You can make one “standard” an actual standard

Square taper thank the lord are a thing of yesterdecade

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… Square taper axles snapped off a 10 foot drop… I watched Octalink shred their splines near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.

Didn’t Rockshox invent the Torque Cap because they were admitting a 15mm front axle wasn’t stiff enough?

to try and combat the noodle-y nature of the USD RS-1 fork. With limited to no success. They then rolled it out across the range.

to try and combat the noodle-y nature of the USD RS-1 fork

I rode one of those a few miles and back along a v gentle greeny/blue trail once, and was mesmerised by the legs compressing and extending independently of each other. I couldn’t imagine using it in anger. Looked super cool though

Brake pads. I have multiple bikes and all of them have different pads. My Canyon FS has different pads front and rear despite both being SLX!

You’d probably need a few road, XC/gravel and DH. But not one for every caliper ever invented.

Nah, chewed up too many alloy hg freehubs to ever go back, microspline for me thanks.

That’s the manufacturers fault not the standard. Stop buying aluminium and have a decent shit before you go out or ditch the dropper if that weight matters so much.

For me, having just spent yesterday swapping bits between between frames, its bolts! 3mm on one cover cap then 2.5mm on the next. 4mm on stem bolts then 5mm on the stem cap, then 6mm on the Hope stem cap. 6mm on the bolt thru, then oh no this one is 5mm. 4mm for this seat post clamp, 5mm on a different one…. 4mm on shifter and brakes clamps but 3mm for dropper post bar clamp

At least all the rotor bolts are torqs……nope this one is 3mm hex!!!!

**** off!!!….

I just got one of those bargain Pro 5 hubs and I went for the steel HG freehub, I’m staying on 11sp and fancied a change from XD.

I know, cool story bro.

Square taper thank the lord are a thing of yesterdecade

Square taper BBs are great for bikes that do long distances year-round. 100% valid format, just not for many MTBs. Would have one on my SS MTB though because it eats HT2 BBs.

20mm is still the one that pisses me off and also the one that made it clear that customers have no meaningful buying power whatsoever, because we buy a handful of forks in our lifetime while Trek and Specialized buy them by the container. Boost is almost as bad but I reckon if we could travel back in time and kill 15mm Hitler, whoever that was, we could probably avert Boost into the bargain because winning that first battle would have stopped them doing it again, and again, and again.

But actually i’ll go the way of tiny changes, and say 31.8 stems. Because not only is 35mm pretty pointless anyway, and inferior in that it can’t be as short, it’s made buying stems and bars super annoying because the thing you want is ALWAYS available and ALWAYS on discount in whatever size you don’t want. But most of all because combined with modern “show you something slightly different from what you asked for” search algorithms it’s made buying short stems an absolute nightmare.

 if we could travel back in time and kill 15mm Hitler

Not sure why but that made me do a genuine LOL in the middle of the office 🙂

 it’s made buying stems and bars super annoying because the thing you want is ALWAYS available and ALWAYS on discount in whatever size you don’t want.

I’ve said it before but my preferred way of buying a bike 10 (or maybe closer to 15 now) years ago was to buy the frame, then go to CRC and ‘sort by discount first’ to find the components.

I might not have a bike that was optimised to within an inch of it’s life but I could prioritise the important parts for me and end up with a bike that was not that much different in term of value for money when compared to complete bikes.

In recent years that just wasn’t practical.  While there were still plenty of components available for 70+% off, it’s almost always impossible to find the standard you want.

Same here Kelvin, I’ve always had XT after XT after XT, my frames are always threaded BB, it’s a deal breaker, but if any frames on my short list changed to T47 in the next iteration I might try a different crank.

 it’s almost always impossible to find the standard you want.

I’ve just done this building a Yeti frame, and it’s got all sorts of new sizes, – 55mm chainline, and PF BB, to name a couple and it was easier to buy those things than it was to find the fork I wanted, or the saddle.

I’ve just done this building a Yeti frame, and it’s got all sorts of new sizes, – 55mm chainline, and PF BB, to name a couple and it was easier to buy those things than it was to find the fork I wanted, or the saddle.

Sure, you can find any part you want, regardless of standard.  I was reading Gironimo the other day and he managed to find someone to make him a pair of wooden rims.

What you can’t do today is buy a frame and find all the parts for it all with a minimum of 70% off.

You can find an example of every component with 70% off, but they most likely won’t be the standard you need.

BruceWeeFull

I’ve said it before but my preferred way of buying a bike 10 (or maybe closer to 15 now) years ago was to buy the frame, then go to CRC and ‘sort by discount first’ to find the components.

Same here, partly out of necessity to keep cost down, partly because I had a slightly deranged obsession with putting the bike together cheaply and I’d have spreadsheets of parts and price and postage costs and weight as I tried to figure it all out. Always found it a strangely absorbing and theraputic process, planning it all out.

Square taper thank the lord are a thing of yesterdecade

Quite liked square taper bb’s. Bearings lasted years and loads of different lengths to choose from. Never had an issue with them but did see plenty of crank arms rounded where they had been ridden lose.

Powerpros came rounded from the factory, they were 15 quid for a reason.