Originally Posted by seeker333

Pre-Worry is the driving force behind most bicycle industry sales. They need a constant feed of Pre-Worry so that they may devise extravagant, expensive, lucrative solutions to problem that exist only at the 2nd or 3rd Standard Deviation...the 5% who may actually need thru axles, hydraulic brakes, 4" tires, 44mm headtubes, DI2 shifting, etc etc.



Yes, bearing life was the issue. Shimano changed their rear hub std 10mm steel to a 12mm Al axle and downsized the 1/4" balls/cups/cones to 3/16" (front hub parts). You get a lighter, stiffer axle, but smaller bearings do roll with more friction, usually resulting in shorter bearing/cup/cone/hub/wheel life. This is unlikely to help the average tourist, more likely to hurt.