Originally Posted by cale

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.

Originally Posted by hueyhoolihan

i whole heartily agree.

i'm just wondering when the fully electric drive will come out with a variable resistance recharging device to mimic, as closely as one wants, present day power/speed requirements. everything will be taken into consideration. rider weight, road conditions, elevation, inclination, etc, etc. it will essentially be one of those fancy workout spas cycling machines, but can actually move. you should be able to set it to a particular RPM and difficulty and the speed will be adjusted automatically. speed can be reduced by any amount necessary to keep the battery charged. no derailleurs, no cogs. no chain. no shifters. just a button or two. there will still be a crank though.