Once upon a time, Mountain bikes appeared. They started out with 7 gears. There were big gaps between ratios, and huge chunky chains akin to single speed chains. The evil bike manufactures grimaced as their customers winced and scowled and struggled to get up the shortest of climbs, and adjust to the shallowest of descents.

After some time, everyone got fed up with this and, to avoid a revolt in the kingdom, Shimano and Sram reacted by making 8 speed drive trains. All of the riders in the kingdom celebrated – they could not believe that they had been struggling along with only 7 gears for such a long time!

5 years later, the bike companies introduced 9 speed. “The chains are too thin!” people cried. Gear ratio gaps were improving, but people were scared; fat business men worried, “Won’t my thighs of steel break these delicate little thin chains and sprockets?”. Pretty soon however, everyone adjusted and loved the new options of the ‘just the right gear’ feel.

Very soon, 10 speed arrived… followed shortly by 11. By now, cassettes had grown to the size of huge dinner plates and chains had got so thin that people were snapping chains just wafting near them with a pressure washer!

The pinnacle of thin chains had reached its maximum.

Then, one day, some clever bod at SRAM added another chainring and a shifter on the other side of the handlebar…

…Astounding! Shimano’s engineers had to follow suit.

In order to make this work, they had gone back to 8 speed so they could be sure this new front mech wouldn’t snap the chain when shifting.

The technology was a revolution and again, everyone in the kingdom was amazed. The gear ratios were closer and had a wider overall span. People could spin up the steepest of slopes, yet still had a selection of drive gears whilst descending at speed. Cyclists everywhere rejoiced at this incredible feat of engineering.

Over time, this second chain ring became a system of three rings at the front and the engineers discovered that even 10 speed chains could cope with this. People were riding with 30 gears! An almost infinite span of usable gears that had tiny increments in between, allowing the rider to fine tune what their cadence was and gave them immense capabilities of riding up and down – wherever and however their hearts desired.

Mountain bikers were thrilled! At last they could now truly ride up and over and down the other side.

There was even a weight advantage. The lack of dinner-plate-sized cassettes meant there was less radial weight to spin up on the rear wheel, people accelerated like rockets and with less unsprung mass the rear suspension was even more active.

People were incredulous. “How did we ever live with our 11 speed drive systems? How Archaic!” They exclaimed.

With 30 gears, and so much flexibility, the cyclists in the kingdom loved their mountain bikes, and they all lived happily ever after…. or at least until…

The following year some of the companies got together and introduced a new 26″ smaller wheel size to improve acceleration and handling. “29 inch is over” screamed all the magazines. The forums were rioting with hardcore 29er riders worrying sick that this new wheel standard would make their bikes difficult to buy spares for, thus potentially rendering them obsolete in what was perceived as foreseeable in as little as three months

Postscript: Oh how marketing has made fools of us!

Magnets.

Summary?

& what happened then? I must know the end.

To be continued…

Brilliant! You forgot that they invented a way of attaching the rear wheel to the bike without suspension back in 2006 and finally managed the same amazing feat of engineering with the front in 2013! I also have suspicions they have found a way of increasing the disc rotor diameter by braking on the rim somewhere in the pipelines, there are also rumors that in the process of doing this they may even be replacing the troublesome hydraulic fluid with cables!!!

& what happened then? I must know the end.
Ha! Mug, there is no end. The marketing people have us going in circles.

(If you let them)

I thought triple chainrings originated on touring bikes.

Not in my alternative reality story they didn’t. 😉

I agree completely, we should not change a thing. Ever.

They started out with 7 gears

Deore / Deore XT was 6sp for most of the 80’s iirc.
Or did “mountain biking” start in 1989 when Deore XT II came out, and everything before was “tour”? (an awful lot of change did happen between 1988 and 1992)
Not sure what happend to my old 1989 Freewheel catalogue. I just remember XT spec stuff being extortionate (as a skint student).

Before the authors time (feasible mtb memory anyway) I’m afraid. Born in 1982.

I’d go for a 4-5 ring crank / 4-5 ring cassette.
Better chainline, more robust chain, more gears, closer ratios up front for better reliability and less chain drop.

I’d go for a 4-5 ring crank

Would love to see this… bloody hilarious suggestion.

so is a bonus sprocket at the back that’s bigger than one of my road chainrings!

chilled76 – Member
Before the authors time (feasible mtb memory anyway) I’m afraid. Born in 1982.

Ah that explains it. My ’60s Raleigh had a 3 speed Sturmey Archer. Twist grip though.

tldr

so is a bonus sprocket at the back that’s bigger than one of my road chainrings!

Agreed, this and finding myself looking at a 1×11 system and nearly spending the cost of a holiday on one made me write the original post. Had to do a double take at what I was going to spend. Realised I’d been suckered by marketing!

I’d go for a 4-5 ring crank

Would love to see this… bloody hilarious suggestion.[/quote]

nice.
square taper too, so the cup+cone bearings would still be going strong several decades later.

Has the OP never used a front mech? Hateful things.

Yes I have one on two of my bikes, both running 3 x 9. My other bike is 1 x 10.

Why do you dislike them?

I’m sure there are still plenty of ’90s technology bikes to be found going cheap if you are certain that improved bike design is purely marketing…..

imnotverygood – Member
I’m sure there are still plenty of ’90s technology bikes to be found going cheap if you are certain that improved bike design is purely marketing…..

Thank you for the suggestion, I actually own a really nice klein Attitude.. it’s not a patch on either of my modern bikes

…it’s only a post written in jest.

My personal opinion is that 2 x 10 is the best set up for the majority. I’m more poking fun at 1 x 11 than anything, and the wheel size thing is just to be topical with the abundance of threads on the subject.