what if...?

[argonsixar]

I still think we should try and get a replacement for those heavy old through axles, that need a power tool to undo in a race and if you drop them, they get all crudded up.
If only someone could invent a simple lever that stayed attached to the wheel and did up/ undid in a split second !

Hmmmm, what could that look like ?

 

[legrandefromage]

For over fifty years we had just lived with disc brake bikes and they worked just fine but with a few niggles around setting up and servicing them.

Then someone with vision came up with a product that saved weight (500 grams per bike), cheaper , easier to install, could be tweaked easily on the road and didn't need special tools to service or install. Top that with, performance in most conditions is on a par. The marketing boys would be all over it !

I give you .....


RIM Brakes.

Rimming?

I don't know...

<WhatsApps the marketing team>

They like it! They like it a lot!!

2027 will be the year for Rimming!

 

[argonsixar]

….nice line of humour

But…memory does not grow dim.

1990s and 2000s - South Downs grease in the wet, rims just gone through Muddy Puddles and now I am on the big descent heading West to Truleigh - and even though I have XT Vs with XT levers and all nicely adjusted, the braking is FFFFFFing terrifying. Hugely predictable and powerful in the dry. Random and dreadful in the wet and mud.

I love my Hope discs. One of the greatest improvements to off road cycling. I can use vented discs (290g) or Alligators (120g). Braking is insanely powerful in all conditions, easy to modulate, easy to maintain, easy to replace pads, easy to select different pad materials…etc etc.

Additional rim woes - worked through one Mavic ceramic rim in one weekend of wet riding on Yorkshire gritstone (no problem with discs). Had to disconnect brakes after rim strike (no problem with discs).

Commuting in the 1990s and 2000s - pouring rain. No significant braking whatever pad material you used, since pads had to dry rims every application of brakes. Huge rim wear from grit, road surface grease and de-icing slime in the winter meant terrifyingly poor braking. Discs on commuting bikes (Cotic RoadRats - can never leave my MTB origins) are just essential for urban riding in the winter.

Rim brakes - lots of toe-in fun.
Discs - one of the modern developments which is a genuine leap forward.

Let the past go boy…..let it go…..

Got to agree. Try and take my disc brakes away on the MTB and I would go nuts. I hate the look of them on road bikes though.

 

[bikeworkshop]

I still think we should try and get a replacement for those heavy old through axles, that need a power tool to undo in a race and if you drop them, they get all crudded up.
If only someone could invent a simple lever that stayed attached to the wheel and did up/ undid in a split second !

Hmmmm, what could that look like ?

It's about materials though.
QR has too little material for modern carbon designs.

On the front, through axle stiffens up the fork, so allows some weight saving.
On the back? QR doesn't exist as an off-the-shelf (mass market) wheel above a certain quality, so Go Thru or Go Home

I do love a good QR ...
Thicker than standard skewer, proper cam action leverage, hardened alloy end cap with threaded steel insert...

I've seen disc wheels levered out of the dropout by braking force with those
horrible cheapo qrs


Lucky rim brakes aren't so vigorous

 

[FluffyChicken]

What if.. GripShift had never been 'invented'?

No SRAM, no Sachs buyout, nor a RockShox rescue buyout, no change to Shimano anti-competative worked. Allowing other to compete with them and OEMs.

Would Avid and Truvativ still be names...

Who would have kept Shimano in check, Sr Suntour had gone budget only, Sachs, Campagnolo?

Would we still be pedalling around on 3x8 or 9 setups with nobody to keep Shimano 'innovating'.

All because of a humble twist shifter...

 

[2manyoranges]

What if.. GripShift had never been 'invented'?

No SRAM, no Sachs buyout, nor a RockShox rescue buyout, no change to Shimano anti-competative worked. Allowing other to compete with them and OEMs.

Would Avid and Truvativ still be names...

Who would have kept Shimano in check, Sr Suntour had gone budget only, Sachs, Campagnolo?

Would we still be pedalling around on 3x8 or 9 setups with nobody to keep Shimano 'innovating'.

All because of a humble twist shifter...

That’s a good train of thought ...

 

[bikeworkshop]

Had to happen

 

[legrandefromage]

I guess Rimming is out then?

 

[pwebb]

some of us oldies of a particularly stubborn disposition made a decision early on to eschew suspension forks, press-fit anything and especially disk brakes. mind you, at the same time, I wouldn't go back to cotter pins, there is still progress after all.
same goes for cars, automatic electronic hand brakes are vastly inferior to a proper mechanical hand brake - yet we are all forced to have them now and as far stupidly heavy DSG gear boxes and cars without a gear shift lever. Don't even get me started on EVs - ghastly chinese rabbit hutches full of 2 tons of duracells and piloted by virtue signaling zealots who couldnt me more wrong about emissions and where they are generated. We live in a world where people invent solutions for problems that dont exist and who find all sorts of ways to justify their invention that dont hold water when properly examined. not immediately solvable by forums like this one alas

 

[bikeworkshop]

But it's like evolution.
The positive changes are outweighed by disadvantageous mutations 100:1