I’ll start with my ideas:
Getting rid of the countless/stupidest/numerous standard of head tubes and bottom bracket.
A real standard for brakes. Like in not having to realign callipers when you change the wheel. Hayes and shimano seems to be way off.
Tyre levers that don’t explode when you are trying to change a big tyre.
Brakes for girls…

Tyre levers are for girls…

Well owing your riding you must have an awful collection of them 😉

Getting rid of the countless/stupidest/numerous standard of head tubes and bottom bracket.

That’s devolution. Or regression. Not innovation.

A real standard for brakes. Like in not having to realign callipers when you change the wheel. Hayes and shimano seems to be way off.

I’m not sure how that’s the fault of the brake/caliper?

Accurate weather forecasting.

I’ve done a 3 hour road ride, the forecast was ‘light showers’…

Il pleu.

I had gloves and oversocks and tights and a windproof jacket and a rain jacket. I was so cold at the 1.5 hour, farthest away from home point, that I couldn’t change gear because I couldn’t feel my hands, and couldn’t feel my legs below my knees.

I nearly cried when I got into the shower.

Lightweight hub gear.

druidh – Member
Tyre levers are for girls…

even girls can change tyres without levers 🙂

A highly tunable (on the fly) rear-shock a la Scott or Cannondale certainly sounds like the right direction for improving things – scope for innovation there. Not ridden one of the current crop myself though.

More futuristic, an invisible mudguard would be quite innovative.

dual pressure tyres for fatbikes 😆

What innovation really would make some sense?

1) Left knees that don’t spontaneously stop working.

2) Right hips that don’t break.

Would be top of my list.

Lightweight hub gear.

^this, but located at the cranks

long travel non telescopic forks

porter_jamie – Member
long travel non telescopic forks

Rims that don’t let water in…

Washed bike after above 3 hours in the rain, and heard gurgling when wheels were spun. Tyres off, and 150 mls of rain water in the rims…

that doesnt look like that! imagine if specialised did a modern take on it, so it worked properly, and was cheap.

Custom clothing. A range of shorts and jerseys in standard designs with a range of colours for you to customise.

A real standard for brakes. Like in not having to realign callipers when you change the wheel.

IS was. Post mount is to allow for lower manufacturing tolerances

almost all of my bikes are IS brakes and mounts – and guess what – all the wheels interchange fairly well

A weightless bike that reads the terrain you are riding and adjusts its spec accordingly so when you transfer from dh to road, it morphs from a dh bike to a road bike etc. (With a manual override so you can spice things up).

650B

The reason you need to adjust brakes when you swap wheels is that the disc is spaced differently on different wheels. IS or post mount makes no difference.

You can correct this with disc spacers

IS should be spaced identically – post mount uses a slotted mount to allow for poor manufacturing tolerances.

I have not tried all my wheels in all frames but the ones I have tried all just slot in bar one wheel which rubs the brake a bit

Electronically controlled suspension – using a GPS to work out roughly where you are and what direction you’re heading, and a camera with image processing to narrow that down to a very precise location. Travel and lockout adjusted automatically according to terrain. Oh, and if you have electronic gears it also integrates with those and selects the correct gear for you. All you have to do is pedal.

IS should be spaced identically – post mount uses a slotted mount to allow for poor manufacturing tolerances.

But what has that got to do with where the disc is spaced relative to the wheel?

Self washing bikes? 8) BBC News article on self cleaning windows

Custom clothing. A range of shorts and jerseys in standard designs with a range of colours for you to customise.

http://www.uk.lab-gear.com/cycling-clothing

Baggy shorts with either a bib, or broad lycra waist band.

Negative calorie pies, cakes, sweets…you get the idea. This would improve my cycling the most

A device that stops stuff dropping between the drivers seat and centre console.

Shorts that automatically change from baggy to lycra at the flick of a bar-mounted switch so I can ride DH high-posted and claim god-like status over dropper-users.

aracer – Member

“IS should be spaced identically – post mount uses a slotted mount to allow for poor manufacturing tolerances.”

But what has that got to do with where the disc is spaced relative to the wheel?

Thats one of the poor tolerances – the disc spacing from the centre line should be identical

poorer tolerances

DAMN IT JAMBO! I was going to post that.

Today i would have liked my new 10sp chainrings to fit my old 9spd SLX arms. Alas. This was not to be.

A simple, lightweight system for storing braking and damping energy which could then be released when desired to assist pedalling.

thebikechain – Member
Today i would have liked my new 10sp chainrings to fit my old 9spd SLX arms. Alas. This was not to be.

10 speed eh? Sucked in by the marketing – again!

I think its about time that in urban areas at least, we as a nation switched to parking our cars in what is now the central reservation and not next to the kerb.

I do not think that it is necessary for cyclists to hustle between lines of stationary cars (with driver-side doors ready to pop open) and fast moving traffic on the other.

Neither do I see a need for car drivers to park next to the kerb thus creating blind-spots when people step off the kerb to cross the road.

Strange that ROSPA, etc did not petition the Govt and local authorities years ago to banish kerb-side parking.

Rant over.

No lube chain……….. 🙂

Onzadog – Member

A device that stops stuff dropping between the drivers seat and centre console.

That is a serious bike !

EDIT – Please someone tell me how you do that ‘quote in a box’ thing

EDIT – Please someone tell me how you do that ‘quote in a box’ thing

Like that.

What innovation really would make some sense?

Dropper posts that last more than 3 rides average?