What will we look back at and say 'now that was stupid'?

lawman

v brakes, air shocks without propedal, forks with any rebound damping, crap tyres, crap forks, dual controls, rapid rise etc,

basically alot of things made by shimano

Kiblams

sheepsteeth wrote:

as for gear boxes, from the little i have seen of them, dont they basicly contain 2 cassettes and a derailleur?

I think the main point here is that the are internal, and not exposed to the elements/damage. There will be many years IMO before they are competative compared to the external systems we use now anywho

supersonic

Some things hopefully will remain as they still work well for many riders. cable operated brakes - fine for many DJers, leisure riders, XC riders.

We still have derailers because they work so bloody awell. As do hardtails. And many other things. As biking has become more varisd we still need choice to tailor our bikes to what suits the rider, whether that be light weight, better performamce, or the perception of fun.

Fixies though, now there is something I never got.

Northwind

stevet1992 wrote:

Yes but you dont see a ship bouncing down a routy trail and then hitting into a tree !

Or, being maintained in a garage by a total knobber with only the spanner that came with the bike.

hyperman

in 15 years time? well to give you an idea just look at the last 15 years, has anything really changed that much? cable to hydraulic brakes, rear suspension, more gears, but in principle nothing has really changed that much, only improved. so in 15 years time i expect to see a few more improvements and nothing else, after all why change something that drastically that we all love so much? as for electrically operated parts on bikes, well you'll be wanting an engine next i suppose...oh, we already have those don't we....motorbikes....

supersonic

In 15 years time many bikes will have composite frames, computer controlled set up for brakes, gear and suspension that self adjusts and I think an overhaul of current standards that we are used to. In some ways they can limit progression.

blakef111

The uci limits progression, i reckon we would have reached most of the stuff we have now, much quicker without them! anyone remember them trying to ban disc brakes in 4x due to "finger cutting dangers?" absolute Useless Crap Idiots,



(see what i did there?! :roll: )

richen

i would have thought grip shift would be one, i had a set of x rays and they were awful.
i also think lube will be a thing of the past as someone develops a virtually frictionless metal for moving parts, now that would be useful!

stevet1992

richen wrote:

i would have thought grip shift would be one, i had a set of x rays and they were awful.
i also think lube will be a thing of the past as someone develops a virtually frictionless metal for moving parts, now that would be useful!

Alot of XC racers still use gripshift ... Lets them crack down or up a lot of gears in one go !

stevet1992

Northwind wrote:

stevet1992 wrote:

Yes but you dont see a ship bouncing down a routy trail and then hitting into a tree !

Or, being maintained in a garage by a total knobber with only the spanner that came with the bike.

Like me :oops:

bluechair84

hydroformed tubing - one of them silly 2009 fashion faux pas...
It'll all be bamboo in 10 years time.

dave_hill

Electronic suspension. Electronic anything really.

Kona's Magic Link. As predicted by me when it was launched.

Sram XX. I mean why?

29ers and Gary Fisher in general. The man not the company. Post 1990 at any rate. He's REALLY lost the plot.

Chunkers1980

I think when people say what happens when your battery runs out with electric shifting (and other possible uses on the bike) the flat battery doesn't hold much ground. Think back 10 years.. how bulky and heavy were they - huge I tell you for the equivilent today the same progress will happen we may even have something like a hydrogen fuel cell built in so power is always there... I think there's an add! the possibilities are endless....

bike-a-swan

I'd suggest that what we will look back on and laugh at most is all of these suggestions!

as for tech, I'm agreeing with whoever said electronic wizadry in everything- suspension that, say, stiffens when you get out of the saddle and sprint, but loosens if it feels a wheel start to lose traction, in conjunction with abs. One onboard battery that does lights, computer stuff, the lot, quite possibly with regenerative braking triggered by the computer. it'll all happen gradually though, and there'll still be people riding ss's and the like.

Also, more focus on reliability and 'fail-safe' in components, ie even if all the fancy stuff goes pear-shaped you can still ride it home.

nicklouse

'80 early '90 day-glow clothing.

Northwind

Seatposts that are only one length- madness.

milfredo

Material science is the future - always has been and always will, especially in cycling. Trouble is bikes are so efficient already that you see very little change in design over something that works so well. chains and cables are simple light and efficient, they just change shape and composition slightly. Maybe a chain becomes a belt and a cable becomes kevlar composite, it's nothing revolutionary, just progression.

Strength to weight ratios will decrease, fashions change and new directions in the sport will emerge and others will sink. Good ideas will become laughable but probably will be regarded as retro and imaginative. Elastomer suspension was so amasing when I was 14 that I still love it today and probably always will.

As for the look back and say why - I agree with the Kona Magic link and I'll add the Crank Bros Colbot wheels to the mix.

paulrockliffe

Elastomers always were amazing, but you can't scale them up to give you much travel.

Carbon nano-tube based frames will be massive on the XC race market eventually, imagine a hardtail frame weighing under 100g!

joshtp

OK, i see alot of the problems in electric shifting, and i never said i was for it, but i do think it will happen, its wouldnt be that hard to weather and crash proof it, internal routing, for one would sort alot of the problems, and very light but tough electronic components are already a reality, and i dont think that it would ever reach budget level, so the issue of crudy idiots trying to "fix" it wouldnt be a problem, and i recon it would be 10 times more reliable than pulling bits of cable through holow pastic to move a spring.

im not saying i want it, i recon that the bikes should be mechanical and mechanical only, but i do think it will happen, and i do think we will all end up using it, and when we are all using it, i think we will all be praising it greatly.
i also think that self adjusting bikes like kona's magic link bikes will become common, i also recon that someone will finaly make a sensible droppy seatpost (even i came up with a design that was commented on as "very clever, yet simple" by a keen mtber and engineer) that doesnt cost the earth, and doesnt weigh a ton, then they will become common place, and be used by all but xc racers.

bomberesque

nicklouse wrote:

'80 early '90 day-glow clothing.

^ .... and purple anodising

I think the whole chain derailleur system will get taken over by belt and gearbox systems eventually but gearboxes have a long way to go to compete with the current set-up. They will get there but until Shimano got involved properly, the only development they were getting was from Rollhoff, who have a system that they don't see the need to change as for their core market (rich commuters and proper long distance tourer types) reliability is paramount and in that Rolly is the king.

For a lot of the more nascent technologies out there it's easy to say stuff like "it's heavier/more expensive/sh1tter than what we have now and probably always will be" but that's like saying "home PCs are too slow to do serious quality graphics work on, they'll never catch up" It's just about market demand driving research and improvement. Apply the same argument to Rockshox's early 90s offerings then compare to how many racers today run front suspension.

it could well be that bikes become too complex for home mechanics to maintain, in the same way that cars have. Used to be you open a car bonnet and you could identify all the major components (carb, alternator, plugs etc) from there common sense and a Haynes manual would have you fiddling with stuff in no time. Now all I see when I open my bonnet is a battery and a heat shield and you need to connect the thing to a computer just to change the oil (probably). I rather hope that this doesn't happen but I rather fear it will.

joshtp

as much as it pains me, i feel bomberesk (is that how u spell it?) is right, in the future we will simply pop a cap off and pump some fresh oil into our gearbox's/hubs/whatever and ocasionaly check all the nuts and bolts (well, by then they will all be torx's.....)
this, i fear is the way it will go....

clarkson

i don't see that much change coming to be honest. other than gearboxes and belt drives. gears you can change without pedalling will be the biggest revolution.

suspension will get more efficient, lighter and stiffer.

and please lets hope to high heaven no electronic abs, suspension bollocks gets in the mix. why go riding to let a computer control most of the bike? umm... no thanks!!

bike-a-swan

I'm not saying I'm necessarily looking forward to all the electronic do-hickery especially, I like the fact that my bike as is runs entirely on mechanical processes. That is just the way I see things going. I am excited to see richer people than me get it- curious about any new tech.

Smiler15

Tires which react to electrical current to make them super hard when you want to ride home/upwards and super tacky when your going downhill would be very cool

Splottboy

My life...

KonaMike

I cant see 29ers catching on .........but maybe I will be proved wrong and we will all look back and laugh at tiny 26inch wheels !

Smiler15

more seriously, I think we'll see more and more adjustable geometry/travel and copies of the Scott Tracloc system, which I think is the ideal system to get the most out of a full sus bike.

bomberesque

Smiler15 wrote:

more seriously, I think we'll see more and more adjustable geometry/travel and copies of the Scott Tracloc system, which I think is the ideal system to get the most out of a full sus bike.

I must say I'm surprised that we don't have more cockpit control of suspension by now. Especially bikes that benefit from a platform shock like the RP23 when climbing but are much smoother with it off on flat and descents (like Mrs B's Yeti 575). putting your hands between your legs to flick the switch is disconcerting while riding I find.....

singlespeedexplosif

riser bars and baggy shorts.

Antony_de_H

I hope we will look back and wonder at how we coped when we were officially limited to bridleways etc. off road. I may be hoping for a long time.

^ This.

I also think we're going to look back in amazement at the time when we used to drive for two or three hours to ride a 45 minute loop in a forest somewhere.