Originally Posted by onyerleft

One of the benefits (drawbacks?) of being a long-time cyclist is watching the same mistakes getting made by each generation. It's not as if Biopace wasn't a gigantic flop, you know.

But wait! you say. Shimano used the wrong kind of oval. Or, Shimano used the right kind of oval, but it wasn't oval enough. Or, Shimano used too much oval. Or, Shimano just didn't have good engineers, and besides, everybody was stupid in the 1980's. Or, Shimano had good engineers, but they were drunk on Ovaltine.

When the latest oval craze shakes out, everybody is going to arrive at the same conclusion as in the 1980's: oval probably doesn't hurt performance, but there is no tangible benefit. And this thinking will hold, until the next generation comes around, and finds it necessary to repeat the stupidity of previous generations.