Retiring

Many novice cyclists wonder: what is the difference between amateur and professional bikes? How do athletes drive so fast and nimbly?

Of course, professionals train hard, develop their muscles and riding technique. But it’s not just the athlete who wins: his bike is also involved. Let’s find out what is fundamentally different between a professional bike and an amateur one.

There are several categories of cycling, and each of them needs a suitable bike:

• mountain,
• road,
• track,
• stunt (BMX).

An amateur bike is ideal for those who are just starting to ride and are not yet sure if they will like it.

If you are firmly convinced that you ride a bike more than once or twice, then feel free to take the bike to which you are not indifferent.

This can be a cross-country bike for advanced athletes or even a semi-professional and professional mountain, road or any other bike.

you can buy a bike for beginners in any store. They are all about the same, so you can take any that you liked outwardly. With professional bikes, this trick will not work. You need to choose what exactly you need: the type of shock absorption, the type of fork, its stroke, the level of brakes and transmission, their type, gear ratio and much more.

Landing

The main external difference between bicycles of different levels is the landing. On pleasure bikes, no one is going to go down the mountain or rush along the highway at the speed of light, so landing on them is direct and convenient. Professionals sacrifice their convenience for the sake of improving speed, maneuverability and other characteristics.

All professional road bikes have a low fit

Frame
Budget models of frames are made “clumsily”: modern technologies and materials are not used, not facilitating and not strengthening.

If you consider an expensive road bike relative to a walking one, then you can see the use of carbon fiber, for example, and other materials.

The production of carbon fiber and its proper weaving requires considerable costs, so to justify the production, you need to increase the price of such a frame.

Carbon has all the best qualities: strength in the right directions of weaving, lightness, maintainability, elasticity. That is why it is so popular among the best quality bikes.

Expensive aluminum frames are produced using batting technology-thinning the walls of the frame without compromising the strength properties. this is also a very complex technological process, for which the manufacturer, and then the buyer, needs to fork out.

Firms hire engineers to invent new technologies. Every higher level of powertrain involves innovation. for example, the cheapest shimano tourney gearshift system, which is put on amateur bikes, has a maximum of 8 speeds, it has a weak spring, because of which the switch has to be adjusted every now and then. with frequent skating, this is quite annoying.

if you compare with the average quality of the parts-shimano deore xt-it will immediately become clear why they are better. This is both a greater number of speeds, and a tension coupling, which is called Shadow and Shadow+ (switchable).

The Shimano XT range allows you to choose the length of the switch foot for different disciplines: long switches are better, but can touch the terrain, small for extreme disciplines, and medium for enduro and the like.

thanks to a good spring, such a switch does not need to be adjusted often.

The clarity of the shift increases with the cost of the transmission.

Bicycle as a means of self-expression

The smallest detail matters. A professional cyclist selects everything for himself to the smallest detail.

If you are an amateur, then perhaps the Tourney will suit you, but the more expensive models will last you much longer.

Brakes
sports mountain bike

On a professional mountain bike, hydraulic disc brakes are always installed, and the number of pistons and the diameter of the rotor depend on the specific riding style.

Large rotors (200 mm) together with four-piston calipers are used in downhill and freeride. For a sports cross-country bike, a two-piston bike with 180 or even 160 mm rotors is enough. Special adapters are used to change the rotor to a different size.

On road bikes, brakes don’t play a big role. All models are equipped with a tick brake, but, again, different levels.

Price

If you compare an amateur bike with a professional one, you can easily see that the prices vary greatly.

This is due to the fact that in the world of bicycle parts, the “price = quality”rule almost always works. If you want quality components, you won’t find them cheap.

Bikes, which are driven by professional racers, are tens or even hundreds of times more expensive than the most budget models.

Decide for yourself what you would like: a powerful projectile for competitions or a medium bike for everyday walks. Prices will vary greatly, and there is no point in buying an expensive bike to ride it once a month, for example.

Inexpensive models are suitable for those who rarely ride. With aggressive or very frequent and long driving, it will quickly become unusable.

What bikes do professional riders ride?

Now let’s look at the most interesting models of bicycles of famous athletes.

Famous Russian team ” Katyusha»:

This bike is only a dream! It’s scary to even imagine how much it costs. There is a charge of the highest class, which provides crisp shifting, low weight and excellent inertness. The Canyon road bike has a specific geometry, in which the rider’s hands are below the pelvis.

Russian champion Vladimir Isaichev rides this “Canyon”. It weighs no more than six kilograms, because it has a carbon frame and rims, a top switch and a crank system.

This track bike belongs to Alexander Porsev. It is designed for sprints. Just the carbon disk from Mavic says a lot! The firms that produced the parts for this bike are at the top of engineering: Ritchey, Shimano, Mavic, Canyon.

This bike has absorbed all the developments of engineers. All bulging parts are removed in the frame, so that the bike becomes the most aerodynamic. Canyon is the only company that has created a bicycle that has the upper tube of the frame and the handlebar extension on the same line, which also reduces wind resistance.

a professional bicycle is sharpened for a certain sport. So, on the highway it is impossible to drive off-road, and mountain bike is ineffective on asphalt. Professional bicycles are not used by athletes during training, so that top-end parts do not wear out before the competition.