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

[bikeworkshop]

I know which one looks better though.

Lunch in the pub.

But by late afternoon, it's just a distant memory, whereas that rear derailleur is still shifting away...

 

[Ren Rawbor]

I dunno TBH, cheese on toast suits me just fine & I'll spend what I save on a lifetime or two's supply of M952s

I do have a couple of them in the stash now but just can't bring myself to actually use them/risk damaging them when a mixture of M739/760/770, M560 & even a de-stickered MC14 do the job just admirably and don't make me as sad if I gouge them up!

 

[Ren Rawbor]

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).

Ha, the damper thing tickled me in a bittersweet kinda way. Blew the cartridge in my Judy XL the other day so they've gone full SR Suntour pogo mode now. Bet that thing's been happy in semi retirement for the best part of 20 years thinking it got away lightly

Does leave me in a predicament now though, I love how they look & they're technically correct on my bike but where am I supposed to find a hydracoil setup without just randomly buying forks until one turns up lol.

 

[Ren Rawbor]

Proprietary parts, especially when discontinued, wonderful.

Or non serviceable components, that's always beautiful. Makes my day that I can't just undo the end of said cartridge in above post & get the number off the seals... oh yes, happy days

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

So we like the advances and advantages but we all hate disposable shite. Surely this could be sorted?

 

[grantoury]

So we like the advances and advantages but we all hate disposable shite. Surely this could be sorted?

A letter to Shimano?

 

[wynne]

A friend of mine who co-owns a modest-sized bike brand was explaining the madness of the component buying side of his business. Bike frame manufacturers bid up to 5 years in advance for groupsets from the big 3 component makers, they will be briefed on what the groupsets are likely to need by way of fitment etc on frames. They have to then design frames for components they've never seen and have sometimes to manufacture proprietary widgets at the last moment to make things work. The more he outlined of the process the more deranged it seemed to be. No wonder things have got so confused.

 

[grantoury]

A stern letter to Shimano?

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

A stern letter to Shimano?

Along the lines of "Oi #**#, sort it out"?

 

[bikeworkshop]

Mmm this is reminding me of a thread called something like
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/state-of-the-industry-a-running-thread.471470/
I'm feeling all nostalgic