Originally Posted by
ksryder
... I'm always amused by the amount of things people on bicycle forums attribute to some evil nefarious conspiracy by bicycle marketing types.
Integrated shifters are just a ploy by marketing to get you to buy shifters! Padded shorts are just a ploy by marketing to get you to buy shorts! Any cassette more than 7 speeds is just a ploy by marketing! Carbon fiber frames are just a ploy by marketing!
Marketing responds to to consumers, it doesn't create them. The reason everyone rides carbon fiber frames with 11-speed drivetrains and wears bib shorts with chamois is because THEY WORK. (I ride a steel road bike but I digress.)
It's not marketing. I've ridden thousands of miles on 8-speed with downtube shifters and 10 and 11-speed integrated shifters are an obvious improvement to everyone but the most intractable retrogrouch. And disc brakes are, objectively, a massive improvement over rim brakes and the only reason I still have rim brakes is because I'm not ready to get a new frame at the moment.
I agree in principle, but not in detail.
Of course marketers will do their marketing, but to think it's
all "emperor's new clothes" is ones own bad faith.
Meanwhile, I've gotten a bike with disc brakes (because that's how CX bikes come these days) and I've yet to notice a meaningful improvement over quality rim brakes on alu rims. Not that I doubt others can appreciate a difference, just that it's another one of those things.... Maybe I'm not good enough for them.