Is there a frame that ushered in the modern era of cycling?

[XXtwindad]

I was recently at my LBS in the process of building up a bike. I wanted to make sure it would fit 28c tires. My mech assured me it would as it was a “modern” frame. (It was built in 2011 or so)

The statement intrigued me. What constitutes a “modern” frame? (The rim/disc debate has been litigated ad nauseam, so let’s rule that out) Is it the advent of carbon frames? Different geometry?

If any bicycle historians on the Forum want to weigh in, that would be great.

[prototoast]

Perhaps "modern" was just based on his eyeballing of its appearance, rather than any time period. In 2011, it was uncommon for frames to fit 28mm tires. Starting in maybe 2014-2016 more frames started being built around more tire clearance, and it wasn't until maybe 2018 that you could count on most frames fitting at least 28.

[Elefantino]

The Giant TCR.

[bigbill]

Originally Posted by Elefantino

The Giant TCR.

This

[steamer]

RIP Mike Burrows.

[texbike]

It definitely wouldn't fit 28s on modern-width rims but I'd think the C40 qualifies.

Texbike

[weiwentg]

The Cervelo Soloist is the first aero road bike, I think. The Giant TCR did actually have some aero considerations, e.g. the aero seatpost, the fork was pretty deep, there was a small cutout to presumably fair the rear wheel. The first edition of the Madone also was claimed to save a few watts.

For endurance road bikes, I think the Specialized Roubaix in 2004 has been described as the first, or one of the first. The potential problem is that I think that there's a category of fast touring bikes that roadies would have shied away from that overlap some with endurance road. Anyway, the Volagi (short lived brand, ex-Specialized engineers, got sued by Specialized, Spec won $1 in damages) may have been the first disc brake endurance road bike with pretty wide tires, I think.

[tv_vt]

Specialized Roubaix, agreed. Race bike that can do crappy roads. And it goes from there.

[BRad704]

Originally Posted by weiwentg

The first edition of the Madone also was claimed to save a few watts.

The 2014-2015 Madone was the first to use the "Virtual Kammtail Foil" frame, which oddly enough looks VERY similar to the newest iteration of Emonda. I remember using 28's on my '14 Madone on narrow rims but 25's were much more reasonable.

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by Elefantino

The Giant TCR.

That.

[Mark McM]

I think you first have to define what "Modern Frame" means. And even then there is unlikely to be a true "first". As is often the case, there were probably multiple frames with most of the features of the "Modern Frame" definition, but how do you decide which is closer to the spirit of the "Modern Frame".

The quest to identify the first "Modern Frame" is similar to the thesis behind Frank Berto's book "The Birth of Dirt: Origins of Mountain Biking", in which the author tries to identify when the mountain bike was invented. Supposedly, he was inspired to research it after Gary Fisher stated that he had invented the mountain bike. What Berto found out was that there truly was no single "first" mountain bike, but that it evolved over a period of time, and in more than one place at the same time. There's also a story that after Gary Fisher read the bike, he was supposed to have said, "I guess I didn't invent the mountain bike afterall, " but that's probably apocryphal.

[nooneline]

Originally Posted by weiwentg

The Cervelo Soloist is the first aero road bike, I think. The Giant TCR did actually have some aero considerations, e.g. the aero seatpost, the fork was pretty deep, there was a small cutout to presumably fair the rear wheel. The first edition of the Madone also was claimed to save a few watts.

For endurance road bikes, I think the Specialized Roubaix in 2004 has been described as the first, or one of the first. The potential problem is that I think that there's a category of fast touring bikes that roadies would have shied away from that overlap some with endurance road. Anyway, the Volagi (short lived brand, ex-Specialized engineers, got sued by Specialized, Spec won $1 in damages) may have been the first disc brake endurance road bike with pretty wide tires, I think.

The Soloist was the first, but I think the one that really changed things was the Venge. The day it was announced, Matt Goss won the 2011 Milan San-Remo in a fairly close sprint, which is about as good an advertisement for an aero frame as you can have. After that, a lot of companies started pouring R&D into aero frames.

The Venge went from an aero frame/fork/seatpost, to one with proprietary v-brakes, to full integration of bar/stem/frame/cable-routing... before being abandoned, with others following suit in a trend backing off of aero-at-all-costs given some of the drawbacks (proprietary parts, full integration).

But, the laser-focused set of development that a lot of companies have followed with (and after?) the Venge really set the tone, and helped figure out what was possible. Now, as a result, there's not one kind of bike that's basically what it means to be a road racing bike - rather, there's this extra level of specificity and differentiation. Things are converging a bit more toward the pretty-aero/pretty-light/wider-tires, but that couldn't have happened without the focus on that initial specificity.

Everyone's gonna have a different answer for this question, which is nice. For me, I think about how things changed with the Venge.

[weiwentg]

Originally Posted by BRad704

The 2014-2015 Madone was the first to use the "Virtual Kammtail Foil" frame, which oddly enough looks VERY similar to the newest iteration of Emonda. I remember using 28's on my '14 Madone on narrow rims but 25's were much more reasonable.

Actually, I was thinking about the 2006 Madone. I don't know how the tubes are shaped, but there is a bit of a cutout or fairing-ish structure on the seat tube, and the frame is described as "OCLV 120 Carbon Aero".

So, maybe this is the predecessor to the modern general purpose road race bike that's designed to be aero, not full aero like the current Madone, the Spec. Venge, the Cervelo S5, but still aero-ish like the Tarmac SL7.

But yeah, back to the original question. Modern could be interpreted in so many different ways. I gave one race-focused definition.

If the definition of modern is a performance-oriented road bike that can fit 28mm tires with adequate clearance, then that's actually an interesting criterion all on its own. That type of bicycle only started to become common in the ... late 2000s? Early 2010s? I mean, in some quarters, you could have opened yourself to mockery if you put 28s on the bike in the late 2000s.

[bfd]

Originally Posted by BRad704

The 2014-2015 Madone was the first to use the "Virtual Kammtail Foil" frame, which oddly enough looks VERY similar to the newest iteration of Emonda. I remember using 28's on my '14 Madone on narrow rims but 25's were much more reasonable.

Agree, I have a 2013 Madone 700 with the Kammtail Foil and ride on 700x30 tires. That’s like the max as 32s would probably not clear.

Of course, YMMV!

Good Luck!

[spoonrobot]

ETA: The OP is asking two questions (what is modern frame/what frame ushered in modern era), the TCR is unanimously the frame that ushered in the modern era, but I don't believe it's practically a modern frame anymore. How many angels, etc. etc.

Originally Posted by Elefantino

The Giant TCR.

I think that the elasticity of age-related milestones means this answer has a discrepancy between personal and practical. The above is a pretty egregious example but the bike is still coming up on 25 years old, it's classic and vintage now.

The TCR looks like a covered wagon to someone born in the early 2000s. Despite your caveat, "modern frame" era for current year is probably closest to beginning with whatever UCI-approved disc-brake road racing bikes were starting around 5-7 years ago? Because that's almost all everyone is riding and buying now. We're in a new era that started recently.

Argument could be made that recent aero bikes with fully internal headset routing and electronic only shifting would be another era.