List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

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thelawnet
Posts: 2736
Joined: 27 Aug 2010, 12:56am

List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by thelawnet »

* Internal cables - introduce a new set of problems (rattling, more difficult service) without necessarily solving any old ones
* 1x drivetrains - let's charge people more for less, in all respects except often weight
* 4-arm asymmetrical chainrings - no benefit whatsoever except for those who like buying £400 chainsets
* Metric shock sizes - 'let's just change all the shock sizes, so we can get everyone to scrap their old bikes'
* 27.5" wheels - ditto but for MTB wheels
* umpteen new freehub drivers - ditto again
* 'Boost' frames - ditto but let's just make everything 6mm wider so we can get as many bikes as bikes scrapped
* 'i-spec' - let's make a new version of our 'standard' every 2 years, so we can get more parts scrapped
* 150t cassettes - expensive and heavy
* 12-speed drivetrains - 'we don't have anything worthwhile to offer, so let's add another cog and £100 on the price'
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willcee
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Location: castleroe,co.derryUlster

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by willcee »

Plus 1.. Innovations in engineering in vehicles and cycles are benefitting no one except the makers.. the cars suffer from a multiude of electonic issues when they get older,from 3 years on most of them are grenades, just waiting to explode and cost you thousands and I expect that similar issues with poor connection poor solder dry joints will affect DI2 on bicycles. Perhaps any engineer graduate should have a years training in the proving grounds like fixing what they design when it has issues.. then wisdom rather than hidden tidyness would mean something to the end user or the repair guy who has to take off a bumper or a mudguard to access a bulb costing less that his morning coffee, and the cycle design guru handed a 9 month old gravel bike which had noisy cables and they want them replaced in an hour.. and retested.. and a lower headset bearing replaced where the fork and the bottom race was cemented on ..... need that in half an hour mate..or a front wheel with stuck in alloy thru axle .. sure that won't take you experts who designed this crap that long eh?? will
scottg
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Location: Highland Heights Kentucky,, USA

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by scottg »

So called innovations, to separate the punters from their money.....

Pneumatic tyres, before p-tyres no one worried about flats or dodgy q/rs.

Brazed on rear triangles, before rear triangles were bolted, you could easily
fix a damaged one, change to a different type of brake, or get a different rear spacing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG
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rogerzilla
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Joined: 9 Jun 2008, 8:06pm

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by rogerzilla »

The explosion in headset and BB standards. Why?
Labrat
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Joined: 3 Mar 2014, 11:58am

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by Labrat »

Some of this is just childish whinging.

Let’s look at huge innovations -

reliable e-bike motors and high capacity, relatively low weight battery packs.
High output Rechargeable LED lighting - offering us bulbs that don’t need replacing & batteries that aren’t the size of a housebrick. Only a few years ago we were all messing around with halogen bulbs and 4.5 volt flat batteries in ‘wonder’ lights.
Narrow-wide chainrings. Anyone remember the chainsuck triangle?
Decent, reliable hydraulic disc brake systems on road & touring bikes. No more polishing your rims with an eraser.
Mud guards that don’t rattle like a bag of spanners
Helmets so light and airy that you don’t feel like someone strapped a watermelon to your head
Jdsk
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Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by Jdsk »

Thankyou, Labrat. Half-full glass raised (literally). Cheers.

+ Tyres that are extremely resistant to punctures.
+ Hub dynamo options with those LEDs.
+ Satnav devices.
+ Web shops and very rapid mail order.
+ Superb advice available on the Web from suppliers and... others. : - )

Jonathan
Eyebrox
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Joined: 5 Aug 2015, 8:56pm
Location: Ayrshire

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by Eyebrox »

The cleverest of all are rear mech hangers. Great invention - save damaging the frame when you take a tumble or the bike falls over outside a coffee shop. But they're made of an alloy that's as weak as cheese. And a replacement can be anything from a few pounds to £30. That's if you can find the part number and source one without searching the internet or painstakingly going through a distributor's catalogue. Expensive for two inches of metal. Even more expensive when the rider chooses to buy two ... "just in case", given the process he or she has just gone through to find an identical replacement. Why not an industry standard? Or a manufacturer's standard? Frames can be shaped to accommodate a limited range of mech hanger and save all cyclists time and money.
Jdsk
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Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by Jdsk »

Eyebrox wrote:Why not an industry standard? Or a manufacturer's standard?

The general reasons that industries don't standardise are much more interesting than the reasons that they do, which tend to be rational. But two large families of the former can be observed in just about any thread in this forum: obsession with the past rather than the future and MY WAY IS THE RIGHT WAY!

Jonathan
peetee
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Location: Upon a lumpy, scarred granite massif.

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by peetee »

To your very valid list you can add tubeless tyres. A solution to a problem that didn’t exist.
And let’s not forget alloy free hub bodies.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
slowster
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Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by slowster »

scottg wrote:So called innovations, to separate the punters from their money.....

Pneumatic tyres, before p-tyres no one worried about flats or dodgy q/rs.

Brazed on rear triangles, before rear triangles were bolted, you could easily
fix a damaged one, change to a different type of brake, or get a different rear spacing.

It all started with the safety bicycle and has gone downhill from there ever since. Chains, chainrings and sprockets were completely unnecessary and pointless innovations: they wear out and they also introduce efficiency losses. You can keep your fixed gear - direct drive is where it's at.

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Brucey
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Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by Brucey »

Labrat wrote:Some of this is just childish whinging.

Let’s look at huge innovations -

reliable e-bike motors and high capacity, relatively low weight battery packs.
High output Rechargeable LED lighting - offering us bulbs that don’t need replacing & batteries that aren’t the size of a housebrick. Only a few years ago we were all messing around with halogen bulbs and 4.5 volt flat batteries in ‘wonder’ lights.
Narrow-wide chainrings. Anyone remember the chainsuck triangle?
Decent, reliable hydraulic disc brake systems on road & touring bikes. No more polishing your rims with an eraser.
Mud guards that don’t rattle like a bag of spanners
Helmets so light and airy that you don’t feel like someone strapped a watermelon to your head


Well most of the above is the kind of stuff that I can easily live without, and the remainder has kind of missed the point for the most part, in that the 'innovation' happened a long time ago. For example I've used hub dynamos for at least the last forty years, and all that has happened is that the systems are a bit, er, 'lighter' (both in weight and brightness terms). Chromoplastic mudguards are still the best and they have been available since before 1980. I don't think I've ever had a helmet that felt like wearing a watermelon....mind you I have not done that either.
One more thing; I've never used an eraser on my rims in my life.

Pointless/annoying supposed 'innovations' abound. Things that are truly beneficial often go unnoticed and unremarked. Real developments that have made the lot of the cyclist a happier one in the last 40 years include;

- more widespread use of stainless steel parts instead of badly plated rubbish (mudguards, various bolts, cables, spokes)
- cassette hubs (although the manufacturers seem to be hell-bent on coming up with more new 'standards'; sod them; I'm not buying them)
- double walled rims
- indexing that works
- flexible bushingless chains
- better seals on bearings
- more puncture resistant tyres
- good clipless pedals

All pretty basic stuff, and you will notice that none of it really happened inside the last 20 years. Supposed 'developments' since then mostly fall into the pointless/annoying category.

cheers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
mattsccm
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Joined: 28 Nov 2009, 9:44pm

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by mattsccm »

Thin end of the wedge was pedals. All down hill after that.
Bob999
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Joined: 22 Jan 2015, 7:59pm

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by Bob999 »

I'm not sure when it happened, but in my teens (1970s) I seem to remember carrying around half-a-ton of spanners and various other tools, but for a while now all I've needed to take is a light multi-tool. But that might have been cheap bike syndrome I suppose.

My other favourites are sealed bottom brackets and headsets, although I still like ball-bearing hubs because the low-cost shimano ones are such good quality and I enjoy servicing them.
thelawnet
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Joined: 27 Aug 2010, 12:56am

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by thelawnet »

Brucey wrote:
All pretty basic stuff, and you will notice that none of it really happened inside the last 20 years. Supposed 'developments' since then mostly fall into the pointless/annoying category.

cheers


One thing I forgot in my OP is Shimano's four year release schedule. So much more change for the sake of it is needed than when there was a decade or more between major releases.
thelawnet
Posts: 2736
Joined: 27 Aug 2010, 12:56am

Re: List of recent 'innovations' of the cycling industry

Post by thelawnet »

mattsccm wrote:Thin end of the wedge was pedals. All down hill after that.


Don't you mean all down hill before that?
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