Gear

The 14 tech innovations that changed road cycling

Fourteen bits of kit that make the bike of today

6. Helmets

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

6. Helmets

Love them or loathe them, helmets are an important invention in the history of cycling, if only for the amount of passionate debate they’ve caused.

Helmets first came to prominence in the 1970s with the ‘leather hairnet’ style, often in outrageous colours that looked a little, well, rubbish. But two companies –MSR and Bell Sports – started to look at importing the expanded polystyrene design used in motorcycle helmets to make something similar for the cyclists.

The Bell Biker (released in 1975) was one of the first to hit the shelves commercially but various issues and little poor ventilation meant that the helmet was still very much a work in progress.

The next significant innovation came in the early 1990s, with the development of the in-mould microshell. It was (and still is) a very thin outer shell that’s added as part of the moulding process, and it allowed for different shapes, and larger vents and it’s a design that’s still used on many helmets today.