What We Lost Chasing Faster Road Bikes

A few weeks ago, I bought this, a 10-year-old Giant TCR Advanced Road Bike for an upcoming video. And buying a bike reminded me just how much modern bikes have changed in that relentless pursuit of aerodynamics and marginal gains and integration and features that lots of people playing don't want on a road bike. So here are six things that I think we've lost on modern road bikes, starting with, for me personally, external routing. Sure, a one-piece carbon fiber handlebar does look very sleek and modern and it's probably more aerodynamic, but external routing has two big benefits for me. Firstly, you can replace the headset bearings much more easily. Remove the stem, that bolt there, and swap the bearings out. No drama at all. On a modern road bike, that's a job that takes a few hours and bleeding the disc brakes and lots of swearing and faffing. The other big benefit for me is easier fit customization. If a stem is too long or short you can swap it and then swapping the handlebar for a narrower one or a wider one or a different shape one or a flared one or an oversized aero one or a regular round one like here is a fairly straightforward job. Yes taking bar tape off is a tedious job perhaps but the same as on a one piece cockpit. So easier servicing and maintenance at An easier fit adjustment are two big things we have lost on modern road bikes. I do miss the simplicity of a mechanical groupset. No batteries to charge, no potential failure of motors and very easy to adjust. As simple as turning the small barrel adjuster to index the gears. On an electronic groupset you need a smartphone app to connect to the groupset via bluetooth or ANT+ and then configure the groupset through that app. These group sets are also lighter than any electronic group sets thanks to the lack of batteries and motors so yeah. They are still the benchmark when it comes to a lightweight groupset. 10 years ago, a lightweight bike was pretty commonplace. This is just a lowly entry-level model with a third-tier carbon frame and a Shimano Ultegra groupset and alloy wheels, nothing special. But it's really lightweight and as light as a bike, costing much more money with all the latest technology that they boast. So, yes, modern bikes may be better, but they are definitely heavier. You have to pay a big chunk of money to get a bike as light as one from 10 years ago. Yes, that is surprisingly lightweight really. I'll flash the weight on screen now, but that's nothing to it at all. Look, the little finger test, easy. One of the best advances in recent years is just how easy building a brand new website is with today's sponsor, Squarespace, the all-in-one platform for building a brand new website for any purpose in 2026. For example, if you run your own bike shop and need a brand new website to sell products and bikes and tires and accessories, We're an all-in-one solution. Squarespace makes that very easy. You either start with a template and then customize how it looks and functions with an easy drag and drop editing interface or choose AI and answer a few simple questions and a bespoke website is built for you in seconds. It really is as easy as that. You don't have to be an expert in programming or coding, but don't take my word for it. Start a free trial right now today. We'll link down below. And if you enjoy it, Which I'm sure you will. There's a discount code on screen right now and down below too. Your first website or domain name. Right, let's talk about rim brakes. Yes, I love disc brakes. They're powerful, reliable, work in all weathers, but there's no denying the simplicity of a rim brake. They're much easier to set up and adjust the clearance of the pads around the rim compared to trying to center a rotor between the two disc brakes. The clearance is very, very tight indeed. And the other big advantage of rim brakes over disc brakes is a lack of the squealing and howling and screeching sounds they can make when a disc rotor or pads become contaminated. With oil or other crap from the road and they can often make a noise in the rain as well. Disc brakes can be awfully fiddly to set up as well, very little clearance between the pads and the disc brake rotor and the rotors can bend very easily whether you're carrying the bike in the car or on the plane. And the disc brakes need bleeding from time to time as well and spongy brake levers are not much fun at all. So disc brakes can be very simple but do need more maintenance than rim brakes which are very easy. These brake blocks are easy to swap out for new ones, for carbon ones if you have carbon wheels. And you can adjust the clearance with the barrel adjuster just there. And, yeah, very simple indeed, although the big downside of rim brakes is limited tire clearance for fat tires, and this rim brake surface does eventually wear out. Something else buying this old Giant TCR reminded me of is just how nice a shallow box-section alloy wheel set is like this. Yes, carbon fiber wheels look mean and menacing, and they are more aerodynamic, but carbon wheels can be jolly expensive. They can be fragile against potholes here in the UK. And they're not always that lightweight unless you spend big money, so it can be quite porky. These Shimano wheels, a low-end model, are relatively lightweight because there's not much to them. Just a handful of spokes and some shallow rims with a bit of curb there, and very simple cup and cone bearings that are very easy to maintain and service at home. And the other nice aspect of alloy wheels like these is with rim brakes, like on this bike here, the braking performance is pretty damn good. It's very impressive indeed. You can definitely lock up a wheel, no issue at all, and much better than rim brakes on carbon wheels. Yes, they're not aerodynamic and perhaps don't look as good, but I think This wheelset looks really good on a bike like this and does look prettier than many modern road bikes with deep section aero profile wheels and frames and one piece handlebars. And of course, the last thing we've lost with modern road bikes is affordability. Modern road bikes are crazy expensive these days. You have to remortgage your house or take out a finance plan. to afford one but 10 years ago a road bike like this was relatively affordable a bike more people could afford without restricting their disposal income too much. So yes modern road bikes are objectively better but are they really? What are the features you miss the most on modern road bikes compared to a bike like this? Let me know by dropping a comment down below and do stay tuned for a fun video on this bike coming very soon right here on Just Ride Bikes by hitting that subscribe button on screen right now and see another And I have a video on buying old bikes like this. Watch the video right up here.