Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
I meant that, with very new technology, yes, an arms race, but with mature technology that has been around a decade or more, available at low consumer prices, there may not be as much of an arms race.
It's clearly something you want. Do many other people care about it?
Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
"Clip-on" aero bars happened first in the TdF, but imagine if that had been ruled illegal, but someone had an idea for them and they went into production at the consumer level; and then 10 years later, they become UCI legal; Can you imagine a team spending thousands of dollars for custom ones, when you can just buy a good one off the rack for $200?
They might have been developed anyway. Time trial bikes (via things like the Ironman) have independent avenues for technological advancement (more than the TdF).
Originally Posted by
Duragrouch
There are other sports where you can run in "race-<x>" class, so customs allowed, and also "limited-<x>" class using only series-production designs that are available off-the-shelf to anyone. New designs make it into Limited class by the maker building at least a certain minimum number of examples; In the thousands, it's regular production; If bare minimum required by the sanctioning body, like 50 or 500, it's sometimes called a "homologation special". But it means the price and availability is within reach of most competitors.
None of this seems that good of a reason.