Morning,
There was an article floating around somewhere from a tyre maker saying that they were stopping making tubular tyres because the only people using them where those who got them for free.
I wonder if there is a point where so many gears will end up the same way?
Super Record/Dura Ace and Record/Ultegra will probably be whatever the manufacturer can make.
I mostly ride 8 speed and thought how nice it would be to have 10 to fill in the gaps so that 13,15,17 became 13,14,15,16,17. Once I got those extra sprockets I found that it made the riding less fun as I become more focused on the gear, 17 or 15 is obvious but 17/16 or 16/15 much less so.
But looking at Specialized, the basic Allez is still 8 speed, the sport at £950 is Sora and 9 speed and that is a lot of money for a bicycle for most people. So clearly the market doesn't feel that less that 10 is beneath contempt and not worth the effort.
I appreciate that this may in part be an age thing, I was really surprised to hear on a GCN video that the presenter started out with "only" 9 speed and genuinely thought that it was a great sacrifice.
Going backwards to 5 is too much for me :-) as 2x8 speed is the sweet spot, it covers all the terrain that I ride and with a medium range cassette (11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25) (52x42 chainset) filling in the gaps doesn't benefit me much and neither would increasing the range.
Seven speed and losing the 11 wouldn't be that much of a loss although I do use and like a 127" gear and I probably use it for about 1%-3% of a ride by distance.
Six speed would start to lose another useful gear, probably 21 going.
As I am not focused on speed I have a number of 25-35 miles that I start of in 52x19 and stay in it for the whole ride or only go up a gear or two for the down hill bits. Other days and harder routes ridden faster see most of the 8 speed cassette used but without a yearning for more gears.
Going back to the new Campag, I quite like the idea of 52x9, but at at 156" I imagine quite rarely used.