Christmas is about a lot of things – family, religion, rest – but it is also about presents and wishlists. For cyclists, that may mean asking for a new jersey, a good cycling book, or other fancy new tech for your bike.
We’ve already covered what real things we’re asking for in the tech team this Christmas, but the period of wishes and miracles got us thinking about something more: what about the things you can’t actually go out and buy, but we wish you could?
The bike industry is an extremely innovative and inventive one, but there are still things that haven’t quite materialised on the market – either because they’re still in the works, or maybe they’re actually impossible to create.
I may not be a tech journalist, but that never stopped me from having an opinion, and what I want for Christmas is road kit from Santa Cruz.
A Santa Cruz Stigmata gravel bike has been on my permanent wishlist ever since I became aware it existed, because my love for cycling came via downhill and cross-country mountain biking, so I find brands like Santa Cruz infinitely more cool than Castelli or MAAP. No offence, but you were never going to catch me rocking a regular bike brand’s merch, whilst Santa Cruz clothing forms a key part of my wardrobe.
The problem, though, is that Santa Cruz currently only makes off-road clothing, baggies designed for the trails, nothing to go with their gravel and road bikes. I’m not a huge Lycra fan, but a jersey from a brand I wear anyway would make me actually want to put the Lycra on, rather than the clothing being an awkward necessity for me. The brand’s regular clothing designs are always cool and creative, so I think they could make a really nice road kit.
It’s clear that the cycling industry is trying to make kit cool again, whether that’s in the form of streetwear collabs or the sleek approach from MAAP or Pas Normal, so it seems like a funky skate-adjacent brand (Santa Cruz bikes and Santa Cruz skateboards are separate entities, but share the same founder in Rich Novak)entering the scene would be the perfect next addition. Santa Claus, meet Santa Cruz and get this happening, please.
If Enve can do it on the Melee, there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to fit proper, solid mudguards to whatever bike I ride, no matter how ‘performance’ oriented they are.
Testing the best road bikes in the world in summer is excellent, but in winter, it can be an absolute drudgery. Mud, spray, manure, grit, grot, and grime all over my legs, feet, face and arse. Now that many aero bikes are able to handle 32c or even 35c tyres, it is maddening that I still cannot fit mudguards. The space is there in the frames, and it needs just a couple of riv nuts in the forks or easily blanked-out eyelets at the dropouts. Will it make the bike heavier? Yes, by a few grams. Will it make the bike less aero? Probably not, if you don’t fit them.
I understand that I may be in the minority here, but I bet you if the pros had the option to have a set of solid mudguards on their training bike for the winter, they’d take it, if they aren’t welded to Zwift. Yes, clip-on options exist, but they are so much worse.
Basically, mudguards are the best way to start to enjoy riding in the rain, rather than simply tolerating it, but I wish I didn’t have to always ride ‘the mudguard bike’ when the heavens open or the roads are filthy for 5 months.
The end of squealing disc brakes – Tom (Tech Writer)
I’m generally satisfied when it comes to personal bike tech currently, but one thing absolutely does my head in when it happens, and that is howling disc brake noise under braking.
One nice little improvement for all of us would be the elimination of that annoying, high-pitched squeal that can occur for a number of reasons. When it’s bad, it’s really bad, and it actively annoys me. There aren’t many things worse than the joy of a ride on a perfectly dialled and hopefully as quiet as possible bike being ruined by that loud squealing every time you pull the brakes.
It makes me brake in a different way to try and minimise it, distracts me, and depending on where you are, can be alarming for pedestrians, wildlife, other riders, passing planes, etc.
If cycling Santa could solve one thing for me this season, it would be to make howling disc brake squeal a thing of the past.
I hate carrying things in my jersey pockets; gloves, a lightweight jacket or a snack are tolerable, but heavier and lumpier items like a bike tool or pump really annoy me. Saddle bags are ok, although they are always a bit fiddly and get covered in dirt, and although I love a framebag, it’s a bit excessive for short fast rides where you only need a few essentials.
These essentials are things I bring with me on every ride, so why aren’t they integrated into the bike? We have the technology; mountain bikes have been doing this for years, stashing tools in any accessible round tube, allowing riders to ditch the backpack but still carry everything they need. Some gravel bikes have also adopted downtube storage, although it’s still not as common as it should be.
Until very recently, in-built storage has been completely absent from road bikes. There are a few road bikes that do feature internal storage now, notably Canyon Endurace, Cannondale Synapse, BMC Roadmachine, Cervelo Caledonia, Trek Domane Carbon and Factor Monza. Out of those, the Factor Monza is the only aero road bike, and it’s on these performance bikes that I think tool storage makes the most sense. So let’s get those tools hidden in the frame for better aero, free up our jersey pockets and head out knowing our essential tools are always along for the ride.
At risk of sounding like the old man in the group, does anyone remember when Shimano made the 11-21 11-speed cassette, with single tooth jumps right down the block? I do, and for a very specific discipline of road bike racing (essentially flat, fast crits), it was lovely.
But as groupsets have grown from 11 to 12 and now 13 speed, cassettes have grown in the opposite plane too; in an extreme example, Cervelo’s S5 aero bike can now be specced with a 10-46 cassette. That’s okay, because grinding up a hill in a 25 was never fun, but as chainrings have grown and 1X has become more accessible, please can someone bring back the single-tooth jumps between gears? I don’t need a 46-tooth sprocket for racing around an airfield or a flat motor-racing circuit. Pair it with a big 1x chainring and I don’t need the 10 or 11 for sprinting, either. I get that it’s niche and marginal, but for a specific use-case, it’s more efficient, more aero, with a better chainline and feels great.
Additionally, if Classified could then make a three-speed Powershift hub, paired with a 10-22 cassette, we could effectively have a 10-48T groupset with single-tooth jumps throughout… and flat shifter batteries.