YEARS ago, I pitched the idea of 1x to a friend who was deep in the industry and I got laughed out of the room. I pointed out that I never shift front rings in a criterium. He said, "do you really think someone's going to buy a separate bike just for criteriums?" Today, cyclists would buy a separate bike just for humid days.
back in the day most of us just had the one bike for everything, except maybe winter when anything on fixed would do. I remember a well off m8 who had several bikes that said he sort of envied me because i didn't have to worry about anything except just the riding, but given the choice i would have swapped i suppose :). i remember taking the gears off and riding fixed for some races to keep the weight down, repairing my own tubs, building bikes out of whatever parts i could afford and having a philosophy of 'why do you need expensive brakes, i want to go faster not stop' - anyone remember weinemann brakes, mafac levers, ive still got most of the stuff somewhere. happy days :) GL
Hello Jamie, Same thing happened to me. 30 years ago when I was inside the bike industry, I kept asking wheel engineers in Japan to make more aerodynamic rims, and other components. Same thing like you, I also got laughed at meetings, they saying it is silly when you have a huge un aerodynamic human sitting on top of the bike... Oh, the irony.
@@danielsotelo3942 But for your average rider/racer, the minimal gains from an “aero” bike are going to be laughably minor. Most amateurs would be much better off by losing a few pounds, training a little differently, or just accepting the fact that their “natural talent” just ain’t what they’d like it to be and no amount of high-tech gear is going to turn them into a winner!
@@johns3106 Thats not necessarily true. The gains from some of the aero stuff in cycling, and similarly running tech, for professionals the gains are minimal. For example, when Nike brought out the 4%, an Independent mass participation study, found those who were running elite marathon times did get the 4% increase in times. But those who were overweight or were a slower runner. They could find the gains between shoes was actually around 10%.
Here's a detailed positive description with multiple photos of an auto-inflate system from brand A, one rider finished 89th and the other dnf'd. Brief mention of brand B, no description or photos, with weird snark about name after that rider finished 10th despite flat 🤔
@@nassozeebo so you think that the two bikes in the photo, both with tacoed front wheels, each had spontaneous, but synchronized tubeless fails, which caused wheels to crumble and the riders to crash next to each other? Cool story.
The dual-compound (T2/T5) tyre concept is straight out of motorcycling, they've been available for road motorbikes for 15yrs or so. They started off making a harder core for the tyre with a softer compound overmoulded onto the shoulders (which produced interesting wear characteristics) and they eventually worked out how to bake the tyres in the mould so that you get a progressive increase in softness from the centre to the shoulder of the tyre.
I had some dual-compound road bike tires back in the 90s, some even made it quite visual with the outer bands being colored- blue, grey, red... this is not a new thing. Specialized, Hutchinson, Michelin, others...
It's not the tyre failing, it's the rims from the look of it. We don't see tubeless fail that often in MTB despite beating it hard. The secret is rims which don't disintegrate.
i've been thinking about going tubeless on my cargobike. I have had the tire slide on the rim pulling the valve stem under an angle when breaking hard under low pressure. Does going tubeless solve that, or does teh tire sliding break the airseal and you go flat?
@@ccgarnaal tubeless ready tyres are what you'll be wanting. They're a right pig to get onto a rim but once they're on and the bead has been seated from a good inflation they shouldn't slip.
I know its never going to happen again but the best innovation for these races would be self support for the riders. The race would be more attractive. What a boost would or can follow this if every rider has to choose reliable stuff instead of relying on all these technical solutions, the throw away stuff and the mechanic behind.
Nah. That sort of race exists, but it's something entirely different. Try checking out ultra endurance races and gravel events. This is ultimately a TEAM event, not only in the sense that the riders support each other, but also in the sense that they have a backing team. It's that team that gives the riders the ability to push themselves to the absolute limits largely unhindered by mechanical and logistical problems.
Always interesting to see the “PR” tech and speculate as to what will show up in the shops. Last time I checked, I’m not paid to ride my bike….so….I’m sticking with old-school tubes in a 700x28 road bike. Where I live, flats are uncommon. At 67 I’m an “enthusiast”, with a budget.
on the first brand auto inflation system I recognise the controllers from an ali express electronic bell I used to have, the tape you mentioned is to cover up the janky looking and fragile silicon straps that secure it 😂
They're basically riding hardtail mountain bikes from the late 90s. They're 25 years behind mountain biking. Eventually they'll go with flat pedals lol
With regards to carbon handlebars: lots of riders wanted round bars, not necessarily non-carbon bars, so teams mounted alloy round bars (and separate stems) as it's cheap and a no-brainer.
i remember biking it down to leeds uni in 1976 or 1977, (can't remember exactly now) as a young teen to watch a paris roubaix film, as we got nada on tv those days and being so excited to actually see cycling on screen lol. how things have changed. i was looking forward to an exiting finish this year, but thought it a bit of an anticlimax after the mechanicals / crashes, but hey-ho that's the nature of the beast i suppose, and the tech is just a distraction, it's all mano a mano & the legs IMHO. GL
Been using Tubeless since October 2020. So far I've went 7,500 miles and yet to have a puncture that wouldn't seal. I run my rear at 90 psi since I'm a bigger rider, weighing usually around 205 lbs. I'll never go back to tubes on my main bike.
Experimenting with different frame designs or geometries to get more efficient bikes with new materials? UCI: Absolutely no way 😡. Electric on-the-fly tire inflation and deflation systems? That are totally irrelevant to most cyclists? UCI: sure go right ahead! 😊
Bikepacking is more about reliable rigs. Can't imagine adding all this complexity to achieve something that would take 5 mins with a pump. The journey is the destination.
If you’re bike packing, aren’t you going slow enough that a few minutes with a pump wouldn’t make one whit of a difference?! What’s the rush?! (Or is it just laziness coupled with extreme tech-wienieness?)
@@johns3106 I would put it to laziness or extreme tech junkie. Maybe in an adventure race situation it would make some sort of sense as long as reliability was there.
With all those electronic devices on bikes today we should mount a small internal combustion engine to keep them all charged on the move. May be use a slightly bigger one to take some of the strain from pedalling.
Both examples of tyres dismounting shown were wheels using a hooked design. ISN rider was using a tyre insert. Bahrain Merida's Fred Wright seemed to not have one. The AG2R rider's Campagnolo Bora Ultra WTO wheel used a hooked design and the tyre didn't dismount.
The tire inflation is very similar to the auto inflators found on heavy over the road trucks in the US. They set the pressure at 100-120 psig and just forget about it. Not sure if the Euro market uses them.
Can remember in late 80`s early 90`s some used suspension forks, could lock em out on road. Think some used tandem back wheels (bigger stronger more spokes 46?ish ) Oh and double bar tape...Halcyon days.
I always keep in mind when hearing about new tech in Roubaix…that those suspension forks were the “must-have” item for a few years and then they disappeared, never to be seen again…lots of this new “tech” will meet the same fate.
I run 5 bikes just now 2 road bikes about 10-12 yrs old 2 mtn bikes new & I started on a gravel grinder last summer. The older guys have tubes the newer I went tubeless. Is one system better ? Not really, when you have a flat, switching out a tube with cold hands is far easier & cleaner than slipn & slidn when the slime comes out . But tubeless should fail less. Yesterday I had a geiser of slime spray out through the tread. That stuff is not infallible as promised either. One thing no one has mentioned on these great comments offered so far is - when you switch out a tube you get a brand new valve stem every time. Lately I have noticed that The manufacturers are recommending replacement of the tubeless kind yearly & the get gummed up with drying slime inside - wasn't like that way back when. The tube system has hassles and the tubeless system has hassles getting flats comes in waves and is a hassle. I can fix mine now in about 120 seconds unless its near a coffee shop. cheers friends ...
Think we will all agree the only tech that help was a use of a rubber band to stop the battery from popping out on SRAM rear derailleur. Noticed I didn’t mention front. Clearance issues with the larger tires😂
they can popp out? did you have that Happen? Mine are so hard to get out by hand even, but maybe when the mechanism is worn out in the future? thanks for the heads up anyways, will put some tape around it. fear activated haha
This was one of my favourite videos of the week, thanks very much, some cool and some odd things. I did notice one shot of the Ultegra C50 wheels instead of the dura ace. I wonder why/how that happened?
Thanks Mike, glad you enjoyed it! Regarding the Ultegra wheels, they might simply have been drafted in as spares, or favoured by teams that buy-in their Shimano stuff
Luke Rowe was saying lots of Teams not using Tyre liners making the tyre marginally faster but really bad for crashing. Tyre pops off the rim easily without tyre liner causing more catastrophic crash.
The Atmoz relies on a pre-loaded air reservoir, and as such is limited in the nummer of inflations it can deliver. For a race like Paris-Roubaix on tubeless tyres with big deflation/inflation changes, the system is probably capable of 5 to 8 inflations. At around 4000 € it´s way above my budget, so this isn´t based on personal experience but on what commentators were saying about it during the race on tv.
@@runek287 Thank you for the reply. I thought it likely was a reservoir, as the weight and complexity of a high pressure pump would be excessive, especially to re-inflate a tire in the small fraction of a second mentioned here.
Inflation devices, seemingly a good solution to the transition from a smooth tarmac to cobblestone the alternative is to have one or two strategically mounted, elastomer, shocks or heck scrap the road bike and go mountain bike race.
Tubeless is the future. Rim designers need to work on the bead interface and make adjustments to the, either width of or shape of, the bead lock area. Tire deflection on a too tall or too thin bead section, even with an insert, can cause pinch flats. Or with a more significant impact, enough deflection to cause a spoke to perforate the rim tape. A better design is not to have spoke holes in the tire mounting area. Many prototypes have been tried without an overall winner yet. An integrated nipple would be best if there was no possibility of breakage. Otherwise the wheel would be toast with one small nipple failure, quite the expense. I would expect design to follow automotive with one piece wheel/hub construction. Hub internals could be repaired or replaced as long as the housing is intact. This would also allow internal gearing options and belt drive systems.
@@beefeekeefee Those rocks just shaped themselves and wandered over to form a cambered near-level surface running in a line for miles, without any human intervention, right?
I just love how these tire systems failed to have any impact, if not even a straight fail. A race like this should be won by riders, not by tech. Wout didn't use it, imagine he would win with a device like that and all media starting to question it was Wout or the system.
Tubeless seems great as long as you're the person whose bank account the profits go into - new wheels, new tires, sealant, inserts, valve stems, plugs to fix the punctures, etc. all have nice margins. To the people who have to install, maintain and ride on 'em (assuming the air stays inside) they might not seem so great. I'll stick with old-time clinchers that I can swap a new tube into pretty quickly in the event of a puncture, thank you....and maybe even patch that tube once I get home?
This is such a boomer thing to say… I have ran tubeless on my mountain bike for 5 years or more.. seriously, in that time I’ve had two or three flats. I don’t even think I’ve had one in my new bike!
They are still at the extreme end for road bike tyres and the majority were on 30mm. Even in this most extreme terrain, the two winners were on 28’s. There is quite an aero penalty for larger tyres.
reminds me of the old saying about building it just because it's possible. seems a lot of expensive tech/complication and weight for little reward to me, i suppose the market will eventually decide, and at one time disk brakes seemed like they could be unlikely to catch on on road bikes, so you never know, but i do feel this one's not going to make it. GL
I'm not sure if this would be useful or not but could a set of air suspension front forks be used as a pump with the up and down motion used to compress air with an air line going to the tires to inflate them if needed, those large hubs look to be quite heavy.
That small tire pressure system looks like it might be very helpful given that all teams have resorted to keeping it a secret about what tyre pressure they are running. But a part of me also thinks that it looks like bogus tech or at least can very easily be passed off as such.
The opening in a hollow spoke would be miniscule and create a lot of resistance while inflating the tires. Also it would seriously limit the flow you can achieve.
If I was racing as a pro, I'd prefer be riding tubulars for an event like this. Tubeless would be fine any normal race. But if you might have to spend some time on the rim, I'd take me some glue. Maybe try those Challenge tubeless-tubular tires for Roubaix. If being pressured to run tubeless, definitely running inserts.
I'm all for 1x on my MTBs and gravel bike, and I see why some folks want 2x on road bikes still for racing, but some of which may go 1x on flatter races (where they don't need so much range so can retain small jumps). But if Campag Ekar can do 1x13 I don't know why all 1x and some of the 2x folks aren't pushing/expecting 1x13. Is it just weight? But is it really any/much heavier losing the front chainring? Surely that'd still be lighter than gas canisters built into tyre inflating hubs? Road 1x might be more popular if Campag released a non-gravel version of 13-speed Ekar, surely?
It seems 2 X setups are in races with climbing and flat parts slightly more efficient because you can get a better (more straight) chain line. While this effect may be too small to be recognized by a hobby rider it may play a role for pro riders who fight about every Watt. In flatter terrain it shouldn't play a big role since pros will optimize the chain line on the gear they mostly use in this race. Weight shouldn't be the biggest concerns, modern professional road bikes are even slightly above the minimum weight (300 to 400 G) but take more care about aerodynamics instead
I don't race so I'm cool with tubeless and yes I like to spend money on my bike just not on an auto inflation device, thats just silly, well until someone makes one that is smaller lighter and cheaper.
Who made Van der Poel's Zwift-branded aero socks? Where can we buy them? Any aero sock that doesn't fall down and bunch up at the ankles despite the bone-jarring cobblestone farm roads of Paris-Roubaix has got to be the best.
In race bicycle competition they worry about every gram lighter they can make the bicycle. I'm surprised to see massive front chainrings, full circle of metal.
Always have a bit of a giggle when it comes to the Enduro/Road riding crews. Not that everyone does it! But when I see people getting upset to genuinely infuriated because a Tyre is more than 30mm!? On my BMX (Dirt Jump) I run what's essentially around a 60mm wide on the Front & around 52-53mm on the Rear & I'm running what's considered a narrower rear!! Some of the MTB/DH Tyres available right now make my 2.4" look small! It's fascinating to me how different styles of riding have their set ways & then as some crazy F'ers decide hmm wonder what XC on a road bike would be like!? You get riders from each camp that swear by narrow or wider, higher or lower PSI! I have to say wider tyres with a lower PSI feels better for my kind of riding but I'm running 40-50 F&R which would bw unthinkable for a lot of these riders!
The inflation system would be awesome on a mountain bike. Pump up up the hill, deflate before going down for more grip. Can't be too heavy if road guys are running it... ?
I'm not sure which pressure they run in the tank, mountainbikes have far more tire volume and at least in theory they should empty the tank faster than a road bike with less tire volume (even if the pressure difference at the MTB should be smaller). However it would be worth to try it on a MTB
@@simonm1447 I see, so it only works on pressure difference, once you have less in the hub you're done... I thought there was a small motor and a pump, that's why I was surprised roadies can live with the weight 😅
@@c3N3q I did some further research. There are 2 systems, the Scope Atmoz and the Gravaa Kaps. The Kaps seem to be a camshaft driven cylinder pump inside the hub, however it's a propiate hub system and not just an add on on on existing hubs. It consumes 4 W of power if the pump is active and weighs 250 G per wheel. It inflates relatively slow, so it don't seem to have a reservoir. The Atmoz inflates far more quickly, with 0,5 bar per second, which means there has to be a reservoir for compressed air or some other gas. It's an add on on existing hubs, so it can't house a camshaft driven pump like the Kaps, but it's not 100% clear how it works since it's still a sort of secret by the manufacturer yet. It's 300 G per wheel, so slightly more heavier than Kaps. It might house some high pressure gas cylinders, and maybe they use a sort of tire inserts to reduce the internal air volume of the tires (which would reduce the air consumption to change tire pressure) but it's not public known yet
Hi Mike, this is information on the cobbled sectors that are coming up. First column is sector number (counting down), second column is distance ridden as sector starts, and the third column is the length of the sector. I'd assume that the colour coding refers to the importance of being well positioned going into the sector. Red = High Orange = Medium Yellow = Low Looks like 14-1 will be underneath, so the rider can tear off this top sheet when sector 15 is done. Hope that helps
I ride a two wheeled recumbent bike. With a 20 inch front wheel and a 26 inch rear wheel. I'm not even sure if I could find any tubeless tires for my rig. Plus I really do not trust them.
while nothing exactly new in terms of tecnhology, i can definately see more classified powershift hub being used, bridges the gap between 1x and 2x and has no weight penalties over a traditional 2x setup
I’m not saying that I’m into it but when the industry seems to be pushing the responsibility for the ride quality onto the tyre manufacturers I do understand it
It's hardly believable additional weight worth the auto-inflation feature. It's probably paid ads. And i think tubeless are just being used more aggressively comparing to conventional wheels, resulting in more failures.
@BikeRadar feel like 95% of road riders I know, friends, customers would still disagree. But what do I know, just going off what the community talks about without any agenda of pushing products
@@crazytrainrc6634 50 km of cobblestone road aren't a few meters... And comfort wasn't the main talking point, as they talked about easing up the wheels' progression. On top of that, weight is needed to be "better" at Paris Roubaix. Quite rare to see a 58 kg rider win there...
Tubeless fails: We don't know the cause of the crash but a tubeless tyre dismounted when the rim was smashed into a pretzel. Must be a tubeless fail eh Hmmm logic...
Well…they could…but what happens to the guy that stops for a bike change while his competitors don’t? He is literally left in the dust, and his “better” bike probably won’t be “better” enough to make up the time he just lost to his competitor…the competitor who was willing to take the gamble on his lighter, narrower, higher pressure tires remaining intact on the cobbles and giving him a significant advantage on the paved sections which make up the great majority of the course. It should be apparent from Wout’s dilemma in the finale of this years race how crucial it is to NOT have to stop for an equipment issue. He got a new rear wheel incredibly fast, but in that brief time span, Matthieu was able to get away and stay away.
