Greatest cycling invention of the last 25 years?

[Dogtrousers]

Like ABS? Seat belts? CB Radio??

I think CB radio on a Friday Night Ride to the Coast would be a hoot.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

The real breakthrough in saddle development came in the 60's, with the non leather, plastic Unicanitor saddle. This was the ancestor of all modern saddles.

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Much better than my 1970's Brookes Professional which sunk in the centre following a long and wet mudguardless ride.

A real waste of my schoolboy earnings!

Even after adjusting the tension bolt the ruddy thing was never the same again.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Not the past 25 years, but no older than a whole load of other things suggested above ... Quick Links.

In the 70s when I started playing with bikes the only way I knew how to break and re-join a chain was using a nail punch to drive a rivet out and then to use a hammer to peen the rivet over when re-joining. I think I may have bought a chain tool around then too. Anyway it took skill and mechanical sympathy, neither of which I have. There may have been a better way but my mentor Richard Ballantyne didn't tell me about it in his book.

Anyway, around 1980 or thereabouts I saw an advert in the CTC magazine for something called a Super-Link or some such. So I sent off for one. It was like a modern quick link - almost. There were two "rivets" permanently attached to one plate, that had threaded holes along their length. You screwed the other plate on with little screws. No more bashing and peening, or subtle fiddling with a chain tool. What bliss.

Now that those weird Shimano snap-off rivets seem to have gone away it seems that the victory of the quick link is complete.

I went into our storeroom last week and was shocked to find Shimano seems to still use the snap-off rivet thing. So I used a KMC chain instead.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Much better than my 1970's Brookes Professional which sunk in the centre following a long and wet mudguardless ride.

A real waste of my schoolboy earnings!

Even after adjusting the tension bolt the ruddy thing was never the same again.

Brooks do seem to be a bit iffy in quality control sometimes.

 

[roley poley]

grinder resistant and better locks help you keep your treasures

 

[Sharky]

Much better than my 1970's Brookes Professional which sunk in the centre following a long and wet mudguardless ride.

A real waste of my schoolboy earnings!

Even after adjusting the tension bolt the ruddy thing was never the same again.

In the days of leather saddles, I believe that the pro's used to be fitted up with brand new bikes, but they would use their old leather saddle from the previous season. The advent of these new plastic saddles meant that a new saddle was the same fit as Thier old saddles.