
How bicycles have changed in the last 25 years - Tomte
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/11/25-years-of-two-wheeled-tech/
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ggm
When Reynolds 531 double butted was the next plus ultra, welded alloy cheap
bikes flooded the market and I (and other impoverished students) suddenly
found ourselves able to ride lighter frames than we'd dreamed of.

When shock absorber systems arrived, we went off road seriously.

When disc brakes hit, rims changed significantly. Centre pull 666 brakes
stopped being trendy very quickly.

Gel saddles killed brookes but somehow they came back. Fixies and hipsters?

New bag technology made panniers easier and waterproof.

LED lights made old type generator systems redundant. wicking clothes made
riding a lot more comfortable although a lot more pongy: wool and cotton don't
stink as much. Bamboo viscose has helped there.

Frames now reflect human biology better. Women ride frames sized and shaped
for their bodies by women.

Power assist is normal. Sealed gears like sturmey Archer live on in rental
bikes (there used to be plant-and-moon orbitals combined with derailleur
systems believe it or not)

You can see shaft drive bikes in the Prague technology museum from 100 years
ago. I still wish they were available.

Trikes and quad bikes are trendy again!

~~~
l4yao
Sealed headsets, bottom brackets seemed to increase reliability and make it
easier to repair

Braking didn't go from side pull caliper brakes to disc brakes as the author
suggested. Disc brakes are still quite heavy and expensive and unsuitable in
many cases. There are still many new bikes today with side pull caliper brakes
and V brakes. Over the years, a ton of different designs were tried like U
brakes and cantilever brakes.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
But are all the newfangled bottom brackets really more reliable? I know
Shimano’s Hollowtech BBs are lighter and therefore more attractive to certain
consumers these days, but people seem to have to replace them more often than
the old square-taper BBs that one installs and then forgets about for 20,000
km.

> Disc brakes are still quite heavy and expensive and unsuitable in many
> cases.

My Spyke disc brakes weigh little more than the Shimano XT V-brakes I replaced
with them. While the cost of the disc brake was higher, they might actually
prove cheaper in the long run due to less rim wear and therefore a need to
have the wheel rebuilt and hand-trued once the rims go.

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chrisdhoover
I was a bike mechanic for 5 years in the early 1980’s. Bikes were perfectly
reliable then. A well maintained bike was ajoy to ride and would hardly fail
you. A clap trap beater was also reliable.

So what has changed? The sturdy bikes of old were built within the tolerances
of the materials and designs of the time. If you pushed the limits, you would
break the bike.

It seems the new tech as described by the author didnt solve a reliability
problem. What it did was push the materials and construction methods. For
instance he talks about hubs, spokes, and rear stays breaking. That never
happened. But we laced wheels of 36 holes 3 and 4 cross. Modern wheels are
straight laced and 28 or less holes. The change has lightened the wheel while
maintaining the strength of the old wheel.

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triviatise
this person is thinking road bikes which might not have changed much, but
mountain bikes have changed a lot

1) suspension forks and full suspension bikes

2) move from 26" to 29" and 27.5

3) dropper posts

4) major changes in geometry, e.g slack head tube angles from 71/72 now the
standard is around 66. Shorter chainstays.

5) fat bikes

6) hydraulic disc brakes

7) tubeless tires that use sealant that automatically seal punctures

8) electronic shifting

9) power meters

10) carbon fiber frames and wheels

11) major changes in axles from skewers to through axles

12) internal changes to hubs to increase points of engagement

13) major changes in handle bar lengths

14) drop in gears from 20+ down to 10/11 with no front shifter

15) adjustable geometry with flip chips

16) e-bikes with pedal assist

17) major changes in suspension design, horst, vpp, dw-link, etc.

18) multiple categories of bikes, downhill, enduro, all mountain, trail, xc,
gravel/cyclocross

19) bike parks via ski lifts.

I expect there to be bikes that adjust gearing automatically based on a
desired power output to allow you to maintain the desired cadence at the
desired power.

~~~
bigwheeler
Dropper posts was such a game changer for me. Redefined my riding, even more
so than full suspension or disc brakes, I think.

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watchdogtimer
In at least a couple of ways, bicycles have regressed:

1) It used to be possible to shift down multiple gears quickly (e.g., when
coming to a stop light). Now, many index shifting systems outside of twist
shift only allow one gear shift at a time.

2) It used to be all bikes had replaceable chainrings, allowing you to replace
worn rings, adjust the overall gear ratio of the bike higher or lower, or
change the ratios to create a half-step shift pattern. Now, many bikes have
sprockets riveted to the crank arm and derailleur systems so tightly matched
to the size of the chainrings that changing chainring size is no longer
feasible.

~~~
jmcphers
Re: (1), I recently upgraded to a bike with "brifters", and was delighted to
discover that newer Shimano levers have mostly solved this problem. When
downshifting, you can push the lever further to the right to dump multiple
gears at once.

It doesn't work when shifting up, or allow for the truly violent changes I
used to pull off with my friction shifters, but the convenience and speed of
shifting right without moving my hands from the brakes is well worth the
trade-off.

~~~
BugsJustFindMe
> _It doesn 't...allow for the truly violent changes I used to pull off with
> my friction shifters, but the convenience and speed of shifting right
> without moving my hands from the brakes is well worth the trade-off._

??? I don't understand. You can mount friction shifters next to your thumbs
too. They only require moving your hands if you stick with less accessible
frame mounting positions that likely only ever existed because it was easier
and slightly cheaper to mount that way (one less cable guide, sigh).

I personally love the absolute simplicity of friction shifters. Doing finicky
derailleur adjustments to make sure that every index step transitions smoothly
is such an annoying process.

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cultus
Bicycles I think in general hit a high point in the late 1990s. Good aluminum
frames and 8 or 9 speeds (as in number of cogs).

Carbon frames are not suitable for the vast majority of riders. Any damage to
carbon makes a bike unridable, and it can happen fairly easily. In addition,
carbon can fail catastrophically, unlike metal frames.

This is all for a few minor or alleged benefits. The lightest carbon frames
are around 700 grams. The lightest steel frame is around 1 kilo, and the
racing aluminum frame I use is 1100. That frame is lighter than most people’s
carbon frames, and I have had it for 12 years and many crashes. It has some
damage, but because it is minor the bike is still safely rideable.

Carbon is billed as stiffer. It usually is, but the energy wasted from frame
flex is less than one watt. Carbon can also be minimally lighter. However,
80-90% of energy in road biking goes to aerodynamic resistance. Decreasing
weight by a percent therefore has a negligible impact on speed.

The most important thing is to get a reasonably light bike that makes you
aerodynamic. It should also be reliable. If it is reliable you will ride it
more, and therefore be faster.

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fhbdukfrh
This entire article kind of reads like someone visiting a foreign country then
coming home and reporting on how different everything is. The truth is
bicycles have not really changed that much, especially since the 90's. There
has been tonnes of evolution and everything works better, but we're still
shifting with derailleurs, road bikes still slow you down by squeezing the
rims, locomotion comes from spinning one set of rings and transferring it to
another with a chain, regardless of material or literal form the frame is
still 2 triangles.

Bikes these days have new geometries, exotic materials and everything works
way better, but not because we're doing anything dramatically different from
25 years ago.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
> we're still shifting with derailleurs

Not cyclists with Rohloff hubs. Rohloffs have become a hot item for touring
cyclists, but even on the streets of a German or Austrian city you will see
Rohloffs on people’s commuting bikes. If not Rohloff, then perhaps a Shimano
Alfine.

> road bikes still slow you down by squeezing the rims

Many new road bikes (even BSOs at the local hypermarket) are shipping with
disc brakes now.

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credit_guy
Nowadays I only ride Citibikes, and they only have 3 speeds. This seems a bit
below the optimum, but can someone opine, do we really need 30 speeds?

~~~
7952
The trend in high end mountain bikes is to have 1 front ring and eleven rear
so only 11 in total. This is less complex and less annoying. The problem is
that you loose out on some high or low gear ratios that you might want. There
are limits to the range of gears that are possible in that setup. So that is
why front derailleur's were used. It expands the range rather than just the
count of gears.

A 30 gear bike has three rings on the front. The outer and inner are only
supposed to be used on the outer few, or inner few rear rings. Otherwise the
chain will be stressed and possibly break. Only the middle ring is used with
all rear gears. So you actually have only about 16 usable gears.

A more modern design is to use two front chain rings. This does not strain the
chain so much, and you can use the full range of rear gears. It is also much
more natural feeling to shift the front gear. A 20 speed bike actually has
more usable gears than a 30 but probably less range.

A further iteration is to have a larger inner ring on the rear derailleur that
is a bigger step up from the last. Eleven speed cassette's try to give enough
range on the rear derailleur to only need one front ring.

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ggm
Another one. It used to be impossible to spend more on a bike than a car. I
have a friend who admitted his _wheels_ cost more than another colleagues
secondhand car.

Carbon fibre does that.

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fulafel
It's odd that maintenance heavy derailleur gears are still so popular even in
daily driver commute bikes (as opposed to hobby/sport bikes).

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kmlx
i know mountain bikes get pretty much all the innovation, but here’s Cervelo’s
p5x tt bicycle: [https://www.cervelo.com/p5x](https://www.cervelo.com/p5x)

