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Are These Tech Trends Taking Road Bikes In The Right Direction?
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Apr 1, 2025
There are hundreds of road bike manufacturers out there, and this results in road bikes which miss the mark for a multitude of reasons. All of these reasons end up with the consumer being left with a product which doesn't deliver the correct amount of value or just has inherent problems with the quality of the build. Sam Gupta takes a closer look at some road bikes which just should not exist. What do you think about his choices? Can you think of any other bikes which shouldn't exist?
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In a world where there are hundreds of road bike manufacturers, there will of course be some road
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bikes that may not meet the needs of the consumer. From odd spec decisions to bizarre views on
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pricing, I've pulled together a bunch of bikes that I wish just didn't exist
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The same generation of bikes that enjoy integrated cable routing, disc brakes
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and fancy carbon shapes seem to have a few occupants that also play host to steering stops
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If you're unaware, steering stops are a mechanical feature often found within the head tube of a bike
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which stop the bars turning after a certain point. The theory is that by stopping the bars
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from turning excessively, you reduce the risk of causing damage to the brake lines, and you also
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stop the potential of the handlebars to swing into the top tube. However, there is a reason why
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steering stops have been included on this list and that's because I have seen multiple cases where
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the handlebars have been turned with such force that the steering stops have then ripped into the
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frame itself, essentially killing it. Now this rarely happens through normal riding but instead
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it can happen when the wind catches the front wheel, when the bike is lent up and stationary
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or when you're putting the bike in the back of a car and then the fork catches something or perhaps
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an overzealous mechanic may yank on the bar slightly too hard and cause some accidental
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damage. Happily, some bikes that did adopt steering stops are already starting to ditch them
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For example, the fourth generation of the Cannondale Super 6 lost them after they were
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debuted on the third generation of the bike. Also, as integrated cockpits evolve and cable
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routing methods improve, the positioning of those hoses can be threaded in ways that mean that
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oversteering won't damage the hoses. My view on this is quite simple. Steering stops should just
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be a flash in the pan of road bike tech trends and hopefully in the next few years will eventually
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disappear. Too many bike frames end up having to be warrantied after innocuous accidents. I'm sure
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that when manufacturers start to realise how much money the steering stops are going to be costing
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them, they'll be as fast to remove them as they were to install. Certainly one innovation to forget
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We recently made a video about the biggest false economies in cycling and in that video I discussed
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the recent upsurge surrounding the incredibly cheap bikes that can be found from big generic
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retailers Now I sure to some those bikes do serve a purpose especially for those who don want to or can afford to spend any more money on a new bike However I a strong believer that you should spend that same amount of money
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but on a second-hand bike instead. You'll get something that originally costed much more
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and you'll be giving a bike that already exists a new lease of life. And should you have any issues
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most bike shops will be able to help you out. I believe that these bikes are awful for the
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environment. Bikes are supposed to last for many, many years, but the way that these bikes are
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constructed and the components that they're kitted out with mean that you're essentially buying a
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disposable bike and one which will only last for as long as the rider can bear to deal with its
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problems. In my opinion, these bikes should just not exist and we should all be buying second-hand
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bikes when we can, especially if monitoring cost is a large contributing factor to your purchasing
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decision. Right on the other end of the spectrum, we are now seeing bikes hit the market that
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seemingly cost more than the sum of all their parts. In my opinion, this is a pretty big problem
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I think it also shows that the sharp increases in prices are far outpacing the rest of the price
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increases that we're seeing in other areas of the industry. And there are a couple of pretty
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high-profile examples of this. First is the Cannondale Lab 71 Super 6 Evo. It retails at
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£12,500 here in the UK, but I've been able to create an equivalent build for £11,000. Unsurprisingly
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there are some caveats to that price. Yes, that is by utilising the best prices that I could find
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all over the internet for all of the components. For example, I found the Dura-Ace groupset for
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£200 off at one retailer. Also, I didn't opt to spec the same wheels as the Lab 71 stock build
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Instead, I chose some Zip 303S Firecrest, which some may argue is actually a better wheel set
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Also, I wasn't quite sure how much their Momo handlebars would cost, so I went for an estimate
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and did a worst-case scenario of £600. I did also factor in a £300 labour cost to cover the
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cost of having a mechanic build up the bike in its entirety. The Specialized S-Works Athos is
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another example. Here I'm able to save about £350 over the cost of the stock build and it's worth
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highlighting that on this build I actually specced some Zip 353 NSWs which again some would argue are
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a much better wheelset than the Roval Alpinist CLX wheelset that is found on the stock build Also I actually added in the Roval Alpinist Integrated Cockpit to really take the build to the next level But if you weren to upgrade the components and you were to mimic that
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stock build, you'd actually be closer to saving £1,400. In the case of the Lab 71 Super 6
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at full retail pricing of all the components, the build came in at £11,700 and that's still
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cheaper than the £12,500 asking price of the stock bike. So we really have to wonder
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what are we getting for our money at this level? In the lower echelons, it is more like business
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as usual, where the bike manufacturers are able to pull on their economies of scale and create
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bikes which we wouldn't be able to go out and create for less money. Perhaps even the bike
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manufacturers are struggling to buy things for the right price. We have no evidence to support this
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but it would be one explanation as to the obscure situation that some top-end bikes have found
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themselves in. While I'm sure that there will be plenty of comments surrounding the fact that
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brands are just charging silly money for the sake of it, and you may well be right, I wouldn't be
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surprised if they need to sell at those levels just to maintain the margins that those products
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need to achieve to make them commercially viable. You cannot forget and disregard the impact that
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COVID, Brexit here in the UK, and shipping issues will have had on the cost of some of those products
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Pair that with a struggling world economy and you can have a little understanding. Plus
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if there are customers out there who want to buy those bikes, who are we to stop them
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While I understand that there could be reasons outside of the control of the bike brands
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meaning they have to charge such high prices, I don't think I'll be a customer for a bike that I
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know I can build up for less money and also enjoy the ability to spec some of my own parts
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As I'm sure a lot of you know, not all bikes are created equally. Some are created by artisan
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frame builders who can spend weeks creating a bike which has been handcrafted to perfection
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On the other end of the scale, we have bikes which maybe haven't quite seen that same level
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of care and attention. Much like my issue with bikes that are too cheap, bikes which are created
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without the appropriate amount of due care should not be hitting the market. They will always have
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inherent problems because if strict manufacturing tolerances aren't adhered to, the components that
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then get mated to that frame will never operate as they should. Happily, frame facing, which is the
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process of removing excess material from a frame to ensure that a flat surface is achieved, is
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something that can be done by most mechanics Frame facing is something that actually really important to do anyway because it ensures that when bottom brackets headsets brake calipers and the like are bolted to a frame
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they are mated to a perfectly flush surface. Also the process of re-tapping threads is something
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which can be done after a frame has been built if needed. But if the bikes have deeper less
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rectifiable problems, that's when things get serious. The bottom line is when considering
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the energy and materials required to produce a bicycle, manufacturers should be ensuring
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that it does not go to waste. I love riding on semi-deep carbon wheels for so many reasons
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They look good. They're generally pretty light. They sound cool. And of course
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they help you go everywhere faster. It's rare for a set of these wheels to actually make the
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experience of riding your bike any worse. However these tend to be wheels that you upgrade to rather
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than having them on your bike from stock unless you're spending a pretty serious amount of money
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My issue lies in the bikes that come with alloy deep section wheels and I can understand why the
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brands want to fit those wheels to stock bikes. I'm sure that the brands would argue that the
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profile of the rims do offer a speed advantage over box section rims and I'd be inclined to agree
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with them. I'm sure that they also fit them so that the much larger tubes of a carbon bike
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don't look quite so unbalanced and odd against the wheel choice and of course by fitting alloy
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wheels they can sell the bike looking as they want it but offer it at a more affordable price
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and some may see this as a pretty fair exchange. For example, Oro sell the Venturi Evo in a 105
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specification with Fulcrum DB800 wheels and it's hard to deny that on the face of it the bike does
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look fast but to be honest I would rather opt for a box section rim as it will be lighter and more
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practical in the short term before I have the chance to upgrade the wheels to something that
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I really want. Plus, the extra circa 300 grams that you'd have to carry around just to have
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something that numbs the ride and is harder to spin up just isn't a good trade-off. Happily
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though, wheels are easy to change, so the problem's never terminal. Let me know down below what bikes
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or trends do you wish didn't exist? I've no doubt it's going to get pretty feisty down in the
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comment section. If you enjoyed the video, then please do drop it a like, subscribe to the channel
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for more content and I will see you again very soon
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