HOTTEST TECH TRENDS FOR 2024

Joe Baker enlists the help of a few industry insiders to find out what recent innovations mean for the bikes and kit we'll be riding next year

- Joe Baker

Technology never stands still, and that’s just as true in cycling as any other industry. The past 12 months have seen major advancements: seatposts that seem to base their aesthetics on household fans, electronic shifting at its lowest-ever price, and a bike-fit philosophy that holds aerodynamics above all else.

With 2024 an Olympic year, this year’s track events have given us a glimpse of what might be arriving in years to come with cutting-edge technology being used in competition as national teams work within the confines of the UCI tech regs. What’s ridden on the boards is now a major driver of the top-end tech and design philosophies that appear on road bikes in years to come. Or earlier. Here’s a look at the technology we’re getting excited about and that could hit the shelves in the coming year.

1 LOWER COST ELECTRIC SHIFTING

Electronic drivetrains are here to stay. They improve both shift speed and shift quality and, increasingly, they are proving to be just as reliable as cable-operated groupsets. That said, they still cost a lot of money, even after years of trickle-down technology.

SRAM’s cheapest AXS groupset, for example, the Rival eTap, comes in at £1,268 – still more than most entry-level road bikes for sale today. Meanwhile, Shimano’s 105 Di2 costs £1,730. Inevitably, as time goes on this cost will come down, and we expect that the adoption of electronic shifting may be picked up across lower-level groupsets in 2024.

A spokesperson for SRAM told us that they “expect the adoption of electronic shifting to continue to increase across more price points and platforms”.