Bike Innovations you don't need

[jefmcg]

I'd say stupid is a pretty accurate description of someone that will ride around perpetually on a maladjusted machine! Would you ride around with a flat tyre for a month without fixing it, or keep driving a car with grinding brakes until they fail totally? It's exactly the same thing.

You can't drive on a flat tyre for a month, it will be ripped to shreds in a kilometre or two. Grinding brakes could be unsafe. So completely different examples.


Someone riding a couple of miles on a skip rescued SD special with grindy gears. That might make sense to them. They are probably not going to get to their destination any faster if they fix it, and it it's a cheap bike, it will go bad again. I don't have any problems if they don't care to fix it - and as for the noise? Where I live we have lots of cars, so the noisiest bike is quieter than almost anything else on the road. Do you live in the land of hybrids and Telsas?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

What's the point of headsets that don't have an expander bolt that allows infinite handlebar height adjustment with a simple allen key or spanner? The whole idea seems totally odd. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[r04DiE]

The only answer may be to embrace minimalism for a simple life.

I think you're right - its all just trinkets, little more...

 

[r04DiE]

And if I want a luminous water bottle, I'll damn well have one.

You're damn well right, too!

 

[jefmcg]

I dropped a water bottle on the A308 approaching Legoland at around 7pm in February. I wish it had a light in it

 

[Tim Hall]

Ah - this is one for @Yellow Saddle Something to do with water ingress into the bearings, the top of the stem being unsupported and a long way from the attachment point, and so forth, propensity to seize inside the steerer. Engineering stuff. There's also the point that there are manufacturing benefits, as the steerers no longer have to be threaded, can be made of material other than steel, and cutting the steerer is left to the end user.

Me, I just think quill stems are prettier.

Adjusting the bearings on a threadless headset is done with just an Allen key. Adjusting the bearings on a quill stem needs two v big spanners.

I quite agree with you about the prettyness aspect.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Ah - this is one for @Yellow Saddle Something to do with water ingress into the bearings, the top of the stem being unsupported and a long way from the attachment point, and so forth, propensity to seize inside the steerer. Engineering stuff. There's also the point that there are manufacturing benefits, as the steerers no longer have to be threaded, can be made of material other than steel, and cutting the steerer is left to the end user.

Me, I just think quill stems are prettier.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/why-did-headsets-change-from-1-to-1-1-8.220129/#post-4851226

 

[davidphilips]

I was told my bike would be a lot better of without the old nut on the saddle?

 

[Blue Hills]

Given how weight-obsessed a lot of cyclists are, it seems really bizarre to add the weight ...... of a battery, .

This is a great point Next time you encounter an amateur TDF wanabee do please ask them about this. I can imagine their heads spinning as they try to compute the contradiction.

 

[jefmcg]

This is a great point Next time you encounter an amateur TDF wanabee do please ask them about this. I can imagine their heads spinning as they try to compute the contradiction.

Oh, wow. It's 4kg. That's twice my ridiculously heavy U-lock.

 

[r04DiE]

Given how weight-obsessed a lot of cyclists are

Weight is 80s, nobody cares about it so much anymore. Aero is the thing now.

 

[Blue Hills]

Actually you could try asking a TdF actually-is rather than a wanna-be. I think the vast majority of the teams run DI2 with the remainder running Campag EPS or SRAM Etap, so they're all running electronic groupsets. Now, they are probably more concerned about weight than anyone. I don't think there is any contradiction as I think (but I'm quite happy for someone else to do the research as I can't be arsed) they weigh pretty much the same, the additional battery and servo weight being offset by reduction in weight of cabling and the mechanism inside the shifters.

I realise that the world class racers use it - understandable.

 

[andrew_s]

Actually you could try asking a TdF actually-is rather than a wanna-be. ... Now, they are probably more concerned about weight than anyone.

They aren't very concerned about weight, because of the UCI minimum weight limit.
If they can't bring their bike up to the limit with power meters, video cameras and radios, they have to add lumps of lead.

 

[jefmcg]

Good point.

Anyhoo, my point was the weight excess of the battery of an electronic unit is the square root of f-all.

Yup, and even if it wasn't - expensive kit on TdF trickles down to club riders. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bung involved to make sure they always have the most expensive groupset.

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

Tho the highways agency might have to add pit stops to roads.

We used to have them on motorways before they became so-called smart. They were called hard shoulders....