Maybe there's something that irritates you about your bike, or maybe there's something that irritates you about all road bikes? We recently asked Cycling Weekly readers to come up with ways in which the design of a road bike could be improved.
Some of the answers are a stroke of genius, others not so much. Either way, we present a selection of your road bike design improvements...
Do you have an idea that could improve the design of a road bike? Or agree/disagree with any here? Let us know in the comments section below.
Mark a fine vertical line up the steerer tube and a corresponding one on the top edge of the stem. It would make lining them up far quicker. They can do it for bars and seat posts, why not steerers and stems?
Coinneach Canavan
Offer old bike trade-ins, like the car scrappage scheme. Provide touch-up paint: ever tried to touch up a bike where even the manufacturer doesn't know the shade of red? Make time trial bikes the same price as road bikes, not twice as much – capped at maybe £2000. Ban unsafe ‘fake’ import bikes, maybe introducing a safety standard across all bikes. Integrated ANT speed and cadence sensors, integrated lights.
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Tom Knight
Have a barcode and/or chip on bikes registered to the legal owner so they are too hot to handle stolen and might even show up hot on roadside scanners once reported stolen. Make stolen bikes a thing of the past.
Karl Bilton
Better tyre and mudguard clearance on all bikes other than pure race bikes.
Andy Harper
Less-exposed derailleur. I dropped my bike when it was fairly new and think I may have knocked the derailleur out of alignment slightly. Fine for experienced riders who know what to check and how to adjust, but newbies might be discouraged by poor gear changes.
Rich Harle
Use 953 steel on every bike.
Marc Carter
As a fat guy, I think it would encourage a greater number of larger people into the sport if there were some beefier-looking entry-level bikes. I know the strength is fine, but they do look a bit fragile.
Isambard Steel
Hide a motor in the seat tube.
Adam Coatham
Bring back mini tri-bars. Not for the aerodynamics, but they were a godsend for stretching your back.
Thomas Willingham
Make more comfortable models (rough road absorbing), more tyre clearance will help with this a lot.
Kris Kahl
Tell manufacturers to price their kit fairly and not make a decent bike cost more than my car.
Neil Mitchell
Get rid of stupid, creaking press-fit bottom brackets.
Keith Parr
A stem you can adjust without having to remove spacers. Up, down and reach.
Paul Canham
Disc brakes, super-compact chainsets and integrated electronics. Oh, hold on a minute...
Neil Batt
Start making frames out of graphene. It’s lighter and stronger than carbon-fibre.
Edward Downs
Watch: Industry reacts to motorised doping
Lower the bike price. Generally you have to step up to at least 2k for a carbon-framed bike. Design doesn't really matter for most of us, who want something affordable, safe, fairly fast and that's worth its price. Remove stickers from rims – they are better in nude aluminium. Also, manufacturers should include clipless pedals on every bike, it would knock off a good bit of the expenses to start riding/racing.
Max Vemon
Have an integrated charging system for electronic shifters so you never have dead batteries.
Troy Trotter
You can't improve on perfection.
Stephen Louch
Integrated bottle opener. That is all.
Rob H
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