- 11 hours ago
Sometimes we get a little nostalgic about old road bikes and what they offered to the world. In this day and age simple steel frames brandishing local names and aluminium wheels feel like a far cry from what is available to buy today. So, tech writer Simon Smythe took a trip down memory lane to reminisce on some of his favourite things about old road bikes but also a few things which he doesn't miss as much!
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00:00In this video I'm going to go all retro grouch as you can tell by my moustache and I'm going
00:05to take a pedal down memory lane and have a look at some of the things about the bikes of
00:08my younger
00:09years that I miss and why I miss them. I'm also going to have a look at some of the
00:12things that
00:13I definitely don't miss and I'm glad to see the back of. Just look at this beautiful Colnago Master
00:22Olympic. Is there anything more beautiful than that? It's the traditional geometry that gives
00:25it like a lovely sort of form as a horizontal top tube, straight down tube, seat tube and seat stays
00:31that aren't dropped they go directly up to meet the top tube at the back. It's just like got a
00:36sort of
00:36lovely stability and integrity even an honesty that modern bikes with drop seat stays and funny shaped
00:42tubes just don't have. And while I'm on the subject of beauty have a look at the paint. I mean
00:46this is
00:47just incredible. This is what Colnago called the art decor paint and you really don't see anything
00:52like that anymore. This Colnago perhaps controversially but actually team Mape used Shimano has
00:58Dura-Ace groupset. It's a Dura-Ace 7700 9-speed groupset and it's just beautifully polished. I mean
01:04you don't get polished group sets anymore and I think that's a shame because you know that just is lovely.
01:15It's not just about the shape of the tubes but it's about what they're made from.
01:18Now good quality steel tubing like this Columbus Gilco tubing this Colnago is made from just has a
01:24lovely ride quality. It's so smooth that it doesn't need drop seat stays or funny shapes. It just has a
01:29ride quality that's like nothing else. This bike just has exactly the right blend of comfort and stiffness
01:34and a lot of the ride quality is down to the steel fork which just soaks up road vibrations perfectly.
01:39A frame builder once said to me that every other material tries to emulate the ride quality of steel
01:44and he was right although obviously he had a vested interest. Sure steel's heavier than carbon and
01:48aluminium and there was a time about 10 years ago when the gap was actually pretty big when carbon
01:53bikes were really light but now with the arrival of disc brakes the gap's narrowed again and actually
01:57this bike weighs just over nine kilos or 20 pounds in old money and really you're getting some top disc
02:03brake road bikes race bikes weighing upwards of eight kilos so the difference is really not that massive
02:12anymore. Okay so an Italian bike like a Colnago really was the pinnacle but you used to see names
02:18like Geoffrey Butler, Bates, Roberts, Bob Jackson, Brian Rourke, Mercian and all of these British names
02:24were associated with regions and local cycling communities. You don't really see that anymore.
02:29Once you got to a certain level in your cycling you went to see a local frame builder one of
02:33these guys
02:34and you got a frame made to measure and it was not only a rite of passage but it was
02:37also
02:38supporting local industry. The name on the downtube told the story as did the bike which was unique
02:43like nobody else's. I don't think anybody would disagree with me that life was much simpler before
02:52the era of the proprietary component. Shimano Campagnolo compatibility was all you had to worry about.
02:57Properly established standards like the one specified by ISO, the International Standards
03:02Organization, meaning you can get parts for about years after it's no longer the current model
03:06which is why it's so easy to buy a bike from the 70s, the 80s or the 90s like this
03:10Colnago and just
03:11restore it very simply. But there's light at the end of this particular tunnel. The bike manufacturers
03:16themselves are coming back around to the idea that there are benefits to a 68mm threaded bottom bracket
03:20or 27.2mm seatpost. Even Cannondale, the inventors of the BB30, have gone back to a 68mm threaded
03:28bottom bracket shell on the new Synapse. Anybody could build up an old bike like this Colnago.
03:37All you might need a bike shop to do is to press in the headset and the rest of it
03:41you can do yourself
03:42with a set of allen keys and the right bottom bracket tool. Even internal cable routing didn't
03:48use to present any kind of problem. Now this is an internally rooted rear brake cable that just goes
03:52straight through the top tube. It's literally the cable just pushes straight through, comes out the
03:57other side. Now you've got a sort of spaghetti of cables, wires, hoses that go through the bars and
04:03the stem and down in front of a head tube. And really, who's going to make any sense of that?
04:07And
04:07it's all for what? For the sake of, well, a what? A what or two? A clean looking front end?
04:17I think disc brakes are dominant enough that it's possible to say that you miss rim brakes.
04:21They were just so simple to set up. All you need is an allen key. And for this,
04:26you just need a pair of cable cutters. And there you go. The brake pads are right there. Easy to
04:30see,
04:30easy to check the wear and easy to replace. There's no bleeding necessary. There's no working out what
04:36kind of fluid you need. The brakes are just there. And the other thing about rim brakes is that they
04:39work really well. People seem to forget that they're really all you need on a road bike. I mean, ask
04:44yourself,
04:45how many times do I stop on a standard hour ride? For me, it's probably less than 10 times if
04:51I'm riding on my
04:51own or even with a mate. I stop at junctions and that's all I need the brakes for. If you
04:55live
04:55in the Alps or if you ride technical gravel, then it might be a different scenario. And then there's
04:59a good case for the disc brakes. But for a road bike for ordinary road riding in Britain, this is
05:05all you need.
05:10One of the reasons why rim brakes are disappearing is because tyres are getting too fat for them. Why
05:15are tyres getting too fat? Because frames are getting too stiff. It's a vicious circle. Now,
05:19with a steel frame, there was enough comfort in the steel frame itself that you didn't need balloon
05:24tyres unless you were touring and carrying heavy panniers. You might think I've gone mad saying I
05:28miss skinny tyres, but the difference in performance between an expensive skinny tyre and a cheap skinny tyre
05:33is not as great as the difference in weight and performance between a cheap 30 or 32 millimetre tyre
05:38and an expensive one. Fat tyres are great if they're supple, lightweight and tubeless, but cheap heavy ones
05:44with thick inner tubes just dull the ride and add weight. So to sum up, I'd say that a cheap
05:48narrow tyre
05:49is less detrimental to the performance of your bike than a cheap fat one.
05:58Now, some people might think I'm going too far here, but I'm going to add to the list of things
06:02I miss,
06:02aluminium wheels. Now there used to be wheel builders at the back of bike shops who would build you the
06:07wheel you wanted. You chose the hub, the spokes and the rim and he built it for you. Now you
06:12buy a carbon
06:12wheel set that was made in China or Taiwan and it's incredibly expensive and it's the same as everybody
06:17else's. OK, so the carbon wheel set might be a little bit more aerodynamic, a little bit lighter,
06:22but really is that a priority over serviceability, durability, individuality and price?
06:34Talking of price, the top road bikes today can cost over £12,000. Now looking at the inflation rate
06:40in the UK over the last 30 years, it's just over 100%, which would mean that a top road bike
06:45in 1990
06:46would cost £6,000 and I certainly don't remember them costing that much. And if they had, would any
06:52cyclists have actually been able to afford one? Now if you want a prestige classic bike like this one,
06:57the good news is that you can get one off eBay pretty cheaply. I bought this Colnago as a frame
07:01and fork off eBay for £450 in 2014 and I sourced all the rest of the components separately, all the
07:16cars. And finally, will I be standing here in 2052 praising whatever it is in my opinion makes the 2022
07:24bike better than the 2052 one? Well, hopefully I'll still be here, but I really doubt that many bikes
07:30from 2022 will be, or at least in a rideable state. Even if I was able to replace the proprietary
07:35components,
07:36would the carbon fibre have suffered from some sort of galvanic corrosion from being next to metal parts,
07:41metal inserts and bolts? Would it have been damaged? You can't always see it. I'm not so sure. Whereas a
07:46steel bike will last a lifetime if it's properly looked after and cherished as it should be. And
07:51when it does come to the end of its life, it can just be recycled. It's not going to end
07:54up in landfill
07:55or even worse in the sea. So those are some of the things I miss, but that's not to say
08:00old bikes
08:01were perfect. I might have been suggesting that the cycling industry has been fixing things that ain't
08:05broke, creating solutions in search of a problem and generally charging us too much money. But there are
08:11certain things about old bikes that I'm really definitely glad to see the back of.
08:19We've done a quick bike change just to illustrate the things that I don't miss,
08:23and the first of these is toe clips and straps. Now strapping your foot into a steel cage and then
08:28pedalling, that sounds like torture and it does feel like torture. And it's pretty dangerous as well,
08:34I would say. So thank God for the clipless pedal, which has been around for the last 35 years,
08:38pretty much unchanged since Look came up with the original ski binding derived pedal,
08:42and only speedplay have messed with the design. And they've really just turned the whole thing on
08:47its head with the spring mechanism in the shoe rather than the pedal. And that works really well,
08:51so thank God.
08:57For racing bikes, a 5339 chainset or a 5242 even was standard. That was fine as long as you had
09:03a decent
09:04spread of gears at the back, but you generally didn't, which meant that if you were going up
09:08hill and at the same time you wanted a reasonably close ratio, then you'd have to really put your
09:13back into it. And you can see that literally that's how it used to be. If you look at footage
09:17of old racers going up hills, it's like... So good riddance to big gears.
09:27Downtube levers. Now I had to think hard about whether to include these in my list of things I
09:31don't miss because some people really like them. Some people actually enjoy that you have to finesse the
09:36lever and even listen to whether the chain is on the correct cog or not. But for me, I mean,
09:41no,
09:42no thank you. I appreciate the fact that there's a really nice direct connection, just this cable
09:47running straight to the derailleur and it's lightweight as well. But really, I don't want to
09:51sit down every time I want to change gear. I just want to do it with a button. That's all
09:54I want from
09:55shifting. I don't care. Some things are best consigned to history and sadly, downtube levers,
10:00they're one of them. Or two of them. So those are the things I miss and don't miss about old
10:07bikes.
10:07If you think I'm just a nostalgic old fool, then let me know in the comments underneath.
10:11And if there are things that you miss and don't miss about old bikes,
10:14then let me know about those too. And don't forget to like and subscribe.
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