Gear

The 14 tech innovations that changed road cycling

Fourteen bits of kit that make the bike of today

The innovations that made the bike of today

Disc brakes and Di2 - two of the tech innovations that make the modern road bike
The safety bicycle was developed in the late 1800s (Pic: H. Clarke via Wikimedia Commons)
The invention of the pneumatic tyre significantly improved comfort
The invention of the rear derailleur made it much easier to change gear
We may take the QR for granted but it revolutionised things back in 1927
The yellow jersey is worn by the leader of the Tour de France
Helmet design has come on a long way since the ‘leather hairnet’ style of the 1970s
French company LOOK pioneered the design of the clipless pedal
The Shimano Total Integration system was introduced in 1990
Greg LeMond first used TT bars to effectively win the 1989 Tour de France
German company SRM developed the first power meter in the 1980s
View image | gettyimages.com
Garmin GPS computers are now almost ubiquitous
Shimano brought the first successful electronic groupset to market back in 2009
The future is here: disc brakes are to be trialled in professional road cycling in August and September

The innovations that made the bike of today

Even though it’s seen many changes over the years, fundamentally the bicycle has remained the same; a frame and two wheels. But since the inception of the safety bicycle in the late 19th Century there have been many modifications and advancements that combine make the modern machine that’s sitting in your garage (or bedroom, we don’t judge).

For everything that caught on – think the rear derailleur or the pneumatic tyre – there have been countless introductions that haven’t done so well, like the RockShox Paris-Roubaix SL (even though the race was won on the suspension fork three times). It shows that even though certain things can seem to be a hit when they’re released, it’s only really time that weeds out the important additions from the less necessary ones.

Here are fourteen of the most important inventions in the history of the road bicycle, where they came from and why they matter.