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[quote=makecoldplayhistory ]I love my bike but it's 26", straight steerered, non-boost... the next big upgrade will be expensive.But then it won't be an upgrade, it'll be a replacement. And that's how cars and motorcycles (and actually most bicycles) are bought. Perhaps we just need to stop assuming we can bolt new parts onto old.
Off the shelf £2k bikes are the future. I can't be arsed building bikes any more, haven't a clue what standard works with what...
As long as it lasts me 2 years, it's the cost of a footy season ticket/golf membership etc...
If you could buy a 26" straight steerer pike I would not have replaced the heckler with the aeris. For years my wife and I had the same wheel set the same brakes the same transmission and the same seat post. This was handy for packing spares such as tubes, links, pads and so on. I have messed all that up with the aeris so the only obvious solution is for the wife to buy a 120 aeris...
True scotroutes, although according to everything I've read in the mags, it will absolutely be an upgrade.
I'm also at a very different stage in my life. Most of my current 'bits' were purchased when buying a set of wheels on the way home on a Friday wasn't such a a big deal: now got 2 young boys, saving hard to buy a 'forever' house blah blah blah.
I guess the slightly frustrating part is parts which aren't anywhere near the end of their useful life (expensive hubs, brakes, forks) will be replaced despite working well. It wasn't so long ago we only replaced stuff when we'd broken it in mud. Perhaps we've been spoilt!
TBH, MTB'ing is a relatively cheap hobby and £/mile had me grinning more than I can imagine over the last 25 years.
I'd like to see:
- Integrated on the fly geometry and suspension adjustment (extending on Canyons shapeshifter). Suspension kinematics are getting better for long travel all mountain bikes, but geometry is leaning more to descending abilities and making do on the climbs. Having a single button to steepen seat and head angles, drop front travel down and increase low speed compression damping would be nice!
- Advances in tubeless technology - bikes now make it easy to plough down rocky sections but you still have to choose between heavy tyres or a big puncture risk. The EWS guys are still flatting regularly on the heavy tyres!, and fixing tubeless flats can still be a headache. Better puncture resistance or the ability to re-inflate on the fly would be a big improvement.
Having a single button to steepen seat and head angles, drop front travel down and increase low speed compression damping would be nice!
Strange thing is having ridden some modern longer travel bikes not sure I need all that. Balance is great, very little need for dual position forks etc.
The new nowheels wheel standard is about 2 years away.
Trail sensing ground radar projecting just infront of the bike, linked to suspension control...
2WD has bindun: http://www.christinibicycles.com/ (although I think they now only make motorcycles).
Also on-the-fly geometry adjustment - anyone remember Bionicon?
What's most likely to happen is that innovations that are currently used by a tiny number of riders (like Procore) will be picked up and become stock equipment. A bit like tubeless tyres, suspension, etc did a few years back.
Big price hikes being blamed on Brexit? Shimano is supposed to be going up by ~20%, I dread to think what Schwalbe might increase to as well and that's just for starters!
It's making me think I should get replacement drivetrain bits, probably 1x10, purchased asap. Was gutted earlier, had spotted Merlin Cycles had a "more you spend the bigger % discount you get" promo over the weekend, but it finished around noon.
Anyway, future developments, a true ~4" slick tyre for fatbike tarmac commuting! 😈
Expensive bikes that are not perfect for upgrading - fine out of the box. The journos will hate the idea.
wobbliscott - Member
I hope more carbon is not the future for bikes. It's hardly cutting edge and is just a new use of an old technology. I hope the future for bike technology is far more modern and cutting edge than a re-hash of 1970's technology. I suspect frame material choice will most likely be influenced by materials that are possible to be used to 3D print a bike. 3D printing will enable far more optimised designs that will lead to much lighter and stronger bikes even if they are made of metal. This will bring the cost of bikes right down (should do).
Yeah let's go for something instead that has the same material properties dating back to the 1800s rather than 30 years ago
3d printing is as strong as a casting cast lugs were made last century believe the hype then see how many of these super high zoom aerospace and automotive companies are at any kind of technology readiness level
It's coming but you will be getting a 3d printed zimmer frame before its price capable of doing anything close to what a traditional technology can achieve.
Graphene
I think Rockshox are going to push 2 breakthrough technologies- fully height adjustable forks that can be adjusted with a dial to exactly where you want them, and will perform exactly as well at all settings. And air springs where the negative and positive are separate so you can tune them to taste and not worry about transfer ports jamming up and the like.
Expensive bikes that are not perfect for upgrading - fine out of the box. The journos will hate the idea.
+1 I was thinking along similar lines.
Guess they'll have to write about something else instead. Pinkbike write ups of World Cup weekends are great, so its not all doom and gloom, but certain publications need to up their game.
Play the standards game. Think of a component that you can take from one bike to the next without having to replace, that's expensive, and that is becoming relatively standardised. 34mm seatposts incoming...
fully height adjustable forks that can be adjusted with a dial to exactly where you want them, and will perform exactly as well at all settings.
...?
Having a single button to steepen seat and head angles, drop front travel down and increase low speed compression damping would be nice!
I've already got that on my Trigger and it works so that's nice but it's an extra lever and cable which is apparently "bar clutter" so that's not fashionable.
Think it's hard to predict what's next as we're sort of at the end of MTB design as a linear series of problem solving steps. That's not to say they'll be no more progress, just that it will come from unexpected, fragmentary directions. e.g. fat bikes, let's make something relatively shite, but that leads to different thinking that becomes influential. It's not going to come from people thinking in straight lines like trying to solve mountain bike drivetrain problems that don't really exist in the first place.
Back in the 90s companies would launch a great new FS bike, except the brakes were life-threatening, the suspension was bobbins, and the geometry was a dice roll by the designer. And it didn't take a far-sighted genius to spot this, as we had motorcross as a point of comparison for bicycle machines actually working well off road. Things have come a long way since then and we don't have the same obvious improvements to make.
It'll be something that makes a huge chunk of your spend obsolete. Your expensive loan/debt will have lost a fair bit of value when it comes to changing bikes.
Pretty please start from a real rider problem: flat tyres!
Pretty please start from a real rider problem: flat tyres!
Tubeless.
molgrips - Member...?
I was suggesting rockshox should invent u-turn and dual air. It's a hilarious gag. This is where you laugh!
Maybe adding 5mm to bolt-through front axles would be good too
[quote=Northwind ]
molgrips - Member
...?
I was suggesting rockshox should invent u-turn and dual air. It's a hilarious gag. This is where you laugh!
I LOLed
26+?
http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/09/05/eb16-26-tubeless-gets-real-wtb-ranger-deva-saddle-makes-return/
Tbh I think gearboxes will always be in the realm of the high end niche manufacturers, as for them to be cheap/widespread, it would need one or both of the companies whose main business is based around mechs and cassettes to get involved, which I think would have happened by now, if it was ever to.
Hydraulic top tubes.
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i hope we get the option of shorter cranks.
But we'll probably just get 1 more gear, and another hub standard.