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

[Ming the Merciless]

like goldeye maps?
pretty close scale.
Being reissued it says here.
https://www.bikeridemaps.co.uk/goldeneye-cycle-maps/
I have a few of the older ones.
I use GPS these days but they are good for seeing the big picture when sat in a pub - or getting home if a nuclear strike/battery failure interferes with your satellite comms.

I find GPS only good if following pre planned. They don’t add much to a tour otherwise. Certainly not nearly as much as a good scale map.

 

[Blue Hills]

I find GPS only good if following pre planned. They don’t add much to a tour otherwise. Certainly not nearly as much as a good scale map.

agree that they are no good for the big picture - for that I use a map or OSMand on a tab.

 

[Drago]

Two stroke cyclemotors and belstaff jackets.

 

[cougie uk]

My serious answer, is that I believe that too much seatpost showing puts more stress on the frame.

Have you broken many frames with your seatpost ?
I've not heard of any problems.

 

[Drago]

Every frame failure i have personally seen, bar one, has been at the top tube/seat tube junction. A lad I went to school with is manager of a Giant franchise and he reports that is where he sees the majority of failures on metal frames.

 

[matticus]

Has anyone mentioned the handlebar mounted twin bottle cages ?
When I was young I thought they were the biz!

I think these died out in the peloton long before current aero focus, so I think there's more to it than that. We need a racing tech historian!

 

[Illaveago]

Bikes applied stickers of _him_ :-)

Ah! But we're they like skull and cross bones or Moon eyes ?

 

[Illaveago]

Adult bikes . Not kids bikes with 6ft seat posts.

 

[Hover Fly]

I think these died out in the peloton long before current aero focus, so I think there's more to it than that. We need a racing tech historian!

Rene Vietto in 1939, supposedly to give better balance, he had one on the bars centrally, and one lower down. Before that it had been two on the bars giving not only a higher centre of gravity but unbalanced if one was empty and one full. See also perforated shoes, another of his innovations.

 

[Profpointy]

Adjustable handlebars. These modern ones can only be adjusted downwards, and even then not easily as you then have to re-adjust the bearings as well. The older style ones could go up and down with just an allen key, and without undoing the headset preload to do it.

Granted being able to remove the bars easily is an improvement over the slit-it-and-nip-it style, but that could easily have been incorporated into the old style. OK the new type is theoretically stronger, but I never had any problems with wear or adjustment with the old style

 

[chriswoody]

Has anyone mentioned the handlebar mounted twin bottle cages ?
When I was young I thought they were the biz!

You can still buy them, not sure about the availability in the UK, but their available online here in Germany:

https://www.bike-components.de/en/Elite/L-Eroica-Double-Bottle-Cage-p47776/

 

[Blue Hills]

And with A-headsets you set your max height by cutting the steerer, and there's no going back from that (unless you want a conning tower with a stack of spacers on top of your stem). With an old style one you can go up and down as you like.

I know that there are significant engineering (and probably manufacturing) benefits to modern headsets. But I'm not an engineer and they go over my head.

Thorn seem to go for the conning tower approach with new "made to measure" bikes - looks ugly to me and have never understood - am sure being Thorn that they their theories - anyone care to pass them on?
I'm also a bit vague about the advantages of aheadsets.
Clearly you can do what you need to do with an allen key, but on tour i carry pretty compact tools that can adjust a threaded headset if needed - i once did it on a forest track north of Bury.

 

[Drago]

Adult bikes . Not kids bikes with 6ft seat posts.

You got my vote.

 

[Blue Hills]

When I picked up my bike from Spa it had a stack of spacers on top of the stem. The guy said "I've left a few spacers on ..." and gave me a menacing look "... for when your back goes".

In the years since buying it I've fiddled around and moved the bars up and they are all underneath now.

If they hadn't left me a conning tower of spacers and had cut the steerer exactly at the height we decided on when I test rode and ordered the bike I wouldn't have had the opportunity to move the bars up.

It comes from the finality of the act of cutting the steerer to height. Best to leave a bit extra on, even if it does look a bit funny. Also enhances the resale value of the bike as it's more adjustable.

Some super aero bikes have integrated seat posts that are cut to height so saddle height adjustment is limited. We had a thread on here recently from someone who had bought one second hand and was having problems.

sorry misunderstood you - i was thinking of the stack of spacers Thorn seems to like to leave below, when I would just go for a bigger frame - but that's a separate issue of course.
On keeping the steerer with the conning tower until your back goes, is there a risk of impaling yourself on the thing?
I have two ahead bikes - both essentially cut - and several threaded headset bikes/builds - will admittedly probably have to buy new stems with latter as Ridgeback in their wisdom supplied short stem columns (or whatever they are called) as standard.
An adjustable stem would have sorted your back issues if the steerer had been cut?
I know some folk object to them - I don't.
German outlets tend to have a good range - but problematical these days of course.

 

[Blue Hills]

Some super aero bikes have integrated seat posts that are cut to height so saddle height adjustment is limited. We had a thread on here recently from someone who had bought one second hand and was having problems.

That is madness itself - remember looking at a bike recently and thinking "what if" - madness unless you are a Pro with a mega sponsorship deal. Am assuming the person you are referring to went for personal surgery as a cost-effective practical solution. Or frankenstein monster boots.