Is there any game changing tech on the horizon?

[eyebeebe]

Canyon's outlet sale has got me pretty close to buying this with an additional 10% off
https://www.canyon.com/en-es/outlet-bikes/road-bik...

It's a seriously luxury purchase so I don't have to worry about moving my bikes between home and our holiday place (first world problems etc), but that means I want it to be future proofed for at least 10 years and ideally a lot longer.
It's
Carbon (obviously)
2x12 SRAM Force
Hydraulic brakes
Aero frame and wheels (and probably hindered by fatty on the seat)

Is there any tech coming that's going to make me feel like I should have waited?

Other bikes in case it matters:
Felt B2 2016 tri bike. rim brakes Ultegra Di2 - my race bike. Would love to upgrade, but can't justify spending 10k to make a worthwhile difference
Canyon Endurance 2021 . discs, SRAM Force - my favourite bike for actually riding on
Cube Cyclocross 2018 105. Sits on the Tacx keeping my masseuse in business. Bought as my first adult bike when I wasn't sure whether triathlon was for me

[gangzoom]

I love wasting time and money on bike tech as much as anyone (bought x2 new eBikes in last few years).

The reality though it's not about the bike (performance enhancing drugs aside) .

Apart from disc brakes and the motor my 2011 analogue Trek Madone rides just as nicely as my 2021 Specialized Creo.

Buy any bike you enjoy and be happy riding it. This is probably one of my favourite GCN races......its a shame £££££ cannot buy you better genetics for athletic performance!

https://youtu.be/CCAwg9OMa84?si=7rB8zDuS0l2De2EJ

[smifffymoto]

My first question would be,Why do you worry about moving a bicycle from A to B?

[peew]

Is your holiday place hilly.

What I see in the next 10 is light ebikes becoming more common, especially if you are getting older.

It's really rare to see analogue mountain bikes at hilly trail centres now

[YorkshireStu]

gangzoom said:

I love wasting time and money on bike tech as much as anyone (bought x2 new eBikes in last few years).

The reality though it's not about the bike (performance enhancing drugs aside) .

Apart from disc brakes and the motor my 2011 analogue Trek Madone rides just as nicely as my 2021 Specialized Creo.

Buy any bike you enjoy and be happy riding it. This is probably one of my favourite GCN races......its a shame £££££ cannot buy you better genetics for athletic performance!

https://youtu.be/CCAwg9OMa84?si=7rB8zDuS0l2De2EJ

So you’re saying Andrew Feather would post the same time on a Brompton as he would his regular hill climb bike?

While obviously the engine is the cyclist, the oft-repeated “it is not the bike etc” is true only when referencing the cyclist but not including the bike because the bike does actually help.

Andrew Feather on a lighter, faster bike is faster than Andrew Feather on a heavier, slower bike.

Andrew Feather saving 50W on one bike due to aero/weight savings is going to perform better than Andrew Feather on a bike where those 50W savings aren’t there.

Where the bike choice differences diminish are when the watt savings become negligible and we begin chasing micro gains.

We should never be comparing different bikes ridden by different
riders. To gauge differences it has to be same rider testing same bike. Otherwise yeah, you get videos showing how World Class cyclists with a lot more watts/kg in their engines can beat Average cyclists using heavier, slower machines.

Back to the OP: buy the Canyon. No major changes that’ll make any big differences due very soon.

[eyebeebe]

smifffymoto said:

My first question would be,Why do you worry about moving a bicycle from A to B?

Because it’s a pain in the arse taking it on the train to the office in the morning and storing it there and then again to the airport and checking it in. Even with a decent bag there’s a not insignificant chance of damage, it takes forever for it to come out the other side and necessitates a taxi to get it from the airport to home

peew said:

Is your holiday place hilly.

What I see in the next 10 is light ebikes becoming more common, especially if you are getting older.

It's really rare to see analogue mountain bikes at hilly trail centres now

It’s not the alps (which I have on my doorstep), but there’s plenty of climbing available


I’m still a long way off wanting an e-bike for fun.

[peew]

eyebeebe said:

I’m still a long way off wanting an e-bike for fun.

Definitely buy it then! To justify it, you can use bike maths to work out how many flight charges and taxi rides it will take to pay for it.

For sure there will be changes over the next 10 years- but it won't stop it being usable. There are still plenty of 10 year old+ rim brake bikes being used

[PulsatingStar]

YorkshireStu said:

So you’re saying Andrew Feather would post the same time on a Brompton as he would his regular hill climb bike?

Someone done the maths and he would have still been 2nd in the national hillclimb on a bike weighing almost double. Had well over a minutes gap on all but 2nd place so it was mostly him rather than the bike

[gangzoom]

PulsatingStar said:

Someone done the maths and he would have still been 2nd in the national hillclimb on a bike weighing almost double. Had well over a minutes gap on all but 2nd place so it was mostly him rather than the bike

Which is what I’ve accepted a long long time ago. It doesn’t matter how much £££££ I spend on equipment/gear, I’m never going to be ever close to the best people on club rides let alone some of the pro’s, in which case all the £££££ on marginal gains is literally wasted on someone with rubbish physiology like myself .

However put in an electric motor, add in the 200watts of power I can manage myself to 200watts+ from the motor, and all of a sudden going up a hill half feels ‘fun’, well literally halves the time for me.

Yes I know the OP doesn’t want a motor in the bike, but interms of game chaging technology, it’s by far the biggest tech change I’ve experienced on a pedal bike since learning to ride a bike.

[YorkshireStu]

PulsatingStar said:

Someone done the maths and he would have still been 2nd in the national hillclimb on a bike weighing almost double. Had well over a minutes gap on all but 2nd place so it was mostly him rather than the bike

Of course it's mostly the rider - no one disputes that, it's obvious. We are the engines. However, same engine with a significantly different bike yields different results. That's the point.

You don't need other people's stats to demonstrate it either. You can test it yourself.

I have 5 different bikes. I can measure tangible differences between each of them over various terrain that they are each better suited for.

In the Andrew Feather case you have to also realise that "almost double" is 5.5kg vs 9kg...so still not "heavy".

Edited by YorkshireStu on Saturday 9th December 13:38

[YorkshireStu]

gangzoom said:

Which is what I’ve accepted a long long time ago. It doesn’t matter how much £££££ I spend on equipment/gear, I’m never going to be ever close to the best people on club rides let alone some of the pro’s, in which case all the £££££ on marginal gains is literally wasted on someone with rubbish physiology like myself .

However put in an electric motor, add in the 200watts of power I can manage myself to 200watts+ from the motor, and all of a sudden going up a hill half feels ‘fun’, well literally halves the time for me.

Yes I know the OP doesn’t want a motor in the bike, but interms of game chaging technology, it’s by far the biggest tech change I’ve experienced on a pedal bike since learning to ride a bike.

Your own engine may not match the best in your Club but watts are watts. If you can save 50W buying a different bike then you will be 50W better off. You, personally. Irrespective of fitness, strength etc.

People keep comparing others to themselves and deciding they won't benefit from this or that because they aren't up to the same level physically but that's false - everyone can benefit to some degree if the machine is better suited to a particular terrain, route etc.

Naturally, we aren't talking about massive gains and this is where we make the decision as to what is worth it or not - expense vs marginal gain vs goals.

I do agree, e-bikes are a great step forward and a lot of fun. I'm a definite advocate for them, at any age, at any fitness and strength level.

I owned an eMTB 4 years ago and really liked it. I don't have one now, I still prefer analogue but I do enjoy e-bikes too.

[Super Sonic]

Either buy the bike you like now and enjoy riding it, or wait for a better one to be developed and dream about it.
You could wait a year and still ask the same question.

[eyebeebe]

Well it's a moot point as it's no longer available. I'd decided to go for it, but wanted to wait a couple of days to make sure someone would be home to take the delivery.

[OutInTheShed]

If you race, and care about the results, very small differences matter.

If you are just out for fitness and fun, then performance only matters if it enables more rides.
I go out and do x miles including z-amount of climbing, I generally don't care if I could have gone a mile or two further on a better bike, for the same calories or in the same time. Big improvements are always nice to have, small improvements aren't always worth spending lots of cash on.

The thread drifted a bit, but my guess might be developments in the next few years might include a lot of words about road and gravel bike suspension. Ranging from superlight actual moving parts, to different analysis of bendy composite stuff.
Also, as someone else mentioned, people will want e-bikes to be much lighter.

[gangzoom]

Biggest tech change for road bikes that's coming had to be slicker, lighter eBikes. For the same prices as an analogue mid-top tier road bike, eBikes from big named brands almost looks sensibly priced.

Suspension on a gravel bike adds weight, weight on an eBike however has far less consequences. My next pedal bike purchase will probably be a drop bar eBike with suspension......though I've never owned a Cervelo.....

https://www.cervelo.com/en-GB/bikes/rouvida

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 12th December 07:04

[OutInTheShed]

gangzoom said:

Biggest tech change for road bikes that's coming had to be slicker, lighter eBikes. For the same prices as an analogue mid-top tier road bike, eBikes from big named brands almost looks sensibly priced.

Suspension on a gravel bike adds weight, weight on an eBike however has far less consequences. My next pedal bike purchase will probably be a drop bar eBike with suspension......though I've never owned a Cervelo.....

https://www.cervelo.com/en-GB/bikes/rouvida

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 12th December 07:04

There's a word for bikes which give assistance up to 28mph.

MOPED.

[okgo]

Haven't we established he doesn't want an e-bike?

Roadbike tech hasn't really gone anywhere for years as it is, as long as you've got decent electric gear system with whatever amount of cogs they're pushing as the best this year, disc brakes, decent wheelset and something that doesn't weigh too much I can't see that anything is going to come along and change that in the coming years. It hasn't in the last number of years.

I could see maybe more belt/hub geared based systems maybe in the further future I think, but maybe still not for road bikes with a race slant.

[eyebeebe]

eyebeebe said:

Well it's a moot point as it's no longer available. I'd decided to go for it, but wanted to wait a couple of days to make sure someone would be home to take the delivery.

And the SRAM Rival version has come back in stock. Discount isn’t as much as on the Force, but it still works out €675 cheaper for a 300g weight penalty and some marginally different wheels (I think)

It’s now in processing