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

[Blue Hills]

If by thumbshifters, you mean not integrated with the brakes, I disagree. Fully integrated Rapidfires are the best type of shifters there are, IMHO. But I take your point about mud, which I resolutely refuse to interact with...

Got to disagree. I associate rapidfires and brakes on the same mount with cheaply kitted out bikes. And any saving is immediately wiped out if one bit of the combined get-up fails. Also far more of a problem on a tour. Brake and gear units should be separate In my view - see upthread about brifter issues.
Nothing wrong with rapidfires i stress, you can even get trimmable left ones for triples.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I'm reminded that when combined levers*, Ergos & STIs, first appeared. there seemed to be an increase in riders complaining of hand, wrist, shoulder & neck problems. The reason seemed to be that they were staying in the same position for much longer.

* I hate the word 'brifter', combining as it does 'brake' & the US English 'shifter'. GB English has 'levers'.

You also see on the longer audaxers where riders are barely able to change gear with STI as they have hand and wrist weakness after so long without properly moving their hands.

 

[matticus]

The rear of course collects the dirty water thrown up by the front. I'd like someone to tell me how you can get down that mountain without braking. On anything this side of a parachute.

- Then use your rear as little as possible.(I assume you have mudguards)
- Hmmm, I would expect to use quite a lot of brakes, not none! But wearing through blocks? No.
- Your body IS a parachute. That's part of the trick.

Don't drag-brake; do all your braking in a big hit, almost to a standstill. Then let the bike get up some speed and use your god-given air-brake If you're lucky you can time the dead-stops with the corners (harder in mist, obviously).

You need a little extra nerve to build up a decent speed in those crappy conditions, but I'm not talking about 40mph for a mile - in fact I haven't looked at my speedo in those situations so I can't say what speed I'd do, but it's a lot more than 10mph. I love descending in the dry, but I'm basically a coward and do NOT like wet descents. Trust me, I take due care.

This will turn into a silly dong-waving contest soon, but I'll just say that despite not being a super-experienced alpine rider, I've descended off hills taller than Ventoux, and a few long ones in the pi55ing rain. Plus plenty of really nasty UK descents.
Brake wear issues? Never. I suppose it's possible you had some dodgy materials involved (some mainstream blocks are really rubbish).

I'm sure this a pointless noone-back-down type discussion now, but I think this technique might be useful advice to someone reading CChat. (I learned it from that nice engineering cycling and physics expert at the CTC - thankyou Chris!)

 

[matticus]

You also see on the longer audaxers where riders are barely able to change gear with STI as they have hand and wrist weakness after so long without properly moving their hands.

A British RAAM rider once crashed out due to this problem! Hopefully a rare occurence, but demonstrates the Law of Unintended Consequences.

 

[taximan]

Anyone remember 'Bike Riders Aids' free in most LBS

 

[MichaelW2]

Electronic shifting solves the ergonomic and mechanical issues of brifters. "Where we're going we don't need cables"

 

[GuyBoden]

I don't remember getting as many punctures during my early 1980's halcyon cycling years. Were tyres better, was there just less glass and debris on the road, or am I just imagining things through better quality, well made, older, rose tinted glasses.
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[GuyBoden]

So bring back the lost days of no-punctures.

Yes, bring back the lost days of no-punctures.

 

[matticus]

Or maybe the danger of Extrapolating Wildly from a Single Data Point

It's not extrapolation; it's confirmation that these designs create the problem seen by hundreds of PBP etc riders described by Ming, and that occasionally this will spiral into a worse problem. Which would never have occurred with downtube/bar-end/Rapidfire levers!
M x

 

[MichaelW2]

This ^

I did quite a lot of touring in the 70s and 80s. I had no idea of the brand or type of my tyres, they were just the right size tyres that I got from Halfords or somewhere. No wondering whether to have Schwalbe this or Conti that, or Gator the other, I just got some tyres. Probably the cheapest.

And yet I can't recall a single puncture while on tour. Now, they must have happened and I and my touring friends had some amusing mechanicals that I can remember (like my mate's crank snapping in two just as we entered a town where there happened to be a handy bike shop). But I just don't remember any punctures. Or maybe I share your rose tinted glasses.

So bring back the lost days of no-punctures.

The CTC did a survey of crank breakage. In answer to the question "Where does the crank break" the answer was, apparently, in France.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Yes, bring back the lost days of no-punctures.

I remember punctures in the 1980's and 1990's, but they were very rare, I remember the first puncture resistant tyres from the 1990's, Hutchinsons I think they were, the tread had a habit of parting company with the carcass of the tyre after a couple of years, but even less punctures.

 

[rogerzilla]

You also see on the longer audaxers where riders are barely able to change gear with STI as they have hand and wrist weakness after so long without properly moving their hands.

I've had that with STI (where a real hand stretch is needed to get a bigger chainring) and with DT levers. Not with bar-end shifters.

 

[matticus]

You've seen or heard of some people having hand problems - and some of those people were using combined levers. Ergo there must be a causal connection. There just must be. You heard of one guy crashing out of RAAM and it follows that this must have the same cause.

I suspect that there may possibly be a touch of confirmation bias at work here. But I could be wrong.

But hey, you choose products that work for you, and I'll do the same.

I'm not telling anyone to use anything. I've finished PBP and LEL with Ergos and little-to-no hand problems*. (and one PBP with DownTube shifters). I am aware that some design "flaws" just make certain problems more likely. On balance I prefer DT shifters - but everything has Pros and Cons. I have opinions on these - I have not stated them as cast-iron Laws of Physics**

Jeez, it's a good thing I didn't mention Jehovah ...


*Perhaps cos I was pre-warned of the issues and move my hands around a lot, I don't know.
** Drag when descending is a lot more at higher speeds - that would be more like a law of physics.

 

[DCBassman]

Of course, I have to point out that I only use flat bars. DT shifters are next to useless in that setup, in my experience, they are just too far away from the hands. And the brifters used when I did have drops weren't nearly so snappy as any thumbshifters. I've only had one bike, briefly, with separate thumbies and hydraulic discs. They were just not ergonomic for me, but of course, that's just me. I've used several sets of integrated Rapidfires/EZ-Fires, never had a problem with any, and they all just worked. The only hassle I've had is on the Scott roadie, where the MTB biased ST-EF65-9left doesn't want to play well with the pure road Sora mech. But that's it.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I don't remember getting as many punctures during my early 1980's halcyon cycling years. Were tyres better, was there just less glass and debris on the road, or am I just imagining things through better quality, well made, older, rose tinted glasses.
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I've found the opposite. I think modern tyres out perform the older ones in every department, including puncture resistance. Of course as clinchers have become closer to tubulars as regards weight (No one raced on clinchers back in the day, they were far too heavy) they became more puncture prone because of the thinner carcasses but like for like modern tyres are better. I picked up many a puncture on the old tractor tyres we used on non race bikes and many a clubrun included a stop or two after a burst of bad language from somewhere down the peloton indicated that someone had found a sharp object.