[Closed] Things I don't have on my current bike

Dropper post. It's the only thing I'd add to my bike.

Skill and ability.

Did I not get the question?

I wouldn't worry about it too much.
All new bikes will feature some of those.
Try and get a test ride of something with a long reach/short stem and wide bars on your local trails if you can.

FWIW I decided on a bike that had everything on your list except it's got external cables and a threaded bb.

So much of it is unavoidable, you'd have to work hard to find a bike on sale today with none of the above - aside from the cable routing and BB.

TBH, the cable routing thing is something that comes in and out of fashion - my 1985 Raleigh Winner had internal cables which were a PITA to change. I can't see any benefit aside from aesthetics, sooner or later common sense will prevaitl and we'll all go back to external cable guides again.

Bottom brackets are another area of contention. Shimano don't seem to be embracing BB30 anytime soon, TBH my own BB30 bike creaks and has eaten it's bearings in less than five months. I'd take a threaded XT BB over BB30 any day.

Most of things are down to preference, I've added some notes to the ones I think I know something about, or care to care.

Through axle - Front & Rear - adds rigidity and weight. I've prefer it especially on rough stuff as it's noticeably stiffer.

Wide bars - Makes the bike more stable by slowing the steering input and supposedly makes it easier to turn due to extra leverage (how hard can it be?) personally I think bar width should be indirectly based on how broad your shoulders are, not just wide for the sake of it, but there you go.

Short stem makes the bike less stable by speeding up the steering input... hang on...

Dropper post - like mobile phones, you feel life was better, purer even before you had one, but once you do - you'll never go without.

Internal routing - neater, if you care, less likely to get cable rub marks on the frame, if you care.

Wheels bigger than 26" - it won't take long to find a million opinions on bigger wheels - all different - but IMO 26" is dead, not that it makes a blind bit of difference now, they're still bloody great to ride, but no one is spending anything on R&D for 26" related stuff so if you have upgradeitis and fancy you might want newer forks, tyres, rims, etc etc in a year or two - you might find that the latest innovation is either not available to you, or is a scaled down version and perhaps not optimised for 26" - if you do care about getting back a bit of cash for the next one when you change I'd avoid 26" as they're about a popular as Ebola second hand at the moment.

Tubeless - personally can't stand it, had it, was very faffy, unreliable, hard to fix trailside when it failed and as I don't want to run 20psi tyres ultimately pointless for me.

Would have thought colour was the most important factor, must glow/hurt retina. That and rockets.

Rear thru-axle was the biggest improvement for me, night and day improvement.

I figured that a dropper post would be a recommendation. Didn't expect rear thru-axle to get such glowing praise!

I'm going to try out tubeless on my current bike (after 10 years of thinking about it)

Other than that the only thing that needs to get decided up front is whether wide rims are worth it. Given my 2008 bike gets a good hammering week in week out it's still 100% original so I'm not expecting to 'try out' different wheel options. I want whatever I go for to be 'right'. And being 1000 miles from a good shop means no test rides.

And I think it's too late to be adding more skill and ability now... Laugh? I nearly did.

+1 for dropper posts. A real game changer for me

And where's njee when I need him. Nick, you know how I ride.. What should I be going for nowadays?