Originally Posted by
Dave Mayer
Progress. Right. I'm still waiting for that must-have technology of 1992: front suspension forks for road bikes. What I really want is a hover-bike, like I was promised in Popular Science in 1938. Or a poly-metal bike like the bad guy in Terminator 2. It morphs into different shapes depending on your needs. It would start out with disk brakes and then it would morph into a bike with rim brakes. Because who needs disks?
Change won't be welcomed by everyone but with out it no progress will be made. We could be two guys arguing in the 1870's about if the new safety bike will ever make a good bike. (Hi Wheelers were made of the latest metal alloys to make them light and fast. They cost as much as an average man made in six months and were mostly owned by athletic men of means. The sport of cycling was born in this time because hi wheelers were was first means of covering the rough roads of the time at speed. It must have been exhilarating.)
The safety bike was the bike of the masses and was heavy and uncomfortable before the invention of the phenumatic tire. It would also be sometime before wages and metallurgy brought back the fun of riding that we enjoy today.
Some of those hi wheel riders did live to ride in magic vehicles known as cars. Which is sort of like your hovercraft analogy.
I think that the exciting possibilities of change directly related to disc brake technology is the ability to remake the wheel to ligbten rotating mass.