions will be enjoyable to bask in whenever you’re driving for pleasure and immersing your self within the historical past of biking, however they’re totally meaningless whenever you’re making an attempt to win a motorcycle race. The truth is, adhering to custom will be like dragging a ship anchor. Simply ask this man, he’ll let you know:
Possibly:
So sure, it’s foolish to critique an expert’s bike setup within the context {of professional} bike racing.
HOWEVER.
What’s troubling about that is what it portends for these of us who don’t have any use for any of that stuff, and who do want the perform and silhouette of a conventional highway bike, even when we could also be squandering small quantities of power or pace in consequence. The bike trade has wished to eliminate the entrance derailleur for years, they usually’ve already succeeded with the mountain bike. Up to now the highway derailleur has simply barely managed to hold on, however this two-speed hub factor might be the demise blow:
If entrance derailleurs had been sentient, they’d really feel a way of existential dread and impending doom, just like the passenger on the life raft who is aware of he’s gonna be eaten subsequent.
Shimano additionally seems to have gotten rid of the entrance derailleur on the low finish too with this entire “Cues” factor:
Although I admit I didn’t have the persistence to truly learn it so possibly they do nonetheless provide the entrance derailleur if you would like one, I dunno. If I’m unsuitable, properly, ex-CUES me:
I’d additionally sincerely request that you simply excuse the earlier pun, however how may I assist it with a reputation like “Cues?” I suppose it’s supposed to face for “Create Distinctive ExperienceS” one way or the other, which is bizarre, however they need to actually lean into the entire “excuse” factor, since irrespective of how good they make it riders will discover some ex-CUES for why they should “improve” to Dura Ace.
The purpose is that the tail wags the canine, and the tail is the professional peloton, which implies that not solely are we the mangy canine, but additionally that it received’t be lengthy till all highway bikes have two-speed hubs, serving platter chainrings, turned-in brake levers, and naturally dropper posts:
He’s pointing to his dropper publish, not his genitals.
I feel.
In the meantime, as highway bike cockpits fold in on themselves in disgrace:
Gravel bike cockpits hold proper on manspreading like a subway passenger with a swollen nutsack:
[Pic from here.]
All I’m saying is, like, why can’t individuals simply do stuff regular and journey bikes which can be regular, you realize?
In different information, right here’s a video that captures the transcendent pleasure of bicycling in New York Metropolis:
My first impression was that this response was a bit…excessive, and that this was yet one more excitable bike lane warrior throwing a hissy match, although studying additional into the thread it seems he ended up breaking his arm so the collision should have been extra severe than it appeared, and I want him a speedy restoration.
Regardless, as the one that coined the time period salmon all these years in the past…
…even I’ve come to understand that theirs is just not a wanton selfishness and even cluelessness, however extra the inevitable results of a stupid-ass bike community. There’s a motive that lots of the metropolis’s streets are one-way, and it’s that they’re merely not large sufficient to accommodate two-way automobile site visitors. However bikes are slim–even these gravel bikes with their swollen nutsack bars–and should not have any such restriction. There’s merely no motive for any bike lanes within the metropolis to be one-way. It’s ridiculous! Let’s say you’re going to…I dunno, the Museum of Intercourse–considered one of your dumber vacationer sights, to make certain, and the sort of place some doofus would in all probability go to by way of Citi Bike:
Now say you’re heading east on W. twenty sixth Avenue. Is there any motive you must must go all the way in which over to Madison, after which up and round?
Effectively, yeah, as a result of possibly you’d come to your senses and go to the Nationwide Museum of Arithmetic as an alternative. However setting that apart, in the event you’re on a motorcycle, you must simply have the ability to grasp a left on fifth:
That’s assuming there are bike lanes on all these streets, which I don’t suppose there are. However if there have been, they need to be designed as a way to journey journey them in whichever rattling course you need, is the purpose I’m making an attempt to make.
By the way in which, there’s even a man on a Citi Bike on the street view:
Sexy bastard.
After all, pending the town really coming to its senses, which isn’t taking place, individuals ought to journey the best means in bike lanes–however the easy reality is that they received’t, and so that you’ve obtained to count on it always. I definitely don’t wish to say the man who busted his arm within the video was asking for it or something like that, however I’m saying that whenever you’re within the bike lanes of New York Metropolis you must at all times journey like a salmon is about to look across the nook at any second.
Typically anticipating individuals to do the best factor is probably the most harmful method of all.
