Looking back over MTB history, there seem to be loads of products or ideas that were must haves at the time, but haven't aged well in retrospect. For example, Flex-stems, Biopace, rattly disc drive wheels, Daves' Chain Devices, anodised everything.

What are your nominations for items or trends that are thoroughly de rigeur at the moment, yet in years to come will cause toes to curl when the long-suppressed memories are dredged up?

My nomination would have to be ultra-wide bars. I have some, and they feel great, but for a lot of riding they are plainly ridiculous. I can't even fit my bike through the door of my house any more. And they're white to boot…

up and downy air seat posts

and digital camo anything

ISIS drive 👿

Riser bars. Ubiquitous but stupid idea.

29ers!!! 😈

Or 26ers? 😈 😈

£100+ headsets

ISIS drive

Surely that's already there!

There'll always be a market for expensive parts, like it or not! King headsets have been around since the dawn of time anyway!

what is wrong with ISIS drive?

There'll always be a market for expensive parts, like it or not! King headsets have been around since the dawn of time anyway!

Indeed and offer zero price/performance boost over a £30 HS.
They deserve their place in the hall of shame.
Especially for the steerer tube damage and replacement parts needed every few months.

£100+ headsets

I think one particular brand of £100+ headsets need to get their act together. Not sure about them needing replacement parts every few months though.

What an odd comment considering your user name 🙂

They often last longer than cheap ones. No one makes you buy one, if you like your £30 and find them adequate then go nuts!

Hope Hubs, reliable, bearings fail, reliable, freehub falls off, blah blah !!

Seen that biopace are making a sneaky comeback?

Juan, many people I know found Isis BBs had terrible longevity. My bike shop actually advised me to buy a really expensive BB with a lifetime warranty and just keep sending it off every few months. Of course we're all on HTII now and things are so much better. 😉

Tubeless conversions are another product that I can imagine people looking back in a few years' time and thinking "Why?".

Biopace is dead as a doornail, oval chainrings are still available but they work the opposite way.

– gravity dropper and similar seatposts,
– the XC bashring phenomenon,
– agree about very, very wide white bars.

🙂

Seen that biopace are making a sneaky comeback?

Nah, Rotor Q-Rings and EggRings are like BioPace, but the right orientation, ie the wide bit is where Biopace put the narrow bit.

-standard non-adjustable seatposts
-triple rings
-narrow bars

🙂

Big ring on a mountain bike… WTF is that stuff for???

Triples are/were fine for when we were running 5/6/7 speed and needed the triple to give a decent range without huge jumps in gears. With 9+ speeds, it's no longer necessary unless you do a lot of road riding.

I agree that silly wide bars will be seen as a fad. As will obviously all the white stuff out at the moment but the colour thing is just fashion and will undoubtedly be back again, just like anodised purple's appearing again despite people saying it never would…

Frames, pedals, tools or chain tensioners with built-in bottle openers.

If you can be arsed to lug heavy glass bottles of beer round on a "proper" bike ride, or you're so tight that you'd rather drink on a park bench than go to a pub, good luck to you. 🙂

anything white ( or whyte even)

bottle openers aren't there to be used! They're just there for image/show 😉

Twist grip shifters

Concept of a mountain biking "Season".

Twist grip changers

They've been dead for about 10 years anyway, they only really adorn kids bikes and XC races bikes, and XX looks to put paid to the latter!

Anodised coloured finishing kit.

Why didn't we learn our lesson the first time?

njee20 – Member

Twist grip changers

They've been dead for about 10 years anyway, they only really adorn kids bikes and XC races bikes, and XX looks to put paid to the latter!

Just because they're dead now doesnt mean they were any good to start with 😉

ISIS BBs +1
'Specialist' shock tuning for people who cant tell the difference but pay for it anyway.
Hope ProII hub bearings – worn out 2 sets while old style XCs still fine.
Commencals welding.

Twist shifters are great – allows you to trim the front mech to avoid chain rub and to change large numbers of gears at once – also good for those with weak thumbs / small hands

anything white

So brown, beige and ecru MTB components are the future then? 🙂

Agree with TJ, Grip Shift is great, it's a shame they're not offering it with XX.

all these nominations are "personal preference".

utter toss.

just cause YOU dont get on with them, doesnt mean theyre gonna die a death

MTBing doesnt HAVE to make sense.
part of the pleasure is the range of toys to fiddle with (for me at least)

and you can take your twin ring 10spd setup and shove it up your bottom.
your taking gears from one end of the bike, and putting them at the other.
wtf?

8×3 ftw!

I like anodised stuff 🙂

I was actualy tempted to strip and laquer my frmae then get a home anodising kit to turn all the other bits purple 🙂

I've thought of another one: "races" which involve paying £45 to do laps of a muddy field, until the sheer mind-numbing tedium forces you to start drinking and shouting abuse instead. 🙂

For putting/wasting an undoubtedly incredible amount of design skill and manufacturing excellence into a product that then comes out so needlessly over-complicated and horrendously ugly that said skill passes unnoticed, I nominate, the one, the only, Jeff Jones Bikes.

Removing all the gears from your bike.

Riser bars. Ubiquitous but stupid idea.

Flat narrow bars, that are so pointless in themselves they need the addition of bar ends to make them useful and comfortable, and a stupid riser stem to put them anywhere near your hands. Useless fashion item that thankfully went the way of all those other mid 90's crap ideas…

Jeff Jones aren't needless overcomplicated, they're just not a traditional looking bike, ever ridden one PP? they may look odd, but they're fun to ride.

Jeff Jones aren't needless overcomplicated, they're just not a traditional looking bike, ever ridden one PP? they may look odd, but they're fun to ride.

I think you're confusing 'fun' with 'people laughing'…. 😉

And I stand by what I say. Needlessly overcomplicated.
Put it this way – Why build a bike with about 9 straight tubes when 1249 oddly bent ones will do?

White bike bits, flat raiser bars, reflectors and bells on DH bikes, Halfords, Evans, Leisure Lakes.