It’s mid-November, which implies we’re already approaching the summit of 2024, earlier than you recognize it we’ll collectively zip up our jerseys and descend into 2025.
Within the meantime, I discover myself trying over my shoulder on the yr we’re forsaking and the bikes which have carried me by means of it. So which ones can be the “Bike Of The Yr?” The place would I even start? In the hunt for a rubric, I turned to the mainstream biking media:
Listed here are the most effective highway bikes in numerous classes, although as you may see they’re all just about the identical bike:
However wait, there’s extra!
That’s some finely-sliced categorization:
I’m wondering if sooner or later somebody will work out tips on how to make a highway bike that mixes many of the above attributes–you recognize, one climbs nicely and sprints nicely and is manufactured from metallic and can also be snug over longer distances.
Nah, it’ll by no means occur.
Oh, wait, sorry, I unnoticed extra highway bike classes:
“Finest efficiency highway?” Is efficiency not an affordable expectation with the others? And why does “Italian” get its personal class? It’s 2024! Other than the names, there may be nothing inherently particular about Italian highway bikes anymore. To paraphrase the 4 Questions, why is an Italian bike completely different from all different bikes? Think about Bianchi, which in 2024 is basically nothing greater than a coloration:
And what about gravel bikes?
At the least there’s not a class for “Finest Italian Gravel bike.”
Oh, wait, sure there may be:
“I’m available in the market for an Italian gravel bike” is a phrase you hear solely barely extra usually than “I’m on the lookout for a Saudi Arabian microbrew.” And when the hell did cyclocross get folded into gravel?!? That’s simply insulting. Cyclocross bikes are all the motive gravel bikes exist. Individuals generally say that gravel bikes are simply ’90s mountain bikes, however they’re actually simply cyclocross bikes that obtained dumbed down with disc brakes. However now after all the cyclocross bikes have disc brakes too, so it’s all principally meaningless.
And I’m not even going to handle mountain bikes, as a result of I don’t take into account these bikes anymore:
I’m sorry, the place’s the “regular bike with out a bunch of shit on it” class? That is simply miserable. In the event you’re going to divide mountain bikes into eleven (!) completely different classes (sure, eleven, one among them obtained minimize off within the screenshot) and also you’re not going embrace a Jones in any one among them, then I’ve no alternative however to utterly disregard all the enterprise.
As for BSNYC/RTMS/Tan Tenovo Enterprises, Ltd. Bike of the Yr for 2024, at this level I’d slender it down to 3 finalists. I’m not saying they’re the “finest,” however they’re the bikes which have most captured my creativeness and using time over the previous yr. (They’re additionally the bikes which have come to me most lately, which can have one thing to do with it.) Right here they’re:
Finest Street Bike That’s Additionally a Gravel Bike That’s A Singlespeed However You Can Additionally Set It Up As A Double Or A Triple And Additionally It’s Actually Snug And It’s Metal And It Has Lugs
I’m actually not saying you need to be outdated to like this bike, however I’m saying that is the right bike for the ageing singlespeeder. Certain, I suppose placing a triple crank in your singlespeed is somewhat like placing a bunch of handrails within the toilet. However what’s cooler? Sustaining these “clear traces?” Or having the ability to get off the bathroom?
Finest Over-The-Prime Early 21th Century Street Bike From A “Boutique” Model That’s Actually Simply One other Bike From A Large Bike Firm
Whereas I embrace and espouse the basic metal ethos, as a recovering roadie of a sure age, there’s an plain pleasure in using the unique bikes that had been nicely past your attain once you had been in your “prime.” It seems like I’ve lastly arrived–20 years later, and at a spot the place no one else needs to be anymore, however higher late than by no means, proper?
Finest Bike I At all times Dismissed As A Rolling Joke However Is Really Surprisingly Enjoyable And Fascinating
I’m nonetheless ready for Exterior to publish my newest column through which I share what I discovered from one of many Trek engineers who designed this factor. (I actually ought to begin a weblog the place I can publish stuff every time I need.) However what I’ll say concerning the Y-Ferl is that, whereas superficially it’s the antithesis of every little thing I stand for, it’s also one of many few bikes that takes true benefit of The Crabon, and for that it has earned my respect. The LeMond is half-crabon, however other than being somewhat lighter and searching cool (when you’re into that kind of factor) there’s actually no motive for the crabon–and even the titanium for that matter, and I think I’d take pleasure in using one among its metal contemporaries simply as a lot. The Y-Foil nonetheless makes use of crabon to create a really distinctive body that might be roughly inconceivable in every other materials and nets the rider not solely aero advantages however a delicate suspension impact that I need to admit is slightly enchanting. In fact you will get a lot the identical impact from a pair of higher-volume tires, and nowadays I don’t journey practically quick sufficient to understand any of the aero advantages, however within the context of a late-90s race bike I give Trek credit score for pulling off what it got down to do, and it’s a enjoyable bike to journey simply so long as you’re ready to just accept the power to hold just one water bottle, in addition to the truth that if it’s even somewhat moist out that water bottle will probably be completely lined in highway grit because of the lack of a seat tube.
So which is able to win? I dunno, however I’m going to move out for a journey on one among them now, which is able to hopefully carry me nearer to a ultimate determination.