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

[XRHYSX]

+1 for the kiddie trailers and LED lights.
For me the WEEride and better built kids bikes, anything to make family cycling more enjoyable,
I do also like seeing how cargo bikes are getting better and more popular

 

[numbnuts]

glueless patches

 

[zizou]

On the road probably sti shifters, but it is probably a smaller jump in innovation compared to the leap forward in mountain biking that hydro disk brakes and improvements in suspension that has happened in the last 15 years or so

 

[Steve Malkin]

My top 3:
1. The freehub - allowed bikes to have more than 6 sprockets at the back without bending axles all the time,
2. Clipless pedals - hard to imagine going back to clips and straps now.
3. LED lighting - a quantum leap better than the pathetic old lights we used to use.

On the other hand some things where we've gone backwards...

• Silly push fit bottom brackets ( we've all been conned into thinking they're better, but it's just the manufacturers doing it for cheapness)
• Fugly bikes with sloping top tubes (just wrong), plastered in stickers to make them look like advertising hoardings.
• Non-serviceable parts that you need 'special' tools to replace

 

[Skipper]

Wiggle!

 

[BSRU]

The SIS brifter, no need to remove hands from the hoods to change gears and no guessing how much to move the gear lever.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Tail End Charlies ... If your ever having a mechanical they are all you need, great invention

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Helmets. We all look far more stylish nowadays and nobody gets hurt falling off their bikes.

 

[User6179]

Gotta be brifters .

 

[Gravity Aided]

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.

Cannondale started selling their bicycle trailer, "The Bugger" in the mid-70's, IIRC.

 

[booze and cake]

In MTB defo disc brakes, and tubless tyres/stans slime. I think disc brakes on road bikes is the next biggest improvement on road bikes, and we're starting to see them now.

In road cycling, index shifting.

 

[Profpointy]

Brakes and lights that work !

 

[Yellow Fang]

Another improvement are the tyres. I used to have to fix a puncture about once a week. Now I get them about twice a year.

 

[MontyVeda]

LED lights without a doubt.

 

[Leaway2]

Helmets. We all look far more stylish nowadays and nobody gets hurt falling off their bikes.

He said the H word.