58) Metal Heads
Got a gear-obsessed rider on your list? The object of desire isn't a bike.
Cyclists don't own bikes. They own intricate assemblages of carefully selected components—wheels, cables, stems, and cranks, to name just a few. And none gets more attention than the drivetrain. Tell a fellow cyclist that you've got better handlebars than he does and you face an earnest discussion about tensile strength and bolt patterns. Tell him that Shimano Dura-Ace outperforms Campagnolo Record and, well, them's fightin' words. Shimano vs. Campy has been the shaved-leg version of red state–blue state for years. // Then, like a Green-party candidate with a legitimate shot at making a difference, SRAM came along this past spring and dropped a third option on the cycling world. Initially, no one even cared how it would perform; they were just thrilled to have one more thing to obsess about. Difficult to pronounce. Expensive. Exotic. Technical. Perfect. // For the record, it's sram, not shram. The high-end *Force road group comes in at around $1,700 and includes parts made of carbon and magnesium. And behind all the geekspeak is a revolutionary shift mechanism that's simpler and lighter than anything else out there. After spending a couple of months on a Force-equipped bike (there will also be an entry-level Rival group), I can safely say, Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Better or worse? That's hardly the point (a little of both, actually). What's important is that it's different, which means bike nerds have something else to tinker with, argue about, and spend money on. And, really, that's all most of us want. sram.com —John Bradley