Tech / ideas that are old but as good as current quo

[Beans]

This has probably been discussed lots of times on a forum like this, but Ive never participated so I hope its okay to start a thread Discuss some of the stuff thats not popular anymore, why its not and why its still good.


I'll start with some of the obvious ones.

26 inch wheels! - still baffles me that 26 stopped being the primary or even a popular wheel size. Lighter, stronger and usually cheaper than anything bigger.

(and for you 29er fans, you might be interested that the early days of British "all terrain" cycling was done on 27" wheels which were forgotten when american style bikes came in)

Bar Ends (those bull horn things). Im young enough that they disappeared by the time I could buy my own bikes. But still find them massively useful, particularly on a bike that doesn't have modern 700mm wide handlebars. Fantastic for climbing on an MTB or as the default position on a narrow handlebar city bike like a fixed gear but you never see em.

 

[Rampage]

Re:

Paul Components are making bar ends now!

 

[Duxuk]

No bar ends for me. I preferred my Brahma bars. You could hold them at any point as they twisted round in front of you.
Today I'll be riding my Whyte PRST4 with 26" wheels. The reduced tyre drag and weight will help me to be faster around a hilly circuit. I'm looking for sub 12 minutes.
I failed on a tough hill climb on my last ride with a single chainring and 650b wheels. I'd have stood a better chance with a triple and 26ers.

 

[hamster]

Triple chainsets!
Modern 1x bikes have a narrower gear range AND bigger jumps between cogs. AND thin chains and sprickets that wear faster. Pointless.
A 2x7 has better range with the same steps.

 

[greencat]

Personally, I quite like my 27.5+ wheels - but am baffled why anyone would want standard 27.5 wheels as they barely any different from 26.

 

[Splatter Paint]

Re:

Short-travel, pivotless, elastomer suspension. That's dead isn't it?

Oh, no, wait, it is the latest thing to have which makes you faster :shock: Check out the new Pinarello Dogma:

https://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/art ... ike-53867/

SP

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

Triple chainsets!
Modern 1x bikes have a narrower gear range AND bigger jumps between cogs. AND thin chains and sprickets that wear faster. Pointless.
A 2x7 has better range with the same steps.

*playing devils advocate*

Does it though? When I did the calcs on my (modern) bike, I went from 3x10 (11-36) to 1x10 (11-46) and only lost the lowest 2 gears, and only the highest gear at the other end of the range (all dependent on chainring choice of course). Yep, jumps are bigger, but I always seem to shift 2-3 sprockets at a time anyway (lazy shifter).

 

[mattr]

26 inch wheels! - still baffles me that 26 stopped being the primary or even a popular wheel size. Lighter, stronger and usually cheaper than anything bigger.

But they roll slower and hang up on more. And it's not like 700c wheels aren't strong enough for what 99% of people are going to do with them. It's not like i see many many more buckled 700c wheels compared to the days of 26" only. And even pros who buy their own kit are using 29er, so it's not only a marketing thing. And they aren't cheaper, just massively discounted these days, and not being developed further. So you are (probably) 3 or 4 years behind the bleeding edge tech, with commensurate discounts and changes in pricing.

The reduced tyre drag and weight will help me to be faster around a hilly circuit. I'm looking for sub 12 minutes.

get a 29er then, go tubeless, the reduced drag (or improved grip) will *more* than offset the weight difference. You'll probably still be sub 12 minutes, just a little bit more sub.

And FWIW, I still use bar ends. On my retro.
And i used them on my flat barred/CX/hybrid commuter. But that's in pieces now.

Triple to double was good, especially when we got proper wide range cassettes, with reasonable steps (so when we got 10 speed), similar or greater range, similar steps, much improved front shifting in all conditions at the same time.
1x seems to be about as pointless as you can get though, unless something else is driving the change, like suspension pivot positions. Or a complete inability to actually make a front mech that works.

 

[Rod_Saetan]

Or a complete inability to actually make a front mech that works.

Hence SRAM pushing 1x so far.

 

[mattr]

Yeah. I tried not to say that!