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I can't deal with all the negativity in the other thread right now, so let's have a thread of *best* bike improvements.
I'm going to start with direct mount chainrings finally going mainstream.
I had a direct mount chainring on my ancient Middleburn cranks years ago, but it always seemed like if you wanted nice cranks you needed those awful slotted bolt monstrosities. I used to dread switching chainrings over as I knew it would be such a miserable experience, usually involving either an electric drill or a mole wrench.
But Shimano's latest XT offering now comes with a nice easy-to-use direct mount fitting. Even better the tool you need is a standard BB tool, which I had kicking around already.
Probably indexed gearing for me
Bolt through axles on road bikes
Bolt through axles with the wheel located in the drop outs
Disc brakes, dropper posts, 1x gearing
Probably indexed gearing for me
Yeah, I remember upgrading to dx thumbies. You could turn the indexing on or off. On for when it was nice and clean and off for forcing mucky changes. Awesome.
Dropper posts
Jedi +1.
Revolutionised my riding, even if I was a stick in the mud and couldn't see the point until 2013.
Droppers, disk brakes and tubeless.
I had forgotten that we used to have non-indexed gears! Can't imagine what that would be like now.
Suspension fork surely?
Disc brakes.
Tyres in compounds and tread patterns that that are fantastic.
Modern geometry.
Road bike disc brakes, road brifters, carbon forks, carbon frames. Such a massive upgrade from the affordable road bikes pre-2000.
Dropper posts (possibly the biggest single improvement for me)
29" wheels (26" always felt ridiculously small for my 6'1" height)
Large headset bearings (the original standard was woefully inadequate for 130+ travel forks)
Bolt through axles (original flimsy QR standard was crap)
1x drivetrains
Carbon frames (now they are properly designed)
Tubeless tyres
Wider tyres/rims
Wider bars
Longer, lower, slacker geometry (up to to a point)
Most things have improved really. People whining on the other thread should all be made to ride something from the early 2000s.
Suspension fork surely?
How far back are we going here? How about derailleur gears or pneumatic tyres?
Well indexed gears were earlier and they have been mentioned several times!
Tyres.
Tubeless tyres
Threaded BB conversion
Quality headset bearings (Hope)
Carbon wheelset ( i didnt believe it either but its true!)
For mtb I would say dropper post and tubeless.
For road I would say disc brakes. Best decision I made with my new road bike was switching to disc.
Dropper posts, suspension and disc brakes.
Tubeless is good but I file it under "incremental changes", it just makes nearly every aspect of the tyre's performance a bit better. The same for wider bars, geometry that's not based on a road bike, and the honing of the weight of the bikes.
And I get that it would still be fun without all these things, but so would fell running.
Threaded BB conversion
Isn't that just a bodge to make a press fit frame more like a threaded BB, rather than a fundamental improvement?
Chain drive and pneumatic tyres
I would say suspension that works.
I’ve ridden early suspension bikes, they were crap.
I then went a couple of decades without bothering, so when i had a shot of my mates cube stereo i was blown away at how much it had improved.
I don’t use one, but dropper posts, everyone who has one says it changes their riding.
Indexed gearing likewise.
Things like tubeless/1X/geometry, good though they are, are all incremental imo.
Mid-drive motors.
In my riding lifetime definitely
- Indexed gears
- Suspension forks
- Modern tyres (way better than 80s Ground Control etc)
- Carbon frames
I think back to the clunkers we rode in the 80s, fully rigid, weighed a ton. Now compare all that with an XTR equipped Scott Scale etc. Miles apart.
Disc brakes and suspension. I came to mtb from motorbikes in the early 90s and just wondered why off bikes didn't have them. What a faff to set up canti brakes and how rubbish they were when covered in mud. Tubeless, brilliant, can't remember the last time I had to fix a puncture, pulled a big bent nail out the tyre a week ago about 4mm diameter and it still sealed up.
650b
Tubeless by a country mile (which includes a mile of thorns lining the bridleways to the local trails)
In the 30ish years I've been riding MTBs the things I've had the most benefit from are:
- better tyres
- disc brakes
- general reliability of components
Apart from those (and peripheral things such as Gore Tex) few if any of the things I've tried have been revelatory, and few if any of the things I haven't tried have appealed.
1. Suspension forks
2. Dropper posts
3. Disk brakes
For me it's,
29" wheels
Disc brakes
Good tyres
Most things have improved really.
This, a hundred times this. I'm no gear killer but even I can remember the times that you had to rebuild forks after a couple of weeks every winter if you wanted them to be even remotely usable or brakes that needed bleeding every few weeks, or replacing snapped BB axles, or truing wheels...These days everything works, I use a 170mm fork for every day riding! that has damping tuning where 1 click of say, rebound has a definitive effect on performance incredible stuff when you stop to think about it.
Clutch mechs, narrow wide chainrings.
Isn’t that just a bodge to make a press fit frame more like a threaded BB, rather than a fundamental improvement?
If it means i can tackle my local climb without a click, click, creak, creak i would say the bodge is definitely worthwhile
Goretex onsies - makes winter riding much less minging
Dropper posts, hydraulic disk brakes and suspension, in that order.
If you look at it as the one thing that, if removed, would affect your riding, then a dropper post for me.
Dropper post for a single component.
160mm FS enduro bikes for basically finally giving us a pedallable machine that can go anywhere, and allow those of us that wanted it, one MTB to rule.
Spoke skins to match cockpit colourway.
Disk brakes then droppers for me in terms of gear that actually enabled me to have the confidence to press on. Great to see disk brakes on road bikes now. Nice consistent efficient braking irrespective of the conditions and weather. The next is skills....but i'm still working on that.
Depends how far back we're going, I've been doing this for a long time, so:
Tyres. They are so much better now than 10 years ago.
Flat pedals. They used to be horrible cage things, they're now grippy, lighter and just better.
Disk brakes. They work, they're reliable and they make MTB's and road bikes better.
Di2. A proper indulgence but it's so good to use.
Pretty much everything that's been said but for me the biggest one that is always memorable is full hydraulic disk brakes.
I remember when V brakes came out they were awesome but they were still quite poor when the weather was foul and required setting up perfectly. The parallel arm things on XT+ were good but became sloppy very quickly.
When I first put a Hope C2 brake on the front of my bike it was a revelation. Much more braking force in all weathers and a genuine amazement for 6 months or so until I got a frame that could accept a rear brake, where I soon became used to such power.
Tubeless is up there although not easily thought of as a game changer because not getting punctures doesn't really make the riding better. Not sure I can feel much difference in riding as I am too fat to use really low pressures.
Di2 on road bikes is immense and I'd have it instantly if I had a desire for tarmac.
Hydro disk brakes and indexed gearing have been the best improvement for me
Tyres. They are so much better now than 10 years ago.
I'd love to see a back to back test of a mid 80s Specialized Ground Control and the modern equivalent...
Most things have improved really.
If you look at my current bike a Ramin 3+ it looks superficially very similar to my first mountain bike a 1986 Rockhopper, even the colour is not that different. To ride though there is absolutely no comparison. Every single thing on the new bike is better and nothing on it requires anymore maintenance or faff, it's still a simple rigid bike. The Rockhopper cost £400 which according to a quick online UK inflation calculator would equate to £1141 when I bought it last year. I think I actually paid less than £750 for it. Even when they were at their highest price they were £900 and regularly discounted to £800. So not is only everything better than it was all the improvements cost less.
I remember when V brakes came out they were awesome
They certainly stopped you better than cantilevers but I also found they jammed up more readily in mud. My off road commuter has them on the back and in winter I can be stopping regularly as the rear wheel stops going round if the mud is at the wrong consistency
Anyone else had the rear U brake under the seat stays? That was not a step forward!
Yeah i did, it worked fine tbh.
Cantis were a step back in terms of power, and had worse modulation too.
But **** me, they weighed a bloomin ton!!
One of my early bikes was a 1991 Gt timberline that had a rear U brake.
Didn’t really notice anything about it although the bike was made from iron and incredibly heavy.
Gave it to a young relative when I got a Pantera in 1995. Such a different bike, especially with the ‘upgrade’ of some Quadra 21 forks.
Everything above, plus LED lights. Making winter night spins less of a faff.
Electric bikes.
... not really. Specifically I'd say: disc brakes, decent flat pedals, indexed gears.
More generally I'd say the kick up the arse that ATBs gave to the entire bike industry.
Forgot Aheadsets. Total game changer. Most of you will have forgotten the trauma of changing stems and fitting bikes. It was just pain. With an aheadset and modern stems, the number of frame sizes has reduced and the ease of swapping and fitting increased immensely.
Nothing wrong with traditional headsets, but aheadsets with preload are just so much better.
Anything that requires massive spanners to adjust and regularly comes loose has plenty wrong with it!
They were ok on road bikes but headsets were a pain for off road use.
I'd go with geometry. At 6'3, old school 26" bikes never really felt like they fitted properly. Nice long modern 29ers do though. I could live without a few other modern features in exchange for a bike that fits/handles nicely.
Multitools.
Did anyone else have those terrible "spanners" stamped out of mild steel that had most of the sizes you need to keep your bike going?
Invariably they would bend, and/or round off the thing you were working on.
I remember going into a bike shop a lifetime ago to buy a new one and they had stopped stocking them a decade earlier.
the original v8 and v12 pedals.
So many small improvements have created mega machines.
Indexed multi shifts up and down
Remote Droppers
Shift away from 1 wheel size
Suspension
Disc Brakes
tubeless
Bikebuilders CHOICE
Trail centres
Carbon
When you think of all the changes over the last 30 years I don't think there's ever been a big shift, everything is just a small improvement from what there was.
Disc brakes, tyres, air shocks.
Recently I've swapped out my air shock for a slightly reduced travel coil shock,and it's caused an astounding improvement in the bike for me.
In approximate chronological order:
Indexed Gears
A-head Sets
Disc Brakes
Descent Suspension
Tubeless Wider Tyres
Dropper Posts
Improved Geometry
SPDs for me. Prior to that is was clips and straps, or power grips. Cross racing tells me i can go back to rigid, small tyres, and v brakes but I'd never swap out the SPDs.
Oh yeah, Id forgotten led lights, at last batteries lasted more than one ride!!
When i used to ride to hamsterley forest at night, i took 4 sets of rechargeable batteries with me, to power a halogen vistalite, with an absolutely puny 2.4w bulb.
A low powered modern led light would blow that away.
In order of adoption for me:-
V-brakes
Headsets
Index gears
SPDs
Suspension fork
Disc brakes
Lock on grips
Rear suspension
non-square cranksets
Speed link
Dropper posts
LED lights
and more recently that wee button on Sram rear mechs for removing the wheel.