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New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. On one hand, a large part of the market seems to be driven by people buying gear for racin
by silentbicycle 18y ago
New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. On one hand, a large part of the market seems to be driven by people buying gear for racing* , who can be fanatical about things like shaving a few grams of weight off their bike. Very tough standards. On the other extreme, there are the (admittedly much smaller) touring / commuter cyclists, who tend to prefer stuff that, in a pinch, could be fixed with nothing but zip ties and a multi-tool. Air-less tires and chain-less drivetrains seems to have been reinvented several times, but haven't ever really caught on.
* and people who buy gear marketed to people who race, but that's neither here nor there.
- wallflower 18y ago> New bike equipment can have a hard time displacing conventional gear. Remember the one-year Japanese BioPace fad that infected Shimano (non-round/oval chainrings that were hard to maintain a steady pedaling cadence with because they weren't round but supposedly were more efficient)? Most Every bike that year (even high-end XT) came with these odd-shaped chainrings. The next year, BioPace was gone. I still own a BioPace mountain bike - that I keep for sentimental reasons and to look cool (though the bike shop says I'm not the only BioPace'd owner).
- silentbicycle 18y agoYes! I see those now and then. They look really cool, haven't ever used one though. :)