skidder

You probably can gain a few MPH increase in speed, but I'd first investigate how the 60 yo's you mention are getting up to 20mph average speeds - are they riding in a group so they have someone up front breaking the wind most of the time? Are they in REALLY good shape for their age? etc.

Personally, If I had your Lotus and Centurion I'd be more apt to spend my $$$ upgrading both with more modern components (not top-of-the-line, just good solid modern drivetrain stuff), and proudly ride both. Let the racer-boys have their carbon fiber and electronic shifters, I'll take a nice steel frame and 105 drivetrain (even Tiagra, heaven forbid!). I'm 60 y.o. and can maintain about 18 mph (by myself) for about two hours - after that I'm outta gas.

Cheers

Maelochs

I agree with @skidder---in fact that is exactly what i would do. My Raleigh has 4600 Tiagra ... got it cheap and used online. Nowadays, I'd go 105. But both work. if ti's a good frame, it's not going to get any better ... and unless you climb competitively, you aren't going to care for a few pounds.

In any case, I would still try some modern bikes. Just to see.

TiHabanero

The one thing you will immediately notice is that a new bike "feels" faster, jumps quicker. Look at the numbers over a 40 mile ride and you will find the real difference in speed is negligible if any at all. Upgrade the bike with light weight wheels and you will notice the thing will jump quicker and climb a litter easier, if your physical condition is able to push things a bit. Other than that, nope, a new bike will not gain much in performance at this point.

Lazyass

Nothing wrong with getting a new bike, even if you aren't faster. You don't have to spend a lot of money, even Claris equipped bikes are pretty nice.

robertj298 

I think I'll just stay slow until my conditioning improves. I love my vintage bikes and speed isn't really that important to me,

350htrr

What you needs do, is get on that bicycle you have, and try harder, and... I mean harder, week after week... and guess what, you will either get there or you will not... JMO, Sorry if I sound harsh, but, when you get "down" to it, it's the rider, not the bike... again... JMO.

350htrr

Really...??? improving your "speed" was the whole thrust of this thread, wasn't it...???

robertj298 

I did say until my conditioning improves.

vinfix

This question comes up all the time, and also in variations like "should I buy an aero bike to go faster?" or a "lighter bike to climb faster?"
And the usual answer is No, but go ahead if you have the money and like a new bike.

Yes, it's always "the engine" that matters most.What I've found, though, is the new tech stuff makes it easier to train to go faster. For example, if you want to develop your cadence, when you have more gears with fewer gaps, and it's easy to shift quickly, you'll keep your cadence and pace up. Lower gears means you can spin more, and develop cardio for climbing rather than mashing and gassing out. A lighter, stiffer bike will accelerate more quickly, which encourages sprinting and keeping speed up on short climbs. So no, you won't throw a leg over a new bike and instantly go faster, but it will encourage it.

robertj298 

But the damn new bikes just don't look as good as the vintage ones LOL.

canyoneagle

There are some very nice newer bikes that are oriented for practicality (Trek Domane, Bianchi Infinito CV, Specialized Roubaix, etc) with slightly taller head tubes and shock absorbtion integrated into the frame. I've ridden several of these, and they are wonderful bikes.

I personally find myself coming back to a nice handmade steel frame, but with modern components - sweet spot for me. Titanium is another option.
I enjoy the comfort and convenience of modern shifting/brakes vs downtube shifters and sidepull brakes.

Wheels make a big difference. A nice set of handbuilt 1600-1700g wheels will liven up any bike.

Classtime 

Seriously consider getting a new Ultegra group to put on your Ironman. Then later, when your FTP is high as it will ever be, get a custom steel frame set for the Ultegra group and put the 105 back on the Ironman.

tony2v

My 2016 Breadwinner Lolo steel bike

davester

No, not a chance. The only speed increase you will experience will be on long, steep climbs, and you will go slower on descents. Even then, the speed difference will be less than 1 mph. Don't kid yourself. A new carbon bike will get you brake-mounted shifters (brifters) which are more convenient (though I don't think that's such a big deal and they will eventually break and the fix is to throw them in the trash and buy new), and a little bit of lightness that is useful in end-of-race sprints and long climbs (figure perhaps a 1 minute advantage max on a 1,000' climb). Those things are super important if you're racing. Otherwise they are meaningless and impossible to detect. You have two really nice bikes. Unless you absolutely have to have brifters, stick with what you've got unless you're one of those folks who loves the latest disposable technology.

I ride solely on steel vintage bikes and half my riding companions are younger and riding fancy carbon stuff. Their performance is no different than mine.

Oh, a couple more things:

1. If you live in hilly country, change the gearing. Those bikes probably came with gruesomely high racing gears.

2. Pay attention to tires. That will get you more speed than anything else you can do. You need to get the fattest, most supple tires that you can fit on the bike (just say no to Gatorskins!). Combine that with some lightweight tubes and you will get a much smoother and more comfortable bike. I suggest the Compass or Soma Vitesse tires...pricey but soooo worth it.

big john

If you're climbing on a 24 pound bike and switch to a 16 pound bike you will be faster, obviously. If you're descending on a bike which is not aero because of position and you switch to a more aerodynamic bike/position you will be faster.
If these things are important to you, then they are important, even if you are not racing.
Everything new is not bad and everything old is not good.
I've been using integrated brake/shifters since 2001 (approx 100,000 miles) and I wouldn't want to go back to downtube shifters. I've never had one fail and I think that is quite rare.

canyoneagle

Nice ride!

Maelochs

I think the question is, "How many modern bikes do I need?"

ddeand 

rumrunn6

I see guys going way faster than me & they look like they are working less hard. I suspect I could go faster with a different or better bike. but I'm not in competition with anyone but myself. I can say tho, that switching to a bike with integrated brake/shift levers changed my life. if you have a level route without much shifting then that may not provide much improvement for you. but on our New England suburban roads, with their rolling hills & lots of shifting, they made a big improvement to my riding experience

Steve B.

davester

Granted, likely brifters have improved since the ones I had on my Trek (since sold), which used to suddenly stop working at the worst of times. I'm not against advanced technology, but I did want to make the point that a modern bike is not going to make the OP any faster. If having brifters makes him more likely to ride a bike then it's a good thing. For myself, I can see that they would have been a huge advantage back when I was racing but for most of my riding there is no big advantage there.

I'm not sure why you're doing a comparison with a 1974 Fuji S10S with gas pipe tubing. The OP stated that he has much nicer and newer bikes than that.

Steve B.

khutch

The speed you can reach and sustain on a long ride is a product of both the engine and the vehicle efficiency. Getting a modern, more efficient, racing bike will allow you to wring the most speed out of your existing engine. That is exactly what they are designed to do. They minimize the Watts that are wasted overcoming resistance to forward motion of various kinds. They will give you incremental gains in speed, to get more you have to increase the Watts that you can generate. It can cost serious money to get a middle of the road modern racing bike and obscene amounts of money to get the best available bikes. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that. If you knew how many Watts your current bike wastes at your target speed, how many Watts an elite racing bike wastes at that speed, and how many Watts you can produce over the length of your target ride you could calculate the speed increase. It most certainly will be greater than zero. But it isn't likely to be as satisfying as you imagine, hope, or fear it will be. It will increase your chances of winning a race however, which is why they exist.

I just got a new bike. It is a road bike to replace my old (2009) road hybrid. But like the old bike it is not a racing bike, it is a Trek 920 touring bike. It has a lot of new technology on it and I am an engineer by trade. I like technology of all eras but I am naturally drawn to new technology. It is a bike that is comfortable on anything that loosely resembles a road and that is one of the things that drew me to it. It is more stable and comfortable on long rides. I expect it to be a very satisfying ride for years to come. I have no particular expectation that it will make me faster. I don't know if it is possible any more to make my engine more powerful. This has been a bad year for me in that respect actually. I am not riding as well this year as I have in the past few. Is that the inevitable effect of advancing age? Or just a reflection of how much other circumstances have curtailed my training and therefore performance this year? I'm hoping for the latter!

Old riders fact the same reality that young riders face. You can train and train and train and still find that biology gifts some and short changes others. I actually have been riding better in my sixties than I did in my twenties and I feel that I have retained a generous amount of my physical prowess this late in life. But of course I am far more motivated to ride now than I was then. If he were still around my twenty year old self could dance away from me at will on any ride under any conditions, if he had trained then as I train now. But age is not a friend to performance and it bites some of us harder and earlier than others just as biology gifted us differently when we were young and comparing ourselves to other youngsters. Don't let any of this discourage you from training because training will produce results at any age. Just don't beat yourself up over what other people your age can do. Strive to reach the level they achieve, to be sure, but keep riding and striving whether you reach their level or not. Eventually you reach a point where age prevents your training from doing any more more that slowing the decline but that is a good thing too.

One thing that I appreciate about bicycle riding is that it is fun at any speed. I suppose that the sheer amount of satisfaction you get from tooling across country at even 10 mph is something that distracted me from training harder when I was young. I needed to hook up with other cyclists back then to become better than I was but I never did. Today I train harder but I also strive to keep a balance. I work on my speed, somewhat inconsistently. while focusing more on endurance and making sure to smell the roses as I roll along.

If you are hankering for a new bike than you will likely enjoy one whether it makes you faster or not as long as you are honest with yourself about what you want in a new bike and choose accordingly.

John E

If I were to buy a new bicycle right now, it would be a modern road touring bike. I want the drop bars and lots of gears, enough clearance for moderately wide tires, and a somewhat relaxed (comfortable and stable) frame geometry. This is what I find so attractive about the older sports touring frames and the even older racing frames, from the days of cobblestone courses.

True. I find that I really enjoy my klunky old UO-8 beater, panniers and all.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yes. Modern carbon bike with brifters. Doesn't have to be the fanciest. $2000 will get you a fine bike. It'll be more fun and some faster. Main thing for faster on a new bike is a good fit, well-stretched out, lots of forward lean. That position is both faster and more comfortable on a long ride. Simplest thing is to have the LBS put you on a bike on a trainer and fit it to you on the trainer. Experiment with frame brand, model, and size, stem, saddle height, etc. I always go with a -17° stem with no spacers, right on the headset. Hands on hoods, forearms horizontal, elbows should be just in front of knees as you pedal, then straighten your back. Upper arms form a 90° angle with flattened upper torso. That's how you go fast. The carbon bike will climb and accelerate faster than your current stable, the position will have you faster and more comfortable on the flat. I'm 73. If the shop won't work for the sale, go to a different shop.

https://www.cyclinghacks.com/best-ro...es-under-2000/
https://www.bikehint.com/best-carbon-road-bike/