{"id":177599,"date":"2020-04-28T09:17:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T09:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=177599"},"modified":"2020-04-28T09:17:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T09:17:45","slug":"what-do-pros-have-on-their-bikes-that-you-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/04\/28\/what-do-pros-have-on-their-bikes-that-you-dont\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do Pros Have on Their Bikes That You Don\u2019t?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you ever wonder, as I have, what professional road racers have on their bikes that you don\u2019t (besides a professional rider, I mean)? Professional road racing is mostly about money \u2013 prize money, money from manufacturers whose bikes and assorted parts are used in high-profile races and, of course, from sponsors. So teams will invest to make the bikes as performance optimized as the riders. Or, put another way, it takes money to make money.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But a lot of the stuff on a pro bike has nothing to do with performance. For example, the name of the racer who owns the bike is usually displayed on a sticker attached to the top tube of the frame and, increasingly, on the wheels. This is important because even though the wheels are identical, different riders prefer different tyre pressures.<\/p>\n

And there are the number plates, attached either to the rear brake with a special adaptor or to the seat post. In addition to helping identify a rider in the pack (along with the jersey numbers), this helps the team mechanics with arranging spare bikes on top of the team car.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n