ProTour riders use stock equipment

[Walrus]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2007/probikes/?id=quickstep_specialized_boonen

I know this is not new...but I'd like to underline the fact that Boonen is riding a stock 58cm Specialized. This is a great thing about cycling...in most cases you can ride the exact same bike as your ProTour hero (if you have one ). Many sports, especially motorsports, use equipment that bears little resemblance to that available to the consumer. In motorsport, you used to be able to watch a race on a Sunday, then head to the car dealer on the Monday and buy the exact car that won the race (obviously without some racing modifications). That's impossible now.

At least this is not the case with cycling.

I bet there were many people who bought a BMC after the stage to Morzine in last year's Tour (probably BobbyOCR ). I guess it's in the best interests of the bike manufacturers not to get silly with ProTour machines, for this very reason.

 

[bobbyOCR]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/2007/probikes/?id=quickstep_specialized_boonen


I bet there were many people who bought a BMC after the stage to Morzine in last year's Tour (probably BobbyOCR ). I guess it's in the best interests of the bike manufacturers not to get silly with ProTour machines, for this very reason.

Ha. That isn't true, though, I had mine on layby from june. What pros ride has no influence (Ok, maybe a little) on what I will buy. They are paid to ride it, I pay to ride it. And, no matter what I buy, it isn't gonna make me any faster.

Now, the reason why he is riding a stock frame is because specialized wouldn't want to pay $250,000 for a mould which they could only use properly for one rider (then again, Trek did it).

Also, Quick-Step riders have said that they are having trouble with Specialized's crank/chainrings. There have been rumours/reports of crashes caused by chainring flex. This can really **** you off, Right now I have a few nice deep chainring tooth marks on my leg because of a crash caused by that, on my singlespeed.

 

[Phill P]

Last year Look or time (who ever Boonen rode for) made a special extra stiff lugged frame set to take the loads Tom puts out. The special lugs probabaly cost them a fair bit.

As with Trek and Lance, they tended to give him early propotypes of the next years bike, then slowly gave more to the rest of the team. However a couple of times Lance choise to ride some races on his "old" bike.

Back in the time of welded frames that didn't cost an arm and a leg almost every rider rode a custom frame made either independantly or by the manufacturer with thier own lables on it. Not just different geometries but sometimes special tubing etc. As long as it looked similar Joe public would still buy the stock bike.

Because Quick Step are taking on Specialised for the first time this year they are getting the current bikes. But you wait til later in the year and thier top riders will be on next years rigs. Usually just before or just after Le Tour the new frames and parts start showing up (pros don't like untested gear in the big races).

But yes, because of the cost of developement, if you wait 6 mths you can buy what the pros ride these days. Infact if you spend enough you can make your bikes lighter in many cases.

I bet you they've been using ceramic bearings for longer than they've let on about too

 

[PeterF]

Specialized won't miss out on the opportunity to sell a few bikes if either messgr's Bettinini, Boonen or Van Petegem win Paris-Roubaix aboard a Specialized Roubaix. For that chance I'm sure they'll beef up big Tom's bike as much as he wants. The early reports though are that he likes his new bike. He often complained that his ime wasn't stiff enough.

 

[bladegeek]

I think that the "Specialized" on the crank arm is a bit much.

 

[Walrus]

Last year Look or time (who ever Boonen rode for) made a special extra stiff lugged frame set to take the loads Tom puts out. The special lugs probabaly cost them a fair bit.

I recall that Boonen's Time had straight chain stays, whereas the rest of the team rode curved stays. This was to get more power down...presumably at the sacrifice of comfort?

 

[Walrus]

Ha. That isn't true, though, I had mine on layby from june.

I know mate, just winding you up.

 

[bobbyOCR]

I know mate, just winding you up.

An easy thing to do