# Do all professional cyclists use carbon framed bikes?



## Cyclopathic (29 Jul 2013)

I imagine that all of them on the pro tour do because they all get sponsorship from manufacturers. Or is that incorrect? I wonder though if any of the lowlier professionals use bikes made from other materials, either out of personal preference or because they are perhaps sponsored by a manufacturer that uses something else?
Thanks to anyone kind enough and knowledgeable enough to humour me on this point of idle curiosity.


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## fossala (29 Jul 2013)

Team madason are riding on 953 (reynolds steel) volants, they are being released soon as well.


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## montage (29 Jul 2013)

Philip Gilbert used an aluminium canyon in 2010 (I think) for the cobbled classics


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## Hacienda71 (29 Jul 2013)

A few of the guys on the tour series were riding steel framed bikes in some of the rounds.


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## thom (29 Jul 2013)

fossala said:


> Team madason are riding on 953 (reynolds steel) volants, they are being released soon as well.


Is that the Genesis team : http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/team
Reynolds 953 & 951
They are kind of a proof of possibility team.


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## Hill Wimp (29 Jul 2013)

Am I right in thinking that bikes can be too light in the TDF and that if they are the riders can be disqualified ?


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## Hacienda71 (29 Jul 2013)

The UCI do have a minimum weight.


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## Hill Wimp (29 Jul 2013)

Interesting thanks for confirming that for me.


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## smutchin (29 Jul 2013)

Cyclopathic said:


> I imagine that all of them on the pro tour do because they all get sponsorship from manufacturers.



I read in Reg Harris's biography last year that although he rode "Raleigh" bikes (because they sponsored him), they were actually another make with Raleigh badges. I believe this kind of thing is quite common in pro cycling. Or used to be. Maybe less so now that bikes have more distinctive appearance (eg Pinarello's wavy forks).

One of the reasons Cav's move to Sky was so drawn out was that he had a deal to ride Specialized bikes while Sky had an arrangement with Pinarello...

On the whole, pros just have to ride whatever the team/sponsor gives them. They don't own the bikes and they have to give them back at the end of the season. They'll be given the latest kit because the manufacturers want the public exposure, but the riders themselves aren't always so keen...

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/04/the-secret-pro-the-spring-classics/

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/05/the-secret-pro-2/


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## Hill Wimp (29 Jul 2013)

Yes I read the same in Wiggos book about them not being able to keep the bikes which amazed me.


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## thom (29 Jul 2013)

smutchin said:


> I read in Reg Harris's biography last year that although he rode "Raleigh" bikes (because they sponsored him), they were actually another make with Raleigh badges. I believe this kind of thing is quite common in pro cycling. Or used to be. Maybe less so now that bikes have more distinctive appearance (eg Pinarello's wavy forks).


 
My impression is that this sort of thing wouldn't happen now, first since as you note the look of bikes are too distinctive to mask but second because I kind of doubt there is really that much of a difference between what the top pro-bike makers produce, although perhaps it can be more exaggerated when it comes to TT bikes.

In times past, in the days of steel bikes, hand crafted by yoda like frame builders in deep caves under the Italian alps, individual frame builders definitely did create bikes for specific riders that would get rebranded with someone else's badge when it came to racing. It probably happened deep into in the 80's - LeMond's winning TdF bike may have been a rebranded Serotta.


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## oldroadman (29 Jul 2013)

Reference query on UCI minimum weight limit, it's currently 6.8 kg. Madison Genesis team bikes are a little heavier, but not muh, around 7.6 I believe. And they look beautiful. Us old blokes love steel frames simply for ride quality, and now you can get them really light, why not?


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## montage (30 Jul 2013)

oldroadman said:


> Reference query on UCI minimum weight limit, it's currently 6.8 kg. Madison Genesis team bikes are a little heavier, but not muh, around 7.6 I believe. And they look beautiful. Us old blokes love steel frames simply for ride quality, and now you can get them really light, why not?


 

I know of one of their riders in particular that doesn't enjoy racing those bikes - too heavy and too harsh apparently, stiff in all the wrong places. I'm sure a mere mortal like myself could race just as unsuccessfully on a steel frame, but at the top it does seem to make a difference - there is a reason steel isn't in the pro peloton anymore. Though I agree, they do look bloody beautiful.


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## raindog (30 Jul 2013)

The massive carbon fork spoils the elegance a bit, though


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## deptfordmarmoset (30 Jul 2013)

Rapha-Condor's James McCallum uses a steel frame.






> McCallum said he favoured his steel bike over the Leggero thanks to its smoother ride quality over varying road surfaces on the UK criterium scene. “We’re hardly riding on glass all the time,” he explained.


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## Globalti (30 Jul 2013)

I don't buy the idea that a metal frame can be made as comfortable while as stiff laterally as a carbon frame. My carbon 1996 Roubaix looks like a collection of carbon tubes neatly joined together and rides pretty smoothly but my 2012 incarnation of the same bike is a different beast altogether - the frame bears no resemblance to a traditional tubed frame and the result is that it is almost completely rigid laterally; you can press with your toe on the BB axle and there's very little flex at all, consequently the bike tracks like a train on rails (not Spanish obviously) and feels sharp and precise, including in braking and climbing, while still managing to deliver a comfortable vertically-compliant ride. Big manufacturers like Spesh and Trek are spending lotsa lolly on improving their carbon frames and learning fast how to make the most of carbon. I don't see metal tube manufacturers or traditional frame builders doing the same - I believe that hydroforming was probably the last evolutionary step in metal frame building and unless somebody concocts a new wonder alloy, metal frame development has probably all but ended while carbon will continue to romp on ahead.


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## oldroadman (30 Jul 2013)

montage said:


> I know of one of their riders in particular that doesn't enjoy racing those bikes - too heavy and too harsh apparently, stiff in all the wrong places. I'm sure a mere mortal like myself could race just as unsuccessfully on a steel frame, but at the top it does seem to make a difference - there is a reason steel isn't in the pro peloton anymore. Though I agree, they do look bloody beautiful.


Unfortunately when you get paid to ride something you have to get on with it! Jimmy-Mac may have a point about the ride quality for crits, which in the big series this year have covered all kinds of surfaces, including roads that are covered in patches as they slowly deteriorate, never mind the pave.


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## Doseone (30 Jul 2013)

Didn't LA and poss some of the other Postals ride Litespeeds in Trek livery? They would have been Ti.


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## Rob3rt (30 Jul 2013)

Doseone said:


> Didn't LA and poss some of the other Postals ride Litespeeds in Trek livery? They would have been Ti.


 

Litespeed also make carbon frames. Unless they didn't back then?


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## Cyclopathic (30 Jul 2013)

Hill Wimp said:


> Yes I read the same in Wiggos book about them not being able to keep the bikes which amazed me.


 
I imagine that a lot of the riders in the pro tour will be offered free bikes from other sources though, just so that they can claim that they are ridden by the pros. 
With the price of these top end bikes it doesn't surprise me that they don't give them away as a matter of course. A large team could have quite a high turnover of members so it could get expensive quickly.


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## Rob3rt (30 Jul 2013)

A lot of pro teams sell or auction off ex-team bikes.


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## oldroadman (30 Jul 2013)

"For sale, knackered ex-team bike, one careless owner, only crashed a few time, good over cobbles north of Paris and in Flanders. Well maintained but abused. POA"...
A better bet: "Ex-team service bike, only 30,000 km on roof rack, Bounced around all over europe, some paint defects. POA"...you takes your choice!


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## Rob3rt (30 Jul 2013)

Pretty much ^^


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## deptfordmarmoset (30 Jul 2013)

oldroadman said:


> "For sale, knackered ex-team bike, one careless owner, only crashed a few time, good over cobbles north of Paris and in Flanders. Well maintained but abused. POA"...
> A better bet: "Ex-team service bike, only 30,000 km on roof rack, Bounced around all over europe, some paint defects. POA"...you takes your choice!


I can't remember who it was but I heard someone obviously in the know saying never ever buy a pro's training bike - it will be filthy and it will have done a lot of miles with no servicing.


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## Mr Haematocrit (30 Jul 2013)

I had a ex-team sky dogma training bike which really was a dog and currently have a highroad sworks (renshaw's) which is to big for me


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## Monsieur Remings (30 Jul 2013)

fossala said:


> Team madason are riding on 953 (reynolds steel) volants, they are being released soon as well.


 

That's interesting - have seen these bikes in the flesh on the circuits this season and thought they weren't carbon.


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## BarryBonkers (1 Aug 2013)

Doseone said:


> Didn't LA and poss some of the other Postals ride Litespeeds in Trek livery? They would have been Ti.


 
Pretty sure some members of the Motorola team rode on re-badged & painted Litespeed titanium frames. And weren't Lance's early TT frames for USPS re-badged & painted Litespeed Blades?


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## VamP (2 Aug 2013)

oldroadman said:


> "For sale, knackered ex-team bike, one careless owner, only crashed a few time, good over cobbles north of Paris and in Flanders. Well maintained but abused. POA"...
> A better bet: "Ex-team service bike, only 30,000 km on roof rack, Bounced around all over europe, some paint defects. POA"...you takes your choice!


 
I have an ex-team bike, well just the frame, and apart from a few cosmetics it's superb.


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## HLaB (2 Aug 2013)

I posted this a while back, it seems pretty relevant to this thread.


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