Which is the greatest bicycle innovation in the last thirty years?

[Yellow Fang]

Bicycles seem to have come a long way since I were a lad. Up until the late 80s, brakes never seemed to work particularly well. Racers had up to twelve gears, but in reality only about ten because they never worked quite right after they'd been fiddled with. On racers gears were difficult to select because you had to reach down to the levers on the down tube. Cotter pins came loose. Wheel rims buckled like butter. Pedals were either flat or came with toe straps. Frame materials were low quality steel or high quality steel. Cycle lamps had big round lenses and were powered by Ever Ready D size batteries, unless you used dynamo lamps, in which case the bulbs blew whenever you exceeded 20 mph.

 

[400bhp]

So, since the early eighties..

Probably clothing.

And lights.

 

[Sara_H]

Lights That aren't as big as a labradors head.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Yes, LED lights have made an immense difference.

 

[Davidc]

LED lights.

Many other improvements since I first rode a bike in the 1950s, and since I knew what I was riding in the 1960s.

Anyhow, since the 1980s ........

After decent lights come brakes that work in the wet, mainly owing to the arrival of alloy rims. Then the death of the cotter pin.

I never had any problem with downtube shifters, but many people find indexed gears a great deal easier. I haven't heard of anyone who doesn't prefer sealed bearing BBs to the caged ball ones.

Go back more than 30 years and you get even more fun devices and systems that have gone. Dunlop valves and rod brakes to mention two!

 

[Archie_tect]

Definitely the BMW 535I and the Audi A6.... sorry, misread that as having the greatest impact on cycling....

Innovation in the last 30 years: aluminium components.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Wide use of Carbon perhaps

 

[gavroche]

Quick release levers for me.

 

[Gravity Aided]

The internet. Before this, we had to rely on locally available knowledge from people hanging around bike stores, and what few books that were offered. In America, Rodale and 10 Speed Press seemed to publish a lot, Rodale probably due to their being a health publisher mainly. But an explosion of thought, conversation, and opinion has come about since the development of the internet, regarding bicycles. I had no idea of any British Bicycles other than the ones in our garage, an old Raleigh DL-1 (My Fathers') and a Gambles Hiawatha(Mine, a Phillips, rebadged) I knew of no German bikes besides my Mothers'( Wanderer?) and now you can look around and find all sorts of bicycle information in the time it took us, in the olden day, to research what we would have for lunch.

 

[ColinJ]

Quick release levers for me.

Invented by Tullio Campagnolo in 1930, so that wasn't in the last 30 years!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Marketing. How did we ever get by without new models of the same bike coming out?

 

[Gravity Aided]

Marketing. How did we ever get by without new models of the same bike coming out?

Rode what we had. I was glad to have what I had, I saw what kinds of heavy, uncomfortable bikes innovation was creating then. By the 80's, bikes were getting much lighter by the middle of the decade, due to improved alloys and such

 

[slowmotion]

 

[buggi]

co2 canisters

 

[Puddles]

The bike trailer for small people?? I have the question marks as I don't know when they were first used ever, but I know Burley started selling them in 1978.