Timeline of technological advances
 

I’m interested in the evolution of the bicycle over the history of the Tour de France. I’d like to try to make a timeline of some of the major developments, and was hoping people here could help me out. Here’s the best I can get from the glossy photos in Tour de France: The Illustrated History (by Margeurite Lazell) and other cursory research:

1903: Single speed (or was it fixed gear?), caliper brakes, clips on pedals

1930s: Vittoria Margherita derailleur.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ERxywogDj9...photos+004.jpg
Were there other kinds of derailleurs at the time, or prior to the 1930s, too? A photo of René Vietto in 1934 sobbing on the side of the road because he lent his still intact bike to team leader Antonin Magne shows him with a broken down bike with no derailleur. But then another pic from 1937 shows a troupe of riders with the derailleur in the pic above.

1947: As best I can tell, riders were using modern-style derailleurs in the first Tour after the war, save for Fausto Coppi and some of the Italians. Also, it seems to me that there were no fundamental changes to the bikes between the 1940s and 1986.

1986: Clipless pedals.

1989: Lemond’s time-trial handlebars.

1990: Gear shifters move from downtube to Ergo-style combination shift-brake levers.

1999: Threadless stems.


What am I missing or getting wrong? Would anyone be able to fill in the general trends in terms of the progressively greater number of cogs on the back wheels over the years?

In 1989, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the hormone Epogen.

Okay, that was just snarky.

I'd be curious to know when deep dish CF wheels started showing up. From the pictures, it looks like Fignon rode on two disc wheel for the final time trial in 89.

As far as what you're missing, it depends on how picky you want to get. Derailleur types, frame materials, wheel materials, electronics, helmets, etc.

In 5,000 B.C., the Mesopotamians created the wheel.

Where can I find this info? Can you add any of it? I'll update the original post with it.

I guess what fascinates me is that bikes seemed to stay much the same for a 40-year stretch after the war.

I don't know dates and specifics, even on the few advances I have in mind, but I imagine wikipedia can answer most of your questions to satisfaction. The only one I found interesting enough to read up on was the invention of the mountainbike, but I can't remember the specific date on that either.

frame geometry and tire / wheel choices continued to evolve, as roads improved.

also I'd look at rider positions, I think saddle heights have come up quite a bit.

and, it's not a bike thing, but cadences have come up quite a bit.

oh also look into the French "constructeur" (sp?) bikes which were superlight even by today's standards but were not used for racing.

I think the technological changes you're looking for are more of a slow evolution... rather than different periods punctuated with big advances.

Interesting thread, though.

1990 - Shimano introduces DA brake/shift levers, 8 speed

1992 - STI brake shift lever trickles down to Ultegra, 8 speed

1992 - 8 speed Campy ergo

1997 - Campy 9 speed

2000 - Campagnolo introduces 10 speed.

2004 - Shimano introduces 10 speed.

2009 - Campaganolo introduces 11 speed.

2009 - Shimano introduces the second electronic shifting system - Mavic beat them to it.

Actually, it isn't as simple as that. The early TdF racers used gears that we would now consider quite low, and spun them very quickly on the flats. Of course, the climbing gear was what we would now consider much too high, but when you can only have one gear each for climbing and for flats and they can't be too far apart, you have to compromise.

As it became possible to have bigger gears on multiple-gear bikes later in history, more riders adopted them, and it became fashionable to hammer along in bigger gears, at least in TTs. This still isn't the same as what it means to hammer today. There was no such thing as a 53x11 in 1960. There was no such thing as a 53x12, either. There may have been such a thing as a 53x13, but the highest gear available realistically might have been a 52x14, maybe 52x13.

There certainly wasn't a point in history where the wisdom of high-cadence riding wasn't acknowledged and widely practiced, though there was of course some variation from rider to rider. Yeah, if you watch old footage of riders climbing the cadence is really low, but that's because really low climbing gears couldn't be used on racing bikes without really sacrificing on the spacing between gears on 4, 5 and 6-speed freewheels. I think that changes in cadence, especially when climbing, have been much more influenced by technology than you realize.

I am pretty sure guys road, at least had access to, bigger chain rings than a 52 for some specialty events in the old days.

corrected.

and it worked out for them so well. :rolleyes:

Some really good historical stuff at Dave Moultons blog.

Derailleurs were not allowed in the TdF in the early years. It got to be embarrassing when cyclotourists would watch the racers then ride on ahead up a mountain to watch ride by again.

If this sort of thing interests you, you should subscribe to Bicycle Quarterly. Lots of great history on bicycle racing, racers, and lots on the development of bike technology. Interesting examples of indexed shifting and shifters in the brake levers, from the 1930's.

With the UCI's rules on bikes and shapes and all that jazz, it pretty much guarantees a very slow evolution of the overall shape of the tour bikes. In some geometry aspects, the bikes of years gone by might be more advanced than the ones being used now.

Weren't there a few years when it was legal to use a smaller front wheel than back wheel on a time trial bike?

I just watched the 1994 Clásica de San Sebastián. The winner, Armand de Las Cuevas, used downtube shifters, while many of the rest of the riders, including second-place finisher Lance Armstrong, had Shimano STI combination brake-shifter levers.

Interesting.

I recently got a book from my GF called La bicyclette, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bicycle-Myth...4728215&sr=1-1

this is the english version, if you can find it you should have a lot of information about what you are looking for or what to look for.

Hey, thanks and merci for the tip!

but I don't know if it will be technical enough but it should pinpoint you what type of Derailleurs and stuff they were using in which year or when it arrived if you can rent it at a library or anything it would be perfect for you I guess

You should really be asking this in the C+V forum, they will really be able to help you out.

I do know one derailleur system that was used in the early days was Campagnolo's Cambia Corsa. It was a rod derailleur system that had to be manually operated. This site has a lot of info on it and other derailleur history: http://www.campyonly.com/history.html

And it only took about 6880 years before Bianchi thought of having the same size wheel at the front and back of a bicycle, and subsequently introduced the first air filled bicycle tyre.

Just two reasons why the Tour of Mesopotamia never really took off like the TdF did all those years later.

What Lance and others did was use a down tube shifter for the front derailer to save weight. The rear is operated by a regular brifter