The Real Bicycle Advances
 

An engineer leaks how marketing works in the bike industry.

And then they invented thru axles. :lol:

I actually really dig thru-axles. Some stuff is marketing garbage and some "standards" are not really and are crap but thru-axles, well I like thru-axles.

Omg!

It's not even winter yet.

That guy sounds like a donkey caught in a bear trap. I couldn't make it more than 30 seconds.

I just turned the sound off. It's hilarious and probably true.

Unfortunately what he is joking about is all too true.

If he was so successful, how come he can't afford to go to a dentist?

Its a parody.

What's so funny is that everyone is taking it seriously.


-Tim-

i loved it.... lots of resonance for me.

This type of stand up comedy is what's needed at the next "Interbike" in Reno.

Next, would be the accessories and clothing especially those skin suits and the whole thing about the obsessive and compulsive tri guys.

"I got a new bike and wheelset for only 8k! And it's faster!"
"How much faster?"
"2 and a half minutes over 112 miles!"
"You spent 8k to go 2 minutes faster on a 9-16 hour race?"
"2 and a half minutes."

The tri guy's reply? The next leg will be the full marathon and that 2.5 minutes is now a big deal. Maybe not in cycling terms but in runner's terms, definitely yes.

That was awesome haha. I remember the first time I started pedaling a 29er. I was asking myself how so many people were fooled with that marketing BS. Those bikes handle like crap. "oh you're 15% faster". Well, no, you're not. And then they're going to design and build bikes for a wheel only one and one half inches larger than a 26? Like... why? Manufactures are laughing all the way to the bank.

OTOH dont forget there have been real advances such as click shifting and disc brakes. Then of course there have been big advances since the 1890 safety bikes such as bents and trikes. Now you can get a bike or trike that is prime for the ride type at hand.

Oh, and for some suspension probably should be added to the list.

Love these overdub parodies. And like a good lie, really good humor always has an element of truth in it :) .

Keith

I love the smell of good marketing when the technology actually advances. I look at a few of my older bikes (with caliper or cantilever brakes), one with down tube shifters and the other two with bar ends, and I see obsolete technology that isn't fun anymore. I also see cultists who reject technology advances the way I resisted leaving toe clips and straps to go to platform pedals. Somehow there's a cult that rejects gear changing of any kind, and claims Single Speed makes them stronger, better cyclists. Well, maybe it does (my knees disagree) but to each his own, eh? All I know is that if new technology means another reason to buy a bike, I'm in favor of it. I just have to figure out how to get rid of the old ones.

That guy isn't really a bicycle engineer, he's an Apple hardware engineer.

just give me your old cantilevered barend shifter bikes. i have ridden all the brifter disc bikes i want.

Actually, I got rid of the brifters, too. I converted the gearing to mtb products and traded out the drop handlebars for trekking handlebars, with mtb levers and shifters.

That seems like a reasonable advance for off-road, but they are putting all this disk brake and oversized axles and oversized seat posts and handlebars because the other carbon stuff was breaking. And disk brakes on street bikes are rediculous. They give you a great deal less leverage so they give you far more pad pressure to achieve the wearing out of pads as fast as possible.

Not to nit pick but you can't really say: "to each their own" and then call someone who chooses a different viewpoint a cultist.

Not sure about that reasoning. High leverage or low leverage, you're going to apply the appropriate amount of pad pressure, once you've sussed out the feel of the braking system on any bike, and that should be obvious the first time you use the brakes.

Being a member of a cult isn't necessarily a bad thing. Fwiw, I made a similar comment on another forum and a dedicated Single Speed enthusiast agreed that SS is something of a cult. He wasn't offended, nor did I intend such.