keeping good design solutions, or: how i learned to stop worrying and love my old bicycle

as i’m cooking myself with cathode radiation this week due to the tour de france, i thought i’d re-publish the following rant… in short, a geeky rationalization to avoid purchasing an expensive new bicycle. originally published july 2007. (at right: sporting my new ride and bikehugger kit during the MS150 charity ride from houston to austin this past april.)

on the eve of this summer’s tour de france, i thought i’d ignore the doping scandals for a moment and share my passion for the sport with a little rant on modern bicycle design…

people generally want the latest and greatest. this is especially true of the road racing community (don’t even get me started on triathletes). truth is, we’re all susceptible to marketing departments and those inspirational pictures we see in our favorite cycling magazines. so aside from shelling out some very serious cash, what’s a gearhead with a love of fancy bicycles to do? i’ll begin by delving into why a one-hundred-year-old design remains relatively unchanged.

position is everything
every now and then some really geeky folks ask why new frame designs such as recumbents aren’t adopted by road racers. heck, they are more comfortable and aerodynamic. in addition to subcultural factors and official organizations that idealize tradition over change, the bottom line is acceleration. a traditionally-shaped frame allows one to take advantage of body weight and gravity to more efficiently generate power on those painful climbs… (more…)