https://cyclingtips.com/2021/02/the-uci-is-banning-the-super-tuck/

Masters of ruining anything outside the box, the UCI have made top tube descending illegal.

Will we see dropper posts used for mountain descents?
I’m assuming they can hit the 6.8kg with one, so no climbing penalty.

That’s a fair idea, guarantee that some of them will complain about droppers being dangerous/ugly etc though

Thank god. Inelegant in the extreme. Good to see standards being upheld after those damned disc brakes were allowed.

Nope. Can’t see droppers making it onto the road. There’s be a perceived aero and weight penalty.

Thank god. Inelegant in the extreme. Good to see standards being upheld after those damned disc brakes were allowed.

You may get someone trying a superman position, gripping either side of the stem with straight arms but it’ll only work on long, straight downhills like the descent off the Galibier where you can hit 100kph if you have the cajones. A lot of pro racers are fairly conservative with equipment and tend to avoid ‘new’ stuff, particularly if heavier, likely to go wrong. It’ll probably come down to bike companies and sponsors and if they want to try and flog us them.

Yep, will be the next big thing, when has the industry ever resisted the opportunity to over-complicate road bikes? 😁

Any climber with brains should put one on their super light climbing bike to regain (and surpass) the areo on the downs, but you’d need to be be 400g sub of the UCI weight limit before the post goes on.
But roadies are fikkle, unimaginative things so it prob won’t happen.

I came up with a design for a road dropper with a parallelogram arrangement like a thudbuster but with a piston instead of the elastomer. Then the saddle would move down a bit and back a bit, which is what you want.

Bindun.

https://www.velonews.com/gear/spotted-astana-rides-special-height-adjust-posts-at-tour/

Count how many of the current crop of pro road bikes have a round, non-integrated seat post.
That’ll help answer the question.

Is there a rule about keeping your feet in the pedals? You would think that removing at least one foot and stretching the leg out behind you would be extremely aero.

Count how many of the current crop of pro road bikes have a round, non-integrated seat post.

That’s just means everyone releasing a new ‘standard’ on a weekly basis.
New frame sir? You’ll need the new seat post* to go with it.

*why yes sir, the bill is correct. £2500 for the frame and £750 for the new seat post.

Has the full superman been banned? Legs out the back and stomach on the seat?

I’ve think you will. Think you will even see it with an aero design too.

No, we won’t.

Seat post shape, as mentioned, plus bikes are already on the weight limit because of disc brakes.

And it’s good that it’s been banned IMO.

If nobody can do it, there’s no disadvantage.

If it was allowed, there would inevitably be an accident as less accomplished bike handlers felt pressure to do it.

Not worth risking while Ritchie Porte is still in the peloton.

Non roadie here.

Can anyone tell me why it’s been banned? As it’s something every rider can do and a test of skill/balls, where is the issue?

Cheers.

Can anyone tell me why it’s been banned?

Safety

Ok, reasonable enough.👍

The fastest I’ve even been on a road bike (well cx – as close to road as I get) was when I fitted a dropper, went about 5mph faster on a known descent, with less effort. Felt stable too with lower position, IMHO it’s something the pro peloton should be looking at seriously, even if just for mountain stages where some riders already fit things like MTB cassettes.

Interesting take on why road bikes haven’t evolved as much as other disciplines here. Point number 2 is I think the main one.

Interesting article that, but I wonder if he’s missing the bigger point i.e. the pleasure of owning a simple, reliable and uncomplicated bike.

My winter, rim brake, tubed road bike is probably my most ridden bike, simply because it’s always ready to go! As soon as you add more levers, more hydraulics, more seals, etc etc you increase likelihood of things failing or needing serviced.

There’s also the joy of RIDING an uncomplicated bike, see why most riders dabble with singlespeed and 1x when in many ways more gears would be faster or more efficient.

It’s possibly also understandable why they might fear new tech, you still see riders drifting to the back in silly gears because their electric gears have gone into crash mode, and apparently Quinn Simmons was held up waiting for a replacement disc wheel at Strade Bianche yesterday. Could you imagine a rider trying to pedal up Alpe d’Huez with a dropper that had stuck down 😂😂

Could you imagine a rider trying to pedal up Alpe d’Huez with a dropper that had stuck down

How about doing the final 49 miles of a 50 mile race with no saddle.

https://mmbhof.org/cindy-whitehead-buccowich/

There’s also the joy of RIDING an uncomplicated bike, see why most riders dabble with singlespeed and 1x when in many ways more gears would be faster or more efficient.

Which is why I love riding a brakeless fixed gear bike. Probably slower than most other options but it is pretty much as simple a bike as you can have.
I also ride a SS rigid MTB for same reason and find the disc brakes an annoying thing to have to bother with!

Interesting take on why road bikes haven’t evolved as much as other disciplines here. Point number 2 is I think the main one.

The key point in here though was, to paraphrase, ‘when gravel was seen as a big enough market to ignore the UCI’.

Although is it just roadie’s themselves stuck in a bygone past – wonder how many were Leavers? 😉

Besides, the whole ‘dropper makes you faster’ was debunked at Nove Mesto XC WC when MVdP thrashed everyone without one.
Droppers probably more suited to girthsome IT managers who need some tech to get their bulk out the wind 😂 the same ones who show up with all the fancy gear at road races and get dropped on the first climb

the whole ‘dropper makes you faster’ was debunked at Nove Mesto XC WC when MVdP thrashed everyone without one.

To show whether it’s faster or not, you need to time a bunch of different riders using both droppers and fixed posts, and you need to do that on a range of different trails. One rider winning without a dropper might just mean that rider is a better rider and might have won by more if they’d had a dropper post, or it could be a circuit specific thing. Having said that, pro XC riders are incredibly fit and skilled on a bike, so they can ride quite rough stuff at speed with their saddles up. For road, I think the idea is that it would improve aero on fast descents, totally different thing than on an MTB.

Droppers have been on the Mavic neutral service bikes since 2017:

Linky

The weight can’t be the issue as there are calls for the total won’t to be dropped by more than 400g. I predict we will see them but it will be really expensive and evolve redesigning the frame and seat post.

Will definitely see them on mountain stage bikes. The bikes are easy to get under 6.8kg so extra 2-300g of seat post is not a problem.
Anything that will give an advantage on descents with no negatives is obviously going to be used in a professional sport.

Yep, will be the next big thing, when has the industry ever resisted the opportunity to over-complicate road bikes?

You mean all bikes…and selling anything pricey/shiney to make someone want to spend their money?

What an idiotic name. I’m going for a ride and am going to do some super wheelies and super bunny hops.

Besides, the whole ‘dropper makes you faster’ was debunked at Nove Mesto XC WC when MVdP thrashed everyone without one.

Not a debunking as you don’t know if she would have gone even faster on the day with one.

Go on who is MVdp. I thought I knew who was who in Womens XC

Mathieu Van Der Poel. He won in the men’s, not the women’s race.

Because he’s an insanely strong bike rider, not because he did or didn’t have a dropper post.

Not a debunking as you don’t know if she would have gone even faster on the day with one.

Hence my confusion

Plus of course the reason for dropper on an XC race bike isn’t for a better aero tuck