How Much Do Tour De France Bikes Weigh? | GCN Tech Show Ep. 236

The riders at the Tour de France are the best in the world and therefore ride the best bikes and tech that money can buy. On this week’s show, Ollie and Hank talk about how much the bikes at this year’s Tour weigh, as well as bringing you the latest pre-race tech, your top comments, and, of course, the bike vault!

00:00 Intro
00:46 Top Comments
04:10 How Much Do TDF Bikes Weigh?
12:47 Hot Tech
16:20 Bike Vault

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welcome to the gcn tech show alex is currently away on his honeymoon touring around america uh which means we’ve got hank here this week yeah super excited you know what’s coming up this week what well we’ve got new bikes we’ve got vanderbilt’s new very expensive skin suit and we’ve also got some exclusive tour de france merch because guess what ollie what kicks off tomorrow buddy it does i’m really excited almost excited we’re gonna have a tour de france themed main talking point this week which is how much do tour de france bikes weigh today [Music] first up though we’re gonna have a look at some of the comments from last week’s show where we spoke about cycling products that you regret buying i know i did enjoy that show and i thought i’d kick off with the comment that i found on last week’s show which is from another youtuber i regret buying high end components middle tier stuff works just fine and i’m less grumpy when i break it or wear it out and he’s never seen any meaningful differences in time which is interesting one yeah there’s a lot to be said for that it’s basically why i don’t like really expensive watches as well because they do the same thing they just stress you out it’s the same thing as a 10 pound casio 50 meter water resist yeah anyway next comment is from from strawhorn one who says the biggest regret was buying a cheap bike from amazon when i was younger and struggling for cash i was desperate to get back into cycling went for a quick purchase didn’t do any research and all i can say is that it was good going downhill um think it was made out of solid steel rods similar to the fourth rail bridge as for uphill the gradient wasn’t an issue as i just rolled them flat with the weight but i think the weight was measured um for the older viewers i think yeah that’s a bit like what we’d say about the amazon bike yeah it’s absolutely terrible going uphill but yeah you can kind of roll it going downhill yeah if you it’s like that isn’t it you buy cheap you buy twice exactly that kind of thing right next one in from norman lindsay biggest regret purchase was 45 years ago real shammy in your shorts was just disappearing and i bought a pair of shorts with lamb’s wool chamois for the winter advertised as a nice warm in the cold scottish weather never had so many subtle stores um yeah yeah well something i don’t think is something i wouldn’t make twice that same mistake i wouldn’t regret buying the uh gcn castelli uh free aero bib short it’s available in shop.global cycling network they have a fantastic chamois yeah [Music] it’s better than those ones uh john burnell he says he once bought tri-bars for a mountain bike right and he was a young teen at the time he understands now why he was what he was left at yeah john um that’s a mistake you’re also not going to make twice uh justin mbr i most regret buying carbon rim break bikes i’ll never forget the sound of money rubbing away when i put the brakes on do you know what that’s so true you also but i also remember that not stopping in the wet yeah it’s the the dawn of disc brakes and it changed everything because i remember braking so hard on those rim brake on the rim break on rim on carbon rims yeah and yeah you can just see it it’s pants though isn’t it you can just see it wearing away yeah you know that thousand pounds worth of wheels well kevin mchugh uh wrote my favorite comment which is i regret buying my wife a good bike i’m now getting dropped on every climb yeah kevin sorry kevin sorry kevin yeah i don’t know what to say to that ollie before we dive in to the main talking point i just want to clear something up i had a quick look at uh last week’s tech show and you said this yeah and we didn’t trust hank to do the show without us there so under our supervision right mate no faith what do you think i was gonna get up to uh not sure um oh yeah whoa whoa whoa hank well i’m i’m glad you’re here now thanks mate our main talking point this week is about how much the tour de france bikes now tour de france riders are the best of the best so you’d expect they get to ride the best of the best but the weight of their bikes i think it might actually surprise some people yeah and the thing to kick off with is that the uci the governing body of cycling have set a weight limit of 6.8 kilograms now this is for safety reasons because they don’t want the manufacturers to get carried away making bikes out of i don’t know bolster wood and it’s become unsafe yeah absolutely but uh give some context as to what 6.8 kilograms actually sort of is in real terms that people can understand i’ve well i got my scales out did some weighing did you yeah so go on typically a five month old baby is is about seven kilos who’s back if you’d be weighed yeah what’s sex uh well a pack of 70 well 75 packs of playing cards yeah i heard 12 six basketballs 12 basketballs 15 ipad airs well there you go you’ve got an idea now of what 6.8 kilograms is it’s not it’s not much right it’s only right ollie that we started off this section with the reigning tour de france champion paddy paul gotcha in his corner now he’s riding a v3 rs isn’t he he is although uh this year he we think he’s probably going to be riding a yaz of yet unreleased bike which was probably the v4 rs so probably slightly lighter and that is really in the past but it has to be said though he loves a light bike doesn’t he he’s really uh nitpicky he likes it to be perfect and the bite that we’ve seen before he’s actually taken away all the paint on it he’s kept it really nice a naked carbon which i think gives a really nice look to it and just added the stickers for the logos and then he’s also been known to use rim break in the mountains to keep the weight down and those um those bora uh campbell nola yeah yeah tubular wheels in the mountains that’s right and he kind of kept it to the weight limit as well didn’t he yeah and in doing so he has a bike that is as close to 6.8 as possible maybe 6.85 or something like that but when he rides on the flatter stage he is less preoccupied with weight and his power to weight ratio and we typically see him using disc brakes and tubeless campagnolo wheels that are slightly deeper and a bit heavier and in this configuration where weight is less important on the flat his bike is typically around 7.2 7.3 kilograms and well we actually weighed one that has tubular wheels on so not the tubeless wheels so that adds a bit of weight with disc brakes with disc brakes and that came out at 7.1 kilograms yeah so there you go is he going to be on that 6.8 on the dot then come tomorrow i i would bet so i think we should work out then what how other bikes compare um and what their weight is so moving on to ineos got an ideas now they use what was that accent then your meals f now i wouldn’t say the pinnerella f is known to be a super lightweight bike no it’s not but the interesting thing here is that they previously used like last year’s racing race port the rim brake version they did okay and that was the pinnacle especially as well yeah and they were desperate to try and keep the weight down even further so they used a special ultra light version of the bike uh with a different carbon and they paired it with lightweight milenstein wheels which are like the lightest wheels you can get pretty much um and this was all in a bid to get as close to 6.8 as possible um so we well we’ve weighed one of the 2022 disc brake bikes this was luke plapp’s bike it’s the aussie champion um and this came in at 7.16 kilograms so he was the duras c50s so i reckon if you went shallower you could well maybe save 200 grams yeah shallower wheels would make a bit of difference but the interesting thing is is he’s quite small so garen thomas um who’s a bit bigger than the team leader right yeah rides a big one actually rides the same size of pinnarello f as me and that’s where the comparison stops isn’t it yeah well anyway uh i so i can weigh that bike i’ve got one and i would say he he’s probably his bike’s gonna be around 7.2 7.3 kilograms so it’s still it’s still close to 6.8 but it’s not on the dot is it no it’s not so i reckon we should have a look at another bike to see if it’s close to that 6.8 limit what about tebow pinot’s box steve pino is a grand tour specialist he’s actually proven to perform in the mountains so he’s used to riding a light bike and he’s on the lapierre zealous sl so that’s the uh super light version is it it is and he’s quite well he’s quite tall for a pro rider yeah he’s 180 centimeters um and so he rides a sort of larger bike than some and as a consequence his bike is a little bit heavier it’s coming in at 7.34 kilograms yeah but the thing here is that at the moment we weigh a lot of bikes when we go to races and we find that that is typical like around 7 to 7.3 is typical of what most riders are using even team leaders and climbers yeah because i mean when i was racing i was riding in the canyon air road and mine was sitting and i’m a small rider i ride a 51 so i go really small and i was around you know 7.3 so not many riders are in the six kilo mark um but i reckon you should check out one of the aero bikes from a sprinter and see if they’ve gone totally well sprinters are just much bigger riders aren’t they they’re less bothered about weights so dylan corona vegan spike what was that accent so this is dylan’s bite it’s the giant propel now this is giant’s most aerodynamic bike so how does this compare to the other bikes previously because this is all about aerodynamics it’s their speedy bike and one for the you know the high speeds now dylan’s bike we weighed it and it raised 7.59 kilograms which is actually the heaviest bike that we’ve seen so obviously they’ve gone for speed over lightweight in the mountains yeah and overall there’s a trend that’s happened in the over the last five to ten years bikes have become heavier yeah but this is because they’ve also become more aerodynamic with more aerodynamic tube shapes and they’ve had hydraulic disc brakes added and we’re also increasingly seeing riders using tubeless tyres and wheels over tubulars which have lower rolling resistance but they’re slightly heavier around 200 grams now i guess what this means is bikes typically heavier than they were five to ten years ago which is actually something quite surprising yeah it feels like a backwards step yeah i mean it was common for mechanics to have to add weight to the bikes to make them up yeah to the 6.8 legal limit so here well example here is naira quintana’s bike from 2018 five years ago or four years ago um and this canyon ultimate with room brakes they were adding like little lead fishing weights down the seat tube just to make sure they hit that 6.8 kilogram limit but that doesn’t happen anymore does it um it doesn’t but these heavier bikes although slightly heavier are faster yeah but how does that make any sense i like bikes a faster bike well i thought i thought you’d say that hank but the answer is because of science uh so basically weight is is large is overrated obviously weight does make a difference but the important thing to remember is on a climb like alp dues which is a great example it’s in this year’s tour de france as a summit finish um five watts will make more difference than one kilogram and at the speeds that the pros ride up the climb you know 25 to 30 kilometers an hour because they’re pros at that point aerodynamics is significant and so having a more aero bike makes a little bit of difference and then lower rolling resistance from tubeless tires also makes a difference and you know the bikes aren’t a kilo heavier they’re typically just around 300 to 400 grams heavier so i guess what we’re saying here is the good news is you could buy a bike that is lighter than the bikes that they are riding in the tour de france today all you have to do is buy a bike from five years ago and maybe get a rembrandt version yeah you could pick up a nice used bargain there you go but let us know your thoughts uh on this and we’re also interested to know well what you think are the bikes of 10 years ago that the pros were using better or nicer than the bikes that they’re using now yeah let us know is it all about weight in your opinion time now for hot tech and first up this week we’ve got a new bike which was spotted at la walter cerrone being written by trek segafredo riders tom squeenge yeah you did that correctly yeah uh this is one new trek madonne that is not been released but it’s been released tomorrow at the grammar part of the tour de france in copenhagen what a way to launch a bike yeah pretty cool yeah um but yeah the interesting thing here is it looks very similar to the previous trek modern until you look at it from the rear straight on and you see that it’s got this big hole in where the seat post is which is presumably to make it more aerodynamic but as of the time filming this we’ve not had any numbers or official data released about the bike we’re sure that it’s going to arrive tomorrow but yeah pretty pretty far out yeah and we’ve also seen some hot tech uh in the form of sunglasses and we know segan he likes to be quite flamboyant and he does so in his winning ways and his celebrations but also in his designs too and 100 his partners uh his sunglass partner have also gone with their tour de france or a new tour de france collaboration with him and they got for this kind of tie-dye look on the frame and then for the lenses he’s got these anodized purple smart which in the classic big lenses i think they look really cool anyway um make sure you check those out because yeah they’re pretty they’re pretty wicked if you’re honest yeah love sags i hope he gets a hope he gets a stage this year yeah i just want to see the hulk back yeah you got that bit on to aero news now and ollie you absolutely love getting its aero as humanly possible don’t you and so some good news for you because at the tour of france on the grander park on the 13.2 kilometer type trail tomorrow vanderbolt is going to be sporting a new skin suit and this one is said to be a banger it’s not just me that loves skin suits though the ladies they love skin suits as well not the one i know anyhow vanderpool’s skin suit has not actually been done by his uh team’s clothing partner alps in phoenix which is kalas it’s actually been done in collaboration with vortech who are the guys at their sports engineering hub in silverstone um and they’ve devised the skin suit right which is supposed to be super super aerodynamic and really high tech 2750 pounds if you want one yeah it’s said to be used to like a different or new material bad isn’t it it’s so expensive 2750 pounds for a skin too i mean and also it’s only about that big don’t get much of it um imagine crashing in that though that’d be it’s going to be expensive isn’t it what’s crazy is that’s worth the same amount as you know peugeot 106. yeah well yeah but it gains and he’s going to be well he’s been doing pretty well in time trials of late vanderpool so he’s got a chance on a show he’s not a favorite it’s going to be philippo ghana yeah who also has some new tech in the form of the new pinarello beliede which we saw uh at the tour de swiss um two weeks ago uh being ridden by the the ineos team including garen thomas on way to victory but it was covered up with with a wrap so you couldn’t it looked pretty cool there i’d like belide written all over it but you couldn’t really see it that well so it’d be nice to see that finally unveiled you’d imagine that’s the case again no big details have been announced on this bike because it’s not been officially released but the big thing we can see is that it’s now disbreak the previous believe day was room break and is the disparate version where dynamic i don’t know we’ll find out we’ll find out tomorrow time now hank’s favorite part of the show it’s the freaking bike bar now you may be wondering why we’ve suddenly cut and hank has disappeared that’s for good reason hank just can’t be trusted with the buy vault i’m afraid and he gets far too excited and just super nicest every single bike so i’ve done a fake bike vault with hank um and now he’s gone and i’m gonna do the actual bifold so first up this week’s most super nice bike is from paint killer it’s a pinnarello f12 check this out this thing is absolutely off the charts what an outrageous paint job that is with like dripping red all over it it looks incredible um however this is a professional paint job that’s been done this bike yet i can’t forgive the fact that it’s not in big east malls and the wheels aren’t properly aligned so despite that being voted the most super nice bike it officially only gets nice uh next up we have got a uh specialized tarmac sl7 from lijjuanhau0824 and it appears to be against some kind of desert rock background but that is all lined up it’s biggie smalls it’s uh got a very nice uh crank set on there one of the uh uh thm ones that is and speedplay pedals as well very nice yeah so that’s you’ve made my life easy there that’s super nice uh next we’ve got a canyon air road from justice underscore way and he says does gold make the bike even better wow that is absolutely stunning and the wheels are aligned the cranks are a line room just about in biggie smalls um nice clean background i think the gold does make it look amazing that is easy for me that’s super nice uh next up ciao ant uh has a cevello s series chameleon wow that’s uh again is that a custom paint job on that it’s not sure but it’s in uh it’s in south wales the uh the afan valley that is all you ticked all the but you’ve yeah you’ve ticked the boxes there that is um that is a very nice bike so again people are making my life very easy this week uh jeffrey kcy88 tarmac sl7 we’ve got hunt wheels on there a big road to chain not in biggie smalls weird jaunty angle that looks like it could fall over any moment um also i’m not sure what’s going on with the saddle there tires aren’t really aligned i mean that’s a that is a super nice bike you’ve got a clean background he was so close i’m afraid that’s just a nice and that also is uh the end of the bike vault this week um i’m now gonna cut back with hank well i hope you’ve enjoyed the show um and if you have then you know what to do you can support the channel by liking and subscribing and make sure you check out shop.global cycling network because we’ve actually partnered with the tour de france and we’ve got some limited edition official tour de france merch and there’s also some bundle deals as well so if you buy them in with a bottle as well there’s like 10 off so yeah make sure you check that out and uh well we’ll see you next week yeah thanks team all the best good luck bye