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when I last visited road bikes in 2009, it was all very one dimensional — 23c tires pumped to the max had me only riding on the road, road. even a slight deviation on a different surface could result in disaster, or the fear of such disaster, and no one likes having to walk their bike in their road cleats. clip clap slip blap and so on…..

lately i’ve been titillated with the idea of Jobst Brandt style adventure roadying. long distance all day rides on mostly road — but with chunky, often times bike hike connectors. I love this style of riding, as I find the bike hikes to be rejuvenating, especially after pinning it to the rivets roady style as we click off the miles. my riding friends around here now know what I mean when I call for a road ride — as long as it’s mostly road, its a road ride.

the Rivendell roadini was my re-entry into road bikes a few years ago. I set it up with 32mm tires and found quickly just how capable that size whilst underbiking all over the tucson area. as someone who really loves underbiking, I found this to be a liberating experience — many long rides spent in the saddle (and off) of that bike. its too hefty IMO to be a true road bike though. weighs several lbs more than my Malocchio with a similar build — plus weight really matters in adventure road, as you often times have to carry your bike.

the off road riding is so good in my home area of East Haddam CT that I never really thought of getting back into the speedy bikes around here … but then we (ultradynamico) did a 33c road tire and I started getting roady curious again. while experimenting, the pro road racers started figuring out that wider tires were faster, and I even read a few seemingly reputable tests on this theory. I wont link to them as I am feeling lazy. does this hurt my reputability? turns out 30c is the sweet spot for the pros — anything bigger would be faster, but not aero. since I can’t seem to ride fast enough anymore for marginal aero gains to matter (I average 9-16 mph on an average ride), 700×33 is pretty dang good. things feel faster once the pros use them too i’ve found.

another entrance into my road bike chat thread is this Connecticut made Beach Club rim brake road bike. funny that rim brake has to be specified, but it does these days. I again have reputable sources that I am too lazy to link to with pros talking about how they don’t care about disc brakes. road calipers are so good and simple — short arms mean very little flex — they modulate well — so easy to adjust and re-center — lightweight — I could go on. but discs are something new to sell, so big bike is fully committed to making the last vestige of attractive bicycles into the opposite of attractive — to me at least — and this is my blog after all.

I am not into the Columbus carbon fork on this Beach Club (Darren is making me a steel one), but I love everything else. I don’t mind carbon forks — but really the only ones that look good to me are the Cannondale skinny ones, and of course our olde friends Wound Up. no one is putting money into high end rim brake road forks these days though — so this Columbus one has paltry tire clearances, and there is nothing to be done about it. the ship hath sailed on carbon rim brake forks. I have to lower the front wheel in the drop out in order to clear 700×30 on this one, so the beach club is relegated to being kind of more of a road bike and an adventure road bike, but those 700×30 tires are still surprisingly capable on dirt, and they fly on the road.

I am also using Shimano SPD sandals. yikes. but dang!

the above bike is my olde Grandis. longest ownership of all my bikes. its been all sorts of things including a 650bx38 fast bike. I think I will turn it back into one of those cuz it really does not ride as well as the beach club and Malocchio. I don’t know …. it definitely feels sluggish. its a high end Italian bike from the mid 80s, and I’d like to think thats as good as anything now … but its not. funny how that works. those sandals make up for the lack of performance though.

so in closing on this opinion piece, I think road bikes are poised to make a big comeback this year with the Netflix series and all the exciting young racers who participate all the disciplines. we have very well rounded “balance bike” generation pro road racers out there mixing it up in this new era of roadies. they love riding bikes, and it’s apparent in the way they race. should be an interesting summer!

Ronnie