banerjek

One of the regular staples in this forum are threads that are somehow related to comfort. The kooky bike with round stays is the latest iteration, but there's a lot of yap on bars, saddles, shorts, weird products, etc to make things more comfortable. Meanwhile, legs should be screaming in pain and while lungs feel like they're on fire...

This is like worrying about road buzz and engine noise in a sports car. If comfort is so important, why not buy a bike that's designed from the outset to be that way? FWIW, one of the easiest ways to be comfortable once your bike is adjusted properly is to simply get used to what you have. I've always bought shoes, saddles, and shorts without bothering to try them on. A surefire way to feel uncomfortable is to think about what bugs you.

If you're going to be out all day, it's easy to find things that don't feel good. Much easier to focus on what you do like and train yourself to tune out whatever you don't.

refthimos

Pros are pretty obsessed with comfort as well. Comfort = ride longer, ride harder. Simple.

Thirstyman

comfort usually means more power for longer

pdedes

It has been my observation that many riders don't put in the saddle time that is required for true adaptation to a position hoping instead for purchased panaceas.

ericm979

Road races can be pretty long... many hours.

Most of the people who buy racing bikes aren't racers, and they're not as fit. So they need a more comfortable bike setup in order to be comfortable.

Seattle Forrest

A lot of people don't have race bikes to race. I have one, and I have it because it climbs really well (I like to ride in the mountains) and descends brilliantly, giving me more confidence than I ever had cornering on my old CX bike.

jrobe

Because you can design a comfortable Ferrari if you know what you are doing.

canam73

It's not just in cycling. My latest ski boots and hockey skates are worlds ahead of their old counterparts in comfort while offering a similar level of control.

RoadTire 

1) Fit equals Comfort equals longer rides at (your) best performance? (or the obverse: poor fit can be very uncomfortable)
2) Going fast for as long as a rider can is fun, great exercise, exhilarating, and rewarding.
3) Sitting on a comfortable saddle looks cool. Sitting on a doughnut pillow afterwards does not.

Inertianinja

I kind of used to feel the same way...like "forget comfort, this is a race bike"

but I owned a Cervelo S2 with a bare carbon fiber saddle for a while. on race day, the stiffness is great. but i was using it as my everyday bike, and I noticed that it was just too much stiffness, and i was feeling beat up on longer rides. like all the shock from the road shooting up my spine for hours at a time.

I have been riding my Felt AR1 fulltime now, same saddle, and it's just a bit more forgiving.

Bacciagalupe

I'm not as much of a gearhead as most people, in fact I'm downright skeptical of a lot of the "zomg faster" and "HTFU" mentality.

Still, when I decide to use my road bike, I don't want the bike to slow me down. I like to cycle for 4+ hours without feeling like corporal punishment has been reinstated.

I don't see anything "weird" at all about wanting to avoid pain in your hands, lower back, neck, sit-bones and taint, or wanting to reduce road buzz -- especially when you can mitigate those problems with no loss of efficiency.


Since I take the time to actually make a few basic tweaks to make the bike rideable, I can put 5 or 6 hours on the bike without feeling unnecessary discomfort. Not really seeing how that's bad, weird or silly.

DaveWC

When I cycle, I want the pain to come from my effort, not the bike.

bigbadwullf

My Tarmac is comfortable. I'd call it a race bike. I don't ride to be uncomfortable, well except the last 5-10 miles of our usual ride, but that has nothing to do with the comfort of the bike it has to do with the pace we push ourselves.

pgjackson

Comfort is relative. Riding a bike, any bike, is less comfortable than your favorite Lazy-Boy chair...but more comfortable than getting your teeth drilled at the dentist. If your "race" bike is painfully uncomfortable, it could cause injury (knee pain, chaffing, low back pain...).

dleccord

Pros are pretty obsessed with comfort as well. Comfort = ride longer, ride harder. Simple.

Comfort usually means more power for longer

TampaRaleigh

+1... exactly right.

Rowan

One of the key points is that racing bikes are being sold as road bikes.

There is a subtle distinction between the two.

Ergo, it has to do with marketing. Everything else is peripheral to the argument.

rkwaki

Not sure how I ended up here but comfort is a key part of the ride. I would challenge you to put in 12-18 hour weeks (my current training versus 22+ when I raced seriously) with an extreme stress load. If you were uncomfortable on the bike you might survive one week, week two would be even more miserable and so on and so on. Now that being said (here is a current of my BMC before it blew up and I switched to a 140mm stem fro a 130mm) it is a fairly extreme setup but comfortable for me nonetheless. Five hours into a ride I develop excellent power and have little discomfort but conditioning has a lot to do with that.

Commodus

Yea, this. Lots of folks buying race bikes when what they want is a nice road bike. This creates instant conflict, but not unsolvable, because as Rowan has said the distinction is a bit subtle.

banerjek

I get that. I'm one of those guys who adjusts bikes to the millimeter. I ride frogs on a race bike despite the crap retention because other systems don't give me enough float. I also totally agree that pain not directly attributable to effort level is bad and will likely result in injury.

But there are some things that are inherent to road riding. If you don't like anything vaguely resembling a normal riding position on a road bike, a race bike is not a good choice. There are only so many variations on saddles and shorts. If it's really that hard to find combos that work, it suggests that you're looking at the wrong type of bike and/or ride.

IthaDan 

Because the only people that can afford to buy a top level bike (other than pros) are older riders who aren't as limber or hardy as they once were.

Campag4life

You obviously don't work in design. Auto engineers 'obsess' about road buzz, induction and exhaust 'harmonics' including overall noise signature on all cars...including sports cars. Noise signature is 'tuned'.
So is ride on a road bike. Longer stay/wheelbase bikes tend to ride better. They tend to steer slower as well. They are an alternative to very vertical angle slammed road bikes. Some will prefer a bit more comfort to nth degree speed. I personally am faster on an endurance geometry aka Roubaix 30 miles into a hard ride. Further I can ride longer with less susceptibility to injury.
To me, different genres of road bike exist for good reason. Life isn't binary. It is every gradation including nuances you haven't thought about.

Carbon Unit

Yes, less fatigue means longer rides better performance.

Carbon Unit

I ride a carbon fiber bike with race geometry. The bike was available with an optional 2CM head tube extension. Same geometry but now I can get the bars up about 1.5 inches higher which means that my neck no longer feels like someone is sticking a needle in it. I might sacrafice some wind resistance but I wouldn't be able to ride as far on a more agressive bike.

Rowan

Sorry, but modern sports cars, especially those produced in the US, are not sports cars. The English Top Gear program proves this time and again.

Perhaps you might have found it more acceptable if banerjek compared track race sports cars to their road-going brethren -- same exterior, but vastly different underneath and totally different to drive.