[ben7799]

This company is really famous for selling really expensive "upgrades" that do very little for actual speed.

The resistance of the chain & pulleys is a very tiny percentage of the whole unless they're gunked up and not maintained/lubricated or are broken.

Pretty much all mechanical resistance on a bike is dwarfed by aerodynamic resistance. When the aerodynamic resistance is broken down the contribution of the bike is dwarfed by the contribution from the rider and his/her body position on the bike. When you start getting into the resistance from gear the helmet & clothes are more significant than the bike.

None of this stops them from selling $10,000 bikes to amateurs who are slow though.

It is free but hard work to go on a core strength + flexibility program that lets you access more aerodynamic riding posture. Working with a good fitter/coach will cost a little but help get there with less guesswork. Everything about getting fast on a bike is harder work than buying stuff.

[asynchronous13]

When people start talking about bicycle upgrades to shave a few ounces here and there, I just point at my belly and the 10's of pounds I could drop from my body before I worry about a couple ounces on my bicycle.

[m463]

I think the fastest bikes in a straight line are recumbent bikes because of the small frontal area. Nobody talks about it much (probably because nerdy middle age men are the only demographic with enough devil-may-care attitude to ride one in public)

[mrob]

The fastest bikes are fully enclosed velomobiles, but they're expensive and usually don't fit in normal bicycle parking spaces.

[jandrese]

Also they're banned in most racing events and horrendously expensive.

[m463]

that's fascinating - I think common bicycles would probably have lots more variants if these hidden administrative rules didn't exist.

I'm reminded of the look of sport motorcycles. The design has been heavily influenced by an almost unknown source - a racing rule from many years ago that said the fairing should not extend forward of the front axle.