Johno59

It is interesting when you start on these bullhorn equipped bikes that you can feel the bars flexing. It is something I always found alarming if there were no spares available. Folks still claim you lose very little energy with straight arms but I find that argument holds no water for me. I have spent thousands of hours on TT bikes and when you transition for traffic,road geometry etc (i.e. sit up on the bullhorns) you can feel the extra effort needed to remain sitting as well as the wind resistance. It surely can't just be me.
I see many bikes now with wide tires at low pressures (60-70 psi) and am equally mystified as to the utility of all that soft rubber hitting into the road. When I have to repair a puncture on the road-side my pump struggles to get beyond 70 psi so upon remounting the 'soft' tire feels like I'm riding into a 30 knot headwind. Obviously a narrow 23mm tire suffers more than a 30+mm tire if soft but I have a dozen or so pre-WW2 bikes, so I'm very familiar with the virtue of soft tires but I can't see the logic if speed is desired. Boardman's 30 yo Hour record Lotus bike (a record just been broken) had 200 psi silk tubs for tires.
Someone once told me much of what is considered ideal is driven by the large component makers making you part with your money. Electronic shifting and disc brakes are now apparently indispensable - it makes you wonder. Two dished offset hubs...ugh!