"Isn't modern bicycle technology absolutely wonderful?"😍

[kaydee]

25 years ago we'd see Sturmey 3speed bikes coming in that were on the original chain and sprockets at 10,000+ miles, gears still "indexing" despite running in what looked like blood and treacle.

True but not up and down the hills we’re riding or over the baby heads ,or jumps .Everyone to their own,we’ll see how things go ,and talk about this in 2050

 

[Jonny69]

Bike forum! Retro Rides or Autoshite for the car talk >>>>>>>
Other rubbish car forums are available.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

 

[Imlach]

I use a mish mash of modern and old. I don't really have any strong preferences. I do prefer frames designed for 130/135mm, qr, threaded BB and ordinary straight 1 1/8.

I would say that disc brakes have grown on me immensely, particularly after this winters riding where my rim braked bikes gave in and only my drum/coaster/disc brakes could cut it. But disc brakes are hardly "modern" anymore.

I like modern geargroups quite a lot, I think the 1x wide range gearing biased towards the low end is pretty useful, simple to set up and just works. I also think clutched mechs are pretty neat, not that I really benefit from it that much due to my tame pensioner pace riding, but it keeps stuff nice and tight.

 

[Imlach]

Saw mention of my beloved 3 speed hubs. They have no troubles offroad, I know many offroad riders who have used SA/Nexus 3 offroad for ages. I use Nexus 3 offroad all the time and have overtorqued with lower gearing, no problems. Obviously not going to suggest it for extreme DH but for most riding it would be just fine. They'll certainly outlast any modern external gear hub 90% of the time.

 

[Cloverleaf]

Bike forum! Retro Rides or Autoshite for the car talk >>>>>>>
Other rubbish car forums are available.

Oh gawd, heaven forbid you stray from the exact topic allowed by the thread title It's all the same stuff; bits of metal arranged in different ways. Old stuff was objectively less capable but had infinitely more character and new stuff is objectively more capable but generally soul-less. And across both you have people who think they own the rights to control the discussion.

Anyway, another bit that got me today was thinking about dampers. Twenty years ago you'd generally blow a shock up at least once a year with a catastrophic failure. Then along came the Fox DHX and RC4 range, and the Cane Creek Double Barrel, and reliability became much better to the point you could generally leave a shock until it started to feel sticky and then get it serviced. These days we're back to shocks blowing randomly, like the Fox X2, after very little riding, and adjusters that are so stiff many riders struggle to tell where the end stops are with the result being they damage them internally. Sometimes there's a sweet spot in tech and maturity/strength that gets passed on by, it's just a shame you don't realise you're living in that sweet spot until it's gone by. The same goes for the Rock Shox Charger damper. I'd hesitate to say the 2.1 iteration was excellent, especially given their propensity for going all Colin Chapman and ejecting their fluid everywhere, but it was a crap load better than the 3.0 they replaced it with (and which itself is being replaced by the 3.1 rather quickly, probably because it's crap).

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

One of the reasons I ride rigid but I just ride in the woods. Mate just bought a full sus carbon Nukeproof and it's impressive, also the size of a house. He was evasive when asked how it went up hills.

 

[Imlach]

One of the reasons I ride rigid but I just ride in the woods. Mate just bought a full sus carbon Nukeproof and it's impressive, also the size of a house. He was evasive when asked how it went up hills.

They're not meant to go up hills, duh....

 

[bikeworkshop]

They're not meant to go up hills, duh....

The modern big carbon mtb goes up a hill in the back of a land rover.

I have stitched these two topics back together see.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

The modern big carbon mtb goes up a hill in the back of a land rover.

I have stitched these two topics back together see.

A bike you need a car to get uphill I asked my mate about going for a ride apparently his goes in the car too. Does not compute in my head, I'm not a really clever bloke though