Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Greatest cycling invention of the last 25 years?
- Thread starter Jameshow
- Start date
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We were indeed @Ming the Merciless
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Ape ongers we called um. (That's ape-hangers to you posh people)
Vapin' Joe
Formerly known as Smokin Joe
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
The single speed at the top would be £576.08 in today's money, £709 for the 5 (Or 3?) speed at the bottom.
For those who think the price of bikes is getting out of reach, you can get far better for the same or less money today.
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road...2ODg0MjEkbzEkZzAkdDE3Nzg2ODg0MjEkajYwJGwwJGgw
Without getting hung up on dates of earliest examples, or on exactly how old, but going on the basis of readily available to the consumer market in the last 25 years or so . . .
My votes (like many others) go to led lighting with modern hub dynamos - particularly with the shaped anti-dazzle beams like wot you get with B+M. GPS navigation units get a vote - especially when you can top up the battery with the hub dynamo.
Modern puncture-resistant tyres of the Marathon ilk have made a much bigger difference to me than tubeless - I get way less than one puncture a year now so I haven't bothered trying tubeless.
I would put disc brakes on the list too - not because of braking performance (I've always found well maintained [alloy] rim brakes to perform quite adequately) but because they require very little attention to keep them working well and they're so much cleaner than rim brakes.
Also mentioned up-thread - hub gears with a Gates belt. Tristran might have had his issues with them but I'm not convinced that's the norm. A man in the business told me that premature failure of the Gates belt is usually down to alignment and tension issues and not the belt (unless twisted etc. in storage).
There are lots of things that have improved with evolution but, imho, not been especially different or "great". Some are a response to other changes - such as the quicklink - not needed until chains were made with rivets/pins that couldn't be confidently re-used.
My votes (like many others) go to led lighting with modern hub dynamos - particularly with the shaped anti-dazzle beams like wot you get with B+M. GPS navigation units get a vote - especially when you can top up the battery with the hub dynamo.
Modern puncture-resistant tyres of the Marathon ilk have made a much bigger difference to me than tubeless - I get way less than one puncture a year now so I haven't bothered trying tubeless.
I would put disc brakes on the list too - not because of braking performance (I've always found well maintained [alloy] rim brakes to perform quite adequately) but because they require very little attention to keep them working well and they're so much cleaner than rim brakes.
Also mentioned up-thread - hub gears with a Gates belt. Tristran might have had his issues with them but I'm not convinced that's the norm. A man in the business told me that premature failure of the Gates belt is usually down to alignment and tension issues and not the belt (unless twisted etc. in storage).
There are lots of things that have improved with evolution but, imho, not been especially different or "great". Some are a response to other changes - such as the quicklink - not needed until chains were made with rivets/pins that couldn't be confidently re-used.
Milzy
Legendary Member
Rim brakes were good enough for Sean Kelly & Eddie so they’re good enough for me. I keep seeing people crashing with their disc brakes.
Disc for MTB
Rim for Road.
Rim were good enough for Eddie Merkx and King Sean Kelly. I can stop one finger with cane creeks.
Ppl with discs always crash.
Hill climbers don’t want heavy discs.
Home mechanics want easy to maintain rim brakes.
Keep disc to gravel & MTB. Not required for road.
grldtnr
Veteran
Triangular ones ride better!
I think you need to read what I posted as I said carbon rim brakes which both Kelly and Merckx wouldn’t have used when they were racing as they were not a thing at that time.
Discs require less maintenance and are not rocket science to work on. And the extra weight of the disc is off set by the fact that disc brake bikes can have LIGHTER more aero rims. Again why trash high priced rims by scabbing them up with rim brakes
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Of course you do
matticus
Guru
For a while I put decent blocks in my rim brakes - but recently I realised I was destroying high-priced blocks. Madness!!!
Andy in Germany
Legendary Member
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
Perhaps from a user's perspective rather than a bike shop.
Also, they're considerably more complex than rim brakes when they do go wrong: I can fix V-Brakes with a hex key and a pair of pliers. I don't have to work out which blocks fit them, or which hydraulic fluid to use...
I'm not saying that V-Brakes are "better", by the way. I just find them more convenient. And yes, they can b*gg*r up your rims, but I don't buy the most super-expensive rims anyway.
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Milzy
Legendary Member
I’ve never had to throw away a worn wheelset in 20 years. Use for a few years then sell on, upgrade & repeat the cycle. The lightest wheel sets you can buy are for rim brakes actually.
MTB & gravel Disc.
Road bikes Rim.
It’s that simple.
