I’ve just read a load of guf about not needing another standard. You only get the new standard when you buy the bike, if you need to change your forks you can go back to previous standard taper head tube. The only inconveinience is if you want to upgrade a stem you are a little limited at the mo.

Don’t forget 15mm, 20mm axles, tapered steerer tubes are all new in the last 3 years and evryones got used to that. If your after a new bike why not have the latest inovation?

If you want old school steel hardtail with 1 1/8 then no probs they’re still available go buy one!

It is hardest for the bike shops to be able to stock all the diff combinations of spares but if more companies follow Cane creeks example and sell their headsets modularly i.e you can buy uppers, lowers, bearing, races all separatly this shouldn’t be a great prob.

Come on blokes love tech and it has a clear advantage, who’s it harming?

it has a clear advantage

Really?
I’lltell you in a bit when my Tcr Advanced Sl arrives.

but if all bikes had a 1.5 headtube then you could pick the headset size that works for you.

I doubt it’ll set the world on fire, but I think most people are getting all worked up without actually reading the details. The upper headset cup has a narrower bearing to accomodate the larger steerer: the headtube itself is a standard semi-integrated tapered one. Therefore if you buy a Giant, you’ll get a system that may or may not be stiffer, but if the fancy takes you to stick a different fork on it, with a 1 1/8 or regular tapered steerer, it’s not going to be a problem.

The upper headset cup has a narrower bearing to accomodate the larger steerer

Sounds a bit like ISIS bottom brackets, larger axel with smaller bearings and that was a great success 🙄

I’d be well pissed off if I was a fork manufacturer

they’re currently often making the same forks in QR and 15/20mm and also in 1 1/8 plus 1.5 to 1 1/8 taper

so that’s potentially 4 variants (2 different crown/steerers and 2 different lowers), all to be shipped to various world markets and maybe (?) returned if sales fail

Adding in 1.5 to 1.25 taper would make that 6 variants – or are you proposing they scrap something and make a load of factory tooling obsolete ?

maybe there will just be a big market for people who make shims soon.