Walk into any cycling shop and you’ll find no shortage of equipment promising to make you faster, just like the pros. The professional peloton is basically a rolling advertisement for marginal gains, and the implicit message is that if the pros use it, you should too!
But professional cyclists are paid to optimize for fractions of a second. You probably aren’t! And a lot of the pro-grade equipment that helps a rider finishing in the top ten at the Tour de France will not matter a bit for you… or might even make your Saturday morning ride worse.
What to do? Here are seven pieces of pro-tier gear, what they actually do, why pros use them, and why most recreational riders are actually better off without them.
Embed from Getty ImagesPro cycling gear that amateurs can skip:
1. Ceramic bearings
Bearings sit inside your bottom bracket and wheel hubs, allowing everything to spin smoothly. Ceramic bearings, which are made from silicon nitride rather than steel, reduce friction more effectively than standard options.
Brands like CeramicSpeed are common throughout the pro peloton, appearing in bottom brackets, hubs, and pulley wheels. What’s the predicted benefit? Roughly 2–5 watts of friction savings, according to tests.
But ceramic bearings are expensive, often $300–$500 for a bottom bracket alone. They’re more brittle than steel and require more careful maintenance. For a pro whose team handles all servicing, that tradeoff makes sense.
For a recreational rider? Consider a well-maintained set of quality steel bearings that will perform comparably in real-world conditions. If you have $500 to spend on speed, almost anything else (including losing just a few pounds of body weight) will actually return more performance per dollar.
2. Deep-section carbon wheels
Wheel depth refers to the height of the rim, and deeper rims are more aerodynamic because they reduce air pressure drag. This is the same physics that gives aircraft wings their lift. Pros might use 60mm, 80mm, or even full disc wheels in time trials and flat stages where speeds regularly exceed 45 kilometers per hour.
Deep rims are much heavier than shallow ones, which can hurt efficiency on climbs. More importantly, they act like a sail in any crosswind. In fact, a sudden gust can physically push your front wheel sideways! Professional riders train for thousands of hours to manage bike handling. For most recreational riders, they don’t have that developed skill, so riding with deeper wheels in the wind can even be dangerous.
What to choose? A 35–45mm “all-rounder” rim provides a better balance of aerodynamics, weight, and predictable handling without requiring elite bike-handling skills to stay upright in a headwind.
Embed from Getty Images3. Tubular tires
Most cyclists are familiar with either clincher tires (the standard type with a separate inner tube) or the newer tubeless setup. Tubulars are a third option where the tire is a sealed unit, literally glued onto a specially designed rim.
Although tubulars are becoming less popular, they’re still used by the pros in cyclocross races and some Classics. They have a lighter overall weight and the ability to ride on a flat tire until a team car arrives with a replacement wheel… this can be the difference between reaching the finish and a DNFs in racing.
But for you, if you flat mid-ride with no support vehicle following you… a tubular tire is essentially unserviceable on the road. Replacing one at home isn’t a walk in the park. It requires scraping dried adhesive off the rim and waiting up to 24 hours for fresh glue to cure properly. So for riders who have a team of mechanics handling their bikes, this is a non-issue. For everyone else, clincher or tubeless setups, where a flat can be fixed with a spare tube and five minutes of roadside effort, are a far more practical choice.
4. Narrow (36–38cm) handlebars
Bar width is measured center-to-center across the drops. The current trend in professional cycling leans toward very narrow bars, like 36 or 38cm, which pull the rider’s shoulders inward, reducing the frontal surface area exposed to oncoming air. Despite changes to regulations surrounding bar width, pros are still likely to choose narrower bars. For them, this means real aerodynamic gains, particularly for time trials and at sustained high speeds.
Narrow bars make a bike feel less stable and more responsive to steering inputs. Cyclists call this “twitchy.” The narrower bars also compress the chest, which can restrict breathing during hard efforts, somewhat undermining any speed gain. Most recreational riders handle more comfortably and breathe more freely on 40–42cm bars, which remain a pretty standard recommendation for general use.
5. Extra-long or slammed stems
The stem connects your handlebars to your fork. A “slammed” stem, angled sharply down, puts the rider in a very low, aggressive aerodynamic position. Their torso might look nearly parallel to the road! Look at any Tour de France bike and you’ll see this type of setup.
For a pro racer, a lower frontal profile reduces drag. A longer stem and extended reach might give more leverage at high power outputs.
But this position requires exceptional core strength and hamstring flexibility to sustain without injury. On a professional rider who trains 25 to 30 hours per week and is fitted by a dedicated biomechanics specialist, it works. For most people, it leads to problems like lower back pain and neck strain! Comfort has a real performance value for recreational riders. If a position causes discomfort, you’ll ride shorter and slower.
A more upright, relaxed stem position, even if marginally less aero, will produce better real-world results for the vast majority of cyclists.
Embed from Getty Images6. Pro gearing
A crankset’s chainrings determine your gear range, which is the difference between the easiest and hardest pedaling combinations available. Professional riders commonly use a 54-tooth or even 56-tooth big chainring. This allows them to maintain efficiency at speeds that would cause a standard setup to spin out.
When they’re going 70+ km/h down a descent, this might make a difference. Turning a 54-tooth big ring on anything other than flat road or a descent requires generating a lot of force, more than most recreational riders have available on a sustained climb. Running oversized gearing you can’t fully use also increases the likelihood of “cross-chaining,” or running the chain at an angle across the cassette, which accelerates wear.
Instead? A compact (50/34) or mid-compact (52/36) crankset gives recreational riders the low gears needed for climbs and enough range for fast sections without the drawbacks mentioned above.
7. Skinsuits or aero-cut race jerseys
Professional race jerseys and skinsuits are engineered in wind tunnels. Fabrics are all chosen for minimal drag, seams are repositioned or eliminated, and the fit is designed to eliminate any fabric movement at speed. Every detail is about aerodynamic efficiency, but not necessarily comfort.
Unfortunately, the same properties that make these jerseys fast make them uncomfortable for general riding. Pockets are minimal (often too small for even a phone to tuck away), ventilation is poor, and the extremely tight fit is unforgiving for anyone not at racing weight.
Try a standard “club fit” jersey, which breathes better, carries more in its rear pockets, and fits a wider range of body types. It’s more practical for 99% of rides.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhich gear matters for amateur riders?
Of course, professional cyclists optimize for marginal gains because their sport operates on margins.
If you get a five-watt savings from ceramic bearings, it’s meaningful when the difference between winning and losing a stage might be one watt over four hours. The problem is that the same equipment offers no comparable return for a rider whose performance varies by fifty watts depending on how well they slept in their own bed last night.
Read More:
Why do the pros ride such small bikes?
Build a better framework for choosing gear by basing on enjoyment.
For all types of recreational riders, don’t ask “what do the pros use?” Rather, ask yourself, “what makes riding more comfortable, more reliable, and more enjoyable for me?”
The answer may not be the same for everyone. But it usually points toward well-fitted, mid-range equipment over specialized pro gear. A good pair of bib shorts, a proper bike fit, and consistent training will return more speed to you than any amount of ceramic bearings will!
The espresso in the middle of the ride, just like Jonas Vingegaard and teammates training in the Alps? Don’t worry: that’s a non-negotiable!
Which pieces of pro-level gear do you think are actually useful for amateurs? Which are okay to skip? Let us know in the comments or on social media! ★
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