Fun fact: The copyright name of Roubaix bikes belongs to Fuji (the Fuji Roubaix) and not Specialized. That became public when Specialized aggressively sued a small Bike & Coffee Shop named Café Roubaix and it went all over the media.
I have a 2011 Spec Roubaix expert which was the most comfortable bike of it's day, but by today's standards is a joke...but I still love it and am very comfortable on it. Has 25mm tires (gasp...so wide in 2011), the inserts (do they really do anything?), and a carbon seatpost (revolutionary in it's day). Oh...and RIM BRAKES (gasp...how does one even stop on that?). Oh...10 speed. Ha Ha.
Super video David,. Having ridden the PR sportive I can attest to the total and utter brutality of the cobbles! I rode a BMC team machine on 26s .. my hardest day on a bike ever
My son races go kart professionally and this team will prepare his chassis for the annual season very carefully. Unlikely the racing bike frames are normal mass market ones.
Great insight, David, as always. Your commentary in this video makes me believe I just need two bikes; the Synapse I have now and the SuperSix I'll purchase next year. (Unless I decide offroad is essential; in which case I'll start taking a closer look at the Topstone line 🙂) In any event; Paris-Roubaix 2023 was a treat as I watched it line to line this year. Regarding your commentary about Van Aert's 1x chainset; I found it amazing he could still have a flat in the final kilometers and still manage a 3rd place finish! And whilst riding a Cervelo Caldonia! (I kind of want one for myself now, hehehe!!)
Your Synapse will do anything the SuperSix will do. Best to get a gravel bike although the Synapse will do that in a ltd capacity if the gravel in your area is tame, I used mine for gravel with 30mm tires, if yours has disc brakes you can fit bigger, but yeah the gravel bike is ultimately better. I also have a Giant TCR, but the Synapse is the bike I race and take out most days.
Not sure if you saw the footage, but there was a team member waiting with a wheel right as he exited the cobble sector. So he only lost about 20 seconds. All the teams do this on the cobble sectors, as with the narrow roads and crashes, it can take a long time for the team car to catch up.
No doubt Paris-Roubaix drove a lot of development and development decisions. I recently upgraded from a Domane to a Dogma, fearing the new bike would be bone-rattling on rough tarmac let alone cobbles. Imagine my surprise when I rode it on ~1 mile rough cobble section and it was shockingly, and I mean, absolutely shockingly comfortable, period, let alone for a race bike. Note, this was on 28mm tires at 70ish PSI on Princeton Wake 6560 Strada wheels (not exactly super forgiving). I'd imagine on 30 or 32mm tires at 50-60 PSI, it would be a dream. Carbon layup improvements in just the past 7 years are crazy. No longer is a race bike going to rattle your teeth out. It's great for everyone, especially because the tech really does trickle down (eventually...)
With the state of the roads in the UK, with potholed/ pitted surfaces, I think the Endurance type of bikes as seen in Paris-Roubaix are perfect. A shame that the Domane & Synapse are no longer used by the men's teams.
@@Andy_ATB yep for you maybe but the fastest ever PR needed the fastest bike not the most comfortable, 30-32mm tyres on a race bike super comfy, I'm sure Dave did Flanders sportive on his TCR
Loved this video - it’s a fascinating look at how tech develops. I’ll head over to your one on endurance bikes now but I was interested when you said about the next gen of road bikes. So do you think endurance will disappear as a category?
Thanks John. I gather endurance bikes are still very popular, but they are definitely challenged by gravel bikes which possibly offer even more versatility and comfort for a lot of regular cyclists. So I'm not sure is the honest answer.
Hey David, thanks for the tips and videos. However, I'm here to ask you a favour: please, let's bring back the disc brake banned debate. Last Saturday, April 8th, on the women competition of Paris Roubaix, there was a massive crash and Sanne Cant (Fenix-Alpecin) was probably the most injured. According to some news I've seen since then, a disc brake rotor went into her face and caused a deep laceration. She needed 60 stitches and a plastic surgery. Don't you think that a disc brake to cause deep laceration on the face of an athlete is enough for taking action to prevent this to happen? We know disc brakes on road are not as necessary as off road; we also know that MTB races don't have a peloton as road races do. So what are disc brakes doing on road cycling? Safety always comes first and UCI must have a safety driven actuation.
@@davidarthur ☹️ I appreciate your reply. I'm not sure, but I think chainrings exist for a longer period than disc brake on road cycling and how many lacerations have we seen due to chainrings? But thank you again for having answered my question.
Thank you for the great content as always! Only issue is calling this the “toughest one day race in the world.” That title has moved to the gravel scene…
How can you possibly make a video about the innovative influence of the Paris Roubaix, and not include the Colnago C40 which single handedly did more to demonstrate the durability of carbon than any other frame, past or present.
Probably not, Steel frames tend to be a good bit less stiff than carbon bikes, and due to the fact that they weren’t designed for pure speed could typically fit larger tires.
I converted a 1974 lugged steel race bike to a gravel bike much more comfortable than you would expect on the rough stuff. Much more compliance in any frame I've ever ridden also.
Let’s not forget about the cyclists they are very different from 15 years ago and unfortunately the history of cycling still looms over all of them, and the bikes don’t make that much of a difference 😊
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Fun fact: The copyright name of Roubaix bikes belongs to Fuji (the Fuji Roubaix) and not Specialized. That became public when Specialized aggressively sued a small Bike & Coffee Shop named Café Roubaix and it went all over the media.
I have a 2011 Spec Roubaix expert which was the most comfortable bike of it's day, but by today's standards is a joke...but I still love it and am very comfortable on it. Has 25mm tires (gasp...so wide in 2011), the inserts (do they really do anything?), and a carbon seatpost (revolutionary in it's day). Oh...and RIM BRAKES (gasp...how does one even stop on that?). Oh...10 speed. Ha Ha.
Super video David,. Having ridden the PR sportive I can attest to the total and utter brutality of the cobbles! I rode a BMC team machine on 26s .. my hardest day on a bike ever
My son races go kart professionally and this team will prepare his chassis for the annual season very carefully. Unlikely the racing bike frames are normal mass market ones.
Great insight, David, as always. Your commentary in this video makes me believe I just need two bikes; the Synapse I have now and the SuperSix I'll purchase next year. (Unless I decide offroad is essential; in which case I'll start taking a closer look at the Topstone line 🙂) In any event; Paris-Roubaix 2023 was a treat as I watched it line to line this year. Regarding your commentary about Van Aert's 1x chainset; I found it amazing he could still have a flat in the final kilometers and still manage a 3rd place finish! And whilst riding a Cervelo Caldonia! (I kind of want one for myself now, hehehe!!)
Your Synapse will do anything the SuperSix will do. Best to get a gravel bike although the Synapse will do that in a ltd capacity if the gravel in your area is tame, I used mine for gravel with 30mm tires, if yours has disc brakes you can fit bigger, but yeah the gravel bike is ultimately better. I also have a Giant TCR, but the Synapse is the bike I race and take out most days.
Not sure if you saw the footage, but there was a team member waiting with a wheel right as he exited the cobble sector. So he only lost about 20 seconds. All the teams do this on the cobble sectors, as with the narrow roads and crashes, it can take a long time for the team car to catch up.
No doubt Paris-Roubaix drove a lot of development and development decisions. I recently upgraded from a Domane to a Dogma, fearing the new bike would be bone-rattling on rough tarmac let alone cobbles.
Imagine my surprise when I rode it on ~1 mile rough cobble section and it was shockingly, and I mean, absolutely shockingly comfortable, period, let alone for a race bike. Note, this was on 28mm tires at 70ish PSI on Princeton Wake 6560 Strada wheels (not exactly super forgiving). I'd imagine on 30 or 32mm tires at 50-60 PSI, it would be a dream.
Carbon layup improvements in just the past 7 years are crazy. No longer is a race bike going to rattle your teeth out. It's great for everyone, especially because the tech really does trickle down (eventually...)
A proper summery of the evolution of technology stemming from the demands of the cobbles...Well done mate!!
Cheers, Pjw
Great vid David!!
With the state of the roads in the UK, with potholed/ pitted surfaces, I think the Endurance type of bikes as seen in Paris-Roubaix are perfect. A shame that the Domane & Synapse are no longer used by the men's teams.
The endurance frames used in these races are not the same you can buy. Shorter head tube generally.
Modern race bikes with wide tyres are better than the original endurance bikes + modern endurance bikes geometry would not suit today's riders
@@s1alker564 Yes, I know; the original Domane used by Cancellara was more like the Emonda, but with the isospeed.
@@imark9386 Well yes, that's obvious. I still think the RSL Domane would be better on the cobbles than any Madone.
@@Andy_ATB yep for you maybe but the fastest ever PR needed the fastest bike not the most comfortable, 30-32mm tyres on a race bike super comfy, I'm sure Dave did Flanders sportive on his TCR
Your videos are always great, your voice and cadence is very smoothing. Thanks for the great content!
More retrospectives like this David! This is good content.
Wonder if this adjustable tyre pressure gadget is partly why Wout got a couple of flats?
He wasn't using it
New canyon have change the headtube and seat tube. That what few things showing up on picture but i think many thing happen under the paint job.
What about the drop seat stay ? That seems to be adopted widely now
Loved this video - it’s a fascinating look at how tech develops. I’ll head over to your one on endurance bikes now but I was interested when you said about the next gen of road bikes. So do you think endurance will disappear as a category?
Thanks John. I gather endurance bikes are still very popular, but they are definitely challenged by gravel bikes which possibly offer even more versatility and comfort for a lot of regular cyclists. So I'm not sure is the honest answer.
Enjoyed this but next time maybe a spoiler alert? I am halfway through watching the replay
Hey David, thanks for the tips and videos. However, I'm here to ask you a favour: please, let's bring back the disc brake banned debate. Last Saturday, April 8th, on the women competition of Paris Roubaix, there was a massive crash and Sanne Cant (Fenix-Alpecin) was probably the most injured. According to some news I've seen since then, a disc brake rotor went into her face and caused a deep laceration. She needed 60 stitches and a plastic surgery.
Don't you think that a disc brake to cause deep laceration on the face of an athlete is enough for taking action to prevent this to happen?
We know disc brakes on road are not as necessary as off road; we also know that MTB races don't have a peloton as road races do. So what are disc brakes doing on road cycling? Safety always comes first and UCI must have a safety driven actuation.
Personally I'd be more worried about taking a chainring to the face in a crash than a disc brake rotor
@@davidarthur ☹️
I appreciate your reply. I'm not sure, but I think chainrings exist for a longer period than disc brake on road cycling and how many lacerations have we seen due to chainrings? But thank you again for having answered my question.
omg where can i get that omloop tshirt from
Gotta ride the Omloop sportive 😜
@@davidarthur hahah, that sounds like a good excuse to do so :😀
Thank you for the great content as always! Only issue is calling this the “toughest one day race in the world.” That title has moved to the gravel scene…
I ride a Roubaix so, yes.
How can you possibly make a video about the innovative influence of the Paris Roubaix, and not include the Colnago C40 which single handedly did more to demonstrate the durability of carbon than any other frame, past or present.
I plan to do a separate video of the key Paris-Roubaix bikes including the C40
@@davidarthur I should think so!
LOOK had their carbon bonded frames ridden in the PR for years!
@@ralphc1405 So what?.. The C40 was the first carbon frame to win the PR, it didn't just make up the numbers!
Riding PR on a steel frame had to be massively - and painfully brutal… 😬
Probably not, Steel frames tend to be a good bit less stiff than carbon bikes, and due to the fact that they weren’t designed for pure speed could typically fit larger tires.
Hincapie said they used 25 and sometimes 27.
I converted a 1974 lugged steel race bike to a gravel bike much more comfortable than you would expect on the rough stuff. Much more compliance in any frame I've ever ridden also.
Hayman rode 20mm tyres back when he won?!
That’s even more impressive 😳
Whats up with swapping thumbnails every few hours?
To see which one works the best
Toughest SHORT RACE in the world. Did you forget about RAM?
Aat uuullll!
Let’s not forget about the cyclists they are very different from 15 years ago and unfortunately the history of cycling still looms over all of them, and the bikes don’t make that much of a difference 😊