Pressfit is still not as good as BSA. The shop workers / owners can say more than I about how current generation pf is doing, but nobody singing its praises from the rafters. I mean, Trek came up with a modified T47 for this coming year’s models, which doesn’t suggest they’re super into pf.
It’s not a dealbreaker for me, but it is a distinct bummer when it comes to buying a stock factory bike. That, and that many companies are now making framesets that only work with proprietary bars, stems, and seatposts, which is great for aero or ride tuning or whatever, not so great if you’re a weird sized person.
For road I’d compare sizes across brands- if you’re looking at smaller sizes I’d check for, ah, toe overlap? A short enough head tube? I’m at the other end and am always in the market for all the top tube they want to sell me.
Do you want to be comfortable for an hour or for like four hours? If the former you could probably get an older skinny tire and rim brakes bike for cheap
Every Giant that’s passed through my stands has been alright for the price - I feel that for the equivalent carbon race bikes from other brands, you’re basically paying for the name (aside from design details which may or may not affect your decision, depending on your love or disdain for proprietary bullshit). They’re all gonna be pretty good at the 2000-2500 carbon frame range.
Metal bikes are where it gets interesting - Allez’s are awesome bikes though a bit overpriced. Looking forward to checking out the new CAAD.
Oh yeah, they’re doing more proprietary parts bullshit with road bikes these days, huh. I’m all custom for that kind of bike, so I tend to miss out on it, besides picking a fork/headset/headtube that seems like it will work and not be a pain in the ass to replace in five years.
So I’d avoid anything that “cleverly” solves the problem of competing bottom bracket standards by making their own, or that comes with some stupid wheelset that can’t be trued unless you write a letter to Mavic asking them for a fucking spoke key that’s not made of fucking plastic oh my god I still get furious every time I think about Ksyriums
In a bit of synchronicity, I’m planning a road-ish bike at the same time as the pro tour bikes are getting a media event.
It’s weird, things seem to be more convergent than I’d expect: tires are headed in a tubeless direction, disc brakes are on most bikes, saddles are way wider than in past.
Some stuff is further from what I’m interested in, like aero everything and electronic shifting, super garish paint, and ultra-integrated cable / bar / stem / headsets
I’m curious about the bar shapes I’m seeing, some of them have centimeterS of flat top before the bend, it seems like it might feel nice, but kinda impossible to grip effectively.
Not a lot of convenient geo charts, but it looks as if the basic form of the bikes hasn’t changed that much, maybe head tube angles have slacked a little bit from where they were a decade or so ago?
Cycling Tips, unsurpirisingly, has a four part series of photos and first impressions:
If anything I think they have returned to what the euro brands were doing the whole time. Colnago and Time were winning all the classics with head tube angles that look more like endurance bikes than “racing” bikes.