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“ designed for road riders seeking one bike that can do it all. The Defy’s geometry hasn’t changed much since it was launched, but the rest of the bike is almost unrecognisable. In 2009 Giant joined the game by introducing the Defy, which, according to Andrew Juskaitis, Giant’s senior product marketing manager, quickly became its best-selling road model and has remained so ever since.
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When you look at the original Roubaix and the Pilot, they pale in comparison to their equivalents today, but these frames changed the game because they were the first to step away from race geometry and move towards something that would better suit the ‘everyday rider’. It had a more relaxed body position for longer rides and more stable handling.” The Pilot was our first round of bike geometry focused on riders racers. “We had been focusing a lot of attention on racers and race geometry. Hans Eckholm, Trek’s industrial design manager who’s been with the company since 2004 and helped design both the Pilot and Domane, says that the driving forces behind the Pilot were comfort and confidence. Here is the women’s specific Trek Pilot 5.2 WSD BikeRadar Those slacker geometries also add a bit of stability to a bike so that when you’re hours into a long ride and tired, you’re a little less likely to be caught out by uneven ground or unexpected obstacles. It’s on these sorts of rides that slacker angles (which relieve the stress in your neck and shoulders, and shift some weight off your hands), compliant carbon frames and even suspension make an appreciable difference. But like many other cyclists, my interests are changing and I find myself drawn towards longer days in the saddle and routes that aren’t solely about speed. What all this means is that the typical steep-angled, aggressive racers are becoming less dominant and giving way to the various types of endurance machines with taller, shorter geometries that make for bikes that are better suited to the majority of people.ĭon’t get me wrong, many riders still love the laser-guided-missile feel of a race bike, myself included (there was a time when taking my 120mm stem away would have only been possible by prying it from my cold, dead fingers). But if someone identifies a road bike with a label you don’t totally recognise it’s a safe bet they’re talking about a gravel bike. To make things even more confusing there are various names for particular types of bike – gran fondo and endurance bikes are one in the same, for example. Where once there was simply road bikes, now there are race bikes, aero bikes, endurance bikes, gravel bikes, cyclocross bikes and monster-cross bikes to just name a few. Today, however, the road bike market is edging ever closer to the segmented landscape of the MTBs market.