Bike Innovations you don't need

[Smokin Joe]

A lot of leisure cyclists are perfectly capable of doing their own maintenance, and plenty of people still service their own cars.
Given how weight-obsessed a lot of cyclists are, it seems really bizarre to add the weight and failure risk of a battery, just to avoid doing manual gear changes!. I'd suggest anyone who is unable to master gearchanging on whatever sort of vehicle they ride on or drive in, is not really cut out to be in control of any mechanically-propelled object in the first place.

I mastered friction (In about two minutes), indexing, and then brifters (Both on the first gear change I made on either system). I know how to strip my bike to the last nut and bolt, but I'd have electronic tomorrow if I were upgrading my bike or drive train. Certain people seem to be under the impression that there is something macho about using the most basic system going and sneering at anything new or anyone who uses it. I find that rather amusing. Each innovation on gears that I've experienced has made bicycles more pleasant to ride, I want to concentrate on turning the pedals and any necessary chore (Like changing gear) that can be made a bit easier is for me.

 

[arch684]

The truth is we don't need any of these innovations but it's nice to have them

 

[bpsmith]

I would love to have SRAM Etap. The thought of never having to change a gear cable again, along with the simplicity of the gear change has a lot of appeal.

My mechanical Ultegra functions and sounds sweet as a nut btw. All done by my own hands. Still fancy Etap nonetheless.

I also like the idea of Di2 shifting up 2 sprockets when I shift down a chainring. That’s clever.

Finally, a minor one, but I also think having the gear you’re in shown on your Garmin appealing too. Not sure whether it stores this for your whole ride, but would be very cool to analyse. I’m sad like that, but not ashamed in the slightest.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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

If they were concerned about aero they would go recumbent. A road bike is about as aero as a 100kg brick the way most riders sit on them.

 

[Tim Hall]

If they were concerned about aero they would go recumbent. A road bike is about as aero as a 100kg brick the way most riders sit on them.

The UCI doesn't allow recumbents though.

 

[mjr]

I would love to have SRAM Etap. The thought of never having to change a gear cable again, along with the simplicity of the gear change has a lot of appeal.

My mechanical Ultegra functions and sounds sweet as a nut btw. All done by my own hands. Still fancy Etap nonetheless.

I also like the idea of Di2 shifting up 2 sprockets when I shift down a chainring. That’s clever.

Finally, a minor one, but I also think having the gear you’re in shown on your Garmin appealing too. Not sure whether it stores this for your whole ride, but would be very cool to analyse. I’m sad like that, but not ashamed in the slightest.

So Di2 is an electronic solution to two problems created by brifters? First that it's harder to shift rear and front simultaneously because you can't work both levers with one hand so it does that programmatically, and secondly that you can't just glance at the lever position to see which gear you're in, so it displays that on a bike computer. So eventually, they might get to the point of fully replicating down tube shifter functionality...

 

[Blue Hills]

What we need is electronic down tube shifters with gesture detection, Put your hand to the down tube and make a lever forward gesture and it will detect it and change up, and so on. For current gear setting it can project a hologram of a lever and move its position according to the currently selected gear, or perhaps augmented-reality goggles can include that.

I think I'm on to something, off to Crowdfunder I go.

Far too complicated.
And requires you to move your hands, thus taking more time and wasting calories that should be thrust straight into your sprint.
The obvious solution, with maybe different versions for men and women, is for riders to twitch their groin muscles.
These twitches will be picked up by new generation saddles which will transmit the signals to front and rear mechs. This would also allow lightweight signal cables to be fed through the frame.
Not only will it significantly improve cycling performance, and give neck and neck riders no warning of a competitor's gear shift and speed boost, but it will allow the price of saddles to be boosted still further.
After all, with careful selection, i can still quite easily find good saddles for £15 to £20.
And we can't be havin' that.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Bikes for people faster than me that are made out of solid iron.

EDIT: Sorry - That's an innovation I do need!

 

[Sixmile]

I haven't read every post but did a quick skim and search but...

I've seen a bike brake light appearing on my FB feed over the last number of days. As usual, the comments beneath a public post regarding anything to do with cycling is entertainment on its own. Most, if not all the people who bought the brake light, have said how it has broken before even leaving the house and about how cheap and useless that it needs. What surprises me is that so many people seem to have purchased the thing before finding this out.

 

[arch684]

Have all these innovations turned us all into softies? sti's/electronic shifting compact chain sets with dinner plate size cassettes carbon/light alloy frames and now we have e bikes.For over 20 years my only bike was a steel frame raleigh with 52/42 chain set and a 12/25 block,i don't remember having to walk up any hill

 

[bpsmith]

So Di2 is an electronic solution to two problems created by brifters? First that it's harder to shift rear and front simultaneously because you can't work both levers with one hand so it does that programmatically, and secondly that you can't just glance at the lever position to see which gear you're in, so it displays that on a bike computer. So eventually, they might get to the point of fully replicating down tube shifter functionality...

Did downtube shifting allow you t change front and back simultaneously with one hand then?

I can glance at the rear cassette and see just as easily as the downtube tbh. What I want to know is whether Di2 records the gear your in at every point of the ride. Downtube shifting never included that unless I am mistaken?

 

[bpsmith]

Have all these innovations turned us all into softies? sti's/electronic shifting compact chain sets with dinner plate size cassettes carbon/light alloy frames and now we have e bikes.For over 20 years my only bike was a steel frame raleigh with 52/42 chain set and a 12/25 block,i don't remember having to walk up any hill

Do you have a leather chamois too and rigid tyres?

 

[ColinJ]

Have all these innovations turned us all into softies? sti's/electronic shifting compact chain sets with dinner plate size cassettes carbon/light alloy frames and now we have e bikes.For over 20 years my only bike was a steel frame raleigh with 52/42 chain set and a 12/25 block,i don't remember having to walk up any hill

Maybe you are strong enough to enjoy riding up 25% slopes in a 42/25 gear but I'm not, so I'll stick to my 28/30, ta very much!

 

[davidphilips]

Have all these innovations turned us all into softies? sti's/electronic shifting compact chain sets with dinner plate size cassettes carbon/light alloy frames and now we have e bikes.For over 20 years my only bike was a steel frame raleigh with 52/42 chain set and a 12/25 block,i don't remember having to walk up any hill

Just back from a club ride and when on a coffee brake i took up the subject of Have all these innovations turned us all into softies? Any way most of the replies where of the nature of better bikes and faster speeds, LOL then i asked how many of us could cycle 872 miles in 2 days 11 hours and 7 minutes?

All the cyclists that i was with thought it could not be done and none of them would believe that a girl (Eileen Sheriden) done just that in 1954 on a hercules bike,
So dont know if everyone is a lot softer but both myself and my friends are not just up there with some of yesterdays cyclists even with there out of date bikes and kit.

 

[Blue Hills]

Did downtube shifting allow you t change front and back simultaneously with one hand then?

I can glance at the rear cassette and see just as easily as the downtube tbh. What I want to know is whether Di2 records the gear your in at every point of the ride. Downtube shifting never included that unless I am mistaken?

Sorry, you worry me profoundly, unless you are a pro, for even wanting to post-ride analyse what gears you were in for every metre of your ride. Smell the roses, even the cow shoot.