"Road" bikes

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

Since when has the term "road bike" come to be reserved
_exclusively_ for racing machines? My tourer is a road
bike, I would never take it on a trail.

Most recumbents are also made for road use, why aren't
they called road bikes?

The sport bike isn't an ATB either, it's also made
exclusively for the road. Shouldn't the term include
them too?

Same goes for "comfort" bikes and commuter (or "city"😉
bikes. Why do they get left out?

Why can't they just call a racing bike a racing bike?
Isn't it bad enough that they selfishly get all the top
of the line quality componentry and equipment while the
rest of us get treated like second class citizens by
the industry? Do they have to dominate the nomenclature
as well?

This ends my gripe for the day :-3)

I'm with you Chris, this another example of the
pernicious effects of the industry's excessive emphasis
on racing equipment. Here's my understanding of how this
usage came to be:

All drop bar bikes used to be called "racing" bikes by the
general public.

As the style became more widespread in the early '70s,
distinctions of touring bike, racing bike and sport tourer
were pretty well accepted.

There's always a tendency toward specialization, and "racing
bikes" wound up getting bifurcated into "criterium bikes"
and "road racing" bikes. The crit bikes were generally
shorter and featured more upright frame angles, higher
bottom brackets. Road racing bikes were designed with a bit
(but not much!) more concern for comfort and stability, with
the expectation that they'd be ridden farther at a stretch.

Then, "road racing" got truncated to "road." by folks who
weren't aware of any other type of bike in any serious way.

The term "racing bike" can no longer be used in the old
sense, now that there is mountain bike racing; arguably this
even became obsolete with the advent of BMX in the '70s.

Sheldon Christopher Brown +-----------------------------------------------
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| the man. |
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| |
| "You lie," he cried, | And ran on. | --Stephen
| Crane |
+-----------------------------------------------+ Harris
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In article <[email hidden]>,

Sheldon Brown said:

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

Since when has the term "road bike" come to be reserved
_exclusively_ for racing machines? My tourer is a road
bike, I would never take it on a trail.

Most recumbents are also made for road use, why aren't
they called road bikes?

The sport bike isn't an ATB either, it's also made
exclusively for the road. Shouldn't the term include
them too?

Same goes for "comfort" bikes and commuter (or "city"😉
bikes. Why do they get left out?

Why can't they just call a racing bike a racing bike?
Isn't it bad enough that they selfishly get all the top
of the line quality componentry and equipment while the
rest of us get treated like second class citizens by
the industry? Do they have to dominate the nomenclature
as well?

This ends my gripe for the day :-3)

I'm with you Chris, this another example of the
pernicious effects of the industry's excessive emphasis
on racing equipment. Here's my understanding of how this
usage came to be:

All drop bar bikes used to be called "racing" bikes by the
general public.

As the style became more widespread in the early '70s,
distinctions of touring bike, racing bike and sport tourer
were pretty well accepted.

There's always a tendency toward specialization, and
"racing bikes" wound up getting bifurcated into "criterium
bikes" and "road racing" bikes. The crit bikes were
generally shorter and featured more upright frame angles,
higher bottom brackets. Road racing bikes were designed
with a bit (but not much!) more concern for comfort and
stability, with the expectation that they'd be ridden
farther at a stretch.

Then, "road racing" got truncated to "road." by folks
who weren't aware of any other type of bike in any
serious way.

I always assumed that "road bike" came about as a term after
two things happened:

-6v freewheels made the generic term "ten-speed" inaccurate
(though Campy and now Shimano seem to have been infused with
nostalgia lately)

-the appearance of "mountain bikes" made it useful to
distinguish between the two kinds of serious bicycles.

Quoted message said:

The term "racing bike" can no longer be used in the
old sense, now that there is mountain bike racing;
arguably this even became obsolete with the advent of
BMX in the '70s.

Given that a great number of "racing" road bikes never
get raced, I'd say that another moniker is personally
reasonable. For most users, they're a fun piece of
fitness equipment, basically a cardio-oriented substitute
for golf clubs.

As for tourers, I'd say there's plenty of equipment out
there, from 80s road bikes with Suntour BL (yeah!) to
Rivendells, and everything in between. It's a small market
compared to selling bikes that make you Look Like Lance (or
Iban, or Alessandro...), but I don't notice any great
market deficits.

There are even a couple of fairly mass-market touring
frames made, so you should have no complaints about
pricing, either.

--
Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden]
sfu.cawiredcolaOpen ↗ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club

Sheldon Brown said:

Sheldon Christopher Brown

Looks as though I wasted a posting. See "Silly Q: MTB front
hub on road bike" thread. :-|

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net
home.earthlink.net~jeverett3Open ↗

I just want to add you should be willing to take your
touring bike on trails. I do not mean rock gardens or
anything like that but you would be surprised if well made
how far off of pavement a good touring, or even good road
racer type, bike can go. Much to the chagrin of some of my
riding parnters, I got no issues taking my road racing bike
or what ever you should call it onto gravel, packed dirt and
so on. Yea I run big heavy tires& wheels by today's
standards, 25c conti gator skins and 28 spoke rims with
crossed spokes, and have to true the wheels once in a while
but am happy with the results.

Chris Zacho The Wheelman said:

Since when has the term "road bike" come to be reserved
_exclusively_ for racing machines? My tourer is a road
bike, I would never take it on a trail.

Most recumbents are also made for road use, why aren't
they called road bikes?

The sport bike isn't an ATB either, it's also made
exclusively for the road. Shouldn't the term include
them too?

Same goes for "comfort" bikes and commuter (or "city"😉
bikes. Why do they get left out?

Why can't they just call a racing bike a racing bike?
Isn't it bad enough that they selfishly get all the top
of the line quality componentry and equipment while the
rest of us get treated like second class citizens by
the industry? Do they have to dominate the nomenclature
as well?

I believe it's because most aren't ever used for racing,
plus the term "racing bike" has unfortunate 70s
connotations, as Sheldon alludes to. I still call mine a
racing bike though, being I'm a child of the 70s (I used to
ride a Raleigh Chopper. but that's another story...)

Sheldon said:

All drop bar bikes used to be called "racing" bikes by
the general public.

So true. I was interviewed in 1980 about my cycling
travels by a newspaper reporter who subsequently
described my old touring bike, with racks and panniers
fore and aft, randonneur bar, and oversize sprung saddle
as a "12-speed racing bike" in his article. It took
*years* to live that down!

"Ryan Cousineau" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:rcousine-
[email hidden]... *SNIP*

Quoted message said:

Given that a great number of "racing" road bikes never
get raced, I'd say that another moniker is personally
reasonable. For most users, they're a fun piece of
fitness equipment, basically a cardio-oriented substitute
for golf clubs.

*SNIP*

Quoted message said:

Ryan Cousineau, [email hidden]
sfu.cawiredcolaOpen ↗ President, Fabrizio
Mazzoleni Fan Club

You are right...there are lot's of racing bikes out there
that don't race. I own one and I ride competitivly in a
recreational sense (does that make any sense?). Anyhow as to
the moniker...how about lifting something from the cafe
racer motorcycle crowd? Muscle powered crotch rockets !?
That woulld delineate the style of bike from touring,
recumbent, commuter, and MTB racing. As to a cardio
substitute for golf clubs...aren't golf and cardio some sort
of oxymoron like army intelligence? Just a thought. mto