Cycling UK Forum

I take this to mean in your cycling lifetime - which for most of us disqualifies pneumatic tyres, frame tubes, the chain and even the wheel.

Some of the things I've considered in coming to an answer pre-date my introduction to cycling in 1958 (see pic of me at Whitby in 1959 on the 1973 thread to see my technological starting point. ) but seem only to have come into general use since then.

In no particular order, things that have made a significant improvement to my cycling experience:

cotterless cranks (same to ride of course, but a lot easier to remove and fit.)
modern fabrics (which seem like magic compared with wool and cotton.)
clipless pedals (which not only locate the feet, as shoeplates did, but allow proper overshoes etc in bad weather)
reliable lighting (hard to overstate how rubbish bike lams used to be)
effective brakes (ditto)
parallelowhatnot gear mechs especially slant parallelograms, as CJ once pointed out to me on here. (Apart from anything else, the push-rod type - if that's the right name - had a depressing tendency to rip all the spokes out if the cable broke.)
decent front mechs (rather than faffing about with a lever at the bottom of the seat tube.)
freehubs and similar systems (much easier to change than many screw-on freewheels and also allowed more gears.)
cycle helmets (gave us all something to talk about )*
indexed gears (for years I thought this was just a joke.)
combined brake and gear levers (IMO a real improvement on everything that went before.)

My final choice is wide range gears. Probably mainly because I have much less energy than I did in my teens, but also because like many other cyclists I've been forced off the mainly gentle gradients of main roads onto side roads which are often hillier. Not all main roads are flat. of course. The pic I mentioned was taken in Whitby and the only way to pedal out of there on the flat is by pedalo.

* I see that while I have been posting, I see that meic has mentioned helmets, but he overlooked their value as an icebreaker.

Combined brake and indexed gear shifters.
Reliable, bright, lights - for me a modern hub generator with halogen lights and now, even better, with LED lights. My decades long search for decent dependable lights is now over!

thirdcrank wrote:I take this to mean in your cycling lifetime .... indexed gears

indexed gears have been around since even before you were born TC

Greatest impact for me was the crossbar. Some years ago climbing a hill, standing on pedals and hairsprings in the freewheel broke. Pawls stopped working and [inappropriate term removed] hit crossbar hard. Not good

My brooks saddle... I used to be in pain after 40 minutes of cycling, even with those gel-padded things.

Perhaps the next thing would be a set of vintage GB-brand (Made in England) "Touring Bars" which are basically the same as the modern Nitto Noodle. These were the bars that got me to use drop bars. These days it's North Road or Touring Bars for me. None of this flat-bar nonsense.

Edwards wrote: informing me it had Flippy Flappies in the brakes to change gear.
So I was sent to the bank to get the money for her Bob Jackson.

My road bike had down tube shifters but having tried the shifters, I soon fitted Sora STI levers to my bike. We now happily ride our road bikes together with our Shimano Flippy Flappies.

What a brilliant name. My wife makes up names for things as well. Blinking LEDs are referred to a Flickery Flackeries! Something that's totally out of the ordinary is Abnatural.

Fully loaded touring.com and everything that has made it possible.

Failing that, without a doubt, the stem raiser - the fightback starts here:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/del ... gn=froogle

http://www.fullyloadedtouring.com/

Probably the triple chainset.

JennyAdcock wrote:Its been near a year since I bought my road bike and this week I upgraded it from old style "strap in" pedals to SPDs. This was the last "large" purchase for me and what a difference! I seem to be going faster for no effort. Up hills, my legs are not aching from pushing so hard on the "down" push. All my legs are being used so hills are just easier to cycle up.

I'm thinking that the change to using SPDs and cleets will be having the greatest difference on my ability to climb hills, enjoy cycling and keep up with my colleagues on friday dashes home from work.

Which piece of cycling equipment had the greatest impact for you?

Cycling helmet. It has saved my head on a couple of occasions from serious impact.

Disc Brakes without a doubt

Al

Gears!

Moving from one speed to three was very exciting for me.

Oh and having a tiny bike that fits under a desk that will never be stolen by the inner city underclass.

al_yrpal wrote:Disc Brakes without a doubt

Al

Agree. I've been using disc brakes for a few weeks only and they are superb. They're a big step forward from the old fashioned system that wears out the rims and are one of the few developments that makes a real difference to performance.

Leonard Zinn's book of bike maintenance, being able to build and fix the bike made touring possible.

Fixed gear bike, I abhor the thought of "training", fixed is fun and you do get stronger.

Sheldon Brown & Grant Petersen, cycling for fun and companionship. (mental equipment)

It has to be a primus stove clipped on to the top bar of a bike. After twenty five or thirty miles stop, get the stove lit up, starters a can of soup heated up in the mess tin followed by a kettle of fresh tea then relax for an hour or so. None of these stainless flasks for me my cafe is on the top bar of my bike. Real cycle tourists use primus stoves. No touring bike should be sold without one. DC

A primus stove clip certainly had a great impact on this forum, once upon a time....