Originally Posted by Stucky

Now THAT'S a good point! I only do road biking; but the very invention of the MTB, and many of the on-going developments which relate to it, is truly an area where some useful stuff is still becoming available- such as disc brakes. And many of those developments- including the invention of the MTB itself, are indeed market-driven- i.e. cases where companies truly filled a need that existed, where consumers were demanding a product- often by making their own.

Trouble is, they [the companies] often take those developments, and foist them on the road market- like disc brakes: I never knew any roadies who were crying out for disc brakes- and while I am all for choices and options, the fact is, we will likely see disc bikes and disc wheels become the standard (it's already occupying a large segment of the new market), creating yet more incompatibility for all previous stuff- and not because people were demanding disc brakes ('cause probably only about 2% of current riders actually want them on road bikes) but because it's another "feature" they can market to noobs.



Now that's funny! I keep my computers a long time (The one I am using right now is 8 years old)- but then again, if I were a Windows or Mac user, I guess it would be obsolete. Luckily, purely mechanical devices present no such possibilities- but thanks to things like electronic shifting, I guess they've solved that "problem". (I don't use an iPad/Android/[not-so]Smartphone because I have no need nor desire for such things.)