Getting a few things off my mountain biking chest.
Sometimes it’s good to moan. It can help get rid of frustrations. A problem shared is a problem halved and all that. Clear the air and move on.
With that in mind, these are the 10 main things that have been bugging me with bikes for the past few years.
Semi-lightheartedly, here goes nothing…
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Carbon (apart from rims)
Let’s kick things off with a biggie. Aside from the ecological argument (that I don’t want to get sidetracked by), I just don’t think carbon is worth the money. The amount of extra £-pounds you have to spend to save one or two lb-pounds is faintly outrageous. Arguably most of that weight saving is due to the bike industry seemingly having given up on even trying to make metal bikes light(er), especially North American brands. And a lot of the time I think it’s a worse performing material than metal. The one exception is wheel rims. Carbon rims can be the best rims available. Still loads of money, mind.
High-set helmet peaks
I’m going to pin this one on Specialized. Although other brands are hopping on board this aesthetic, I think Spesh was the first to bring out helmets with peaks set bizarrely far-too-high. High to the point of actually being pointless. Even if you don’t live anywhere that sunny, these high peaks now make dusk rides an exercise in squinting and, quite frankly, dangerous.
Thru-headset anything
Yep, the classic. People may be bored of moaning about thru-headset cable routing but we need to keep up the pressure. Not only does it add complexity and cost to routing service jobs, it doesn’t even look better than regular routing. It’s a disease that’s drifted over from dropbar bikes and it can drift off back there thanks.
Torx bolts
Is it just me, or are torx bolts more prone to rounding out than Allen key bolts? Especially on items that aren’t disc rotor bolts. Any test bike from torx-tastic Scott, for example, usually ends up heading back post-test period with all of the torx bolts looking scratty and mashed. Hex FTW.
Disc mounts on chainstays
Am not exactly sure if brands are putting calipers on the chain stay for suspension-v-braking reasons but I am sure that such a location makes it much more difficult to get at the caliper mount bolts, especially with a multi-tool. And as for the introduction of the patently awful flat-mount standard coming in from roadie world… No. Just no. Can’t we just bring back I.S.? That was clearly superior.
Tokenistic adjustments
One reason why I don’t pick on brands that don’t offer proportional chainstays or flipchips, is because the brands that do offer these things very rarely do it to a sufficient degree. 11mm difference in chain stay length between Small and XX-Large? 0.5° change in geometry via a flipchip? Hardly worth it. If you’re going to market sizing/adjustments, at least make it justifiable.
Curvy rates
Whether this is suspension frame leverage or air springs, I rarely get along with curves that aren’t consistent. I can get them to function okay but in a world where most riders (understandably) don’t want to spend hours and hours setting up a pushbike, these curves are often a recipe for extremely poor bike setup and thus handling. The marketing idea of ‘supple at sag, rampy at the end’ is not what a lot of riders end up sat on.
Silicone grippers
Helmets. Knee pads. Liner shorts. Any of these that have silicone grippers frequently get on my wick. Sometime literally. Essentially using hot glue to keep cycling apparel in place. Ugh.
Car industry aping
All these ‘Works’ bikes. Or eebs with stronger motors in the top tier models. Feels very Beemer M Series. Naff.
And finally…
The tenth slot is open to you. Add your suggestions below!
Batteries on non-E-bikes.
Telling us 32” wheels offer more choice whilst removing 27.5 for small sizes?!
Interrupted seat tubes that don’t allow a long dropper are pretty high on my list..!
‘Releasing’ a product/sending a load out to influencers, but then don’t have any stock for people to actually buy.
Stop changing anything that can be changed just because you want to make more money. although, to be fair, that is not unique to the bike industry.
Stop using stupid **** names for tyre casings and compounds. Light, medium and heavy for the casing. Soft, medium and hard for the compounds.
Can’t disagree more about carbon. A carbon frame is both lighter and easier to repair than an aluminium one, and IME less likely to need a repair in the first place. But carbon rims are the opposite – many times the price of an aluminium rim and almost guaranteed to fail.
Personally, I’d say massive rear mechs and tyres over 1kg need to stop. As do brands making single component ranges that do all genres of riding – expecting a GX crank to be light enough for XC and strong enough for Enduro, or having one front triangle do several travel iterations, means you have a compromised product.
I think you mean “Essentially using hot glue to not keep cycling apparel in place" cos in my experience silicon grippers never, er, grip.
You don’t need to buy the tyres that aren’t designed for you. I’m happy with a heavier tyre on the enduro bike as it means I don’t destroy them. I still have the choice to put a trail tyre on the trail bike for easy singletrack riding.
You’re wrong about Torx bolts. Buy better quality tools and use them correctly. FYI, Park is not a quality tool brand…
Nod, Nod, Nod… Torx, Shake head. It’s a pain having mixed bolts on the bike but most multitools come with a T25.
And maybe add electronic shifting. I have it one bike as I really wanted to try it. It’s good, mostly great but when it inevitably breaks (I’m looking at you massive SRAM mech), I’ll be going back to good old XT mechanical.
Or, Presta valves. I know there on many on here who’ve never bent one, but for us mechanical kltuz’s – can we have a more klutz appropriate solution (that doesn’t cost a million quid…)
As long as they only use one size of torx, across the whole bike, it’s fine with me.
The problem with this, is some riders will put their XC bike through far more abuse and strain than others will ever put their Enduro bike through. Components tough enough for everything reduces complaints about a few breakages (which in the internet age can seriously damage a brand’s reputation).
!! Why you not speak up on my THREAD?!?
Daring to put an item of clothing out there thats a bit different to the norm… Apparently.
I remember the days when pretty much everything was a 5mm hex bolt, then they started sneaking in 4mm ones, then it all went to shit.
I’d say massive rear mechs
!! Why you not speak up on my THREAD?!?
Missed that. But I now have something to read at lunchtime 🙂
Across multiple threads now?
This poses a question for me:
Is it going to be more fun or effort to keep you on the hook a bit longer?
I reckon it’s not going to be worth the effort, so you’ve won the forum for today.
👏
Carbon rims are just daft and Silicone grippers are a wonderful invention – try using knee pads without them and they’ll be around your ankles in minutes. I quite like Torx bolts, any damaging of mine has been through not identifying them as Torx and mangling them with a hex.
You’re right about through stem shit and chainstay mounted callipers though. Anything coming back from the evolution in road bikes is going to be bollox and should stay there. MTBs dragged them along and they’re now dragging us back.
6mm front axle, 5mm rear axle- who signed that nonsense off. Oh and 15mm axles.
And 157mm non DH rear spacing. Although that seems to have died a natural death.