Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
Actually, it's probably because of the technology to provide more speeds (11 vs 5) AND the ability to manufacture a better cassette in pie plate sizes.
I mean, how would you lay out an 11-32 in a 5 speed? 11-16-22-27-32? If I recall, a when SRAM first came out with their big chain cassette cogs in their mtb cassettes, there was a lot of discussion about how they had figured out how to do this in such a large size and there was a flex issue (or something).
I'm not referring to the 70's my friend. I'm talking about the late 80's early 90's as I've mentioned several times already. 7 and 8 speed cassettes were used at the time, not 5 speed. Check the bridgestone specs I've linked to: their gear ratios reflected the industry standard of the time.