A Highway Bike By Any Different Identify… – Bike Snob NYC

Final week we revisited the Golden Age of Hybrids–that transient but magical time earlier than the time period grew to become a catch-all for boring bikes that get ridden thrice a yr by folks in sweatpants, and nonetheless referred to performance-oriented mixture road-and-mountain bikes:

By the mid-Nineties the hybrid dream was successfully useless, and the bikes got here to embody the worst of each worlds by combining the thin rims and tires of a highway bike with the uncomfortable-over-long-distances flat bars of a mountain bike:

Arguably nonetheless there was nonetheless one thrilling hybrid accessible as late because the early twenty first century, that being the Lemond Wayzata, seen right here in the 2002 catalog:

In a single respect this bike represents the apotheosis of the worst-of-everything development that had began within the Nineties (skinny tires, paired-spoke wheelset, flat bars with wonky quasi-ergonomic bar-ends), however in one other it embodies the unique spirit of the style as it’s constructed on the very same body because the Poprad cyclocross bike–which, as you possibly can see, was the up to date selection of the discriminating fanatic:

It’s no surprise then that the enduring standing of the Poprad–coupled with no matter unusual fumes could also be permeating that storage–compels folks to promote them for critical cash:

$2,000 might seem to be quite a bit, however be mindful you’re getting a series that matches the body:

As wells an adjustable stem and what seems to be the rear wheel of a Schwinn Varsity:

Anyway, given the hybrid’s trajectory from edgy to anodyne, it’s doable that its modern-day equal, the gravel bike, might observe swimsuit by vanishing right into a mist of meaningless mediocrity. Definitely the indicators that the Gravel Bike Apocalypse is nigh are throughout us, chief amongst them being the numerous indistinguishable articles about how splendidly versatile they’re:

A Tweeterer introduced this explicit story to my consideration resulting from its painstaking gravel-centric recreation of The Time-Touring Retro-Fred from the Planet Tridork Bret:

Who, if you happen to don’t know, is essentially the most broadly reproduced bicycle owner of all time, adorning every thing from journal covers…

…to loaves of bread:

So what makes a gravel bike higher then a highway bike? Properly, you possibly can journey them extra slowly if you happen to really feel prefer it, and you may also put 32mm tires on them:

As somebody who’s been using slowly on a highway bike with 32mm tires for years I discovered this deeply puzzling:

I imply positive, I did have to interchange that bike finally:

Simply kidding!

It’s the identical goddamn bike.

Regardless, the highway bike will get a foul rap as a machine with a thong bikini-like lack of ruggedness and flexibility, however that was actually solely true of them for a comparatively brief time period–particularly the late Nineties and early aughts, when fats tubes and tight clearances got here into style:

But this was enough to alter notion of them so fully that even Jan Heine considers it noteworthy that racers are utilizing highway bikes at Paris-Roubaix:

Apparently this yr’s race was noteworthy in that the racers used their “regular racing bikes:”

However isn’t that what they all the time did?

Principally the bike corporations simply launched pointless constraints to their racing bikes for awhile, from which they’ve lastly determined to liberate you:

And for which Jan Heine seems to be taking the credit score:

I do know I’m extremely grateful to the all-road bike revolution for making it doable for me to journey this highway bike from 1982 all yr spherical throughout a wide range of terrain:

This entire highway bike factor would possibly simply catch on in any case.