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Cycling is a sport about strategy and athletic power, not about technology. What a bike looks like is fixed so that the best rider wins instead of the best bik

Cycling is a sport about strategy and athletic power, not about technology. What a bike looks like is fixed so that the best rider wins instead of the best bike winning. You can build a more aerodynamic bike. You can build a lighter bike. The progress would be relentless and all money would be invested there if the rules allowed it. So they don't. It's the same for many sports. You could use aluminum bats in major league baseball. They don't because they simply work too well. In addition to killing the pitcher if you hit a line drive at him, every hit would be a home run. They'd have to make the stadiums larger and add more outfielders. Why bother? Then they'd make the bats even more powerful, and the process would repeat again. So they just use wood bats. There are plenty of opportunities to race streamlined recumbent bikes, by the way, it's just not the ruleset in play for the Tour de France. (And of course you can use a TT bike in the time trials.)

jccalhoun 6y ago
While that's true, I do wish there would be some "no technological limits" athletic events where they could go all out on technology just to see what the extreme would look like.
- nafey 6y ago
  I think formula 1 comes closest in that regard. There is some insane engineering that is done by top teams. I believe carbon fiber, ABS, disc brakes all came from f1.
  - garaetjjte 6y ago
    Maybe in the past, nowadays F1 have lots of technical regulations.
    - Scea91 6y ago
      The regulations serve three main purposes which seem reasonable: 1) Increased safety 2) More entertaining racing (not much success here so far) 3) Reducing the cost so that it is economically sustainable even for smaller teams. Still, the current cars are the fastest F1 cars ever.
    - philjohn 6y ago
      They do - but they also have scores of super smart engineers who each year manage to find a certain something - be it a loophole, or just something nobody else thought of. See DAS this year, F Duct in the early 2010s, the 2009 Double Diffusers (when they were technically banned), Blown diffuser, CF layups that cause the front wing to flex under load etc. etc.
  - philjohn 6y ago
    A large part is also for looking for something that passes the letter of the rules, but not the spirit - a loophole. The Mercedes F1 DAS system they intend to race this year when the season gets underway is just the latest example, but see also the 6 wheeled car, the fan car, getting around the ground effect ban, double diffuser, blown exhaust etc. etc. It's one of the reasons I love the sport.
- chrisdhal 6y ago
  Historically there was Can-Am[0]: "As long as the car had two seats, bodywork enclosing the wheels, and met basic safety standards, it was allowed." As others have mentioned, F1 is probably the closest today. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-Am https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-Am

jccalhoun 6y ago

While that's true, I do wish there would be some "no technological limits" athletic events where they could go all out on technology just to see what the extreme would look like.

nafey 6y ago
I think formula 1 comes closest in that regard. There is some insane engineering that is done by top teams. I believe carbon fiber, ABS, disc brakes all came from f1.
- garaetjjte 6y ago
  Maybe in the past, nowadays F1 have lots of technical regulations.
  - Scea91 6y ago
    The regulations serve three main purposes which seem reasonable: 1) Increased safety 2) More entertaining racing (not much success here so far) 3) Reducing the cost so that it is economically sustainable even for smaller teams. Still, the current cars are the fastest F1 cars ever.
  - philjohn 6y ago
    They do - but they also have scores of super smart engineers who each year manage to find a certain something - be it a loophole, or just something nobody else thought of. See DAS this year, F Duct in the early 2010s, the 2009 Double Diffusers (when they were technically banned), Blown diffuser, CF layups that cause the front wing to flex under load etc. etc.
- philjohn 6y ago
  A large part is also for looking for something that passes the letter of the rules, but not the spirit - a loophole. The Mercedes F1 DAS system they intend to race this year when the season gets underway is just the latest example, but see also the 6 wheeled car, the fan car, getting around the ground effect ban, double diffuser, blown exhaust etc. etc. It's one of the reasons I love the sport.
chrisdhal 6y ago
Historically there was Can-Am[0]: "As long as the car had two seats, bodywork enclosing the wheels, and met basic safety standards, it was allowed." As others have mentioned, F1 is probably the closest today. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-Am https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-Am