It’s mid-November, which suggests we’re already approaching the summit of 2024, earlier than you realize it we’ll collectively zip up our jerseys and descend into 2025.
Within the meantime, I discover myself trying over my shoulder on the 12 months we’re abandoning and the bikes which have carried me by way of 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 one of the best street bikes in varied 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 ponder if someday somebody will work out methods to make a street bike that mixes many of the above attributes–you realize, one climbs properly and sprints properly and is fabricated from steel and can be snug over longer distances.
Nah, it’ll by no means occur.
Oh, wait, sorry, I ignored extra street bike classes:
“Greatest efficiency street?” Is efficiency not an inexpensive expectation with the others? And why does “Italian” get its personal class? It’s 2024! Aside from the names, there may be nothing inherently particular about Italian street bikes anymore. To paraphrase the 4 Questions, why is an Italian bike completely different from all different bikes? Contemplate Bianchi, which in 2024 is absolutely nothing greater than a colour:
And what about gravel bikes?
No less than there’s not a class for “Greatest Italian Gravel bike.”
Oh, wait, sure there may be:
“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 the complete motive gravel bikes exist. Folks typically say that gravel bikes are simply ’90s mountain bikes, however they’re actually simply cyclocross bikes that acquired dumbed down with disc brakes. However now in fact the cyclocross bikes have disc brakes too, so it’s all mainly 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 no bunch of shit on it” class? That is simply miserable. If you happen to’re going to divide mountain bikes into eleven (!) completely different classes (sure, eleven, one among them acquired lower off within the screenshot) and also you’re not going embody a Jones in any one among them, then I’ve no alternative however to utterly disregard the complete enterprise.
As for BSNYC/RTMS/Tan Tenovo Enterprises, Ltd. Bike of the 12 months for 2024, at this level I’d slender it down to 3 finalists. I’m not saying they’re the “greatest,” 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:
Greatest 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 Comfy 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 proper bike for the getting older singlespeeder. Certain, I suppose placing a triple crank in your singlespeed is a bit like placing a bunch of handrails within the rest room. However what’s cooler? Sustaining these “clear traces?” Or having the ability to get off the bathroom?
Greatest 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 basic metal ethos, as a recovering roadie of a sure age, there’s an plain pleasure in using the unique bikes that had been properly past your attain if 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 desires to be anymore, however higher late than by no means, proper?
Greatest Bike I All the time Dismissed As A Rolling Joke However Is Really Surprisingly Enjoyable And Attention-grabbing
I’m nonetheless ready for Outdoors to publish my newest column during 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 need.) However what I’ll say in regards to the Y-Ferl is that, whereas superficially it’s the antithesis of every part 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 other than being a bit lighter and searching cool (for those who’re into that type of factor) there’s actually no motive for the crabon–and even the titanium for that matter, and I believe I’d take pleasure in using one among its metal contemporaries simply as a lot. The Y-Foil nevertheless makes use of crabon to create a really distinctive body that might be roughly unimaginable in another materials and nets the rider not solely aero advantages however a delicate suspension impact that I have to admit is moderately enchanting. In fact you may get a lot the identical impact from a pair of higher-volume tires, and today I don’t trip practically quick sufficient to appreciate 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 trip simply so long as you’re ready to simply accept the flexibility to hold just one water bottle, in addition to the truth that if it’s even a bit moist out that water bottle will probably be completely coated in street grit as a result of lack of a seat tube.
So which is able to win? I dunno, however I’m going to go out for a trip on one among them now, which is able to hopefully deliver me nearer to a last determination.
