The LAST High-End Rim Brake Bike?

Former BikeRadar man of all things video, Joe Norledge, has built himself a new bike. But what’s this? Rim brakes? In 2024, Joe?

Joe shows us his beautiful Giant TCR Advanced SL with Campagnolo Super Record mechanical shifting and Bora Ultra wheels.

He also tries to explain why he’s built a rim-brake bike when the market is moving firmly towards discs.

00:00 Intro
00:32 Joe Returns!
01:20 Why Rim Brakes?
04:59 Looks
06:34 Groupset
07:33 Wheelset
08:47 Liam’s Verdict

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We Rode 170km On a £170 Bike | Joe’s Epic Budget Ride

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#cycling #bike #bikes #giant #campagnolo #italian

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It’s 2024 and the world is dominated by dis breaks so can you believe that some people are still buying high-end Rim break road bikes like the giant TCR Advanced SL now the owner of this bike some of you may recognize and he is going to try and convince us that such a

Purchase is a wise one but before we get to this lovely build you know the drill remember to like the video and subscribe to your favorite YouTube channel and yes that is us right let’s learn a bit more about our Guest it’s only Joe nage this former bike radar video manager still has an epic neck beard rarely irons his clothes and loves to ride his bike he’s just a skinny boy hill climber at heart and he has done many a silly bike radar challenge with Deputy editor Jack

Luke Joe good to have you back uh Where Have You Been um well these days I’m a freelance filmmaker do a lot in the bike industry but other things as well I also have two kids two lovely boys and a a dog as well called squid who likes to do

Lots of digging it sounds like you’ve got a bit less time to ride indeed life is very full so first up Joe let’s start with this the lovely giant TCR Advanced SL frame with as we’ve mentioned numerous times already Rim brakes so why this one I first rode the previous generation of

The TCR Advanced SL back in 2019 it wasn’t necessarily the lightest most AO or most comfortable bike out there at the time but I felt it was about as good an all around fast road bike as you could find also the TCR has always been reviewed well by the test team at bike

Radar so when I decided I wanted a new bike it was an easy decision to make this version I have before me is the current model which is a bit lighter and a bit more aor than the previous version but it’s very similar you’ve got the classic frame shapes integrated seat

Post and clearance for 28 mil tires so a very high-end frame set this but as we were discussing off camera a little earlier not the most expensive frame set on the market yes a quick word on price and this Frame set was by no means cheap

I shopped around and I got mine for about 2,4 00 right about there I think but when you compare it to something like an SS Tac frame set or a pinell Dogma frame set which go for north of you know £5,000 well I think it’s a fair bit cheaper than Those Joe let’s finally get on to rim brakes why oh why did you not go for discs come on back when I was riding a lot hill climbs wear my bag and during hill climbs weight trumps just just about every other Factor when deciding which bik to go for so even though I’m

Now an older grayer and much slower father of two the idea that lighter is always better is a hard one to shake hence I decided to go for Rim breakes now I know what you’re thinking as reported by all the cycling media the men’s national Hill Climb championships

Were won by Andrew feather on a disc break equipped road bike in 2023 however Andrew is probably one of the fastest amateur cyclists on the planet when it comes to going uphill so I suspect his training Talent pacing and ability to really suffer probably contributed far

More than the bike he was riding and I also suspect he would have own by even more if he’d been riding an equivalent bike with Rim breakes but don’t forget to let me know why you think I’m wrong in the comments we were chatting on the

Way over here and you haven’t got much time to actually ride this thing now yeah I’ve I’ve mentioned it lots of times already but I’m pretty pressed for time these days so I wanted a bik that would be easy to work on when it comes to Home Maintenance now of course disc

Brakes offer far better stuffing performance but speaking from an experience they are nowhere near as simple to maintain I’d argue against that Rim brakes probably need more regular maintenance but it’s usually a 10-minute job rather than a 30 minute job and it doesn’t require me to use a

Syringe what are you doing to your dis Brak finally bik Brands aren’t spend as much R&D cash on rim breake bikes these days which means they haven’t fallen victim to some of the perhaps less desirable traits of the modern day road bike and by that I mean hiding every

Cable within the frame I mean you should just buy a AOS done sorted I mean internal everything may make me 0.001% faster over 40 km but it will probably take me 110% longer when it comes to working on my bike Joe let’s come on to looks now because

Honestly I think this thing is stunning uh yes thank you uh I’m going to come out with a controversial opinion now I think Rim bre bikes look far better than their dis equipped counterparts and that includes Liam’s Athos R now you could be forgiven for thinking

I sound like a nostalgic Lite who should have gone out and bought himself something far more appropriate for his age and ability perhaps a mid-range gravel bike so you probably shouldn’t listen to me but hear me out while Everyone likes to say they buy a dream bike purely on its

Performance or mechanical merits I’m pretty sure even though it’s not cool to admit a large proportion of most people’s buying decisions comes down to looks and marketing and I definitely count myself in that group with its classic lines rounded tubes and relatively subdued paint job I think my

TCR looks absolutely amazing and that will probably motivate me to get out on a cold Sunday morning more than anything else another controversial opinion from me it may not be as fast as the SLL S5 that won the 2023 tour however with its bulging shapes propriety standards and all the arrow

Optimization I think the SLL S5 looks pretty rubbish sorry CLL not endorsed again it’s not cool to admit but nothing kills the motivation more as having a bike you think looks a bit rubbish even if it is really Fast onto the group set now Joe cuz this will please so many people yeah there’s no doubt campolo super record is an indulgent choice for almost any build after all Shimano 105 is good enough for most situations however I wanted to keep the weight low while keeping the build 100%

Mechanical so no beeps or batteries just a comforting clunk of cables and frictions and for me that meant super record was the way to go it really is quite a clunk as well I’m also a fan of the deep contoured shape of the campanello hoods and still like the

Thumb actuated downshift lever it’s not for everyone but I feel I can get more precise shifting when the shift levers are totally separate like they are on mechanical super record again a lot of my decision came down to looks and I love the more organic appearance of

Mechanical super record so for my dream bike it was the only way to go moving on to the wheels Bora Ultra 35s well they are quite an old school choice Joe uh yes they’re not particularly wide or Arrow but in this case I felt they complement the overall build perfectly

And coming in around 1,360 G they’re plenty light enough for carbon clinchers plus let’s be honest the stickers do match the bike come on yes and surely that counts more than nothing else oh yeah for tires I went with a set of 25 mm Michelin power cup competition fours

With the lovely tan walls yes 25 mm tires is a really strange choice in 2024 old habits die hard and the hill climbing me still wanted something fairly lightweight and I think they also size up really nice on the Bora Ultra 35s and the rest of the finishing kit

What we got going on here so the rest of the finishing kit comes from old bike our Hill Climb builds so once again it’s all lightweight stuff with plenty of carbon and the weight mate what’s this coming in at uh the weight just about Bob on the UCI minimum weight limit at

6.92 kg which is perfect for all of that um UCI racing I w’t be [Applause] doing so that’s enough from me let’s ask you a question what do you think of the build well I really really love these things I rode the uh Alessa frame set at Parry Ru uh not when I was racing it obviously um but for that Sport come

Ride I found this thing to just be instantly comfortable and Brilliant in the corners and I spend far too much time on Facebook Marketplace looking at dropping about two grand for one of these um I absolutely love the fact that you’ve gone for a mechanical super

Record group set the purest in me loves it you’ve matched it with a beautiful set of wheels and you’ve got stupid gearing that you can’t push which is just brilliant um my one quibble with this is no power meter how are you measuring the fun that you’re having

Yeah well I you know I ride so infrequently these days that I don’t run a param meter and I don’t even run a Garin you know that that Garing map was put on when it was built up and I’ve never put anything on it so that’s the

Reason why because my my numbers would be so unremarkable that they are not worth uh recording the last thing Joe why have you still got the protective tape on the cranks it’s blue come on yeah yeah sorry the the blue tape is being left on because it’s still quite a

New bike and I just want to keep it as pristine as possible precious okay so what are you actually going to do with this bike apart from a look at it yeah unfortunately being a a father of two busy being self-employed and a very kind of energetic dog I’ve got loads of

Excuses so the chances are I’m not really going to be able to ride this bike as much as it truly deserves and when I do ride the bike it’s just going to be for an hour here or there cruising around the mendips with some friends uh and yeah unfortunately it will not get

Ridden in the way it deserves by me well I think we can change that if this video gets 10,000 likes which is probably not going to then Joe here has agreed just now to come back and do a full Hill Climb season how about that Joe you can

Agree to it it’s not going to get 10,000 likes don’t worry yes going to do it now if you do Miss Joe in his Pomp and you want to see him doing some hill climbing then make sure you check out all of these lovely videos where Joe sets some

Ridiculous power numbers as ever remember to like the video properly And subscribe for more and we will see you next time goodbye oh you got to do a kick