20 Year Old Tour de France Bike vs Modern Superbike?

From time to time here at GCN, we come across some legendary bikes, but this one here, this is part of one of the biggest legends of all. This very bike, a Time VXRS, is a genuine team bike from Quickstep 2005. A year in which they won Roubaix, Flanders, the Worlds, Lombardy, and stages of the Tour. This particular bike here, two stages of the Tour of Britain, still. In this video, we want to find out if that bike deserves its legendary status and how it shapes up compared to this awesome machine, a bike which is 20 years younger. We'll ride them both, then put them head-to-head against a stopwatch at the same power output to see just how much faster the modern bike is. Whilst the Time did not come with a power meter, we fitted one in the form of Asioma Pro RS pedals. Perhaps though, we're most intrigued to see how the Time feels to ride. Whose bike was this then? None other than Italian rider, Luca Paolini. You might remember him from winning Gent-Wevelgem in 2015 or from winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2013. You may well remember him shepherding Paolo Bertini and Pippo Pisato to numerous victories. You might also remember him getting thrown out of the Tour de France for testing positive for cocaine, which to be fair, it makes a refreshing change from EPO. We know this is Paolini's old bike because he has his name painted on the frame, but also because genuine team bikes had non-replaceable derailleur hangers, which is a cool little nerdy fact for you. This exact bike belongs to Dan from Vintage Velos. He picked it up a couple of years ago from a collector in Germany. Time were a common sight in the pro peloton of the late 90s and the early 2000s. They were ridden not just by Quick-Step, but Cofidis, Bouygues Telecom, among others. Before, sadly, they were priced out of the sponsorship game. The company has French origins. It began back in 1987 with a clipless pedal. It was used by many of the greats, Delgado, Indurain, and Pantani, but they didn't get into frame manufacturing until a little bit later, 1993. Time have got a bit of a cult following because they make their frames in a slightly different way to most other brands. Instead of cutting carbon fiber sheets into swatches and placing them in a mold, Time weave carbon fibers into a 3D sock before injecting resin at high pressure and curing them into tubes. On this VXRS here, you can clearly see where the tubes are bonded into these carbon fiber lugs. So wedded were they to this production technique that they even located their frame manufacturing facility in the French city of Lyon. Why? Because it has a long history of weaving. Its production yielded a frame that's not particularly light by today's standards, although it was certainly competitive for the day at just over 1,000 grams. However, it's the ride quality for which this frame has become almost mythical. One legend has it that Tom Boonen on switching from Time bikes to another brand said, once we drove Ferraris, now we drive Renaults. His love for Time bikes was so iconic that he was the only pro to have a custom bike ready for the 2006 Spring Classics. There you go, mate. Someone drank half it, I'm afraid. Great, thanks. It's all right. So then, how's this bike feel to ride? That's a good question, isn't it? It's really hard to work out what's affecting it because it's got 22 mil tubular tires on, vintage fulcrum carbon wheels, slightly wider handlebar, which I love, but the overriding impressions are that it feels really quiet to ride. The ride quality is really muted. The bike feels quite planted and heavy on the road, even though technically it is lighter as a complete bike than the Pinarello Dogma. Yes, we should also highlight the size of this bike, right? Clearly, a little bit on the small side for us. Yes, Luca Paolini is not the same height as me and he's definitely not the same height as you, but the position is not outrageously bad on there, so we can definitely get a sense of it. Also, I love old Campagnolo 10-speed. It's pretty mechanical, give it that. Very, very mechanical. But it is brilliant. I just ran out of gears slightly. You got to ride quite fast. It's also hard to separate out how it feels from how I think it should feel, given that it's a piece of history that I know so well from spending hours and hours and hours looking at photographs in magazines. Yes, I can remember it, but not quite as well as you. No, your formative years. Should we see how it shapes up now? Yes, I think we should. Definitely, we should head out on the road, but we need to also discuss some things like bike position and systems, right? Well, that's true. These two bikes will be affecting our body position, which will therefore affect the results. There's nothing we can do about that. However, we should also address the fact that there are loads of other things that will also influence results. Whilst that might frustrate some of you that they've got different tires or different wheels, it's also kind of the point, isn't it? Yes, these are bikes that should be seen as systems that are correct to the period of time that they're from. You wouldn't put new stuff on an old bike and go, here's an old bike. No, that's it. You almost literally couldn't buy 36-centimeter-wide handlebars in 2005. You'd get laughed out of Peloton if you said you're going to run 30-mil tires. Well, exactly, yes. That's why we're keeping it as it is, and that's why we're going to find out exactly what the difference is between 2005 and 2025. While that time is a genuine ex-pro team bike, this is most certainly not, and has only been ridden by Ollie Bridger. However, being a Pinarello Dogma F, it does have a list of victories as long as your arm, and is adorned with the latest Shimano Dura-Ace, speedy Vision wheels, and the speedy Pirelli tires. With the right rider on it, well, you could easily win any race. The Worlds, Flanders, Roubaix, you name it. With the right rider, you could probably win it. Imagine if I beat you and I've got no socks on. I think you will beat me because you're riding a brand new Pinarello Dogma F. If I beat you on both, then it'd be embarrassing, wouldn't it? What power are you going to ride at? Probably to take it easy, about 300 watts. Only 300, okay. I'd offer to hold you up, mate, but I'm not going anywhere near you without socks on. Will you do the honors? Count me in? Absolutely. Right, ready? Look at those ankles. I don't know whether to channel my inner Luca Paolini, given that it's his bike, or my inner Tom Boonen, seeing as he was the big dog on this. Let's go with Boonen. Right, you ready? I'm doing it for all the kids out there. They say new bikes are better than the old ones. Well, I hope we aren't all embarrassed. Alex is annoyingly just ahead of me. I say annoying because in my head I want to catch him, but I'm obviously stuck looking at my Wahoo knowing that I can't do too much power. I think I'm going to catch him. Are you feeling all right, mate? How the hell have you caught me up? Are your feet uncomfortable? No. I think he's got sore feet. Are you sure you're not cheating? Oh, God, it just feels a bit easy today. I don't know why. I'm bang on exactly 300 watt average. I'm just powerless to help. God damn it. Now, I'll tell you what, I was riding a bit more than 300, but mainly because I ran out of gears. Even though the climb is 7%, 39, 23, it's quite a tall gear. Final few hundred meters. Tell you what, that was enjoyable. Made all the more so by bizarrely catching Alex. Well done, mate. That was a great ride, dude. I'm going to just assume you're trying to be condescending. Look, I don't want to discuss it. We'll let the numbers do the talking. Yes. All I'm going to say, mate, is for the next run, just put your socks up. I made a mistake of thinking we were friends. We are friends. On a more serious note, did you enjoy that? It was fine, and then I started to catch you. I really loved it. It was brilliant. It's the highlight of my week. It's only Monday. Shall we switch bikes and do it all again? Yes, let's do it, man. I did enjoy it, if nothing else. Yes. I didn't like the bit when you came past, but whatever. No. To be fair, in terms of what the bike's actually like, it trundles along really nicely, which is obviously a bit of disparaging comment about a bike that used to race at the Tour de France, but it does. It just rolls along and it holds its speed really nicely, up or down or on the flat, but at no point does it ever feel that you're going faster than the effort that you're putting in. Do you know what I mean? It feels like you're working pretty hard and you're going at a reasonable pace, but it doesn't set my pants on fire. Fair. Yes. Yes. All right. See you at the bottom. All right. I think I'm ready to set off. Are you? Are you ready? Yes. Brakes are on the wrong way around, remember? Oh, yes. It's important to remember that. Yes. Okay. Ready? Come on. I'm looking forward to this. I've missed my pedal. What a chopper. It just instantly feels quicker and there's so many things, narrower handlebars, faster tires, but I can't even see my speedo. I can just tell you that I'm going a hell of a lot quicker. It just feels it. Surprise, surprise. 300 watts. Feels like 300 watts on both bikes, but the realities of riding these bikes are very different. Ergonomics is a big thing for me. The levers feel slightly weird. Obviously, we've got the differences in terms of bike fit, geometry, position, but I tell you, it's a lovely bike to ride. People say old bikes are rubbish. I tell you what, they're absolutely not. You look like you're out of breath still. No, no. Honestly, I just slapped water on my face. Well, that was good fun. Yes. It's a lovely bike to ride. Go on, first thoughts. Smoothness. I said on the way up, right? Smooth. It's a pretty bumpy road as well. It's just a pleasurable bike to ride. I tell you one thing, the first thing that really for me is ergonomics of the front not working for me. Is it not? I get it. It's been the ideas and concepts have changed. The bar's so wide, the tight bends, the small little levers. I tried riding other drops and then couldn't change gear because my thumb isn't twice the length it should be to reach that. Thankfully, I'm pleased you reminded me about the brake speed the other way around. Yes. Thanks for that. Got my back. I've been in love that campy. It is obviously ergonomically totally different, but I still really like it. It makes me feel good. There's something satisfying about not quite the mechanical clunk, but doing the movement. Yes. I'll tell you what, despite all of the differences, big and small, the one thing I could not get out of my head was just I do not like super narrow bars with turned-in levers. I was just riding up there again like this would be so much more pleasurable if my hands were two centimeters further apart, maybe four. I mean, if the UCI were here, they'd be having a brilliant heart attack looking at those levers set up on your bike. Mate, I'd be high-fiving the UCI right now if they'd forced Ollie to change. More importantly, I've gone modern bike to old bike, but you've gone older bike to modern bike. Anything jump out at you or just a nice ride again? Should we go back to the car? I feel like I need to collect my thoughts. Yes, you can collect your thoughts. Thoughts collected. The 20-year-old time was 23 seconds slower over our five-kilometer segment for me and 19 seconds slower for Alex. As for how I caught Alex whilst riding the old bike, well, aside from me being generally fitter, faster, better, and of course, wearing socks, I might have been putting out a little bit more power, so I climbed 30 seconds faster. If you're wondering what's happening to time since 2005, I will quickly fill you in. After those few glorious years where they won almost literally everything that was to win, apart from Grand Tours, they were, as previously mentioned, priced out of the sponsorship game, so lost a little bit of visibility. Then tragically, their legendary founder and talisman, Roland Catin, passed away, but the brand continued. They continued to make frames in the same way. They continued to make them in Europe, but they were passed from owner to owner until ultimately, the brand split. A pedal part of the business was sold to SRAM, where it continues, and the frames were actually rescued from the ski brand Rossignol by an American named Tony Kirkland, who is currently helping time to write their next chapter. You took your time, mate. Nice joke. Thanks, bud. It doesn't sound like a vast amount quicker, does it, over 20 years, but if you extrapolate it out from this short time trial to an hour, we're looking at over two minutes faster with the Dogma, and that's at 300 watts, so at race speeds, the percentage difference is going to be even greater. Whether or not you think it's a little or a lot depends on your perspective. What's your perspective? I am going to say in the grand scheme of it, for most people, it's a little, but as a super bike nerd, that time difference is significant to me, but it can be attributed to lots of different things between the bikes, can't it? I absolutely can, yes. We're all bored of marginal gains, but the fact is all of the little bits add up to make this massive difference. For me, the crucial thing is that you can feel that the Dogma is faster. It doesn't mean that it feels better, although I think it does, but everything on it feels sharper, and more precise, and more refined. Whilst that one is muted, and quiet, and stately, this one is just razor sharp. I can totally get on board with that. One thing I do want to ask you though is, did you have the same kind of grin on your face going up here on both bikes? Because I did. Oh, 100%. Riding at a steady state, I mean, it feels amazing. The question is though, if that was hanging up in my garage next to a Dogma, would I ride it? The honest answer is no, I would not pick it out of the rack. As much as I love it, I would not choose to ride it. You surprised me. I wasn't expecting you to say that. No, because I just want to get on my bike, and jam it, and smash it, and break hard, and change gear fast. Yes, you can do all of that stuff on that, but it's not as nice. I'm with you on that. If I had the luxury of both bikes, I would ride this bike, but I would use it in a specific way. I would use it when I wanted to go out, cruise around, go stop, get a coffee, get some lunch. Then if I wanted to go faster, be a bit more performance-orientated, I would go with a modern bike, but I would still really appreciate this era and this bike for what it is. Yes, I just love this stuff. I know. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say no if someone said, do you want a Time VXRS? I'd say yes, but yes, it would be mothballed. Let's take this back to the very beginning then. Do we think this bike deserves its legendary status? We've shown how it compares to the modern bike, but to the first question then. It deserves its legendary status because of who used it, and how they used it. 100%. It stands up to that. It stands up to that. Do I think it has an extra mythical ride quality? No, it's really nice, but I wouldn't say that it is demonstrably better than any other old bike that I've ridden. No, for me, it fits into that era of you've got something old, but still close enough in terms of modern ideas and technology that it feels current-ish. As a bike nerd, it is bloody cool. Yes, I'll tell you what, that was blooming good fun as well. We should probably ask everyone what they think of the bike. We should. Get involved in the conversation. We should also say thank you to Dan from Vintage Velos. He's hanging out just over there. Thank you, Dan. Cheers, Dan. Let us know what vintage bike Dan should buy next. Would you mind getting a slightly larger one next time? Yes, it'd be great. As always, if you want to see more cool bike videos, well, subscribe to GCN and turn on your notifications. See you in the next one, Si. Wear some socks next time, bud. I knew that was coming.