Slightly better!

Slightly! not a word that springs to mind when you are looking to improve on things, would you be happy if someone said ' yes sir get rid of your old bike spend £3500 on a new bike thats 'slightly' better than your old one!! We want 'it's miles better' than your old one. If we take the average mountain bike from the 90's compared to bikes today then they are a better, a lot better, you really notice the difference when riding them, so why are we now putting up with minute tweeks on bikes that are costing us riders lots of money for something that's marginally better. 27'5" is slightly bigger than 26" a 1x11 setup is slightly lighter!!! All of these so called improvements come with a compromise, not to dissimilar to a modern diesel car, yes they now have more performance but they mpg is lower and tax is higher! In a blindfold test (i know!) could we really tell the difference if we were riding 26" or 27.5"?, the weight of a bike with or without a front mech and triple chainset? If we were on a carbon or alloy full susser? i think maybe not. Nearly all of these 'improvements' are a cycle industry's way of saying 'we've hit a brick wall with ideas on how to take the next step, so lets make some stuff we don't really need and tell the public it's the next big thing'. Some people say that fashion trends come around again at some time (i'm still waiting for mens flares to come back!!) it seem's it's happening it the cycle industry as well, back in the late 90's we saw DH bikes with big 3" tires, dropper seat posts in the 90's albeit a lot lower tech and riders wearing day glo!!! It's all come back again. Let's not forget about why we all started riding, the bike we started on, it's all about the ride, the freedom, beating your best time or your mates, just being 'out there'. Don't be fooled by marketing,Love the bike your on and just ride!