This Guy HATES Modern Bikes - Can We Change His Mind?

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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RTW
in the industry
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Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:32 pm

by RTW

Has anyone seen this?

https://youtu.be/nwsG49-C7I4

Apparently, rim brakes and non aero still rule, and lightweight is faster, even when it is not.

by Weenie


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Miller
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Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:54 pm
Location: Reading, UK

by Miller

I saw it on FB yesterday. Simon Warren is well known over here (UK) for his '100 climbs' series of books. As for him hating modern bikes, we know the complaints, they have been well aired on this forum.

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

Only point of contention for me is he's a bit hung up on Zipp, ENVE, etc. rim-brake wheels going away when extremely high quality, less expensive options exist. My Zipp 202 NSW and ENVE SES 5.6 Disc wheels have more blemishes/defects than my Light Bicycle WR50 and AR25. Whether he wants to ride 23mm tires at 120psi is up to him.
Last edited by TobinHatesYou on Mon Apr 17, 2023 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Singular
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by Singular

Quite a bit of hyperbole in that title.

RTW
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by RTW

Singular wrote:
Mon Apr 17, 2023 10:09 am
Quite a bit of hyperbole in that title.
Have you been on YouTube before? :lol:

RTW
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by RTW

Miller wrote:
Mon Apr 17, 2023 9:16 am
I saw it on FB yesterday. Simon Warren is well known over here (UK) for his '100 climbs' series of books. As for him hating modern bikes, we know the complaints, they have been well aired on this forum.
I thought he made himself look silly.

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C36
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by C36

Half way through it… starting with a “I never rode hydraulic DB […] they look ugly” doesn’t set the bar very high. Seems they took a very seasoned cyclist but quite a caricature too. On the other side, that’s GCN so not sure what I was expecting.

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robbosmans
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by robbosmans

C36 wrote:Half way through it… starting with a “I never rode hydraulic DB […] they look ugly” doesn’t set the bar very high. Seems they took a very seasoned cyclist but quite a caricature too. On the other side, that’s GCN so not sure what I was expecting.
Yeah lol

Lina
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by Lina

C36 wrote:
Mon Apr 17, 2023 10:39 am
Half way through it… starting with a “I never rode hydraulic DB […] they look ugly” doesn’t set the bar very high. Seems they took a very seasoned cyclist but quite a caricature too. On the other side, that’s GCN so not sure what I was expecting.
I have a feeling that most of the comments bashing X thing in online forums go under a similar type. They've either never tried the thing they're passionately against, or they've tried some badly implemented version once and came to the conclusion that it sucks and will never be good.

I mean, tubeless discussions are full of people bashing on tubeless and when asked what sealant they used it was some known to be garbage sealant instead of something that's been well documented to work. Same with disc brakes. It wouldn't take much time researching this very forum to find rotors that don't warp and work as expected. Yet you have people insisting on choosing setups that are known to not work ideally and then complaining how they don't work.

Karvalo
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by Karvalo

The comments vs data on the climb were a fantastic example of confirmation bias. The constantly shifting justifications were amusing too. Disc brakes may work well but they're ugly and aesthetics are super important! Though hidden cables may look great, but so what? Then the moaning about the the industry with "if I want disc brakes I have to buy a whole new bike'. But he doesn't want disc brakes or a new bike, so what's the problem? The comparing the actual cost of a bike built from parts 10+ years ago to the sticker price of a complete new bike now without even considering like for like price inflation or what discounting was happening.

I suppose part of the point of the video was to put him on the spot to justify his views, which is a little unfair. Ultimately though if you like old school rim brake bikes (and I purposefully bought a non-aero rim brake bike only a couple of years ago) then you also have to be honest that there's really no rhyme or reason to it, you just wanted it.

EdWiser
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by EdWiser

Just ride your bike.

Mocs123
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by Mocs123

While I do believe newer bikes are probably faster, there is nothing wrong with riding an older bike, non aero bike, rim brake bike - whatever you like. Most of the guys in my club have fairly modern carbon disk brake bikes, but one of the strongest guys rides a very old school looking Ti rim brake bike (Lightspeed), 10 speed Campy, rim brakes, aluminum wheels (Campy) - and it certainly looks very old school compared to most of our bikes, but he consistantly beats me on the climbs or the flats. Just yesterday evening we did a ride that included one of our local climbs (2.82 miles/4.54km at 7.1%) and he beat me to the top by 3 minutes 34 seconds. He beat me down the decent of the day (3.71 miles/ 5.97km at 4.8%) by 32 seconds. Would he be faster on a more modern aero bike, probably, but he certainly doesn't seem to be unable to compete with his older setup.

BTW he has a 53/39 with an 11-25 cassette and I have a 50/34 with an 11/32 cassette.
2015 Wilier Zero.7 Rim - 6.37kg
2020 Trek Emonda SLR-7 Disc - 6.86kg
2023 Specialized SL7 - 7.18kg

Butcher
Shop Owner
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by Butcher

I've ridden with people like that. They are strong and know how to put that to use. They all seem to ride titanium frame bikes. I have yet to figure that out.

There is nothing wrong with the old stuff. If it makes you feel good, that makes the ride that much better.

spud
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by spud

About 15 years ago my primary bike was out of commission, so I did the local shootout on my old Columbus SL bike with old Campy SR. Aside from really being at a disadvantage with friction shifting, the thing that really stood out was how flexible the frame and drive train were. Out of the saddle I could feel the pedals cambering over hard. Combination of weight, flexibilty and shifting made it very difficult to follow accelerations in the hills. An extreme case I know, but I'll take a modern bike over old school ANYTIME - more comfortable, lighter, better handling, faster. No downsides.

by Weenie


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RTW
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by RTW

Mocs123 wrote:
Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:04 pm
BTW he has a 53/39 with an 11-25 cassette and I have a 50/34 with an 11/32 cassette.
This is it. He can't go any slower, as he will fall over! :D

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