BIG changes are coming for bike brands, we discuss what that looks like for bike companies and us! In HOT Tech this week, we discuss Storck newest bike, new ECO-friendly undied kit from AGU, titanium water bottles, and speedy tyres made from fish nets and soya beans!

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    Welcome to the gcn tech show this week we’ve got olle back from his top secret mission in Italy yes and we are discussing how big bike brands are changing and why we also have hot Tech where we discuss stalks new aerob bike and we’ve kind of got like an

    Eco-friendly hot Tech special we’ve got undyed kit we’ve got titanium and steel water bottles and we’ve got new tires made from fishnets and soy beans yeah let’s do it so this week we’re discussing the fact that big bike brands are changing we’re talking about the likes of Tre and

    Specialized who in the past have previously had loads of different models of bikes the arrow bike the lightweight bike the gravel bike the arrow gravel bike the commuter bike the super commuter bike the endurance bike the sportti bike the list goes on and on yeah the even lighter lightweight bike

    Oh and that one as well yeah uh and and then all the different group set models and spec option builds available on all those bikes like it it looks I like have you ever you watched Kitchen Nightmares Gordon Ramsey once or twice well okay so the classic thing that Gordon Ramsey

    Comes does when he ever he walks into like a failing restaurant oh yeah is he basically says you’ve got too much on the menu you need to like reduce the menu and just focus on a few things you do really really well and just double down on that and it means like it’s

    Easier for the chefs and you have less you know ingredients in the fridge yeah going off and like you know you can just really focus on the quality of like a smaller number of things and I think that analogy Works quite well as to explaining why it’s beneficial to bite

    Brands to do this yeah that’s what I was going to say so are we now saying that bike brands have watched Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmares and gone I’ve got a great idea it’s looking that way I think the other thing is that psychologically um you know and and

    There’s lots big companies you know employ psychologists to look at this stuff and there’s been research on it but it’s that thing that I’m sure many people will appreciate and the same applies when you’re looking at a menu when you have too much Choice yeah you’re like what on Earth do I choose

    And then you you like end up choosing nothing cuz you’re just overwhelmed by the number of choices whereas if you slim it down yeah it becomes a lot easier for people to make the choice okay so let’s give some examples when we mentioned specialized at the start of

    The show they originally had the venge and the tarmac then venge has been and the ru and the ru ven’s gone they kind of made the T and other they have other ones as well the diverge yeah and so they’re getting rid of models trying to make ones a bit more allrounder but

    Other brands have kind of done that as well pinell is it the f8 when they started I think like pinell Pro are probably like the first sort of I they they they were one of the first sort of brands of in in the last sort of 20 years to really do that well

    When they I wouldn’t say the f8 actually because they had the K8 at the same time which was the one with suspension on remember the k8s Wiggins Road in his final Ru with a little dampener yeah but then they they were like no we’re not

    Going to make a a Ru Comfort bik yeah and we’re not going to you know we’re going to just make one and then they they brought out the F10 and then that was like it’s it’s the kind of all round bike it’s everything so it’s kind of quite it’s not

    It’s it’s like yeah it’s the allrounder it’s the arrow bike and the lightweight bike think that’s what brands um you think that’s what brands are trying to communicate they’ve gone this is the best allr bike that we can make rather than differentiating and splitting them out because whatever way you look at it

    If you want the lightest bike it’s never going to be the most AO bike and if you want the most AO bike it’s never going to be the lightest bike it’s about finding that balance there is that thing but but what it’s quite good and and it’s the same with specialized with what

    They did with the tarmac yeah when they basic when they got rid of the venge and they just said this is you know and then the Riders all just ride the tarmac all the time is it’s that it’s quite good because it simplifies it for the consumer and most people are only going

    To buy one topend bike you know in an ideal world yeah you’d have the specialist lightweight bike you’d have the specialist Arrow bike but realistically most people are just buying the one allrounder and in many instances you want an allrounder you want a bike that’s kind of competent in

    All different areas cuz you’re the rides that you’re doing aren’t polarized but then I think it’s also cool that people could have that choice if they are do want to be focused on one aspect to the other but I guess that’s you pick and choose from different brands because

    Canyon for example they’ve still got their like not quite polarizing bikes but a light yeah a lightweight and an AO model and they’ve gone down a different kind of Route with their business strategy I guess yeah and I think one of the things that need like bike brands

    Are changing because they need to they need to somehow reduce their operating costs and you know trim the number of models down that they make or or in some way they need to do this sort of thing and there’s different ways I think you can go about doing that and one of them

    Is by not having an aerrow bike and a lightweight bike and combining them into an allrounder that is one way you can do it and they need to do that because the industry as we’ve talked about in shows is in a is in a tough spot and you know

    Brands are brands are like in trouble like brands are sitting on a lot of stock or they’re going under in some cases and they need to remain more competitive well just purely from a really rudimentary logistical point of view you’re going to literally half the amount of stock that you’ve got if you

    Don’t have a lightweight bike in an AA bik you got one we got half amount of stuff now yeah but I think there are other ways in which you can do it so you know maybe you you you streamline your production in other ways so you could

    Still offer a lightweight bike or a full-on aerrow bike you know there is you can then just streamline things in other ways offer fewer models or offer different you know we see brands have offered like in the past like three or four different carbon layups and it’s

    Like do we need that just offer like two or maybe even just one I don’t know and then that is the bike you know there’s there are different ways you can go about it but I think that you’re never going to lose the out andout Arrow bike

    Or the out andout climbing bike because say if one brand just decides to make an allrounder and focus on that if there’s enough demand for an out andout Arrow bike another brand will come along and make that their specialty and they will you think that’s part why we’re seeing

    Seeing it continue on because Brands would go well if we don’t make an a bike someone else would make it do you think that’s the thing it can be but I mean it’s ultimately driven by the market isn’t it it’s driven by what people actually go and buy and this is the

    Thing when you know I went to the pinell factory last week in traviso to secret mission yeah but what was really fascinating was they’re one of the few brands that still makes a rim break bike and I was I I spotted like two so low low numbers if he still going

    To manufacture something isn’t it no but like but they’re still making a rim bre bike but people aren’t buying it like this was like in their so they had a a rack full of the bikes that were being custom painted as part of their like um

    My way pinell yeah where you can Speck it like how you want it custom paint amazing and so these customers can get the exact thing they want and in this rack of like a 100 bikes there was like one R yeah like it’s like manual cars

    People always bang on about how they you know they they’re just not as popular any white Ferrari not making manual cars and no one buys them so I my sort of thoughts on this imagine I’m starting to I don’t know we starting bike industry from fresh I think it would make perfect

    Sense to slim down the models overall but instead of um feeling like you’re limiting People’s Choice like too much I think it’s a case of simplify the bike model ranges and increase the ranges in terms of components and fit cuz for me that’s the area that I think it could be

    Improved we’re talking like Saddles handlebar widths stem lengths all of the individual components rather than sometimes when you feel like you buy a brand new bike almost like channeled into this is the bar it comes with if you don’t like it see you later you can

    Spend £800 later on a fixer yeah I mean it’s not always the case because there are Brands going about it in a good way but it would be cool if we saw that more broadly appr yeah and I think yeah I mean on the one hand like

    Pinell has just the you know that one shape of bike that they make that’s like the allrounder bike um that’s seen throughout their their range but then they also make like more sizes than a lot of other brands which is a good thing you know that’s a good thing from

    A fit perspective so what you don’t want to see is a brand try and become more profitable at the expense of the customer you know so it’s like if they one of the ways they could do it would be reduce the number of frame sizes they make or reduce the number of like

    Options they sell but I think while while we don’t necessarily need so many different bikes with different specs and components on like what Tre currently make there’s like you know tens and tens and tens of different models of like a m or Mone on there and of different levels

    With different specs on them and we don’t necessarily I feel necessarily need that as customers but what we do need is the the option like you say for the contact points you want to make sure that the bikee is right so you want the options of bars and stems and crank

    Length and that’s where you want this is one of the luxuries that we’ve had in the past because previously we’ve um ordered new or bikes and or have gone look guys create a Mayo bike on their website you choose the handlebars whatever send us the order and then they

    Manage to supply us a bike which is exactly how we’ve chosen it to be which is a really cool thing yeah we want to see that more basically yeah I Ora you know full transparency like Ora are sponsor of us here support what we do yeah but but like you know other brands

    Are going about it as well yeah I just yeah other brands do approach it in that way but most brands don’t but that you know like top marks to them for having that model where you can say I want this stem length I want this you know this

    Chain ring size I want this bar width I want this saddle like that’s like I feel like all brands when it’s a when it’s a top end bike I feel and you know what you want to buy I feel like all brands should do that all right well that’s

    Kind of like our thoughts on it please do let us know in the comments section down below how you would like shape the bike industry because I think it’s an interesting subject to discuss basically yeah yeah okay it’s now time for hot and spicy Tech and we’re kicking things off

    This week with the new stalk air Fast 5 which they are claiming now tests as the fastest aab bike in the tour magazine test I believe yeah we need to like clarify the tour magazine test yeah the tour magazine a long-standing German magazine that loves testing and quantitative data on bikes they put

    Bikes in stiffness Jigs and all sorts of stuff one of the things they do is this Arrow test but that test is not done with a rider it’s just the bike in a tunnel yeah but and it’s 45k an hour correct but they the thing to realize is

    That like yes while that is not the full picture it it still is a useful and repeatable test that they can do and I believe they always always test it with a 56 CM bike and it’s it’s far more repeatable like to do to do that than it

    Is to just have a different it makes sense right if a bike tests fast as the bike Common Sense tells you it would still be fast when you put a r but that’s not always the case it’s it’s not the complete picture but it’s still useful information so anyway off of this

    Information um the stalk air Fast 5 suggests 195 watts is all that’s required to um for the aerodynamic drag at 45 km hour which is like the lowest ever um interestingly though it relates back to what we were just saying so you do typically see that those all those

    Allrounder bikes do actually sit at a um you know a slight sort of 10 watt give or take penalty yeah over the out andout aerrow bikes like this one and like the canyon Air Road is another good performer in the to magazine test Fair um so full build of this bike starting

    At just over €10,000 um 890 G of the frame I think it looks cool the fork is super wide and out there for me um yeah it’s definitely taking uh or making use of the of the new uh UCI regulations allowing for those like deeper profiles on the fork

    And things like that um we’ve we’ve also got some exciting new kit we do let me get this kit for you oh wow I really wish oh I put my back I wish you could model this so this is from aoo are they white bib shorts this they are white bib

    Shorts right let me give you some information here so this is their undyed and nanoe kit range we’ve got a few little bits here so there are they’re expanding their product line within their 66 range 66 yeah so they’re using undyed Fabrics to help try to make cycling more sustainable okay so there’s

    Not just the plain white wow Alex these have a white Shamy we’ve got yeah white Shamy is pretty out there by my standards so this is the undyed stuff as you can see it’s literally undyed but also within the range of making more sustainable cycling kit is the stuff

    With a very slight color to it and this is from What’s called the Nano earth range so for the colored 66 items AO using do you know when we do you know when we Ro rode our lap of miiaa yeah and I uttered the Eternal words

    I’m afraid to fart because I think it might be a poo I’m never going to forget that phrase okay yeah I mean I would be even more afraid to fart even if I didn’t think it might be a poo wearing white bib shorts with look white as a

    Color is not necessary for everyone but this like I get the ethos of what’s behind this trying to make it more sustainable and cool I really like it as I was just trying to tell you about the nanoe earth range it uses a special die which is results in this natural wash

    Look to the fabric um available in the aoo spring summer collection for 2024 I think it’s cool it’s nice I like these I like these these these pastel Shades yeah I like it it also ties in nicely actually if you do want some new kit um we’ve got some good bundles available at

    Shop. Global cycl network.com for the AO stuff and the core range so we’ve got stuff for whatever your budget is who should we get to model the white bib shorts definitely down 100% down why would anyone else do it Right Moving swiftly on from white

    Shorts what have we got we got new water bottles to discuss oh where are these they’re underneath here look at this shotgun the titanium one so Camelback are actually one of our Channel Partners but what they have released are the steel and titanium Podium water bottles so the idea behind

    It is it helps keep your drink really cold but also there’s that sustainable element to it because something like this is is going to outlast a plastic water bottle like many many many many many times over yeah like that is a thing as cyclist we get through a lot of

    Like plastic water bottles and and bead on if you’re French or pretentious they don’t they don’t last like a long time um and they scuff up a lot as well and they want to make something that’s more just a more sustainable like longer lasting product it’s also very nicely made I’ve got to

    Say it is a it’s like there something special about it and this as well this this steel one it has steel is more hygienic as well stainless steel you I need to get a technical extra technical element in there but it it has um it has

    A vacuum sleeve in it yeah so it’ll keep your drink cold I’ve got some stats as well cuz I know we all love stats tanium bottle 340 G keeps your drink cold up to 7 hours in the steel bottles you got two different sizes a 530 or a 650 like that

    Big boy um where you’ve got either 18 hours or 14 hours of Cold drinking experience um price prices like bear in mind this is going to be a more expensive product especially once you involve titanium1 and uh this big one 40 35 for the slightly smaller version so that’s a

    Like people that is a lot of money it’s significant but it’s built to last yeah so this is like designed to be a bottle that you would just have for ever you got you get that and that’s you that’s your bottle for Life The key thing to

    Engine is cuz I think lots of people are going to wonder this is how on Earth do you drink from it if you can’t squeeze the bottle well there’s an Innovative valve on the I know I just I just pulled that out watch this right watch this this one’s got water in it

    Right Isaac will cut that out and fix it oh God And right shall we move on shall we move on from that uh um next what do we need to talk about OE uh still got a wet mouth sorry oh where are we at Tires Tires yes yeah Victoria got some new tires that are again eco-friendly like we

    Saying yeah they’re made of soy like soya soybean oils and recy called fishnets as in actual fish stocking not fishnet stockings I knew you’re going to say that so yeah don’t worry all of your old fishnet stockings are not being turned into tires a rubbish joke really sorry anyway

    Back to the sensible stuff so this is why would you make a tire out of soy and fishnet stockings well so the idea behind it is that you’re taking products which um are maybe not traditionally used in manufacturing techniques that maybe would have been waste products or

    A bu product s from different Industries and then you tur them into something good in chemistry what we call Sawyer is a green feed stock yeah okay that’s cuz it doesn’t come from like fossil fuels and stuff so the tire is the Victoria Tano Pro t60 mixed terrain it’s made 92% renewable

    And recycled materials so instead of using nylon they’re using an organic cotton casing with nylon reinforcement made from those fishnets and then nylon is organic it’s made from carbon and then um the additive material that typically makes tires black isn’t used and oils that are used to bondle the materials together have been

    Replaced with soybean oil did you know did you know that tires rubber isn’t black I did like it was in the back of my mind but I feel like naturally naturally wanted to I feel like my whole life was a lie up until the point where

    I realized and was told that tires are only black because natural rubber has an additive applied to it to make it black usually in form of like charcoal well I mean the color of these tires is kind of pretty it’s like when I was young and I

    Used to think that in the olden days it was black and white and then it turned into color one day anyway that’s not the only tie news we have can I finish so it’s not just an Eco product it’s also Performance Based so Victoria saying 10% Improvement in Rolling

    Resistance 10% uh Improvement in grip 10% better ride con 34% better sidewall puncture resistance there’s a lot going on there to what’s it called torono Pro 260 mixed terrain you weren’t listening I wasn’t that’s cuz I was too excited about this which I managed to steal from

    The plli factory last week on my top secret mission and they weren’t looking don’t show everyone I found a bin that had these in them and they say prototype on wow so that might hint that there’s a new pelli tire coming at some point in

    The future well not only that I was I had my magnifying glass out and I was watching Milano Sano at the weekend yeah mad pedon had these Fair um so there you go Ollie did manage to convince pelli to give us two sets one for set for Ollie one set for

    Me and mads has got the third set so it’s mads pedison it’s me it’s Alex the the Trinity the absolute Pinnacles the Trinity the three best riders in the world have got the Prototype um well we don’t know anything more about them other than that I’m intrigued

    To find out more no doubt pelli will tell us when um they want to share the information but keep your eyes peeled basically subscribe to gcn Tech turn on your notifications when top secret new tire launches be a to find out all about it yeah and right more hot Tech next

    Week it’s now time for comments of the week you tell them right go first com of the week I thought this was cool um so last week man on and I mentioned a new prologo saddle which um prologo claimed was to be the lightest saddle in the world bejor Cycles have

    Been underneath the texure and said dear gcn Tech Team we would like to inform you that for the past two years we have been manufacturing the sector saddle weighing 134 gam we believe it is the lightest saddle with a 3D printed pad there you go I thought it was cool they

    Mentioned that yeah yeah good well there you go correction yeah also one other comment as well from Ed Romero if you can’t um ban things during the season how do you enforce the rules um manufacturers put out equipment at any time of the Season well I said you could

    Ban stuff if it was safety related yes but everything has to be approved they can’t just bu people can’t just turn up now with equipment and use it in the way that they used it has to go through UCI approval and that’s going to be a big

    Thing um it was a big thing for the Tokyo Olympics and it’s a arguably even a bigger thing now for the Paris games that’s coming along yeah like there’s a huge big approval process and that was I think the problem they they had approved that helmet and then back

    On so anyway um on to the video that we did about the best bike we could buy for $450 quid $500 yeah um and Caribbean cyclist says it doesn’t matter what bike you’re on The View doesn’t change gold was that a line from you in the video

    Yeah right although I can’t take full credit from that I’m I’m going to have to give the credit from that your Source cameraman Nick thanks cameraman Nick Nick that was that was some gold from Nick race that’s actually really cool Neil down south says more of this please

    Gcn should be like 105 the channel of the people brackets with some luxury eye candy sprinkled into of course yeah I think I totally agree and that’s like you know if you want to see more of that stuff like watch it share it with your friends and then you know that’s well we

    Took that exactly on board because the very next day you made another similar video oh was it right yeah where we did 500 new versus 500 used kind of like trying to explain what yields the best bang for your buck yeah um Anthony yeah

    You go no you do it okay says thanks oi for showing how enjoyable biking can be for the entry level Rider by comparing bikes I think sometimes we scare people away from away by the highend cost of bikes forgetting that we once all rode those lower tier bikes very true yeah

    We’ve got a really uh cool video in the works where like Sai Alex and I are going to be buying some used bikes right for like our budget is a grand okay I think it might have stretched slightly out but that kind of margin yeah and we’re going

    To no it is it’s a grand oh it’s and you don’t spend and we’re going to then do like an epic an epic ride on them to show looking forward to so that’s coming that’s in the pipeline cuz we want more of this stuff because we know that you

    Guys want it to so thanks for your comments cuz it you know like like like we say this channel exists because of you guys so let us keep letting us know what you want to see more of and we’ll do it that felt like it came from the

    Heart then I like that it does yeah um right it’s now time for the bike Vault that’s enough philosophical there right first first up well firstly the bike Vault where you submit your your bikes as pictures and then we judge them to be nice or super nice you can submit your bikes down

    Below uh there’s a link in the description for the uploader go on there follow the instructions it’s dead easy submit your bike and we will then ring the bell if they’re super nice yeah who we got first this week Ingo first with a 107 unicorn from

    Hamburg in the Elba tunnel yeah wow this thing funky it’s ah it’s oh I’m digging that that’s a cool location yeah that is cool that is really cool is that like a I don’t I’m not familiar with the ELA tunnel but I’m guessing it’s some kind of like purpose-built cycling

    Infrastructure yeah it feels like that doesn’t it yeah and I like it super functional it’s actually really well presented as well yeah really good super nice oh John with a 1978 perso py10 love this yeah oh beautiful or if you’re a Philistine a peot a peot

    Yeah oh I really like that white Bart tape’s incredible I can’t really falter now the only thing I’d like to see if it was in the Big Chain ring I’m impressed with the the the cleanliness um and the upkeep of that shed wall lovely behind the bike yeah and for that alone super

    Nice super nice Glenn next the Fuji Pro from 2009 location Australia oh oh this bike says he’s repainted it himself I like that yeah didn’t spend much time on his fence though did he he’s moving on to the fence next weekend break looks like it

    Yeah I like it yeah it’s good in it that one I’m not sure the color is like my personal preference but hey it’s not my bite that’s a super nice that one it’s a really bite yeah okay next we’ve got fat fatness 2020 for hansing a r a1r Zer they’re in

    The US of a and bonus points right it’s it’s got a waxed chain freshly waxed dream there you go and um they also said it was shot with a nickon z9 a NIC or 85 mil S Series prime lens at 320s f/5.6 ISO 100 in raw Mike laughing at me

    I don’t know what I’m talking about you know what do you know what it shows does does it I pleas look at the Quality look at the quality of that image look at that that is actually cool look at that look at the depth of field going on

    There but not only that the lighting the way that the foreground is the bike is popping it is you know like look at look at how bright it is it stands out and and although I don’t want to judge but what’s going on with the saddle angle I mean that is H

    Something going on with that saddle isn’t there the bike’s Co if that saddle angle works for you who am I to judge that’s what I can say yeah so I think you are judging yeah okay ignore everything I said despite I say he’s judging you because of your saddle angle I’m going

    To say that that is super nice super nice yeah Ross with a vus zx1 or if you’re in America dx1 oh you’re just going to make people hate us I know right okay what do we actually think of this bike let’s be S it’s the last bike of this week I think the

    Valves are aligned it’s in the correct gear it’s a shame that it’s sort of vaguely L against it just looks like it’s been chucked in the forest I think the bike is nice I just would have appreciated a tiny little bit more time in terms of the preparations that’s not

    The that’s not the optimum location no so for that basic alone we going to go just a nice on this yes yeah okay it’s just a nice it’s a super nice bike but it’s not a super nice photo but you could resubmit it with a different background we can’t let any of riffraff

    In okay right that’s it for this week’s show olle it’s been great having you back and it was really interesting discussing how the bike industry perhaps could change so yeah do let us know in the comments section down below and as always if you want to support what we do

    Subscribe turn on your notifications see you later love you bye

    23 Comments

    1. Cars are built and made to order, so why not bikes. The bike brands would not need to have large amounts of unsold stock of prebuilt bikes just waiting for them to be sold, usually at large discounts just to shift them. The current business model is just wasteful creating too many bikes that struggle to be sold.

      If the bike brands involved local bike shops/dealers to advise customers on a particular bike frame and componentry or you select the spec and componentry online. Then an order would be made by the LBS to the bike manufacturer to supply the frameset and the bike componentry to the LBS, so the LBS can then build it.

      This would result in a bike that fits correctly first time without the need by the customer to change the parts of a prebuilt bike such as handlebars, stem, crank length, saddle, etc…
      It would also provide work for local bike shops/dealers to build the bikes. It would reduce the unnecessary waste of unused components that often get removed and replaced from prebuilt bikes. Just as an example, Trek do something like this with their project one, but it is only for their top tier frames. They should offer a project one option with all of their bikes across their entire range.

      Customers would more than likely then form a relationship with their LBS and have the bike serviced and maintained at the same bike shop too, whilst it is owned by the person thus providing the bike shop with future ongoing work.

    2. The metal bottle wont last too long if you are loosing it too often 🙈😂😂
      I use my bidons with only water and only way to "throw it out" is when I loose it 🙈🙈 for my sugar and fueling I use those soft flasks 😊

    3. I'd be happy if you could buy the Framesets and just put on your (used?) groupset easily… Having a hard time finding a reasonable prized Gravel Frameset I'd like… but I've got several Groupsets at my disposal and don't to buy another one I don't need with a bike…

    4. I think the biggest issue is the cost of bikes, entry level bikes are so expensive so it makes it hard for people to get into the sport.

    5. Could trigger lots of comments from me, age 69. But I want to promote a charitable project in Lewisham that reflects some features of the video
      * Back in the day: Dawes made touring bikes. Colnago made race bikes. and so on. A lost the ability to read bike magazines about 15 years ago with the plethora of varieties and fashions and the market left my budget behind. I do like the move towards wider tyres and rims, especially in light of rutted roads. I gave away a few bikes during lockdown to folks who needed them. Few people have space for more than two bikes and most have space for one. Very few people now have a background of maintaining bikes from childhood and have no space to do it in their flat – hence the rise of local repair shops and even old bike shops ceasing from selling and focusing on repairs.
      * Yesterday, I saw a shop in Lewisham Shopping Centre – it's a charity that rains ex-offenders to service bikes and receives bikes from police unclaimed bikes, strips them down, cleans and rebuilds. Wow! The shopfront is a total drool factory of classic bikes – race, commuter, mountain, etc. Glorious sidepull, eg one with Campag Super Record. Some with downtube shifters. A Boardman aluminium gravel type bike with fat tyres but immaculate that makes so much sense I asked if I could swap my Specialized Roubaix Elite 2018 bike for it and then upgrade the groupset on the Boardman to 105 – such a sensible bike!
      * They also make up new bikes using orange frames that they buy in and each bike has the builder's code on the top tube.
      * XO BIKES, Lewisham Shopping Centre. I wish I had a spare £2k to change my bike options completely: one urban, one classic race, one fixed, one all purpose fat tyre distance luggage and rough road.

    6. Is some of the reduction in options because they are making the areo bikes close to the weight of their climbing bikes. UCI has a minimum requirement for weight. The top madone is barely over that

    7. Hi GCN, thanks a lot for the show. It’s been (and still is) a great introduction to road cycling for me.

      You’ve mentioned that the ability to have multiple options for contact points (saddle, stem or crank length, etc…) is something that should be offered more often.
      It’s definitely great and you get a bike that exactly fits you. Some manufacturers offer such options for their whole line (Origine Cycle, Shimano Neutral Service’s bike provider, being one of those).
      Smaller manufacturers can afford assembling on demand, I’m not sure that most of the bigger ones can. So I guess that would not help reducing stocks.

      PS: See, you can be both French AND pretentious ^^

    8. The big brands are now having a sweat on people aint buying and keeping their bikes i rode a sportive last weekend and couldn't believe how many were riding rim brake bikes including me. The bike companies need to reduce prices substantially instead of being greedy and start having some empathy for everyone on a bike or looking to start the hobby/sport.

    9. The titanium and steel bottles should also reduce the risk of black mould forming in the bottles. The plastic podium bottles are always having recalls for valve issues and are terrible for cleaning leading to mould forming.

    10. Too many SKUs is an even greater problem with mountain bikes. Truly nuts how much differentiation is on offer by suspension travel for example. It makes selecting a new bike feel more like a chore and I’m sure a lot of folks get bogged down in analysis paralysis. Brands, trim that long tail!

    11. With the new Shimano 105 I don’t really see the point of the Ultegra. It used to be the best value. Now it’s just cheaper than Dura Ace, but not as cheap or any better than 105.

    12. There is choice-bloat. TREK offers 15 different version of its Domane endurance bike (4th generation), priced between $1,000—$13,000. And they still sell several Generation 3 options.

    13. I wonder when GCN, who throws enormous amounts of shade at Americans, will realize their parent company is headquartered IN THE US (Warner Bros Discovery). It's amazing to me they will come to the US, ride in one of our top tier gravel races (which they claim is the fastest growing segment) and just dog on our country.

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