Disc brakes and 1x drivetrains. These are the sort of things that belong on mountainbikes, are questionable on cross bikes, and should make an immediate trip to the rubbish bin when it comes to road bikes. Change for the sake of change; gimmickry masquerading as innovation. And to make matters worse, the appearance of 11-speed blocks has killed the last vestige of the complexity of our sport: block composition and size.
The question of gear choice was once one of the most critical decisions a Cyclist could make when tackling a course. In The Rider, Tim Krabé describes his gear choice and those of his competitors; throughout the book, he fixates upon which gear he is riding in. José Manuel Fuente used to use higher gears that the other climbers to intimidate them. Andy Hampsten famously rode only odd-numbered gears because obviously even-sized gears made his palms go sweaty.
Sean Kelly belabored his choice to use a 13-25 block versus a 12-23 for the 1989 World Championship Road Race. He knew he couldn’t climb as well as the other favorites and wanted a 25 to save his legs over the final climb. If, however, he managed to get over the hill, he would surely need the 12 in order to win the sprint. It was a classic catch-22; use a block that he could win the sprint with but get dropped on the climb, or get over the hill and lose the sprint. The race lay in the balance of a single tooth on a cog.
We used to build our blocks, not buy a complete cassette on ebay. The idea was to keep the gears as close together as possible with a straight block being the holy grail and the relative smallness of the biggest gear being a declaration of your status as Hardman. Every tooth beyond a 1 tooth jump was a sacrifice; every step beyond a 21 or 23 tooth cog was a silent admission of your sissiness as a Cyclist. The Pros today are riding 11-28 blocks on every kind of terrain, every day. Even at Paris-Roubaix, one of the only races flat enough to still require little more than a 19 even for us mortals.
Committing to nothing lower than a 19-tooth gear requires a suitcase of courage, poor planning, or both. And it looks tough as nails, that tight cluster of gears at the back wheel. Not like these big dinner plates we see riding around all over the place these days. You could serve a nice helping of Steak Frites on some of these modern blocks. Disgraceful. And while I’m not building my blocks anymore, I’m certainly still choosing a cassette for the terrain and plan to continue doing so until I’m pushing up daisies, thank you very much.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@Matt
Fuck! Talk about dinner plates, you could eat off of that!
@Teocalli
Unless you break off one of the teeth on your 11 and are too cheap a bastard to get a new one. Not that I would know who that might be.
@wiscot
Darned good point, and the VMW should relate to that as it works with dresses.
@Ccos
I fear that a) the result might be a bit, shall we say, lumpy and b) would also not quite have the desired effect of increasing the gearing.
@piwakawaka that kind of statement puts you dangerously close to @Gianni and his fetish for EPMS & ugly saddles. Disc brakes were a leap forward in mountain biking because it's a sport that requires the rider to brake frequently and aggressively on steep terrain with inconsistent traction. That, coupled with the frequency at which you could warp your rim from bouncing off logs, rocks, & woodland creatures (thereby detrimentally affecting your ability to brake and avoid further woodland creatures) made the disc brake a logical choice and a massive leap forward for the sport.
But for road biking, where the tarmac is consistent (relative to off-piste), your contact patch with the road is equivalent to the surface area of your thumbs, and the chance of you tacoing a rim bad enough to affect your braking but not end your ride is non-existent, disc brakes have no place and no advantage. The aerodynamic loss from all that shit on your wheels, fork, and frame far exceeds any marginal gain from the one Rule #9 ride where they might come in handy. I suspect any "trials" for the pro teams are due to sponsor pressure and not from any demand for improved braking.
@Teocalli
Assuming it wasn't a) intentional and b) yes indeedy "lumpy" during the sprint, I'll just say said individual probably should have inspected his drivetrain a little more thoroughly back then. It's sorta like the opposite of "it goes up to eleven."
@unversio
That is pure genius right there.
@unversio
Which one is the end of the cassette? The Richard or the Jesus?
@unversio
But I have a 56-54-52 up front!
But seriously, what's wrong with running a single chain ring 50 with a 11 to 20 something in back.
After all, it forces compliance with rule 90.
@bob droege
If a single ring could be counted as the Big Ring, couldn't it also be counted as the little ring?