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all these 'new' bike designs
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so i'm in my mid-30s, which is admittedly not exactly a 'veteran' in a sport that's as . . . umm. . . 'silver' as triathlon. but i started racing in my early 'teens, in ~1994. so i can remember a ways back.

i'm struck by how people are getting excited about 'radical' frame design these days, when by and large i find tri bikes are more tame and less varied than they used to be. i mean, in the mid-90s you saw some crazy, crazy stuff parked in transition. weird materials, weird designs, funny bikes . . . the works. off the top of my head:

-hotta
-lotus
-CAT cheetah
-corima fox
-javelin
-griffen vulcan
-slingshot
-look 196
-GT vengeance
-C4 joker
-kestrel KM40
-all kinds of bianchis
-trek y-foil
-giant MCR-2
-titanflex
-softride
-zipp
-HED VO2

and then what happened?

my theory: for a few years, because of coincidences of morphology and sponsorship a bunch of big names won big races on road bikes. reid, smyers, deboom, van lierde . . . all these people riding and winning on round-tubed, double-diamond bikes built by huge companies who didn't really make 'tri' bikes.

that came together with UCI rules and created a perfect storm. suddenly age-group athletes everywhere were convinced that they needed to be UCI-legal. frame design got samey and boring, and now 20 years later we're looking at beam-bikes and z-frames like they're a crazy new idea.

am i the only one who remembers flipping to the back of triathlete magazine every month and looking at all the wild possibilities in the nytro advertisements? hmm. maybe i am old.

-mike

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/
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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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Yup, you're old. So am I.

The 90's were to bike design what the 80's were to music.

Amateur recreational hobbyist cyclist
https://www.strava.com/athletes/337152
https://vimeo.com/user11846099
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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [refthimos] [ In reply to ]
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refthimos wrote:

The 90's were to bike design what the 80's were to music.

wait - i can't tell if that's supposed to be good or bad.

____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/
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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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I hear ya. I did my first race in 1985 at age 15 and a year later bought a Shogun Kaze. It had a 24" Fr wheel/700c rear. Loved that bike and sorry I sold it in college.

Similar to this but not a Fixie. Same color and everything. Put on LeMond Clip-ons in 1988.

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/...1/BradHefta-Gaub.htm

Formerly DrD
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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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You are spot on. The UCI regulations doomed bike development for the last 20 years.

Bjarne Riis rode this in 1997.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFzteK_y1b4


He also threw it to the ground!!
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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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I had a giant mcr ( still have the frame).
Fastest thing I've owned.



I reject your reality and substitute my own!
Adam Savage
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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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I don't think AG'ers are to blame. You have to buy what is available, within reason. It is getting easier, and easier to buy whatever you want, but there was a time when you couldn't find anything exotic at a LBS and direct to consumer was less than ideal. And "boring" bikes were much better priced. All of that is generally speaking.

Really the biggest lie that started it was weight being the driving.factor for performance.

Brian

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Re: all these 'new' bike designs [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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iron_mike wrote:

my theory: for a few years, because of coincidences of morphology and sponsorship a bunch of big names won big races on road bikes. reid, smyers, deboom, van lierde . . . all these people riding and winning on round-tubed, double-diamond bikes built by huge companies who didn't really make 'tri' bikes.

I'd give some credit to the really good generation of double-diamond bikes that closely followed, like the P3/P3C. Those bikes came along and were probably faster, definitely easier to maintain, and better-looking than just about any of the boutique bikes.

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suddenly age-group athletes everywhere were convinced that they needed to be UCI-legal

I'm not so sure that most age-groups athletes could have told what the UCI is. I think it's more likely that the big manufacturers woke up to the triathlon market. And *they* knew what the UCI was. So shop floors started to fill with lower-cost, more reliable "triathlon" bikes. The boutique manufacturers couldn't compete on cost or floor space. Quintana Roo (not really UCI-legal, but traditional design). Cervelo. Specialized's original aero-frame bikes.

I *want* to be attracted to the new generation of boutique designs, and I'm happy to see the attempts at innovation. I get bored at the big-manufacturer designs all converging on variations in the P5/Trek-like designs. But, so far, I just can't bring myself to actually pull the trigger. Lot of money for stuff that's probably not actually any faster for me.
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