In my decades of racing and developing bikes I have ridden bikes that are fun and bikes that are fast. Somewhat surprisingly, fun and fast are not 100% correlated. Usually fast bikes are fun, but not always. However, fun bikes may not be all that fast. I have always liked to go fast and not just when racing. Speed and the physical and mental skills it requires have been a critical part of what keeps me riding. 

After losing a national championship by just nine seconds a few years ago, I sharpened my training this year and assessed my equipment to ensure that I would not leave any time on the course. I have some nice modern road bikes, and I did not really think that they were a limiting factor. However, earlier this year Specialized released the S-Works Tarmac SL9 and claimed it was the fastest road race bike on the planet. Their assertion was that the SL9 had the most optimized balance of weight, stiffness, aerodynamics, handling, and compliance to get a rider to the finish line first. 

As a result of my tenure at Specialized, I know a little about their over-the-top marketing claims. It’s not that there is no basis for such claims, it’s just that the brand tends to take them a little too far. The bikes are usually good, and sometimes even great. But their marketing would have you believe that a bike like the SL9 is the absolute best. Furthermore, I am super intimate with several generations of the Tarmac and was at Ground Zero for the development of the SL4 and SL5. Maybe my time and intimacy with Tarmacs is why they feel like they are an extension of my body. So I decided to get an SL9 and see if it would help me go faster. 

There is a signature climb just two miles from my home. It is just over five miles in length and gains over fifteen hundred feet in elevation, with some grades in double digits. I would not be surprised if I have ridden the climb over one-hundred times. So I know it well, and I know exactly how to ride it for a fast time. For me anything under twenty-seven minutes is respectable. My two best times were each under twenty-five minutes in races. A key part of my training this year was to ride the climb three successive times in one ride each week for the six weeks leading up to the national championship. Eight years ago I once did all three under twenty-six minutes – my better half reminds me that I was EIGHT years younger, but I don’t like excuses. This year I was struggling to get all three under twenty-seven minutes. I began using different bikes, even swapping out wheels to see if I could find some time, but nothing made a significant difference. Then I got the SL9 – the world’s fastest bike and … my times were still about the same! Yes, my times were improving over the six weeks, but there was no jump to correlate with the equipment changes. 

Certainly my rides were well short of a controlled scientific test, but I tried to minimize as many variables (time of day, diet and eating schedule, warm-up, clothing, etc.) as possible. I could not control the weather though, and I think this climb could be +/- 30-45 seconds depending on the wind. There is also the fact that I was gaining fitness during this period. Reviewing the data from the rides, I concluded that the wind had more impact on my times than the bike I rode. 

Now, what about the fun part? Here’s the funny thing: the bike I have the most fun riding should be the slowest. It is one to two pounds heavier than my other bikes and made of non-aero round aluminum tubes. But how it feels and how it makes me feel while riding is dramatically different than my other bikes. While I take pains to ensure my fit is the same on each bike, they are never exactly the same. And little things like how the brake hoods transition to the bar cannot be the same between current SRAM Red and the previous generation SRAM Red. While similar in width and depth, the carbon rims sound different. On this “fun” bike they sound fast and inspire me to go even faster. Last but not least is the appearance. I like the way all of my bikes look, but the “fun” bike is head-and-shoulders my favorite. I just feel good looking at it. So my “fun” slow bike fits, sounds, and looks better, and consequently I love riding it… fast. Placebo Effect? By the way, the “fun” bike is a lot less expensive too. 

Maybe at next year’s national championship I will race my “fun” slow bike instead of my world’s fastest bike.