Mountain Bikers – What Could They Learn From Road Cyclists? | GCN Tech Show Ep. 26

The GCN Tech Show is here and Lasty discusses what mountain bikers can learn from us road cyclists. There’s been a lot of technology trickle down from the MTB side over the years but what can we offer? Lasty gives some suggestions…

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(whoosh) – Welcome to the GCN Tech Show. This week, it’s just me, but don’t worry, ’cause we’ve got a ton of
great tech to talk about. So, let’s get started. Before we do though, if you haven’t already
subscribed to GCN Tech, make sure you do subscribe and make sure you also hit
that notification bell, ’cause that way you’ll find out whenever one of our videos goes live. (upbeat music) What’s hot in tech this week though? Well, this is very hot news, super hot, incredibly good news in my view. And that is that UCI has
officially sanctioned disc brakes for use in road racing. So, up until now, anyone who was using disc brakes was using as part of a
four year test period the UCI put in place to judge their feasibility and safety
of the brakes in racing. But with this announcement, that test ends one year early and discs are officially sanctioned. Of the course of the rear test, it’s fair to say there’s
quite a degree of pushback from the pro peloton, especially towards the start of it. That’s because they questioned the safety with some injuries, really quite nasty looking injuries, being attributed to the use
of disc brakes in the peloton. – Following an open letter from Francisco Ventoso of Movistar, the UCI banned disc
brakes in the pro peloton with immediate effect. – Yeah, Ventoso had received
some particularly nasty and deep wounds to his leg after a crash at the race in Paris-Roubaix, which he says were caused
by coming into contact with a disc brake. – And they also had to
question their practicality. Many of them said that they could stop and brake and descend
really quite well enough with rim brakes first of all and were reluctant to change and then, if you needed a
really fast wheel change, you had people asking, how quick that would be with through axles on a disc brake bike compared to quick releases
on a rim brake bike? I don’t know, maybe that’s a matter of a bit of practice makes
perfect there as well. But increasingly, the
riders have, fair to say, accepted disc brakes and
that some high profile riders have actually begun to use
them in many races too. Plus, clearly the UCI,
with this announcement, is happy with the brake safety. – Daniel, we asked the
pros a couple year ago what they thought about
disc brakes in the peloton. And since then, there’s
been a bit of change, I think, personally. What’s your thoughts on that? – I try some bikes with discs and the technology is
super, it’s fantastic. The disc brake makes, for sure in the rain especially, the brakes safer and stable and you have the same feeling, you know? You can brake everywhere. – The bit that excites me the
most about this announcement is that with it, the riders, teams, and more importantly, bike and component manufacturers can go all in on disc
brakes for road bikes. That’s because one of the
biggest marketing vehicles, which is the pro peloton, can now ride them at every race with no risk of them potentially
not passing the test period and therefore not being used. Great news for all of us ’cause we’ll see things
in product development. So, things that will help us
to change wheels more quickly and I reckon we might
even see on some races, riders from every team using disc brakes. In fact, I think we’ll
see the whole peloton using disc brakes for some races. I want your opinion on that one though. So, we’ve got a poll, which you can vote on up there, which is, when will we see the first race where everyone uses disc brakes? We got 1 year, 5 years,
10 years, or I don’t know. And if you don’t know, make sure you comment
below with what you think. We’re right in the middle of road race national championship
season at the moment and we wouldn’t normally
mention race results on the Tech Show. That’s more the domain of
the GCN Racing News Show, and of course, the GCN Show, but we thought Jonny Brown
of Hagens Action Berman, who’s just 21 years of age, just won the USA Pro Road Nationals, deserved a bit of a special mention. That’s because he won the
race on an aluminum bike and to my knowledge, that must be the first time or
the only time that’s happened in quite a number of years. If you think the pro
peloton is made pretty much the whole sale switch
to carbon fiber bikes and I think again to my knowledge, correct me if I’m wrong
in the comments of course, the Specialized Allez
Sprint aluminum bikes that’s the Hagens Berman Action
team are using this year, is one of the first times that a pro or pro continental team has used an aluminum bike
for quite a number of years. If you do know exactly how
many years, comment below. (whoosh) If you couldn’t tell from the title, this week’s weekly tech talking point is all about mountain bike tech. Which is fair enough because
we are very good mates with the guys at GMBN,
GMBN Tech, and EMBN. But what I was wondering is instead of what us road cyclists could take from a mountain
bike cousins in tech terms, what could we maybe give them? If you think about it, some of the biggest tech innovations, some of the things that
are used by road cyclists, literally on almost every bike, came from mountain bikes. So, things like disc
brakes, tubeless tires, 1x groupsets, and also
the first aluminum bike was a mountain bike. That’s a lot that we’ve taken. Another bit of mountain bike tech that we’ve just started to borrow, but I think has pretty
quite huge applications, especially if you’re riding gravel or riding on rough roads, is a clutch rear mech. Now, Shimano actually
released its first ever clutch rear mech for road groupsets, back at the start of the year. What a clutch in a rear mech does is it just prevents the chain
slapping around so much. So, it reduces noise, which
can be a bit annoying. It reduces damage to your frame, and also, it reduces
importantly the chance of your chain dropping off when you’re putting the power down on a cobbled climb or on the forest perhaps. Shimano’s rear mech was
the Ultegra RX rear mech, which incidentally, also uses
shadow derailleur technology, which Shimano first
introduced on mountain bikes. That isn’t to say us
road cyclists have given mountain bikers nothing,
that would be wrong. Oh no, the wide spread
use of carbon fiber, first appeared on road bikes. So, things like carbon fiber frames, carbon fiber rims, and
carbon fiber handlebars. Mountain bikers kind of
have us, road cyclists, to thank for that. Carbon fiber’s use in mountain biking is so wide spread now, that there’s even downhill races being won on carbon fiber bikes, which 10 or 15 years ago, probably seemed quite a way off. Not forgetting of course, power meters, which without a doubt, have transformed training
for mountain bikers who like to compete and if you’re a bit of a stats geek, I think power meters
are always a good shout. Finally, the one, maybe the biggest gift we’ve give mountain bikers, apart from John Tomac’s drop handlebars that he used to race
downhill races on, lycra. Cross country riders are all over it. Downhillers however, are not
allowed to wear it anymore. That’s because the
aerodynamic advantage of lycra was deemed to be so much, they stopped everyone using it. But if you look at some
downhill riders now, they’re actually using tighter
and tighter baggy clothing without it being lycra. And thinking of lycra, that brings me onto what
could be the main bit of tech that mountain bikers could
borrow from us road cyclists and while most mountain
biking is relatively low speed and in many cases, relatively sheltered if you’re riding in the woods, I think that aerodynamics, especially for the racing mountain bikers could be the way to go. Take helmets for example, clearly a open-faced time trial helmet is not gonna be the thing
you want for a downhill race, but if you look at downhill helmets, they look really quite aerodynamic and the top downhill riders
regularly reach speeds of 40 miles an hours plus,
sometimes 50 to 60 miles an hour if it’s a really, really fast course. So, could downhillers gain split seconds, which is often what their races
are decided by in any case, but having helmets like for
example, Moto GP helmets? Moving from helmets to frames. Most mountain bike frames don’t appear as though they’re designed
with aerodynamics in mind and that’s fine, ’cause like we said, mountain biking is often lower speed, but the fact is, particularly in downhill, when you’re reaching
those really high speeds, every second does count. So, by making a slightly more aerodynamic mountain bike frame, sure, you’ve still got some, I don’t know, maybe a 80
centimeter buzz riding like that. But if their bike is marginally faster, maybe they’d be more likely to win. So, with the front end of mountain bikes being so wide and having so
much kit on them basically, when you think of suspension
forks and disc brakes and stuff like that, maybe that does cancel
aerodynamics out slightly. But what we’re saying is maybe a slight advantage is just fine in most of those races. Another point is aerodynamic wheels and when I say aerodynamic wheels, it’s easy to think of
really deep section wheels. And even on road bikes and gravel bikes, most riders, if they’re riding
a really rough technical race if you think something like
Paris-Roubaix or Flanders, will not go for the deepest section wheels on offer from their team sponsors. So, talking about deep section wheels, but some lower profile wheels on the road are still designed with
aerodynamics in mind because even if you’re going
up a climb on a road bike, those guys are still
climbing at 20 miles an hour or 30 Ks an hour in some cases. So, aerodynamics absolutely is a factor, as is rotating weight. So, low profile aerodynamic
wheels are the way to go. Maybe some aerodynamics
on downhill wheels, cross country wheels, if it comes down to a sprint, if it comes down to 0.1 of a second, that would have made the difference. So, you’ve heard my thoughts on what I think we could lend
to our mountain bike cousins, but I want to know yours. Make sure you comment down below. As road cyclists, we’ve
borrowed so much great tech from mountain bikes tech, which has literally transformed how we are able to ride our bikes, where we are able to ride our bikes, how our bikes are made, the cost of our bikes. What can we give them
back, apart from lycra? Let me know down in the comments. (whoosh) More tech news now and if you haven’t
already liked this video, make sure you do hit
that thumbs up button. First up in our more tech news section. Cube has released a brand
new time trial bike. Yeah, that’s right. It has many of the features
that you’d expect to see on a top level time trial bike, about to be debuted at the Tour de France, by Cube’s Team Wanty Groupe Gobert. So, it has for example, an integrated stem that sits
in line with the top tube. But it also has two
pretty unique features. So, first up, it’s has a split head tube, which acts like an arrow
riding into a headwind and also acts to stop
negative effects of crosswinds which can be really quite negative if you’re riding a deep front wheel, a disc rear wheel, and you have your hands
on your aero extensions. Quite difficult to style
that one out sometimes and as well as that, it also has, and it’s only going to be available in disc brakes. It’s one of the very first
manufacturers to do that. Not the absolute first, but the start of a trend and again, linking into our
very first feature in this show, which was the fact that UCI has made disc brakes legal for all racing. I’ve been having a look on a KickStarter, which I quite enjoy because there are some truly weird and sometimes
wonderful things there and I found this. This is the Helix bike. The unique thing about the Helix bike is that it steers with both
the front and rear wheel. I’ve got no idea exactly how it does it, but it looks a hell of a lot of fun. I would love to try it myself, but I think to really push
it and see if we can go as impressive as the guys
in the KickStarter video over on the Helix page, we’d have to give it to
someone like Blake over at GMB or maybe even Lloydy, ’cause Lloydy’s quite good at wheelies. Our very last bit of tech news and that is Virginia Tech University and the Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety are collaborating on a revamp
to helmet testing protocol. Now, it says that it is going to be better in taking into account more real world injuries and situations than current testing protocols. So, these are current
official testing protocols, rather than any tests manufacturers might have put their helmets through since the current protocols
only take into account damage from skull fractures. Where as this test is
going to take into account the softer injuries if you will. So, things like concussions,
traumatic brain injuries that may not necessarily
involve a skull fracture and also impacts kind of
on the side of the helmet and the back of the helmet. Rather than just on the top of your head. Really interesting stuff and they’ve only tested 30 helmets so far, so we do look forward to
finding out a bit more when they’ve tested a few
more different helmets. But better head protection is
great news for all cyclists. So yeah, definitely looking forward to finding out more on this one. (whoosh) With Jon away and given the fact that UCI has just announced disc
brakes are okay to race on and the lead story of the show, which is really about mountain bike tech, I though I would put a bit of a left field suggestion up on the
wall of fame this week. But it’s a whole bike, not like any bike, it is the mountain bike. It’s a very specific mountain bike. It is the Breezer #1, which was the first ever
purpose built mountain bike. Now, it was built by mountain
bike pioneer, Joe Breeze. So, Joe Breeze used to take
part in the Repack races, which went down Mount
Tamalpais in California and those bikes were
originally done on clunkers, so beach cruiser bikes basically. They just weren’t up to
the demands of riding that Breeze and his friends
were putting them through. So, Joe Breeze went and
built the very first purpose built bike, the Breezer #1. Which included supports from the frame down to the drop out, to prevent the frame from folding. It had riser bars and brake
levers borrowed from motorbikes. Like we said, mountain bike
tech has had such an influence on all bike tech, not
just mountain bike tech. So, we think it’s a fair shout. If you have a nomination for
the wall of fame next week, tell me down in the comments and let me know if you
agree with this one as well. I will be there and I’ll reply to a few. (whoosh) Giveaway time now and we’ve
got two very lucky winners from our Oakley unboxing giveaway. They are Benoit De
Perthuisand Vera Olinyk. Both of you, if you are
watching this right now, make sure you get in touch, because we would love
to get your Oakley swag as seen in the unboxing video
last week, sent out to you. If you still want to win something, we have another giveaway
going on right now. It’s the Zip 404 Firecrest wheels. To enter that one, just click the link which we’ll put down in the description. (whoosh) Bike of the week now and last week, you all voted
on Corin Rivera’s Giant versus Richie Porte’s BMC and the winner, the
winner is Richie Porte’s 62% of the vote. Corin Rivera actually got 37% of the vote. So, there is 1% missing
somewhere, but anyway. On to this weeks bike of the week and since we’re getting
so close to the tour and since I love tour, it’s actually the reason
I got into cycling, I thought we vote on a
couple of favorite road bikes from last years race, ’cause there was some
seriously cool ones there. We’ll be checking out
more this year of course. So, you can vote on Mark
Cavendish’s custom Cervelo or Greg Van Avermaet’s
custom gold decaled BMC. Vote up there and also let me
know your favorite ever on GCN tell me down in the comments. (whoosh) Right, bike vault time now. As you have doubt less noticed, we have no Jon, it’s only me, so make sure you get
involved in the comments and let me know what
you think of the bikes in the bike vault. And also, if you want to submit your
bike to the bike vault, email address is on screen now, and we’ll stick it in the
video description as well, so check that out. Gotta get the bell. First up, this is from Kai, and it is the and here it is touring in
Navik in Northern Norway. I like that, I think that’s really cool. (cow bell ringing) We’ll do a quiet super nice, ’cause the bell is quite loud. After Kai, let’s go for Barnabus
from Kent, here in the UK and it is a picture of
his Pinarello FP Team, on the Brighton Beach. Looking very nice, it’s
another super nice. Two super nice photos.
(cow bell ringing) Hurts my ears. Next up and this is from Patrick and Patrick has said, having seen the Peugeot
folding e-bike last episode, he thought he’d send us another
somewhat more modern Peugeot this is a Peuegot RSR01. Carbon fiber racing bike. Looks very nice. It’s at a stunning view, so it’s Boardhead Lookout
in the Blue Mountains. Never heard of it, but
it looks very nice spot. And I haven’t seen a modern Peugeot bike for a number of years. So, for me that’s another super nice (cow bell ringing) One more, two more, one more, no two more. So, this is from Aaron Griffiths and this is
his Ritte Ace custom built. Nice bike against the
wall shot, very clean. It’s another super nice. I’m just too generous.
(cow bell ringing) Next up, last one as I said. So, this is a shot on two Canyon’s, love it. It is from the Kemina
Region, north of Portugal. And it is a bike ride of 110 kilometers which has 2200 meters of elevation gain, which sounds frankly, brutal, and again, it looks like a stunning view. They are both very nice bikes. (cow bell ringing) every thing has been super nice this week. We want to see your super nice bikes. Make sure you send them into
the email address on screen or in the video description below. Well, that is about it for another week of the GCN Tech Show. I do hope you enjoyed this video. Make sure you hit the thumbs up button, make sure you share it, make sure you tell us what you
thought down in the comments and if you haven’t already
subscribed to GCN tech, what are you doing? Make sure you subscribe too and hit the notification bell, so you find out when each video goes live. Before we go though, I want to give a shout out to these. So, we have some very
limited edition GCN t-shirts available now in the GCN shop. A link will be on screen
at the end of the video and down in the description. Once these t-shirts
are gone, they’re gone, and they are super limited. So, if you’d like to get one, make sure you head there now. What’s coming up on the
channel this week then? Well, tomorrow, so on Friday, is Fabio Aru’s road bike. On Saturday, we’ve got an unboxing. This week with our partners
and friends at Topeak. On Sunday, we’ve got a
tire pressure geek edition. On Monday, we had a
maintenance video, of course. Fast forward to Wednesday,
where it’s the tech clinic, where Jon will be answering all of your very difficult bike tech questions. On Thursday, it’s gonna be another episode of the GCN Tech Show. Before you go, make sure you subscribe, if you haven’t done so already. If you want to check out another video, I can thoroughly recommend
this one from Emma at the Women’s Tour, when she finds out what’s most
important to the riders there about their bike set up. That is right there. And like I said, if you
want to get your hands on a very limited edition yellow t-shirt, the links on screen.