Ahead of his time: Stephen Hodge shows off some new/old tech, Roubaix 95. Photo: Sirotti
Ok all you roadies, listen up. You’re not gonna like what I’m about to tell you, but it’s the truth. And sometimes, the truth hurts. You ready?
Road cycling owes a lot to mountain biking.
“You what?!” I hear you screaming at the monitor in disgust. “Road cycling has been around for more than a hundred years, and the mountain bike for about thirty!” Well, nice theory, but bikes were ridden on dirt long before their tyres ever saw a sealed surface. But this isn’t about the chicken or the egg, it’s about the way technology crosses over from one discipline to another, and how similar, yet different aspects of the same sport inter-breed, cross pollinate and spawn innovations that better the machines we ride and the kit we wear. And I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that sleek road machine you’re riding now probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for our dirtbag cousins.
It all took off in the early 90s; the mountain bike was undergoing its own metamorphosis, rapidly dropping the ‘klunker’ heritage and becoming lighter, stiffer and racier. The geometry was changing from slack and raked-out head angles to more sharply handling, longer and lower front ends. A little like road bikes, granted. The first big change up front though was the oversized headset and steerer tube combo, dubbed the Avenger by Tioga, the first company to bring it to market. The steerer increased from 1 inch diameter to 1 1/8″, giving the front of the bike more precise steering and a more solid feel over rough terrain. Soon, Dia Compe came up with the AHeadset, doing away with the threaded steerer and headset in favour of a threadless system held together by a stem clamped over the smooth steerer tube. There’s not a road (or mountain) bike to be seen with a threaded front end these days.
Having a bigger steerer attached to rigid fork blades made some difference to the mountain bike, but even more was needed up front to tame the terrain and reduce the pounding that riders’ arms would take on proper off-road trails. While some weird and wonderful contraptions briefly held court (like the Girvin Flexstem, as terrifying as it was), the obvious solution was to borrow technology from the motocross crowd, and the first suspension fork for bicycles was born. The Rock Shox RS1 was as rare as hen’s teeth, but when one was spotted in the wild the geek-out factor went through the roof, and any rider lucky enough to have one bolted to the front of their bike would be accosted for twenty minutes and bombarded with questions about “how it works”. In the space of a year, there were three or four different iterations of suspension forks on the market, most of them completely unaffordable to the Regular Joes that rode in the dirt.
Looking back at the suspension tech of those days now, the word ‘archaic’ springs (pardon the pun) to mind. The modern mountain bike is an engineering marvel, and I’m as amped on new technology now as I was in the early 90s. The sport has continued to push the boundaries and is constantly evolving. And road cycling has benefitted greatly. We’ve all seen the Rock Shox Ruby forks that appeared on the bikes of Paris-Roubaix for a few glorious years, even taking a couple of wins in the Queen of The Classics. The MTB forks of the day were mostly heavy, elastomer sprung and undamped, giving the effect of a pogo stick on the front of the bike. To try and put one on the front of a road bike was preposterous at best, a blasphemous disaster at worst. Then there were the failed attempts at rear suspension which disappeared as quickly as they came. But riders and teams were willing to try anything to tame the brutal cobbles of the Hell of the North, and if you didn’t have a Ruby fork then you were behind the 8-ball straight away. The fact that the bike would bounce around under pedalling load on the smooth roads was outweighed by the comfort and control on the cobbles.
But roadies being roadies, the extra weight and inefficiency soon rendered the Ruby detrimental to the performance of the bikes… but that comfort was welcome. How to get some shock absorption and keep the weight low? Carbon fibre forks were conceived, giving a smooth ride up front on the stiff yet light aluminium frames that were taking over the peloton at the time (another innovation gleaned from the mountain bike). If it worked up front, then why not at the rear too? Carbon seatstays were bonded onto the back ends of just about every bike that came out in the mid 90s. If it worked for the fork and stays, then why not the whole frame? The carbon bikes so ubiquitous today were spawned from the need for a smoother ride, without the weight and complexity of suspension. Thanks, mountain biking.
Now, check out Hodgey’s helmet in the lead photo. Look kinda familiar? Well, helmets pretty much came from mountain biking, and the early examples looked just like that; round, few vents, not pointy at the back. And what do we have now? Round, sparsely vented, not-too-pointy ‘aero’ road helmets, that we are all crying about being ugly and unnecessary. But how cool does Hodgey look? Badass! It’s only a matter of time before we’re all wearing them, and possibly with visors. (In the 1999 P-R, several riders wore helmets with visors, including 3rd placegetter Tom Steels and Frank Vandenbroucke.) Okay, maybe I’ve gone too far there, but I saw a guy riding in an Air Attack the other day, and by Merckx did I think he Looked Pro! These helmets will be the norm sooner rather than later; after all, don’t we take our cues from the Pros?
There have been numerous advances that have come from mountain biking and are now seen as standard on road bikes; removable face plates on stems, wider profile rims, lightweight saddles, tapered head tubes, integrated headsets, external cup/press-fit bottom brackets, oversize bar diameters (and let’s not forget road disc brakes. You can’t fight it!). Black socks. Tall socks. If it wasn’t for the mountain bike and the innovators working in that industry, we might still be riding lugged steel frames with downtube shifters. Which would be ok with me, as long as I can still have my off-road wonderbike.
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View Comments
@RVester
I'm with RVester on this one. Brett's article had me up until this point. (Although the other reason carbon frames have become ubiquitous is because of economies of scale. More carbon frames from the same mould averages down the cost of the mould. Unlike paying a guy to TIG weld frames where only limited ability to realise economies of scale.) Also, I don't think that the the current aero helmet trend owes anything to mountain biking. I'm putting it down to pure (aerodynamic) coincidence that the new style aero helmets look like "skid lids" from the early to mid eighties.
Check out this years Giant TCX advanced for an insight into what we'll all be riding in 5 years time. As well as disc brakes, in a nod to Brett's article, note the 15mm through axle on the front. In recent times the big push has been for greater stiffness (fnar, fnar) with oversized tubing, larger diameter steerers, etc. Through axles are next, just ask a MTBer.
Never considered that the new aero road helmets are from the Dirty Cousins. Interesting.
I was looking through a TdF photo book and it was the early 1950s and a crowd was watching Louison climb. One teenage gal was in a beach hat, a bikini top, high-waisted shorts, and slipper shoes. Well damn, she'd fit right in today with uni-girl and post-uni trendy city fashion.
What's old is new. I just wish Tom's dirty cousin had killed Tom so I wouldn't have to see men walking around in overpriced women's Keds and pretending they aren't acting like fuckwits.
@frank
I love the functionality of threadless, and the ease of swapping stems around, but I think quill stems are far, far slicker looking. Thus, I still keep two Italian steel steeds, with quill stems, in the stable. One has a Cinelli XA while the other has a nice, black ITM.
Frank, don't despair. I too have a carbon spacer on an otherwise steel/alloy bike. I've been meaning to swap it out as well.
@Rigid I believe the Ruby had a lockout mechanism...
I have been sick in my mouth after looking at road bikes with suspension, I had only just stopped puking upon seeing zertz inserts....
@RVester: on tires: Moto GP bikes and F1 cars have wide tires because they have to transmit huge power to the ground with a low vehicle weight. These guys want to brake as late as possible and get back on the power ASAP in turns. This requires huge surface area. However, Bonneville land speed record cars and those experimental solar-powered and record-breaking MPG cars ride on narrow tires; they want to go as fast or as far as possible in a straight line, no corners. The solar and MPG-champion cars run on very little horsepower...just like cyclists. The Schwalbe website mentioned above goes on to explain that on a race bike, optimal efficiency is the result of a number of factors that should be balanced optimally. I don't know that if a 25 is somewhat more efficient than a 23, it follows that a 28 0r 32 will be more efficient yet, all aspects considered.
On MTB and its influence on frames: MTB ushered in some new tube shapes/diameters to the mainstream industry. Before, pretty much everyone used brazed 1" tubes; MTB introduced TIG welding, freeing makers from the constraint of having to used standard lugs and fittings. Larger tube sections allowed Aluminum and Ti designs that otherwise would have been pretty flexy with 1" tubes. This oversize philosophy continues with carbon today, for good reason. MTB simply questioned to old status quo. Recall that even the early carbon frames (Vitus, ALAN, TVT/Look) were modelled on tradition: essentially standard 1" tubes screwed/glued into aluminum lugs.
@Zach
I've found the minority of riders were ever pure roadies (in my circles at least) but what is much more common to me is the pure off-roader. A MTB rider is much less likely to go dip their toes into road riding than a roadie is into the dirt.
But absolutely I agree that the most exciting trend at the moment is road-position tuned CX bikes being raced on gravel of off road. In fact, I have line of sight into a 40-50km route in Seattle proper that is probably about 10% tarmac and the rest is off road or on trails.
Riding the cobbles is an experience that will permanently give you a hunger for the trill of flying off tarmac onto wildly rough terrain. If you love the cobbles, and don't live in Northern France or Flanders, you owe it to yourself to get a gravel rig and ride it on mixed terrain.
@Gianni
This disk brake thing makes you like the guy at the party who took E and then told his best (male) friend that he always was curious to fuck him.
I find carbon rims brake just fine in the wet. So long as you're willing to go through 2 sets of pads every season.
@Teocalli
You mean a single 53T, right?
@PeakInTwoYears
@Rigid
You guys are, quite literally, making me fell sick.
@wiscot
It was a genuine effort by Bauer to test this theory that setback would give him more power. I think he had his worst-ever performance on that bike at P-R and it never appeared again. Its certainly no marketing gimmick as finding photos of it is a nearly impossible task. There are three that I can think of.
@Rom
I rode a Cannondale on 19's pumped to 150 psi. It explains a lot about my cognitive capabilities. Its like dropping a baby on its head.
@brett
THOSE WHEELS WERE THE COOLEST!
TOMAC WAS THE COOLEST!
Didn't Tomac ride Manitoux? (However you spell that)
The 90's was such a cool time for innovation, and I think it totally came from the dirt. And then the UCI decided they had a fucking clue and decided to put a stop to it. You need look no further than the Hour Record.