Dreaming

Image courtesy of Cannondale's social media

I had a crazy dream this past weekend about road bikes! I know.......weird! Why should I care about road bikes? I do not understand the dream, but it was a vivid one where I was asked what I thought should be done in the future for road bikes. 

Road bicycles, the ones with a racing influence and drop bar handlebars, haven't changed their parameters for years. There is a kind of unseen "box" which road designs seem to be locked into which has been around for decades. 

Wheel spacing, bottom bracket widths, crank set design, and some other details are seemingly lines you cannot cross in road bike design. But in my dream, two things I remember from the dream were pretty outrageous. The first was wheel spacing. In my dream I said the rear wheel spacing would be widened to match current MTB Boost standards. That would be rear 148mm and front 110mm. 

The other thing was regarding bottom brackets as I said in my dream that this should also match MTB standard width. This would make sense because road wheel and tire combinations are getting ever wider and this would allow for clearances and better chain lines. 

Now, perhaps this is too extreme for road bicycles, but gravel bikes? Maybe gravel bikes will be assimilated into MTB anyway,. and road bicycles can become the "all-road" thing I was advocating for in 2011 and I can just ride some fancy new road bike with clearance for 45mm tires maximum and forget about "gravel bikes". 

Ha! Fancy that.....