Originally posted by lotek
I wouldn't say that #9 is an improvement
9 isn't a prime number, either
You're right, though. The aluminum frame is not a major step in the evolution of the bicycle. It's more likely to be an evolutionary cul de sac, although I admit to having an aluminum frame bike which I like it quite a bit.
The original question was: "
what are the five best improvement in bicycles?", and there's no way I'd put the aluminum frame on my list.
Originally posted by LET
I'm old enough to remember the changes caused by some of these items hitting the mass market. There's quite an evolution that has taken place through time.
I'm old enough to remember all of them. When I started riding, bicycles with gears were virtually unkown, as were bicycle with narrow tires. So that's where I'd start my list...
#1 Narrow tires - even more important than gears. The first narrow tire bike I had was a single speed bicycle with a coaster brake. Going from the balloon tire bikes I was familiar with to a narrow tire bike was the biggest single improvement in bicycle performance I have ever experienced. All the changes that have occured since are minor in comparison.
#2 Gears - The first gears I ever had on a bicycle involved the 3-speed hub. It was quite an improvement, but if I had to choose between a bike with balloon tires and gears, or a narrow tire bike without gears, I'd take the bike without gears any day.
Originally posted by MichaelW
Hub gears get a bum rap from some people. In their day, it was 3 hub gears or 3 derailleur gears.
In it's day, the 3-speed hub was a major improvement. The 10-speed was a big thing when it came along but, in reality, only a minor improvement over the bikes with 3-speed hubs.
Originally posted by LET
Center-pull brakes were a huge impact when they came out. Reliable stopping power!!
Oh, indeed! So that has to be...
#3 Center-pull brakes
In the early days of hand brakes the simple truth was that they didn't work. Coaster brakes were much more reliable. Even though they worked on the rear wheels, and the physics wasn't entirely correct, coaster brakes were reliable and predictable. About all that was predictable about the early hand brakes was that they weren't worth diddly.
So..., to continue in the braking theme:
#4 Aluminum rims - Good Googily moogily! After years of experimentation, hand brakes actually worked!!! Center-pull brakes plus aluminum rims = hand brakes that would actually stop a bicycle. Now
that was an improvement.
To this point I've used 4 of my "top 5" improvements and none of them have involved derailleurs, index shifting, shock absorbers, color choices or cyclo-computers. #5 won't involve shock absorbers, because they're too specialized. And #5 won't involve color choices (I still like black or white) or cyclo-computers, because the first is just window dressing, and the second is just a gadget. So that means #5 will involve derailleur shiftng in some way. But what way?
Truthfully, none of the improvements in derailleur shifting, taken alone, was particularly significant but,
taken together, they are very significant. So that's
#5 Improvements in derailleur shifting (this includes index shifting, narrow chains, more gears and greater reliability) But, even taken together, these improvements are considerably less important than improvements #1 thru #4.
All in all, today's bikes are a lot better than the bikes I started with. And they're still a fantastic value.