the New Buzzword is 13spd cassettes, oh i can't wait for 14 spd cassettes. 8spd cassettes were cool, 9spd not so much ad infinitum.........

ChromeChainstay

ChromeChainstay

Senior Retro Guru
Rant and Rave done • the bike industry sure knows how to ruin almost everything. Briko's Stingers...gone. Chrome on frame and fork...gone Silver chrome components...gone Tubulars...gone Rebuildable components...gone Time Trials Amateur...gone (usa) Road Races Amateur...gone (usa) Selling single cogs on freewheels,cassettes...gone Only Proprietary...now standard

time to blow the candle out and the smoke rises
 
Totally with you on this. How many more bottom bracket and headset standards do we need?

Is it really a good idea to replace 1m of stainless cable and a ratchet with a Bluetooth radio link, two batteries, two circuit boards, a servo motor and a gearbox ?
 
How many more bottom bracket and headset standards do we need?
Click to expand...
You need to define the “we” - the end user who maintains there own bike, the end user who never does any maintenance, the shop who attempts to get said bike working again, the manufacturer whose customers cannot comprehend spending more than £100 on a bike.

All the standards will have had a driving set of requirements, even ISIS BB’s. 🙂

When it comes to multiple standards, the bike industry is something of an amateur.

All of which means I can post one of my favourite XKCD cartoons.


IMG_1193.jpeg
 
@BerthaPog I agree with your point, but often the driving motivation has been to bring something new rather than improvement. Shimano have an inglorious track record with such supposed innovations as metric chain pitches, front freewheels, hollowtech etc.
 
I still remember what it was like when I went to 12 speed on my bike - six sprockets and two chain rings. These people who ride 12x1 or even 13x1, how often do they have to change their chains to stop the things unshipping from the chain ring - monthly?
 
@hamster - agreed. It’s also very easy to misunderstand the problem you are trying to solve, and when you get that wrong, the solution will also be wrong. There can also be more than one solution depending on the use case:

More gears might be a solution for racers, but e-bikes a better for utility rides to address the issue “I want it to be easier to pedal my bike”.
 
I have been doing some 1x conversions on MTBs and CX bikes recently and have to say less is more, especially when it comes to weight savings and single shifter , fewer cable runs etc. - but I definitely don't believe any more than 9 speed freewheels are needed. I wish component manufacturers would switch their efforts into producing some nice shifters as an alternative to the finicky brifters combining braking and shifting, IMHO the humble thumb shifter has never been bettered and I would love to see some well engineered and adjustable/adaptable ( e.g. different cable pull settings for different technologies) thumbies and bar end shifters on the market that have no Di-2 electric nonsense and just shift smoothly and effortlessly - Microshift sort of tried this but there is room on the market for some nice compact do it all shifters and then we can also get back to lightweight and attractive brake levers too. Ho hum, 'progress' seems to be confused with continually pushing the boundaries and experimenting with no regard to ergonomics or aesthetics.
 
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