Talk:Racing bicycle

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This article is in earnest need of revision - primarily to remove individual opinion, bias and lament. Kudos for getting it started though. (jdb 5/18/05)

Gave it a shot. --Christopherlin 05:08, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I fixed a terminological inaccuracy in the wheels and tires section. it said that tires are narrow to reduce "friction on the road". this is wrong. (static) friction with the road is very important to have, otherwise you would slip and fall. what is actually being reduced is rolling resistance. low rolling resistance keeps the efficiency of power transfer from the wheel to the road high, and is very desirable. 147.154.235.52 13:47, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Under the subheading Distinction between road racing bicycles and others, the last line sounds like a circle definition.

Time trial bicycles are a subset of racing bicycles that are designed for time trial events.

Job 03:31, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Where are the recent UCI rule changes?

Article does not mention the recent changes in UCI regulations, specifically

• 1996-1997 "rewrites" which banned the [superman] position, suspension, beam-bikes, trispoke wheels and anything that didn't look like a late seventies Le Tour bike.
• 2000 minimum weight limit, which was challenged in 2004

These changes caused Triathlon bikes (managed by ITU) to diverge from road racing bikes. It also killed technical development of road bikes - the likes of the Cervélo Baracchi will never be seen again.

Further, technical innovations are essentially banned under subsection 3

Hmm - I'll stick a note in my to-do list to tidy this up and add it to the article. Unless anyone objects.

Also should link through to Graeme Obree and his battles with the UCI over the Hour record (See [1])

Thoglette 03:24, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Importance of light wheels

"The wheels greatly affect the performance of a racing bike. The wheels rotate at high speeds; consequently their moment of inertia matters a lot."

This is quite the claim to go completely unsupported. There is a detailed discussion with references in the bicycle performance article that suggests they are not so important. -AndrewDressel 01:19, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Quite the opposite, they make very little difference overall. The #1 force is air drag, by far, everything else represents a few percentage points here and there. High Tech Cycling has a full rundown, testing various tires, wheels, bearings, weights and doing so on different surfaces like linoleum, road, etc. IIRC the difference was less than the air drag caused by "a protrusion the size of a stub pencil in the wind over one hour". The entire section should be removed, its wrong. Maury 21:56, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Basic stuff...

What would be useful to add would be stuff about: Tyre sizes; what does 622*22 mean? frame sizes There are different types of pedals, such as no clips, toe clips and a couple of different racing shoes. Gear ratios for road and racing use. Weights of frames.

This isn't a criticism but I've ridden a racing bike (on the road) for 20 years and I still don't know what type of tyre I should by...

Edlong (talk) 00:33, 29 December 2007 (UTC)