Upswing in road bikes?
 

A couple of weeks ago I was in a local bike shop and noticed that about 1/4 their stock was road bikes, up from about 1/8 to 1/16th in the past. And since then, a couple of times I was in the shop, a woman (girl, chick, whatever) was buying a serious road bike. At the risk of getting busted for being politically incorrect, they were picking and test riding good road bikes. Not boyfriends or husbands. Finally, as spring is breaking here, it seems like I've been seeing more bikes out on the road than in the past.

Is it just wishful thinking, or is anybody else noticing more roadies lately?
:thumbup:

In my area, we have several very active touring and racing clubs, a velodrome, as well as quite a few road races and crits going on all season long. There are lots of roadies around here, and have been for many years.

There may be an upswing in some regions, but in eastern PA, and in NJ, road cycling is pretty huge.:love:

It must be time for a fashion change.

Bikes are a weird kind of fashion statement.

In the '70's and 80's, just about the only bikes around were muscle bikes for kids and "10-speed" road bikes for adults.

People used road bikes on foot trails in the woods as well as on roads. What the hell were they thinking?

In the 90's, it was all mountain bikes. Just about the only bikes around were mountain bikes; kids, adults - mountain bikes. People used mountain bikes for road trips as well as off-road. What the hell were they thinking?

Who knows, maybe we are making full circle. I'm waiting for unicycles to have their day in the spotlight. It almost happened in 1966.

When someone comes up with a 24 speed unicycle, I'm there.

I live 5 mins walk from part of the National Cycle route No. 1, so maybe that influences things but along with the spring lambs the sun does seem to be bringing a lot of roadies out of a weekend. On my commutes it's mainly hybrids or MTB's. It would be a brave man who rode a true road bike down some of the roads.

Richard

It does seem that around here the selection of road bikes and accesories is getting better. Out in the rural areas it is not un common now to see the weekend warriors out and about getting some sun on their new road bikes.

The more the merrier.:)

I am encouraged to see the re-emergence of decent road touring bikes, long an endangered species.

Now if we can just convince motor vehicle buyers to make an analogous choice of sporty compact-to-midsize station wagons over SUVs ...

Aside from a temporary glut of poseurs and type 2 freds, where's the problem? Hey, a few of 'em might even catch the bug for real. Might even help keep the LBS open for another year.

I too have noticed more space at the LBS for road bikes. Im looking to purchase my first road bike within the next week or so. I'll let you all know what i end up with.

I hope road bikes are "making a come back".
I've always ridden road bikes but decided to try a mountain bike about 6 years ago. Just couldn't get comfortable on it so it promptly went to my step-son. :D

Long live road bikes. :beer:


Roadbuzz, I hope you're right. The shop I bought my Raleigh from in 1999 closed in 2000 after being in business for 10+ years. :cry:

It is interesting to note that for a long time, there were no cheap road bikes being offered at the chain stores.

It has been almost a compeletly singular offering of mountain bikes from kids to adults. From cheap to expensive.

It has been a rather curious imbalance of offerings.

I wonder if we will start seeing more cheap road bikes at places like Toys-R-Us and Walmart.

Could there possibly be a parallel increased interest in older and collectible road bikes?

I think one of the biggest gains of the mountain bike boom was the fact that there were no comprable machines to be had waiting around in garages or on the second-hand market. if you wanted a mountain bike - you almost had to get it new.

With the exception of the use of higher grade components, there really hasn't been much revolutionary design in road bikes over the past twenty or thirty years.

If manufacturers want to offer lower cost road bikes now, what can they offer to attact buyers other than new paint?

Mike,

There have been major improvements to frame materials in the
past 10 years. We are seeing more Ti frames as well as major
advances in the use of Carbon fibre. Granted you don't see this
on lower level bikes, but it won't be long. Look at how many
road bikes now come with carbon fibre fork as standard. 5 years
ago this was only an option on high end bikes
and usually a cost a small fortune.

The other factor here (at least in the US) is Lance Armstrong.
The more press, advertizing and coverage he gets will increase
sales of road bikes (purely conjecture here). Think of all those
kids watching who are thinking "I wanna be just like Lance", they
sure ain't gonna buy mountain bikes.
How many of us were inspired to ride by the likes of LeMond,
Davis Phinney, or Eric Heiden, et al.

Marty

Lemond was a great cyclist but remembering him and the Tour coverage was a blur...a dream..that I cannot.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


What...what...happended? Where am I?........Oh yeah, I was typing here....Armstrong is the reason for the resurgence in road cycling in America. He makes road biking look cool and fun. The man comes off like a typical bad-*** American who won't take sh*t from anyone...especially from Mickey Mouse Ears Marco.

Nobody wants to look up a P*ssy. Lance doesn't speak very softly, but he carries a big stick...that being his able to climb mountains.

I'll never forget the '99 Tour when Lance was climbing some mountain and as he crept up to the break-away group, one of the riders looked back to see who was next to him, and then immediately does a quick doubletake at Lance in disbelief...kind of like disbelieving that some 300 pound fat person catching up to you and passing you on some Hors categorie climb in the Tour.

I forsee the day (actually, in a few short years) when SUV's become the rusty old vans we see today that were once popular.

Used SUV's might find a market among TRUE utility vehicle owners who need to tote something more than just the driver. Wait! No, SUV's can't haul wood, junk, equipment or anything else. (John, remember when Japanese four-cylinder cars suddenly became very, very desirable? Anything can happen--again...)

Sorry, Roadbuzz! I clicked here because I saw the importance of your thread. Yes, it's time we stopped pushing "mountain/comfort/hybrid" bikes that are good for "jumping curbs" and "riding bike paths." I only hope the marketing monster doesn't cheapen road bikes the same way!

:cry:

(Great post)

If it's the same time I'm thinking of, there was a huge surge in the popularity of cycling, too. Though I understand many of those bikes were of marginal quality. Bad welding, etc.

One should never underestimate the ways to "cheap" something. How much do you suppose it reduces the cost of a bike to have chainrings riveted? I think I could scrounge around and find the $2 or $3. But then, the marketroids are probably thinking that tiny difference will either force me to upgrade to a better model (lots more than $2/$3) or if I buy the bike, spend more on the repair/upgrade, or replace the bike(!) when the chainrings go.

BTW, I think Little Big Man is one of the best movies of all time. :thumbup:

Mike, I don't know if it qualifies as revolutionary, but I think step-in shoe bindings were a huge improvement over clips, cleats, and straps. For feet and knees. STI type shifters are an improvement, but I suppose not revolutionary. After all, maybe even one of your bikes is a 10-speed that has those stick-shift type shifters on either side of the stem (and foam handlebar covers, with extended brake levers that run parallel to the top of the bar). Don't ask how I know about such bikes. :blush:

As a recent member of the road bike fraternity.
I have certainly noticed quite a marked increase in the number of road cyclists, I remarked on another thread after we had a fine few days just after the new year, how i had seen many people in my neighbourhood on what were obviously recently purchased cycles. . . . good to see!

Also when doing the rounds of local cycle shops and test riding different makes of bike , it was certainly noticable, despite the fact that M. T. B/Hybrid cycles outnumbered road bikes maybe 4 to 1, more people were interested in the road bikes , while the other type of bikes were virtually ignored.
Even my very local Lbs, who in the past I have slagged off for only stocking fairly low end Asian cr*p has a decent couple of roads bikes in and a very sweet looking cyclo-cross model.
Oh-oh temptations abound , I must not admire it , at least not until my recent purchase is paid for :rolleyes:

My sisters both bought new roadbikes in the Washington DC area last year, both were inpressed on their LBS ability to fit them with well fitting machines. My LBS has sold quite a few new road Treks, mentioned to him they should be setup with the bar as high as it will go as those few who want it lower won't have any trouble but a newbie might with a low bar. My only mtg frame has 1 1/4 slicks and a drop bar 6 speed stem shifter modified to fit the down tube. Wish more down tube shifters were avaible!!!!! Can't justifiy STI yet, maybe after my first century.
till next time!
kev

I suppose that step-in shoe bindings have made a difference. STI shifters are, of course, much more effective than those hobbiest stem mounted shifters. Their principle is almost exactly the same, though, so I don't consider them quite revolutionary.

HOWEVER, these may be good enough features to convince someone that they need a new roadbike.

I saw a roadbike at Toys R Us today as I was looking for a crib mobile. Someone mentioned above that such bikes were absent from the dep't stores. Well maybe they're coming back. In and of itself not a big deal but maybe the dep't stores are "leading indicators" so to speak.

BTW the one I saw was an "AMX" and at $300 not all that awful at the risk of heresy. Aluminum frame, Sora shifters (downtube of all things). Schraeder adapters on the presta valves. Felt like about 25-26# which is pretty decent when compared to some of the Huffy roadies I recall.

Of course you should disassemble and reassemble properly prior to riding.

:beer:

I am not sold on "clipless" snap-in shoe/pedal systems, partly because for utility ("Phred") cycling, I want to be able to jump on the bike while wearing any random pair of street shoes. I keep the straps just loose enough to permit me to yank my feet out in an emergency, and since I use touring-style, uncleated shoes, I can freely align my feet as needed to prevent knee problems.

STI is better than sloppy stem shifters, but I still prefer Campy friction downtube levers, or, to keep both hands on the bars, SunTour ratchet barcons.

John, for utility type riding, I am with you 100% on the trad cage-style pedals and the down-tube shifters.

Obviously, though, clipless pedals are for going on commited rides where you don't plan to be getting off the bike and walking around. For utilitarian purposes, though, the old cage style are still hard to beat.

I like the down-tube friction shifters too. Mainly because I do my own maintanance and they are easier to maintain and keep tuned in.

I think the fact that you saw it at Toys-R-Us is a good indicator that they are coming back. $300 sounds like a fair price for what you described - if the components are reasonably good.

Man, I just parted out four beautiful older road bikes this weekend. Watch them get trendy, have a retro boom, and all I will have left is the bones.

I have an old road bike with friction downtube levers, and I feel that they're a bit of a safety hazard: I'm afraid someone is going to do something unexpected as I'm reaching down with my right hand to shift, unable to get to the brake quickly enough. I'm wishing for a newer bike with the shifting levers as part of the brakes on drop handlebars (I don't know what they are called).

Jim L.

I've talked to a few other people about the fact that there aren't any cheap road bikes around in stores. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people didn't know that they even still make road bikes. If people don't go to bike stores, then the only places they see bikes are at discount stores, and the only bikes they have there are the cheap mountain bikes. Which is why on my morning commute most of the people I see are on cheap mountain bikes.

I'm not sure if we would see cheap road bikes at Toys R Us. It all comes back to bikes being seen as toys, not really as transportation. Kids want bikes they can play around on. They want to be able to ride off curbs and over yards and through the dirt. And a cheap mountain bike will handle that kind of thing better than a cheap road bike (although there is a part of me that suspects that a well made road bike might handle it better than a cheap mountain bike). Anyway, for that reason people will keep buying cheap mountain bikes at Toys R Us, Target, and other outlets.

And I don't know how many people would actually go ahead and buy a used road bike unless they really knew what they were doing. After all, if you buy something new, you expect it to be in some sort of working order. That may not always be the case, but it is what people expect. So given the choice between a new "cheap" mountain bike and a used road bike, people will choose the mountain bike at Target even if they never go off the pavement.

andy

I've read a couple articles that said it looked like road bike sales are slowly starting to go up. We can only hope that this is true, because I feel that there could never be to many roadies :)

-Matt-