What are race bikes good for? An ode..

[Clean39T]

Why your next bike should be a road race bike (https://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/195980-why-your-next-bike-should-be-road-race-bike)

If you like to go fast, then you want a proper road racing bike. Here’s why.

It’s a sunny afternoon in May and I’ve just slogged my way up an Italian mountain. I enjoy climbing, but I’m a long, long way from being good at it, though the light carbon fibre bike I’m riding really helps.

But now comes the good bit, a long descent that starts twisty and ends in a die-straight road on glass-smooth Tarmac through a tunnel and into Trento. I start by screaming round the curves, leaving behind the riding companions who waited for me at the top. I’m tucked deep, weight on my outside foot, banking hard into the hairpins, aiming for the smoothest line through the apex, using the whole road to hold my speed.

I’m doing 80 km/h when I hit the tunnel and my Garmin loses signal. I glimpse a roadside speed warning showing a number that starts with 9 as I plummet. Thanks to a tailwind I’m suspended in a bubble of silence as the walls rush by. Rock-solid stable under me, my bike is the only thing stopping me becoming an untidy smear on the blacktop. It’s glorious.

Moments like this are why I adore road racing bikes. The handling and cornering accuracy of a good race bike make it the most fun bike you can ride if you love to go fast.

</snip>

So, what are race bikes good for?

In short: going fast. That includes racing, of course, but you don’t need to race to enjoy riding a race bike, you just need to enjoy adding the ‘swish’ of a finely-tuned bike to the sounds of the countryside.

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https://gcs.thesouthafrican.com/2019/07/1923b427-julian-alaphilippe-push-stage-18-fined.jpg

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Talk amongst yourselves..

:banana: .. :bike: .. :banana:

[weisan]

I wish to debunk a myth.

A good descending bike is...not necessarily a race bike or a light carbon fibre, for that matter. It's about weight distribution and good technique, and those things may or may not have the words "race" or "light carbon" attached to them.

That is all.

[Clean39T]

I wish to debunk a myth.

A good descending bike is...not necessarily a race bike or a light carbon fibre, for that matter. It's about weight distribution and good technique, and those things may or may not have the words "race" or "light carbon" attached to them.

That is all.


https://bikeraceinfo.com/images-all/oralhistory-images/historyimages/Gimondi-cornering.jpg

[semdoug]

Reads like a nice advertisement for carbon race bike manufactures.

[572cv]

From David Kirk’s website: “I feel that racing is the ultimate test and the things I have learned through racing benefit every bike I build.”

Going fast on a bike built to race is a joy of life.

[colker]

Why your next bike should be a road race bike (https://road.cc/content/buyers-guide/195980-why-your-next-bike-should-be-road-race-bike)

If you like to go fast, then you want a proper road racing bike. Here’s why.

It’s a sunny afternoon in May and I’ve just slogged my way up an Italian mountain. I enjoy climbing, but I’m a long, long way from being good at it, though the light carbon fibre bike I’m riding really helps.

But now comes the good bit, a long descent that starts twisty and ends in a die-straight road on glass-smooth Tarmac through a tunnel and into Trento. I start by screaming round the curves, leaving behind the riding companions who waited for me at the top. I’m tucked deep, weight on my outside foot, banking hard into the hairpins, aiming for the smoothest line through the apex, using the whole road to hold my speed.

I’m doing 80 km/h when I hit the tunnel and my Garmin loses signal. I glimpse a roadside speed warning showing a number that starts with 9 as I plummet. Thanks to a tailwind I’m suspended in a bubble of silence as the walls rush by. Rock-solid stable under me, my bike is the only thing stopping me becoming an untidy smear on the blacktop. It’s glorious.

Moments like this are why I adore road racing bikes. The handling and cornering accuracy of a good race bike make it the most fun bike you can ride if you love to go fast.

</snip>

So, what are race bikes good for?

In short: going fast. That includes racing, of course, but you don’t need to race to enjoy riding a race bike, you just need to enjoy adding the ‘swish’ of a finely-tuned bike to the sounds of the countryside.

.
.
.

https://gcs.thesouthafrican.com/2019/07/1923b427-julian-alaphilippe-push-stage-18-fined.jpg

.
.
.
.

Talk amongst yourselves..

:banana: .. :bike: .. :banana:


Huge logos are not good for me.

[avalonracing]

Huge logos are not good for me.

You and me both. But not only are we in the wrong sport, we also live in the wrong era. I've always thought that manufacturers should offer their logoed items at a lower cost instead of the other way around.

[colker]

Going fast on a bike built to race is a joy of life.

:hello::hello::hello::hello:

[OtayBW]

What kind of race? A crit? Long stage race? For me, it's all about handling and performance, but typically for long-stage race rides (I don't race) and centuries, etc., the geometry and fit - for that purpose - overrides everything.

[sg8357]

When descending always choose Avocet tires.
Jobst Brandt testing tires.
Brandt designed the wonderful Fasgrip road tires, sizes up to 30mm,
back when 23mm was big.

[VTCaraco]

He was fun to watch and cheer for last year.....
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/tachyon/2019/07/alaphilippe.jpg?w=960

[rnhood]

From David Kirk’s website: “I feel that racing is the ultimate test and the things I have learned through racing benefit every bike I build.”

Going fast on a bike built to race is a joy of life.

Well said. There are many ways to enjoy riding but none quite match the feeling of fast riding on well designed race bikes.

[Kirk007]

Love that, and completely relate - slow up but scream down, the only place where physics works for me on a bike.

And design and fit is everything (or mostly everything).

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[R3awak3n]

My current favorite bike is my rock lobster road bike. Its so good, feels super fast and looks SO GOOD. Gravel bikes, and I do love em, will never look as good as a nice road bike.

[robt57]

I have a few old school road bikes I still love to ride and refuse to loose. I still ride a road bike most.

1997 Ti Super. Once in a while I offer up for way too much money as my defense mechanism to keep it.

SL3 S-Works Tarmac, helps going 'up' better than anything I've ridden.

Look 585 I doubt will ever leave my possession.

2000 Built Strong Foco Road, still on the road..

A Di2 Madone and a Domane, albeit a Team Issue that fits 32s, but still mostly a road bike, but does not mind fast hard packed anything...

1985 SLX Colnago Saronni Victory resto-modded w/11s Chorus.

And a 90s hand made 753 Reynolds tubed Stage geom bike with all Henry James fitting. Currently hanging as a frameset awaiting a decision on which I am in no hurry to make. ;) Other than to keep it.

Yep, I loves me the road bikes..

Not waiting for them to come back around, never left here in this old farts stash..

Not that I mind all road and gravel disc bikse in the interest of N+#, where # solves for ∞. :banana:

[Drmojo]

gosh I can barely recall going fast on a bike...

[weisan]

Here's the proof

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TSkwY9EuP5E

[robt57]

Here's the proof

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TSkwY9EuP5E


That's great. LOL!