Gear

The 14 tech innovations that changed road cycling

Fourteen bits of kit that make the bike of today

10. Power meters

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

10. Power meters

In the late 1980s, a German company called SRM, powered by the innovation of Ulrich Schoberer, developed the SRM Training System, the first commercially available system with the ability to record a rider’s power.

The German national team had their first go with them in 1991, and one early adopter of the device was a certain Greg LeMond, who commented that had he been able to use one sooner, he would have won more races in his career!

The ability to track power revolutionised the training of those who had an appetite to train scientifically, and in 1997 Bjarne Riis won the Amstel Gold Race riding with an SRM, having trained on the course for months prior to the event using the device.

In the last few years, the dominance of Team Sky and their dedication to training with power has really brought power meters into the wider consciousness of the cycing world, and companies like Stages have released units at more competitive prices to make power meters more accessible to amateur riders as well.