Golden age of cycling equipment

[weisan]

I felt that we are in the golden age of cycling equipment, so much so that we are bombarded with a myriad of excellent choices for tires, wheels, components. It's almost comical to see how we split hairs over "which is the best" - Well, they are all pretty good, it just depends on what float your boat. :D

What y'all think?

[zank]

I agree 110%.

[Frankwurst]

Best I've ever seen and I've been riding since the 70's. I'm diggin' it and pissin away my kids inheritance.:beer:

[Ti Designs]

Nope.

When didn't we think we were in the golden age of cycling equipment? When I got my first Nuovo Record bike I thought to myself "I'm on the same equipment as Eddy Merckx - what could be better?" Then Super Record came out, and I thought "this is even better than Eddy had, so why am I not riding faster???" When C-Record came out with Delta brakes it was the coolest thing ever. Then there was the Mavic 850 group, then Zap, then Mectronic... When Di2 first came out customers would come into the shop just to push the buttons and watch the derailleurs move. It was the greatest thing, too bad 10-speed Di2 was only around for 18 months...

So you're saying now is the golden age - take a snap shot, it ain't 'gettin no bettah... Not a chance. Whatever it is you have will be discontinued and replaced by something that may or may not work better, but will certainly be more expensive. It'll also have more buzz words and icons on it. It'll be wireless with power meters built into the cranks or the seatpost - depending on where your power comes from. If you have 11-speed they'll come out with 12-speed, and NOTHING will be compatible. You'll need a 12-speed seatpost, 12-speed brakes, 12-speed headset... Thus starts the new golden age of cycling equipment. Until the next week.

[Louis]

I wonder what Fran Ventoso thinks of the variety of braking systems available these days?

https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/inspirewp/live/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/04/VENTOSO-Francisco-Jose613p-630x419.jpg

http://volanobiz.com/img/leonardo-meat-slicer.jpg

[Black Dog]

From the post above, I agree we are in the golden age of sliced cured and smoked meats.

As for bikes, yup, there is a lot to choose from, some better, some just different; no matter how you slice it.

[FlashUNC]

Yes, Campy has a wide variety of group options.

:banana:

[Elefantino]

I think we are in a transitional stage. Transitioning from decades of evolution to a few years of revolution.

We are transitioning from mechanical to by-wire or wireless drive trains, from rim to disc brakes. In each case, and in the not too distant future, the former will be akin to manual transmissions in cars. Available, but rare and mostly on the low end.

I'll probably keep riding my 10-speed Campy until it breaks, in other words forever. And eventually my bikes will qualify for l'Eroica.

[Pastashop]

In cycling, we have the gray area to end all gray areas in terms of what makes logical sense...

On the one hand, the entire premise of a bicycle is to get a human from point A to point B in the most energetically efficient manner possible. On the other hand, it requires some work from the human – the source of that energy input. So, we have an unwritten rule that a true bicycle ought to be powered by a human, not by a human assisted, say, by an internal combustion engine or an electric motor. (Well, the UCI has a written rule, but folks that don't want to take drugs to enhance the human power source resort to...)

We cycle for fun and exercise, in addition to other reasons, and we like to use gears to help us get up big hills or go down flat stretches faster, with less effort. So, give us 11-cog clusters, give us 12-pound bikes, give us aerodynamic carbon fiber wheels, give us... Exertion is good... but not too much! Or, perhaps in an expression of the Jevons Paradox, rather than having an easier time pedaling a 12-pound bike up a hill, we prefer to ride it faster than our 20-pound bicycle.

The Starley "safety bicycle" no doubt improved upon the Penny-Farthing, and rim brakes + aluminum rims no doubt improved safety further. Disc brakes presumably can help improve safety even more, but perhaps we're now in the realm of diminishing returns there (viz a vis what happened in PR 2016), and the general sentiment that it simply makes braking in the wet a bit easier, but we'd be OK either way.

Helmets presumably made cycling safer for the individual rider, but the larger scale effect is that helmet use suppresses cycling by the wider public, making the activity as a whole less safe due to the relative rarity of cyclists on the road (this was the case even before texting-while-driving).

It seems to me that a lot of bike technology and bike culture is exploring the boundaries of these issues and also trying to find the "golden mean" of the bicycling experience. That being said, I think we had reached "peak bicycle" in the 1970s, if not slightly before then. If we had taken the resources devoted since then to the technology of the bicycle and put them instead toward improving biking infrastructure (see for example: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bicycle-capital-world-transport-cycling-kindermoord), we would all be enjoying cycling to a far greater degree riding without helmets on old 20-pound steel bikes with rim brakes and downtube shifters, than we are on modern 12-pound carbon wonders decked out in Rapha, chasing Strava points.

Just sayin'...

:-)

[weisan]

<< put them instead toward improving biking infrastructure

Well said, Pasta pal.

[oldpotatoe]

I felt that we are in the golden age of cycling equipment, so much so that we are bombarded with a myriad of excellent choices for tires, wheels, components. It's almost comical to see how we split hairs over "which is the best" - Well, they are all pretty good, it just depends on what float your boat. :D

What y'all think?

But often a lot of stuff that comes out now, comes from the desk of the marketeers or bean counters, not the engineers. A LOT of this stuff is not demand driven, actually improving something, making riding 'better'. Some is but I think that 'golden age' was more towards the mid 80s when a lot of great stuff was being introduced that actually made riding 'better'.
Clipless pedals, lever mounted, index(click) shifting, new ideas and concepts in bike fit, nutrition, that sort of thing. HUGE numbers came back to cycling after futzing with their Schwinn varsity..they bought a MTB, with shimano index shifting, top mounts then Rapid fire and hence the bike boom of the mid-late 80s.

But seat masts, tapered forks, electronic shifting, a myriad of BB 'standards', now hub/axle 'standards', etc. not sure I'd call it 'golden'..maybe 'plastic' age.

For pastashop above, right on!! People don't ride more because they perceive to be or are actually not safe to ride a bicycle. Don't need more purpose driven bikes, don't need more whizbangery..just need a bike, any bike, and a safe place to ride it.

[gemship]

I don't think anyone can argue with technology helping out the relatively new niche within cycling known as mountainbikes. Those bikes are fun! I've been saying to myself for the past ten years or more how blown away I am...they are basically modern day motocross bikes minus the engine and yeah those bikes with their technology do get more people riding!

[soulspinner]

[QUOTE=weisan;1957081]I felt that we are in the golden age of cycling equipment, so much so that we are bombarded with a myriad of excellent choices for tires, wheels, components. It's almost comical to see how we split hairs over "which is the best" - Well, they are all pretty good, it just depends on what float your boat. :D

What y'all think?

Absolutely.....

[Onno]

Kind of funny how the progress, no progress, things are getting worse argument can be applied to just about anything, from gadgets, to movies, to politics, to nations, the planet.... Perhaps where you fall on the bike gadget side of things is revealing? My sense is that there has been undeniable progress, but that there's also lots of hype and exploitation.

[moose8]

I think now is a great time to get really good equipment at a good value. I've noticed personally that for commuting I always reach for my simplest bike because it requires virtually no maintenance which is a surly steamroller. It's basically using as old bike technology as there is.