Has the Technology on Newer Bikes Really Advanced to Make Faster Bikes…?

Have Bikes Really Advanced in the Past 30 Years…?

Here we have my 1985 Nishiki Tri A Road Bike with Complete Internal Brake and Shifter cables, Biopace Crank(Oval), Lightweight Tange 1 Steel Tubing 12 speed Bike…

I decided to do a little experiment this morning as I set out on a 40 mile ride with my 1985 Nishiki Tri A since I had ridden yesterday with my 2009 Jamis Xenith SL, ALL Carbon, Sram Red, Zipp 404 Carbon Wheels…about 14.5 lbs

I decided to ride the exact same route both days to compare both bikes and see what difference there would be in my times and average speed…

Here is todays ride from my Strava…1985 Nishiki Tri A

 

As you can see my average speed for the 40 miles was 18.7 mph….

Here is yesterdays ride from my Strava…2009 Jamis Xenith SL

As you can see my average speed was LESS at 18.3 mph….

I also decided to try something else during ride and that was to use SAME gear the whole ride including when coming to stops at red lights to see if having all those extra gears really makes a difference or if we just switch gears for the heck of it because they are there…I rode the Nishiki in gear #10 the whole ride even while going up 2 overpasses in the Tampa Bay area(SR580 and Causeway Bridges) and having a stronger headwind on the Causeway Bridge than day before…I found that even going up the overpasses I just had to put a little extra effort to maintain my speed over shifting into easier gears the day before on Jamis and another interesting thing is that I found the heavier Nishiki actually kept the momentum easier going up the overpasses over much lighter Jamis so I really only had to push a little harder near the top of bridges…

Not only was my ride faster on Nishiki but also more comfortable on the Original 1985 Turbo Super All Leather Saddle…

I feel that sometimes we get all caught up in having the Newest, Lightest, Most Aero bike(Myself Included) to be able to go Faster when what we really should be doing is just Riding More and pushing ourselves harder when riding…