It’s mid-November, which suggests we’re already approaching the summit of 2024, earlier than you understand it we’ll collectively zip up our jerseys and descend into 2025.
Within the meantime, I discover myself wanting over my shoulder on the 12 months we’re abandoning and the bikes which have carried me by it. So which ones can be the “Bike Of The 12 months?” The place would I even start? Searching for a rubric, I turned to the mainstream biking media:
Listed here are the most effective highway bikes in varied classes, although as you’ll be able to 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 determine find out how to make a highway bike that mixes a lot of the above attributes–you understand, one climbs effectively and sprints effectively and is fabricated from steel and can be snug over longer distances.
Nah, it’ll by no means occur.
Oh, wait, sorry, I disregarded 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! Aside from the names, there’s nothing inherently particular about Italian highway bikes anymore. To paraphrase the 4 Questions, why is an Italian bike totally different from all different bikes? Take into account Bianchi, which in 2024 is basically nothing greater than a coloration:
And what about gravel bikes?
At the very least there’s not a class for “Finest Italian Gravel bike.”
Oh, wait, sure there’s:
“I’m out there for an Italian gravel bike” is a phrase you hear solely barely extra typically 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 your complete motive gravel bikes exist. Individuals typically say that gravel bikes are simply ’90s mountain bikes, however they’re actually simply cyclocross bikes that received dumbed down with disc brakes. However now in fact 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 think about 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 (!) totally different classes (sure, eleven, considered one of them received reduce off within the screenshot) and also you’re not going embody a Jones in any considered one of them, then I’ve no selection however to fully disregard your complete enterprise.
As for BSNYC/RTMS/Tan Tenovo Enterprises, Ltd. Bike of the 12 months for 2024, at this level I’d slim it down to a few 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 12 months. (They’re additionally the bikes which have come to me most just lately, which can have one thing to do with it.) Right here they’re:
Finest Highway 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 it’s important to be outdated to like this bike, however I’m saying that is the right bike for the growing older singlespeeder. Positive, I suppose placing a triple crank in your singlespeed is a bit of 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 Highway Bike From A “Boutique” Model That’s Actually Simply One other Bike From A Enormous Bike Firm
Whereas I embrace and espouse the traditional metal ethos, as a recovering roadie of a sure age, there’s an simple pleasure in using the unique bikes that have been effectively past your attain once you have been in your “prime.” It looks like I’ve lastly arrived–20 years later, and at a spot the place no person else needs to be anymore, however higher late than by no means, proper?
Finest Bike I All the time Dismissed As A Rolling Joke However Is Really Surprisingly Enjoyable And Attention-grabbing
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 each time I would like.) However what I’ll say in regards to the Y-Ferl is that, whereas superficially it’s the antithesis of all the pieces I stand for, additionally it is 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 aside from being a bit of 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 considered one of its metal contemporaries simply as a lot. The Y-Foil nonetheless makes use of crabon to create a really distinctive body that may be kind of not possible in every other materials and nets the rider not solely aero advantages however a delicate suspension impact that I need to admit is reasonably enchanting. After all you may get a lot the identical impact from a pair of higher-volume tires, and today I don’t experience almost quick sufficient to comprehend 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 experience simply so long as you’re ready to simply accept the power to hold just one water bottle, in addition to the truth that if it’s even a bit of moist out that water bottle will probably be completely lined in highway grit as a result of lack of a seat tube.
So which can win? I dunno, however I’m going to go out for a experience on considered one of them now, which can hopefully carry me nearer to a ultimate resolution.
