What old cycling technology etc would you like to see return?

[fossyant]

Nor me - just check the tightness/tighten up once or twice a bit after first putting the cranks on. Easy with just an allen key.

They all have their pro's/cons. Square taper and isis need the extractor tool and a good socket to fit/remove, GXP/Hollowtech2 just needs an allen key (and a plastic preload tool for hollowtech).

 

[Milkfloat]

This thread has jumped the shark with a request for cotter pins to return. I almost get the wish for DT shifters on your Russian agricultural lumps of pig iron , but cotter pins - come on, be serious .

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The problem is that a cotter pin really does need to be held in a vice to be filed (did too many when I worked in my LBS as a kid) and lots of people don't have a vice, or anywhere to put one, which makes a very simple job virtually impossible for lots of people.

I must be a bit unusual then because I've got four metalworking vices, three decent Records and a rough old Paramo that is fitted to a skip salvaged workmate frame with a bit of scrap 3/4" ply bolted to the top

 

[fossyant]

Russian agricultural lumps of pig iron

Oi, I'll send the Mafia (not the Russian Mafia, finest Sicilian) round - how dare you dis the finest Italian Columbus SLX tubing - they did tube rifling before the plastic rubbish started doing it.

 

[battered]

I've had bar end shifters on a couple of short owned bikes and never really got on with them my old tourer still has downtube shifters and my gravel has grifters. I lover the brifters but change gear sooooo much more that means probably everything will wear out in a fraction of the time through over use.

Use your bike for its intended purpose. Over time, parts wear out. So replace them. My road bike has had the same set of 105 brifters for 15 years. I'll live with that.

 

[T4tomo]

You see this a lot on sportives - folk hit a hill then are scrabbling for gears.

No amount of technology will save those people from their own incompetence though! It does give great entertainment when they grind to a halt, forget to unclip and slowly tumble off.

 

[Blue Hills]

Ever tried repairing STI shifters on a tourer in the middle of nowhere? Neither have I - and I don't want to. Bar ends of down tubes for me.

As an ex ride leader I well remember one guy turning up off the train. In the station car park he found that his brakes wouldn't work. And couldn't figure out what the problem was, fiddle as he might with his brifters. As a flat-bar bod (I use rapidfires separarate from the brakes and they are not only incredibly reliable but compact and easy to fit so you could always carry a spare on a long tour) I just couldn't understand how the interface between a brake lever and brake via a cable could be so complex. He got back on the train.

 

[Grant Fondo]

I would like to see proper cycling media technology return, good old fashioned paper rather than this new-fangled 3D stuff.

 

[matticus]

Care to describe the correct braking technique?
(bearing in mind that the OP was inside the clouds at the time, aka thick fog)

I didn't see any mention of fog.
(You can be in very wet rain - or even in the cloud - up a mountain without it being fog; it's the norm on UK mountains :P
Reduced visibility for sure, but fog is fog.)
And I don't think Ventoux is a technical descent by any means - admittedly I've only seen videos/TV, but it's nothing like a classic switchback climb, or a tricksy Welsh/Cumbrian road.

 

[T4tomo]

I didn't see any mention of fog.
(You can be in very wet rain - or even in the cloud - up a mountain without it being fog; it's the norm on UK mountains :P
Reduced visibility for sure, but fog is fog.)
And I don't think Ventoux is a technical descent by any means - admittedly I've only seen videos/TV, but it's nothing like a classic switchback climb, or a tricksy Welsh/Cumbrian road.

Its got a heck of a lot of turns on it, some classic switchbacks nearer the top and a more regular corners of of varying severity thru the woods and 6-10% gradient all the way. In reduced visibility and wet roads, you'd need to be alternating on the brakes for pretty much all the 23km of descent.

 

[cyberknight]

I keep going until the lever wont move anymore - and then I either swear a lot or fall off.

Trouble is on SRAM road shifters do that and once you get to to easiest gear and click for an easier one it shifts up

 

[Ian H]

So far I've had two people ask me how old this bike is, and look puzzled or surprised when I say a few months. This one has Ergo levers, but the other one, the 650B tourer, has bar-end levers. It's all stainless steel, a mixture of Columbus & KVA.

 

[Milkfloat]

Trouble is on SRAM road shifters do that and once you get to to easiest gear and click for an easier one it shifts up

Crazy Americans with their double tap nonsense.

 

[GilesM]

I must be a bit unusual then because I've got four metalworking vices, three decent Records and a rough old Paramo that is fitted to a skip salvaged workmate frame with a bit of scrap 3/4" ply bolted to the top

I am in vice envy, I only have one old, but very sound Paramo (blue of course) which sits pride of place on my garage bench, as much as I enjoy using it, I'm not too unhappy about not having cotter pins to file.

 

[MichaelW2]

I for one do like cartridge bearings on wheels. I've got both, but one bike is DA cup and cone and it has grease ports - why the heck these aren't more common - life is so easy with them.

Cartridge bearings are good where the bike get's a hard life - e.g MTB. Easy enough to re-grease (pop the seal off) then when worn, they come out easy and can be replaced. If cup and cone get knackered, it's often a new hub as the hub race get's pitted. My rear wheel on my MTB get's regularly re-greased as all the crap get's thrown at it.

Some older high end hubs had replaceable bearing cups.