The ones on my wife’s bike seem to work the opposite way to 99% of all other shifters.

What are they?

No, I agree on this – reverse pull derailleurs are silly.

Well, actually, they’re a better design – if all derailleurs from the start had been that way around it would have made a lot of sense. But they weren’t, so it’s just confusing.

What are they?

Sachs Sedis, I wager… 😯

paulwilsonmtb – Member
aracer; all the shifters on all the bikes I’ve had work the same way. Most of the shifters on other bikes i’ve ridden also work the same way. The ones on my wife’s bike seem to work the opposite way to 99% of all other shifters.

Rubbish design. It’s like swapping brake and accelerator pedals round on a car. Maybe not as dangerous.

are you sure its the shifters? sounds like she has a rapid rise rear mech to me

modern housing, especially flats, absolutely zero concept of storage space, ffs I thougt architects had to study for years and still they design terrible housing

Me
When talking about headlight bulbs that require engines to be removed, guaranteeing your dealer network continued after-sales service business is a good thing.

aracer
Maybe, but those countries which legislate that you’re required to carry spare bulbs ought to also legislate that it’s possible to change bulbs at the roadside without any tools – any car which doesn’t meet this doesn’t get type approval. I’m not sure if it’s ironic or deliberate that French cars seem to be the worst for this.

For the record, I personally don’t think it’s a ‘good thing’. I was talking from the POV of the manufacturer, not as a consumer. I think changing any lightbulb on a vehicle should be a tool free job that takes no more than 5 minutes.

But while ever those who profit from our difficulties are in charge of any difficulties we encounter, we have to accept that products are designed primarily to serve the needs of the manufacturer, and secondarily for the needs of the consumer.

But to join in with the spirit of the thread in my own pedantic way, our coffee machine thing (not sure what it does, I don’t drink coffee) where the inflexible power lead exits right out of the centre of the rear, so the thing can’t be pushed within 6 inches of a wall.

Given the amount of space there must be for the components inside the huge plastic casing (designed around a large glass jar rather than the bulk of its internal components) and no discernible risk from it being placed in close proximity to a wall, I suspect there’s no real reason for it to be like that beyond designer oversight.

ANYTHING made by Crank Bros

USB A-type ports. Impossible to tell which way it fits in until you try.

are you sure its the shifters? sounds like she has a rapid rise rear mech to me

Actually I think you might be right. Whatever, the shifting is the wrong way round and that’s rubbish.

modern housing, especially flats, absolutely zero concept of storage space, ffs I thougt architects had to study for years and still they design terrible housing

An architect (or any designer) can never design anything better than the clients imagination, unfortunately.

^^^^^ I disagree – most clients have no idea what thy’re doing and it’s the designer’s job to take the brief and create something awesome, regardless of how incoherent the brief. It is, however bloody hard if they are utterly uncooperative/unsupportive [design intern here in this situation!].

Still, I’m having a good day, sorta.

oh yeah and the front usb ports on old dell desktops, under a flap that hinged upwards about 45 degrees meaning you had to insert the usb blind at an angle and the wrong way round and hope the usb stick wasnt too big

Specific to the light bulbs in my car… there are 6 in total (3 either side) and you can get at 4 of them within seconds. The other 2 are restricted by various bits of gubbins and tubing (I am not a mechanic). So the light designer clearly thought out the bulb access issue, but the tube and gubbins designer, or the bloke who put the whole package together clearly thought “#### ‘em”.

A previous car had a hand break that you could easily pull of its mounting that could only be fixed if you had access to a ramp or inspection pit – Rubbish

The “egg bomber” birds in Angry Birds – Rubbish

The toilet cubicles at Frankfurt Airport (near the gates, not in the hub) that are so small that you cannot get off the seat with your pants round your ankles if you have a largish bag hanging on the back of the door – Rubbish

My Sony TV that automatically tries the dead inputs before it gets to the SKY box. Why can’t it remember? – Rubbish

Plastic tyre levers – Rubbish

Some Cateye cycle computers. I have two which are a doddle to use, but the third and newest one has been redesigned to make it utterly useless despite it doing exactly the same as the older ones – Rubbish

The battery and charger on my old NiteRider Trail Rat that was designed without a cut out for when the battery was charged – Rubbish

Car boots with high sills so that you put your back out whilst trying to lift a heavy concrete bird bath out of it – Rubbish, and probably the reason why I’m ranting.

additional to computer port flaps…

ancient Tadpole Technologies (SPARC-based) laptops. Had a flap to cover all the ports on the back (Serial, Parallel, etc.), with a hole so you could power the laptop still when covered. But you had to unplug the power to open the flap. Why couldn’t they just make the flap 2cm shorter? or make the hole a slot? or just not have a flap?

Car doors that deposit the entire contents of the snow on the roof onto the seat as soon as you open them.

^^^^^ I disagree – most clients have no idea what thy’re doing and it’s the designer’s job to take the brief and create something awesome, regardless of how incoherent the brief. It is, however bloody hard if they are utterly uncooperative/unsupportive [design intern here in this situation!].

Still, I’m having a good day, sorta.

Volume house builders are not incoherent, uncooperative or unsupportive. If, as Kimbers states modern houses lack storage its not because an architect overlooked it, or failed to enthuse their client as to how useful storage would be, its not there because of the client doesn’t want it there as they know they can get pretty much the same price for house without storage as they can for one with.

Car doors that deposit the entire contents of the snow on the roof onto the seat as soon as you open them.

User error.

Yoghurt lids.

Guaranteed to (almost) get back from shop to house in one piece.

Corned beef tins.

Anything by Shimano.

the front usb ports on old dell desktops, under a flap that hinged upwards about 45 degrees

There is a solution to that one 😉 though the orientation of the ports is indefensible.

Most of the above aren’t design faults.
The designer is most likely working to a budget, which prevents designing anything that works, or being told not to worry about making something easy to change (like car headlamp bulbs) because the car supplier is more interested in either lots of service bills or good fuel consumption.

Bra clasps. 😳

The Bush freeview recorder attached to my TV that has dementia from new. Rubbish!

What were you expecting? 😉

USB A-type ports. Impossible to tell which way it fits in until you try.

I half agree, but the up side always has a USB three prong logo on it. Not much use if the port is vertical though.

Well, actually, they’re a better design – if all derailleurs from the start had been that way around it would have made a lot of sense. But they weren’t, so it’s just confusing.

I thought I’d read that shimano mechs were RR originally but campag did it the other way around and racers liked to be able to drop from big ring to little and go to a smaller cog at the same time just by pushing both (downtube mounted levers) levers forward.

RR is a much better design, no idea why there can’t be RR versions running side by side, isn’t it just a case of adding mountpoints and swapping the spring around in the dérailleur? how about mechs that can be run either way?

Now don’t be silly!

Tha packaging on new pliers and / or scissors, that requires the use of pliers and / or scissors to actually get to the pliers and/or scissors that you’ve just bought despite the fact that if you had a working pair of piers and/ or scissors then you wouldn’t have had to buy the new pair of pliers and / or scissors in the first place…

the up side always has a USB three prong logo on it

See above regarding Dell front ports

I thought I’d read that shimano mechs were RR originally

I’m fairly sure that’s not the case – or if it is you’re talking about a long way back in history when everything was different.

RR is a much better design

How so?

Maxis Beaver EXC’s, about as puncture proof as riding on tubes alone – rubbish.
SRAM hoods, twist like a thin piece of cling film – rubbish.
Call Center dial in’s, “press 1 for, press 2 for, press 19876678654 for, I’m sorry but I don’t recognise that, press 1 for…” – utter rubbish.

Tha packaging on new pliers and / or scissors, that requires the use of pliers and / or scissors to actually get to the pliers and/or scissors that you’ve just bought despite the fact that if you had a working pair of piers and/ or scissors then you wouldn’t have had to buy the new pair of pliers and / or scissors in the first place…

Reported to the Mods – clearly Mighty Mule’s account has been hacked by Michael MacIntyre 🙂

the up side always has a USB three prong logo on it
See above regarding Dell front ports

That’s a Dell problem, not a USB design problem.

camo16 – Member
Bra clasps.

Ask your lad if you need help with the operation of said clasps. The amount of times he must have seen them in action, he must have picked up a few tips.

RR is a much better design

How so?well for shifting into easier gears the cassettes have those nice machined edges (hyperglide?) to help glide the chain up the cassette, RR click the button the mech spring edges the chain over until the machined bits pick it up and smoothly deposit it on the next cog. Standard mechs just drag the chain across as soon as you punch the shift button. You can feather the shifting and make use of the pickups yourself but RR makes it easier and at crunch moments like climbing under full power where you’re probably concentrating on other stuff.

I’m fairly sure that’s not the case

yeah I could be wrong, will see if I can dig out a link.

Anything made by Crank Brothers,their stuff is total shit. and maybe not design but why dear god do the bike industry keep bringing shit out halfway through the year and then not having any current stock from February onwards, the entire industry is shite for this. but I like SAP, but agree it can be crap.

Ask your lad if you need help with the operation of said clasps. The amount of times he must have seen them in action, he must have picked up a few tips.

😆

Nipple tassles – on the other hand – seem to be designed really well. 🙂

ohnohesback – Member
Corned beef tins.

I’m going to have to disagree on that. I think rubbish design is any food packaging that cannot be opened without a specific implement, e.g. non-screwtop glass bottles, tins, plastic wraps that require a sword of razor-sharp proportions etc.

found it, sheldon brown should have guessed, but it wasn’t shimano who did RR pre campag “everyone” did

Low-normal/High-normal
Modern derailers are spring loaded, pulled one way by the spring and the other way by the control cable. A “low-normal” derailer is one in which the spring pulls it toward the lower gear(s). If you release the tension on the cable, it will shift to the lowest gear.

Up until the late 1950s, all spring loaded derailers were low-normal. Campagnolo’s pioneering parallelogram-type rear derailer was high-normal, and most rear derailers made since then have been of the high-normal type.

The major advantage of high-normal rear derailers is that, when used with a low-normal front, both levers move in the same direction for double shifts. This makes it easier to perform a double shift with down-tube shift levers.

The major advantage of low-normal derailers is that they generally downshift a bit better than high-normal units.

Since the late 1990s, Shimano has attempted to revive the low-normal rear derailer design, using the trademark “RapidRise.” This has met with increasing acceptance by cyclists. not sure about that last line tho 😉

That’s a Dell problem, not a USB design problem.

Well it is a USB design problem, because it’s possible to do it wrong.

The throttle response on the Lynx HMA.8 really frustrates me, especially on night landings.

Anything made by RaceFace that has bearings or splines. The bearings die after a few weeks and the splines simply fret away your otherwise pristine cranks so that they become wobbly uselessness in just over a year.

15mm bolt through forks – so Fox can create an artificial niche standard and Shimano can sell more front wheels. Annoying.

Oh…and press-fit bearings on frames? Why can’t we have pinch bolts? There’s bound to be a packaging reason for this isn’t there?

Reported to the Mods – clearly Mighty Mule’s account has been hacked by Michael MacIntyre

That is possibly the most offensive thing anybody has ever said to me 😀