They Just Don’t Make Road Bikes Like This Anymore

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Valid from Sept 10 23:00 --Sept 17 22:59 BST

Content
00:00 Intro
00:41 Why did road bikes peak in 2010s?
2:11 Lightweight was easy
2:50 Mechanical gears
3:37 External cables
4:42 Bikes were more reliable
5:15 Bikes looked better
5:44 Rim brakes
6:26 The bad
6:32 Endless bottom bracket standards
7:14 Narrow tire clearance
8:03 Big racing gears
9:03 Am I wrong?

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[Raven__]

You can easily change the gearing on a bike from the 2010's that's not an issue. 😊 The simple bicycle is now a complicated mess. We can thank the bike industry for that.

[jamesbrickwood]

Happy to do disc, but I want to see the return of round 27.2 seat posts, non integrated bar and stems and semi internal cables on more bikes

[timadams]

The grass is always greener. Obviously you need both. One from today and one from 2010. You alternately ride both to enjoy what we have gained (brakes, gears, speed) and what we have lost (ease of maintenance, good value, classic looks). When I ride one of my old bikes it always surprises me just how damn good it is.

[philipjamesparsons]

I own the same Liquigas Caad10, shown on the thumbnail for this video. It has been a good bike, but did not arrive that way. The BB30 bottom bracket part seized, the first time it touched water and always creaked. It (the BB) could not take UK weather. Adding an FSA Hollowtech converter changed the game. The saddle rails snapped after a year and rear mech hangar snapped shortly after with metal fatigue. The RS10 rear wheel snapped a spoke and spare spokes were expensive. The bars and seat post were durable but good carbon ones improved the bike loads. I do like this bike but the main reason I keep it is because I feel modern bikes will be even more aggravation than the Caad10 was when it was new. I recently added used £300 Prime carbon 50mm rims on 28mm GP5000's and have an 11 speed 105 group to fit that was £350. So, plenty of life left in it.

[jcwu]

Ah the perfect days when 105 groupset on entry carbon bike cost around $1500, and the cable routing make perfect sense. With wheel upgrade, easily under 8kg.
But I don’t miss the paint job trend back then at all, brands were super insecure to a point they COVER THE ENTIRE BIKE WITH THEIR NAME TIMES UGH.

[NewPolishScientist]

Back in 2015 You could buy 7 kg cube road bike with ultregra 6800 for £1500

[bendenisereedy]

2016 Bianchi Specialissima here, bought for myself for my 60th birthday. It weighs 6.4 kgs and is such a thrilling bike to ride that I don't think it can be bettered. I hope still to be riding it aged 80.

[sbccbc]

I started out with a 2008/2009 Colnago Primavera. Everything on the bike is still fine to use to this day except for one thing, tire clearance. 25 mm tires on 15 mm internal rim width is the widest it can take.

Since I want to use wider wheels, I do need to upgrade, so now I have two mid-to-late 2010s framesets, one rim (transferred to this one in May 2022) one disc (not ready yet) and I don't think I'll need another road bike for years to come.

[honestreviewer]

My road bike is a 2013 Cervelo S2 (the last year they were a long-and-low pro peloton bike) with Dura-Ace 9100 mechanical. I got the frame new in the box in 2019 for only $500. The only drawback of the frame is that it won't take tires larger than 25mm. Other than that, it's perfect.

[MarkLondon-ii]

I bought a Bianchi Specialissama for a big birthday in 2020..Campy SR rim brake...6.5kgish..sublime!!!

[markgreenhow]

I've got 5 road bikes from this era, simple enough for me to work on at home, I'd have spent a fortune having all the work I've done on them done at a shop, part of my enjoyment is maintaining them and modern bikes would drive me insane.

[madyogi]

Cool vid.
Yea, 2010 era bikes are very cool. Still hold one "racer" myself. I now say it is uber-panzer made one. It survived two quite nasty, car hits and it is still straight and rideable (aluminium frame). No creaking, no broken welds, not even paint scratched. Hands off rolls straight. Though, lost 2 saddles, 2 front wheels, helmet, handlebar, shifters got wasted (not to mention the bloody hanger). Funny to think it was brand new for like $1200, back then. I invested in it yet another $1k over these years, and it is still only worth $1k (just maybe). Soon to receive the 11 speed treatment.

2:51 Wow, The wheel is so true it almost puts Earth out of orbit. 🤪

[qualm]

I recently bought a 2012 giant defy and had all the thoughts expressed in this video after getting the bike home and tuning it to my preference. I was able to flip the stem over, mess with steerer spacers, angle the bars, adjust brake pad reach, adjust the It was all very simple. The bike kicks ass in terms of performance, and I was surprised how smoothly it damps the road vibration. Looks like I'll easily fit a 28mm tire in there, possibly a 30mm.... Wide enough, I suppose.

[OliverSierp]

Love my Willier Zero 7, Campy Super Record, clinchers, mechanical everything and absurdly light ! Also love my Chapter 2 Koko with 30mm tyres, 12 speed electronic shifting, discs etc etc

[charlcoetzee]

I have a disc brake bike as my main bike. On the side its loads of fun to cherry pick steel bikes from the 80s on marketplace and give them a service. It's always satisfying what you can do with an old bike in a couple hours of basic maintenance.

[keithevans]

I built a 2020 a Trek Emonda with Dura ace 9100 mechanical groupset 57cm frame only change is 9200 crankset...we know why. Even got a set of ex ineos dura ace conti Grand prix tubular TT tyres.... total weight 6.3kg awesome setup and Brilliant to ride. All thanks to watching you. 😉

[leahjackson]

I got a 2014 specialized venge in the spring and added things like, ultegra r8000 chainset, new cassette, new zipp bars and stem, picked up some carbon 50 prime wheels on sale at wiggle for £249, conti gp5000 tyres, new seat post, saddle, new bar tape, cleaned up all the dura-ace calipers.. it looks like an absolute weapon and i get comments on it all the time. Its my pride and joy! But yeah maybe one day I'd get something nore 'snazzy' and 'modern'

[zagato]

Amen. Still in love with my BMC Teammachine SLR01 with SRAM Red from 2017. IMO better than most average new bikes.

[bklyncyclist]

I built up a Super Six Evo for my daughter from that era, using the 105 9sp from the bike that was too small for her. It rides great, shifting is just OK, and figuring out a crank for that thing took a long time. I ended up with a Praxis BB that went from BB30 to Shimano and a 105 11sp crank. The bike is just beautiful. I myself ride a 2005 Kuota Kredo, which is at the start of this era when carbon frames became somewhat affordable. I put it on a diet and it lost almost 2 pounds with some of your suggestions, mostly the TPU tubes and the 3D saddle. The TPU tubes led me to ditch the saddle bag and all the extraneous stuff in it.

[francescob.]

Ok, now I'm starting to love this channel