There’s so much ugliness in cycling, I fear for its future

My New Year’s wish is for a more intelligent response to progressive bike tech in 2025

The Colnago Y1Rs in naked carbon
Colnago's Y1Rs attracted an overwhelmingly negative reaction online, buy why?
(Image credit: Colnago)

In recent weeks, four notable product launches left me choking on my breakfast porridge: two from Colnago, one from Wahoo, and one from Jaguar.

The first, the Colnago Steelnova, is an achingly beautiful bike hand-fashioned from Columbus steel tubing with a trolley load of Campagnolo components lovingly bolted on. It carries the graceful air of a ‘restomod’ - a craftsman-honed modern classic, built to traditional proportions using time-favoured materials but with just enough modern tech – 3D printing and an electronic groupset – to bring it into the 21st Century without upsetting the purists.

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