old man yelling at clouds content

[Turkle]

It's certainly not an either/or situation.

My bike stable includes quill stems, threadless stems, and one bike with a nifty fully-integrated cockpit. They all have their charms, but I know which one I'm taking on fast group rides.

[Baron Blubba]

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Double post

[Baron Blubba]

I have bikes with fully integrated cables. Sometimes they look good, sometimes they don't. I generally dislike bikes that look like spaceships --even bikes with all the modern fixins that I like to look at, these are generally the ones that at least remember what a bike shape looked like 15 years ago (and earlier).

I maintain that bike designers created a problem and then backtracked in a different direction to fix that problem.

Let me tell you kids something: There's nothing more pleasing to behold from the saddle then the perfect cable cleavage of completely externalized, not hidden shamefully under the bar tape, sti shifter cables, as seen here.
[IMG]Untitled by Michael Lock, on Flickr[/IMG]

Look at that: Clean, symmetrical, and pleasantly redolent of buxom voluptuous bosominess.

Then, for some reason, someone in the industry took a bite of the proverbial apple of divine erudition, received a revelation that cables should be hidden, and decided to cover their shame in bar tape. This led to all sorts of clumsy routing 'solutions', wherein no one ever really figured out where the exact perfect places to poke holes in a frame were in order to not make the front end of a bike look like it had just been ridden through the Acme Spaghetti Factory, and all of a sudden bikes, once so proud of their elegant cables, those simple miracles of engineering that allow us, by pulling on derailleurs and brake calipers, to conquer the world on our bicycles --those cables that were once so proudly and rightfully and gracefully displayed on the front of our bicycles, like a naked mermaid on the front of a ship, were sloppy objects of necessary aesthetic evil.
[IMG]front bike by Michael Lock, on Flickr[/IMG]


So bike designers, I said earlier, backtracked in order to solve the problem.

[IMG]factor o2 5 by Michael Lock, on Flickr[/IMG]

Viola! Fully internalized integrated cables! Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's a pain in the tush to deal with, sometimes it isn't (some bike manufacturers do a good job of keeping it simple. Others, I don't know what they're thinking.). But was it ever necessary? Yeah, necessary like a $500 shoe that will save you 1 watt over the $400 shoe you already own.

[TimD]

Originally Posted by robt57

Being my #1 is a RaceShop Domame RSL/SLR, that replaced a RSL Domane Classics I can say the Trek comments are ignorant at best.

Love my Salsa Vaya but +1 on the look of their stems.

As for Trek, see above, the Domane is just a great bike, as was the Emonda before it - but that wasn't quite right for this old cranke.

Tim

[Mark McM]

Fully integrated cables (including through the handlebar and stem) are only found on high-end bikes. The lowest priced Trek I could find with fully integrated cables was the $6,999.99 Emonda SLR 6 AXS (marked down from $8,399.99). There are plenty of other good bikes (including models of the Emonda SLR) that don't have fully integrated cabling. If a customer buys a Trek with fully integrated cabling, it's on them for inviting all the extra hassles.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

trek-madone-slr-9-disc-project-one-stem-top-739953844 by bicycletricycle666, on Flickr

Check out the tape finishing job on the $7,000 bike. Classic.

[benb]

Come on guys.. that front end saves Eleventy watts!*


* = At Mach 0.9 and up

[rkhatibi]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

Let me tell you kids something: There's nothing more pleasing to behold from the saddle then the perfect cable cleavage of completely externalized, not hidden shamefully under the bar tape, sti shifter cables, as seen here.
[IMG]Untitled by Michael Lock, on Flickr[/IMG]

When I see the same I can only remember every single time the cables have caught on a door handle, tangled with another bike, or made getting bike on and off the wall rack that didn't have enough space for all the bikes I had harder than it needed to be.

The general Paceliner appears to care about aesthetics (nostalgic or otherwise) in a way that i just don't connect with. It's fascinating.

[buddybikes]

Have to admit, my SRAM AXS just works, my 9100's sitting in shed (and wife's 7900's) stick routinely below 50 degrees. Yes you can clean them but original grease is gone.

[bigbill]

I have a very nice carbon bike, but I express my inner old man in using white Cinelli cork tape, and I never wear gloves. My dingy tape gets more comments than the bike. I am currently charging the AXS batteries before I ride.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by TimD

Love my Salsa Vaya but +1 on the look of their stems.

As for Trek, see above, the Domane is just a great bike, as was the Emonda before it - but that wasn't quite right for this old cranke.

Tim

The 'Endurance' Domane was not right for me either. The Long Low Race Shops whole different machine. And no Domane nose bleed stack. I mean that in the not quite right right for me dept, not the disparaging.. well maybe a little.

If one has more inseam than normal for height and can still ride without the head tube extension, these RSLs are great IMO.

[bicycletricycle]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

Don't buy a Trek. Don't buy a Bentley. Problem solved.

I am sorry if you missed the old man yelling at clouds comment. I am not trying to solve anything g with this post.

[bicycletricycle]

I love you fellow grump.

Originally Posted by Mike V

I agree completely but you lost me at Salsa.

Salsa stems has always looked like someone in the their backyard with old tubing bugger welding stems together slapping some sticker from their printer and selling for a profit.

Oh yeah ATMO!

[mhespenheide]

I agree with the original sentiment. But the Nitto Pearl would have been a better counter-example.

Mark McM makes a good point, though. Hopefully there continues to be a level of really good bikes with great frames and components that don't reach into the aspirational halo level so that there are options without cables running through integrated headsets.

[bicycletricycle]

I do love a nice forged stem, I especially love the pearl. I also love a nice salsa stem. A tig welded quill stem is a little stiffer and a little lighter than a forged unit while also being a little tougher (although both if made well are unlikely to have many problems). I also like having a steel stem painted to match the frame. In the end I think welded tubular stems just have a different kind of beauty to a nice forged unit and I like both.

Nitto makes both and they are never wrong