The ten years of road vehicles are neither long nor short. Ten years ago, pneumatics had already started, and ten years ago, weight could be very light. It feels like ten years is just a cycle, without any progress. But ten years ago, light road vehicles were not pneumatic, and pneumatic road vehicles were not light. Now, the trend is to balance pneumatic and lightweight. The real transformation occurred 5-6 years ago when road cars began to use disc brakes. If you compare road cars from ten years ago and now, the most obvious change is from ring brakes to disc brakes.
Some people still believe that transitioning from circular brakes to disc brakes is just a marketing strategy developed by manufacturers to sell more cars. Although the appearance of disc brakes does not immediately make bicycles more pneumatic or lighter. However, disc brakes can relieve the constraints brought by circular brakes, on the one hand due to tire capacity limitations, and on the other hand due to limitations in frame design. The tire capacity limitation of the rim brake clamp is easy to understand. Wider tires and lower tire pressure have had a profound impact on road vehicles. Removing the brake edge allows for unrestricted wheel shape, making it more aerodynamic and stable. If you want to understand the limitations that circle brakes bring to frame design, just take a look at how early pneumatic road vehicles hid their brakes. That period was a nightmare for engineers and technicians. So disc brakes can quickly become popular, and the better braking performance brought by disc brakes is only superficial. The underlying reason is that the design of the frame and wheel group is greatly simplified, allowing manufacturers to quickly iterate, ultimately resulting in both pneumatic and lightweight road vehicles.
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Model： A210F2SE Model： A263R
Propel's ten-year transformation is very obvious, but the charm is still present. The Circle Brake Propel uses custom brakes and is hidden to reduce air resistance. The disc brake Propel is much simpler, allowing for more focused optimization for aerodynamics, rigidity, lightweight, and comfort.
Scott Foil's decade was a complete change, and without specifying the model, no one would believe it to be the same series. But ten years ago, the Foil was already a pneumatic road vehicle, using Kamm tail tubes instead of wings for a long time, balancing aerodynamics and rigidity. Therefore, the Foil has always had strong comprehensive performance in pneumatic road vehicles. Subsequently, Foil moved the brakes below the rear lower fork to reduce air resistance and made a compromise, only liberating the design after full disc braking.
Cerv é lo can still recognize the same series after ten years, and the design language for the riser and tee has not changed. Cerv é lo engineers design the frame using engineering analysis of AeroZone, taking into account the influence of the driver's body on airflow in different areas. The third generation S5 in 2018 features a pure disc brake design with an external rudder tube and fork shaft, establishing the current tone.
The basic shape of Reacto has been determined since the first generation, and its truncated tubular design is designed to minimize air resistance. The flat riser is cut into an arc to wrap around the rear wheels. The rear upper fork of the aerodynamic shape is connected to the lower position of the riser to reduce the windward area, and the rear upper fork unfolds outward, all of which became popular designs in later aerodynamics. Ten years ago, the Reacto concealed the rear brakes below the lower fork, sacrificing the feel of the brakes to improve aerodynamic performance. The disc brake Reacto completely hides the wiring and uses an integrated handle, which can fully optimize the pneumatic performance of the head tube and fork crown.
The difference between Madone in 2012 and 2022 is too great to be seen as the same series. Although the fourth generation Madone in 2012 looked like a hill climber, it had already started using Kamm tail pneumatic tube type and direct mounted brakes to enhance its aerodynamic performance. Please note that the front brakes are located below the head pipe and the rear brakes are hidden under the rear fork. The subsequent Madone designs became increasingly complex, with hidden brakes and the addition of Isospeed decouplers. The sixth generation Madone in 2018 had a significantly simplified structure compared to disc brakes. The current seventh generation Madone has removed IsoSpeed and introduced IsoFlow, with the goal of reducing weight and improving aerodynamic performance.
Of course, what we can see is a change in appearance. In the past decade, carbon fiber materials and stacking design have also made significant progress, improving stiffness to weight ratio and increasing comfort. Combined with improved variable speed braking
performance and ergonomics, wide tires with low pressure and vacuum tires. All of this has made road bikes better and stronger, and from this perspective, the changes in the past decade are very obvious.
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Model：A258R Model：A226R
