Chuckk

As an Old Poop, I'm glad to see that the super compact styling of the race bikes seems to be fading and that most top tubes are crawling back toward being horizontal!
Looks to me that only Giant has ultra compact styling this year, and while most have a slightly slanted top tube, a few of the builders are back to full horizontal top tubes.
Don't know what to think about Trek, they seem to have stuck with the arched cruiser type frame.
https://www.velonews.com/events/tour...our-de-france/

Disk brakes almost universal, but wheel changes are so difficult that bike swaps for a flat are usual. I bet they will come up with a solution where the disk stays with the bike, but I don't know how they will do it on the back wheel!
Good news for us bottom feeders - nobody but collectors are going to want caliper brakes soon!

SurferRosa

Tubed clinchers just won their first ever stage.

davester

God those things are fugly! My eyes! My eyes!

Cougrrcj

+1

jamesdak 

My thoughts too, mainly all black and boring blobs of plastic.

smontanaro 

Clearly not as pretty as just about anything vintage in our stables, but I think the Ridley is the best looking, the Trek, Cervelo and Bianchi are tied for the worst, with the Specialized, Factor, Pinarello, and Cannondale not far behind. The big factor in making them ugly for me is how bulbous they are in the head tube/stem area.

plonz 

I must admit I quite like the white Eddy Merckx I saw ridden on today’s stage 3. Very classy looking package. On the other end of the spectrum, Cousin’s blue Wilier got a lot of broadcast time today and was a completely uninspiring bike.

Narhay

I like the old stuff and the new stuff. The late 90s, early 2000s trek USPS timeline is probably the worst era aesthetically for me.

Bob the Mech

Yep they may well be ugly...but this is the top of the evolutionary tree (at least for the time being)...

madpogue 

Is it a contest for which maker can get its name splattered the largest on the frame?

jamesdak 

But is it really? Watched one of the wrecks in stage 1 and the mechanic couldn't even get the front wheel off to replace it. Had to swap the bike after failing to get the wheel unscrewed with the power too. That's evolution??

RiddleOfSteel

The bikes in that article may very well be used, but we have yet to see a number of them. Not super flattering views for several of those, and aero bikes are a bit bulky.

For those of us watching the TdF this year with these early mountain stages, the svelte climbing bikes and wheel setups have been nice to see. Cannondale's SuperSix, with its gloss black-to-dark-blue fade, pairs very well with the riders' kit colors. The tan wall tires, slender tubing, and AND AND low-section wheels, combined with the simple graphics, make for a very pretty bike. Nothing ungainly or inelegant. The Eddy Merckx bikes (and rider's kit) also look really nice. Stage 1's crash-fest got us a bunch of still/slow shots of the bikes.

Ok, the Vision sponsor's dumb stem looks horrible (the stock one is much better), and this photo is sadly dark, but man, look at how lithe it looks!




Ok, maybe this was last year with all that rim brake action. This year is still cool, even with discos.

microcord

The frame advertises "cannondale" (in large and awkward lettering) in only one obvious place.

Even more surprisingly, Joe Q Public is offered:



"cannondale" in only one obvious place, and not large. The rims don't scream a brand name either. (Photo nicked from Cannondale Yokohama.)

Is tasteless shoutiness on the way out?

Salamandrine 

Why, yes it is!

Trek wins!!!

Salamandrine 

There's been a definite trend away from the stock car racing look the last couple years. It needs to go farther. Perhaps some companies realized most people prefer not to ride an ugly billboard.

The TDF bikes though, as obnoxious as ever. I guess those kind of are stock racing cars though.

Bad Lag

I just can't get interested in any of those bikes, especially so for disk brakes.

I just don't worry about going fast any more. Very few ever pass me, maybe one of the electric bikers showing off, but I am not trying to go fast as much as the other riders are going slow.

Lascauxcaveman 

Looks like pretty much all racing RDs are long-cage these days. I can get behind that.

microcord

Say what you will about disk brakes, etc; that TdF Cannondale (let alone the grey one) is finished a lot less tackily than is my circa-30-year-old Cinelli "mens sana", whose frame had the goofy Latin motto on its top tube (until a previous owner very sensibly painted over it), "Cinelli" written in various places, and an assortment of strange wiggly lines and what look like rorschach blots or skin lesions or something. Also, I can't believe that the paint quality in today's China is as bad as it was in circa-1990 Italy.

But as long as we're riding our bikes, we don't have to look at them.

pastorbobnlnh 

Oh those welds! So NOT Cannondale! They look like someone took used bubble gum to stick the tubing together.

This is what a Cannondale weld SHOULD look like!

RobbieTunes

I just watched Stage 2 last night, and really only noticed one bike, the Merckx.
Didn't even notice disc brakes. I may have to sell my collection.

blamester

This pprobably isn't related to this but. I watched the Brussels classic on the GCN app and the screeching from the brakes was horrible. All thru the peloton. It was very wet which may have been a factor but I thought that was the benefit of hydraulic brakes.
Now I haven't heard it as bad as that in the world tour races or very little anyway.. The Brussels classic was basically a pro am race. But the bikes are all top end stuff.
The cameras stayed with the winner at the end and every touch of the brakes as he went thru the crowd or stopped to meet friends family and such was a screech fest. I would have been embarrassed to ride that.
So what was going on. Listen to the finish on youtube.
It doesn't happen on motorcycles or cars which are the same brakes. So is it the fork that's not up to scratch?
And when do we get twin discs?

tiger1964 

Agreed. Every time I think that perhaps I should own one "modern" bike, I see what they look like.

One question might be... presuming a continuing trend, what will bikes look like in 25 years? These 2020's might look classic by comparison.

pastorbobnlnh 

SELL!?! They are worthless and should either be donated to the homeless who need transportation or be recycled back into steel rebar or aluminum foil.

stardognine

Some cool stuff there, but I’m still not ready for discs yet, myself. 😉 I’m riding a 2014 Bianchi Quattro now though, so it has some decent features. 👍

jackbombay

Less mass in the bike disc than motorcycle or car discs and modified friction coefficient of the pads against the disc when the disc is wet result in the squeal is my hunch.