No Comment Needed Nov 13, 2018

I’ve been waiting to post this graphic, designed by Poler’s CX team, who races on flat bar ‘cross bikes each season. It’s an obvious troll, but damn, that’s a great graphic but with all the flat bar ‘cross and all-road bikes, decked out with Eagle, it does make you wonder.

  • terriblemcnaughton

    Just for bunny hopping alone, I have always wondered why CX racers use drops bars if they’re not required. Solid graphic.

    • Yeah, on that note, I always ran 40mm and up tires in ‘cross because our USAC races didn’t enforce any 32/33mm tire ‘rules’.

    • Jon Severson

      Spirit of the sport really. Cyclocross was created as off season training for roadies which doubled as a means of improving bike handling skills. Hence why at the pro/expert level you don’t see flat bars and big tires….well, usually anyway. Depends where you are. UCI races for sure you won’t see it. Some regions I’m sure it happens.

      Local races historically have never been strict on rules because few people have/had cyclocross bikes and so rules on bar width/style as well as tire width were ignored.

  • brent wick

    HA! I drew that, planning on selling some shirts thru my gram soon.
    check in @fartstorm for updates

    • Simon M

      Stickers too please!

    • Ryan Daugherty

      TAKE MY MONEY!

  • Hybrids 4 life

    • GNARdina

      Flat can be fast!

    • Eric Gustafson

      Yes, indeed. Makes me think of the old Bridgestone CB-0 (zip) from 1991 – marketed as the city bike/hybrid for ‘athletes’ with Gene O in the catalog, if memory serves.

  • Edub
  • Nick Paglia

    CX + drop bars ended with the introduction of longer front centers on CX bikes.

  • Dillon Osleger

    Eh maybe the move for curly bars is away from cx to “easy” xc? A-la Geoff Kabush just winning Ice man cometh on a curly bar 27.5+ gravel bike.

  • Sean Coffey

    wait it’s 1996 again??

  • Peperbek

    You could see this coming. 650×47 wheeled all roads with 71/73 angles and a flat bar make for a classic nineties norba geometry mtb. With almost the same wheelsize as a 26″ that was old becomes new again. As we say in Dutch: oude wijn in nieuwe zakken (old wine in new bags) ;)

    • Can’t agree more. All Road bikes are 90’s mtb with disc brakes and drop bars.

      • Peperbek

        Yeah. And it won’t be long before product managers will realise that less than 10% of the all road riders are bike packers and don’t need a tall frame suitable for bike bags. Then you’ll see top tubes drop and marketing will shift to longer seatposts for more comfort. Ergo, they’ll look even more like mtb’s.

  • bnut

    This is the glorious return of the hybird bicycle, I cant wait to dust off my Mongoose crossway.

    All hail suburb dads

  • Hunter Garrison

    Geoff Kabush would beg to differ.

  • owmurphy

    Sorry, but slip sliding through mud with a white-knuckle grip on drop bars is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

  • Superpilot

    CX with a flat bar is just a rigid mtb on skinny tires ;)

    • Eric Gustafson

      A rigid MTB on skinny 700s is what we used to call a ‘hybrid.’

  • Superpilot

    SSCX with a flat bar is patently mechanical doping tantamount to internal motorization, obvs…

  • Superpilot

    Wait, that’s a track drop, we all know fixed went to straight pipe ages ago…

    I’m here all week, try the fish

  • … waiting for the “death before flat bar” T.

  • deez

    May as well make a little graveyard for all the dead standards that I still use and embrace… bar end shifters, 8 speed drivetrain, quill stems, rim brakes, inner tubes, and soon to join them – steel forks, aluminum rims, polished silver components, double chainrings, cassettes smaller than a pie plate…

  • DarkLordDale

    I can get behind this more than all the fixie bro’s riding 800’s, but its still whack.

  • Jon B.

    i love bicycles and cant wait to see what is ‘of the moment’ in another ten years time.

    • terriblemcnaughton

      Bull-Moose drop bars. Callin it.

  • AdamBike99

    Flat bars are an especially huge advantage on a SS CX machine.

    Or should I have referred to those as “simple-hybrids?”

  • mania4conquest

    Didn’t Justin @Southernvelo do this same design?

  • Davey Struthers

    it just makes it too easy and then your like “riding around on grass is boring and cost money!?” – in comes MTB