Best road bike ever?

BR_Gregor

Hi guys, we're discussing the best bikes of all time in the office (apologies if this has been posted previously). Help us settle this. Whether you were lucky enough to own one, take a ride on one, or just lust after one, what's your all-time favourite road bike? Tell us:

1) The best production road bike of all time in your opinion; no concepts
2) Best road bike you've actually owned.
3) Best wildcard option; any bike, any time, anywhere, anything goes

Add a picture too if possible!

If we get enough response we'll put it together in an article. Cheers.

ugo.santalucia

Very easy...

1) for the modern era, it's got to be the Colnago C 40... you can spend an afternoon naming the classics that were won on a C 40.
I've never owned one, but if I was into carbon bikes, I'd get one of those

2) I've never owned bikes worth of mention... my 1980 Sannino is nice, but it's not better than any good frame of its days

3) It's difficult to pick a moment in history when bikes really made the difference... it's been a pretty incremental evolution: the pneumatic tyre, the freewheel, the gear shifter.. each of these inventions meant you could travel a bit further a bit faster...
That said I have seen a guy doing the Tour of Flanders on a Penny Farthing... :shock:

k-dog

1. Controversial but the Trek 5500/Madone - the most successful bike of the modern era?

EDIT: 2. I had an original alloy TCR - pretty light, super stiff and very cool IMO. Only bike I've ever had stolen too...

3. For me it's CBs Lotus bike - still looks incredible. The original Olympic one is the best:

ugo.santalucia

k-dog wrote:

1. Controversial but the Trek 5500/Madone - the most successful bike of the modern era?

According to the books, it's won nothing

Grill

Apparently my Storck Fascenario 0.6 is the best bike ever.

anjasola

1.Colnago C40
2.Colnago C40
3.Don't know.

alan_sherman

I have a thing for LeMond's TVT carbon with Campag C Record Detlas and Scott drop ins. It is of an era though and a personal like rather than 'best ever'.

What about Eddie Merckx's orange framed race bike? I know little about it but is an iconic image in my mind. Plus I like Orange as a colour!

ugo.santalucia

alan sherman wrote:

I have a thing for LeMond's TVT carbon with Campag C Record Detlas and Scott drop ins. It is of an era though and a personal like rather than 'best ever'.

What about Eddie Merckx's orange framed race bike? I know little about it but is an iconic image in my mind. Plus I like Orange as a colour!

It was a De Rosa, just Eddie liked to have his name on. I find frames of that age of a decent quality are all the same... any artisan could build a De Rosa, a Colnago or a Gios, just they couldn't place the all important decals on it. There is a lot of snobbery around frames of that age, when in fact they all ride exactly the same. The geometries are identical, the tubings are the same and lugs are lugs... as long as the dropouts are decent, they are all Colnago Master

shipley

For me it's Colnago. Any Colnago. I have 4, all for different purposes and as I get older I continually appreciate their comfort. I won't buy anything else now.

Others may argue for the Trek, Cannondale, Giant, Specialized etc etc but they do nothing for me.

It's all personal though.

TheHound

Whichever one I'm paid to ride.

mfin

1) Don't know, the question can't be answered by anyone as no one can know because no one has ridden thousands and thousands of bikes for enough hours on each to assess each one

2) C59

3) Don't know, the question can't be answered by anyone as no one can know because no one has ridden thousands and thousands of bikes for enough hours on each to assess each one

debeli

The first C40 I saw was shocking... and even more shocking when I lifted it from the floor. It was and is a thing of wonder. I do not own a carbon frame and even moan about the carbon parts on my bikes, but I am smitten completely by the C40. I don't know when I last saw one being ridden, but they are out there.

I do not want to call it the best ever, as I have a massive bias against plastic. I imagine that the best ever is probably from the end of steel in the GTs.... something super lightweight. As to specific brands, it is funny how people are so loyal to this or that, yet would have trouble telling one from another with the decals removed.

If I were to win the lottery or come into some money through an unbelievable offer in an email from Nigeria, I would buy as follows:

Light steel frame. Nice wheels (built up on Italian parts), Campagnolo 10-speed (or 11) Record or similar with Ergo shifters and cables. Quill stem. 2 proper chain rings (53/39 or similar). Lovely powder-blue finish and no decals or stickers on any component. And I'd spend three weeks going through which bars to have on it... not because I'd have any idea why one was better than another, but because I'd want to give the impression I knew what I was talking about. Probably all sitting on Conti Gatorskins because thorns are no respecter of quality bicycles.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

imatfaal

k-dog wrote:

1. Controversial but the Trek 5500/Madone - the most successful bike of the modern era?

3. For me it's CBs Lotus bike - still looks incredible. The original Olympic one is the best:

You can buy one if you have the readies (it's the road version rather than the pure track)

http://www.dorotheum.com/auktion-detail ... e&offset=3

there are some beautiful bikes there

First.Aspect

Surely this question would have to anwered in terms of the impact the bike had? The "best" bikes will all be on the shelves right now, I would have thought.

So, I'd be looking for the first TdF bike with a freewheel, or with derailleur gears. LeMond's tt bike from 89. disguised titanium frames from the 90s, the Carrera RC or the early Specialized which ushered in the carbon era, the first Look carbon frames, etc.

disgruntledgoat

k-dog wrote:

1. Controversial but the Trek 5500/Madone - the most successful bike of the modern era?

3. For me it's CBs Lotus bike - still looks incredible. The original Olympic one is the best:

There's one of those on the wall at SRM's HQ. I stood and stared for a full 5 minutes.

disgruntledgoat

1. One of the original, lugged, look carbon frames. Started a revolution. That or the C40.

2. I'm torn between 2. I had a Cervelo S1, the aluminium one and I think that is the best pound for pound frame i've ever ridden. Stiff, aero, light. I regret selling that. At the moment, I have a 2nd hand Pinarello Prince from 2007, the bike that Caisse D'Epargne used. That is sublime

3. I had occasion to look at Pantani's Bianchi from 1998. The little things they did to make an aluminium bike lighter were mindblowing.

meanredspider

1. For me it's any of the bikes that moved this incredibly conservative sport forward technologically

2. ...which leads me to my Volagi Liscio: purpose-built disc-braked road bike ahead of all the big players: from saying that disc brakes were pointless, the concern seems to have moved to them being too good to mix with rim brakes.

3. See answer 1.

thegreatdivide

1) Colnago C59

2) Wilier Cento Uno (original)

3) Wilier Triestina

Smokin Joe

ugo.santalucia wrote:

k-dog wrote:

1. Controversial but the Trek 5500/Madone - the most successful bike of the modern era?

According to the books, it's won nothing

No bike has ever won anything, they're not Formula 1 cars. It's the guy sitting on the saddle wot does it.

bontie

Debeli wrote:

The first C40 I saw was shocking... and even more shocking when I lifted it from the floor. It was and is a thing of wonder. I do not own a carbon frame and even moan about the carbon parts on my bikes, but I am smitten completely by the C40. I don't know when I last saw one being ridden, but they are out there.

Really? 3 in my regular Saturday ride, admittedly mine is currently in frame only mode, but you do see them more than any bikes over a certain age. The C40 was the pioneer, the pinnacle and still is an amazing bike.

As for the Bianchi mentioned, those are virtually all broken by now.

My vote goes for the C40, I also own a C50 which is arguably a better bike but by that time many of the competitors caught up and also made pretty decent carbon bikes. The C40 was light years ahead of its competitors.

jimwalsh

c40 no question.

debeli

bontie wrote:

Really? 3 in my regular Saturday ride, admittedly mine is currently in frame only mode, but you do see them more than any bikes over a certain age. The C40 was the pioneer, the pinnacle and still is an amazing bike.

As for the Bianchi mentioned, those are virtually all broken by now.

My vote goes for the C40, I also own a C50 which is arguably a better bike but by that time many of the competitors caught up and also made pretty decent carbon bikes. The C40 was light years ahead of its competitors.

That's excellent news. I'm pleased they're being used. They are things of beauty. I just happen not to have seen one for a while.

I imagine they will outlast most of the carbon of those early years and I'll be pleased if they do.

They were bought (largely) by enthusiasts who were buying 'big buck' bicycles before the recent surge of lust for cycling. That tends to put them in the hands of bicycle lovers.

They also tend (partly for the above reason) to have been cherished and not seen as part of a stepping-stone path to the next fad-tastic carbo-missile.

The first person I knew who bought one payed more for it than I'd paid for a 5-year-old VW Golf (long-since sold on and scrapped). And he got it cheap... But he still has it and it still looks spanky-new and it is still ridden at every opportunity. And despite my disdain for all things Carbon, I love it.

I do not approve of carbon, but I make a massive and singular exception for the C40. I'm pleased it seems to be winning this poll - and I don't even have one!

964cup

Shamelessly, this:



...or any other light steel artisanal frame with proper polished metal components, proper wheels and tubulars.

Why? Because this year's carbon bike will *always* be better than last year's -they're an expression of technology. Steel is an expression of art. Similarly, next year's aero carbon wheels will be lighter and have less drag than this year's, but Nemesis on Record 3-cross x 32 will last forever and tolerate whatever you throw at them.

If I have to pick a modern bike, I'd go with the Cervelo R5, because I think they were the first to get the magic combination of weight, responsiveness and ride quality. And because I have one, of course. I expect if I had a Colnago, I'd pick that.

First.Aspect

meanredspider wrote:

1. For me it's any of the bikes that moved this incredibly conservative sport forward technologically

2. ...which leads me to my Volagi Liscio: purpose-built disc-braked road bike ahead of all the big players: from saying that disc brakes were pointless, the concern seems to have moved to them being too good to mix with rim brakes.

3. See answer 1.

Sigh. It's not even close MRS. It might have a case by dint of the seat stay arrangement, but colnago got there first with road discs, and the likes of Salsa and Fixie Inc were selling road oriented cross disc bikes years before volgai. Even they were following LeMond and Trek, who had commuting road oriented machines with discs as early as about 2000.

mrushton

Has to be the C40 - it started the whole carbon bike thing from a difficult, esoteric material to a genuine world class bike that anyone could have. The C50 was a logical extension and the C59 still does it for me. The steel bikes of De Rosa/Colnago etc were lovely but the way the C40 changed the game was amazing. Irritatingly Trek prob. made a lot more money out of Lance than Ernesto did out of all those classics/stage wins

Philly8mt

It's the Colnago C40

But .... The Cervelo R3 has to be in the running somewhere

mamba80

the early LOOK's and the the later 585/595 bikes.

As early as the mid 80's they were making frames in carbon - the kg86 - Lemond won the TDF on one and introduced the clipless pedal to the masses.
Today they make striking frames, track tri and road, hands down the most innovative company out there and i have 2 !!!!

964cup

Why has "best" become "most innovative / most game-changing"? Are they the same thing?

There's no shortage of game changers:
Ti Raleigh Pro - a bit like an early Team Sky, but building their own bikes
Look KG86 - first usable carbon frame
Vitus 979 - first stiff aluminium frame
Giant TCR - first compact (this is probably the bike that most influenced our own bikes)
Trek OCLV - (I think) the first monocoque carbon frame
Cervelo Soloist - first aero road frame
S-Works Venge - first fusion of F1 aero & composite thinking with frame design

List shamelessly borrowed from Cycling News.

None of these are necessarily the "best" though, are they? Would we choose to ride any of them now over our own bikes, or a free choice of any bike in the world?

What's the best roadbike in the world, right now, if you could only have one and use it for everything you do on tarmac?

Smokin Joe

964Cup wrote:

Why has "best" become "most innovative / most game-changing"? Are they the same thing?

Giant TCR - first compact (this is probably the bike that most influenced our own bikes)

Not true. Dave Lloyd built the first compact frame as far as I remember.

964cup

Smokin Joe wrote:

964Cup wrote:

Why has "best" become "most innovative / most game-changing"? Are they the same thing?

Giant TCR - first compact (this is probably the bike that most influenced our own bikes)

Not true. Dave Lloyd built the first compact frame as far as I remember.

First scale production compact? First compact anyone else has ever heard of? First compact ridden in the Tour? One of those, I expect.

bontie

964Cup wrote:

Why has "best" become "most innovative / most game-changing"? Are they the same thing?

There's no shortage of game changers:
Ti Raleigh Pro - a bit like an early Team Sky, but building their own bikes
Look KG86 - first usable carbon frame
Vitus 979 - first stiff aluminium frame
Giant TCR - first compact (this is probably the bike that most influenced our own bikes)
Trek OCLV - (I think) the first monocoque carbon frame
Cervelo Soloist - first aero road frame
S-Works Venge - first fusion of F1 aero & composite thinking with frame design

List shamelessly borrowed from Cycling News.

None of these are necessarily the "best" though, are they? Would we choose to ride any of them now over our own bikes, or a free choice of any bike in the world?

What's the best roadbike in the world, right now, if you could only have one and use it for everything you do on tarmac?

I saw that list and could not fathom why the C40 was not on it.

All I can say is find a C40, ride it, and then make up your mind.
I rode one for 3miles and started trawling ebay that afternoon, and bought a 10 year old frame that makes me smile more than almost any other bike. They are really that good.