Flip Flop Rider

didn't read replies, but a bike is a bike and the basics have not changed much. you got your wheels, your chain, your cables

don't see that changing much

Lazyass

I did?

tyrion

SRAM will try to promote their new 1x37 road drivetrain but old school racers will be sticking with their tried and true 2x25 drivetrains. Old school tourers will be sticking with their clunky 3x18 drivetrains.

rollagain

Here in the U.S., the baby-boomers will mostly have died off and the younger population will be looking with disdain at anything electrically-assisted, especially trikes. They'll recycle all that old heavy motorized junk and return to 100% muscle power and two wheels, just like the rest of the world had always been using while we went battery-crazy.

Doctor Morbius

True, but they'll be doing it with a tremendous amount of fashion sense.

Kapusta

We will have hydraulic dropper posts that don’t crap out in a year.

Happy Feet

Lightweight materials, IGH, electronic shifting, belt drive, hub generated lights, no exposed cables, airless tires. If you could also internalized the braking into the hubs it would be the cleanest most functional design I can think of. Basically a bike with all the bells and whistles that looks like a SS.

Wheever

Trust me, no one will long for dick breaks. No matter how you parse it, it sounds painful!

Duo

1 year?

an accelerated Planned Obsolescence i suppose; could be Good for us i spose. way too many Luddites tend to ride steel bicycles anyway. this seems to be bad for the industry and dos not finance the next Big Thing.

what can be done to overcome this impediment to progress?

_ForceD_

I concur with the others who've suggest that steel will still/again be popular...in a "what goes around comes around" way. I'm also thinking that someone will eventually perfect the plastic bicycle...i.e. a bike that is made mostly...if not completely out of recycled beverage bottles (less things like brake/shift cables, spokes, etc.). And I'm thinking the advances quite possibly may lead to a real, functional lightweight machine...not like the heavyweights discussed here: https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/why...practical.html

Dan

berner

"Making predictions is tough - especially about the future"
Yogi Berra

Gresp15C

How could bikes be improved? What if cycling got popular enough that there was an incentive for the likes of WalMart to begin competing on the basis of quality? What's wrong with those bikes today? I think the main problem is that all bikes, including good ones, are designed and manufactured with the expectation that they will be assembled, adjusted, and possibly repaired before they can be put into service. That was the level of quality achieved by the Ford Model T. It means that when the bike reaches the consumer, there's an uncontrolled production step leading to highly variable quality.

Can the manufacturing process be improved so that things like bearing lubrication and adjustment, and spoke tension, are assured even on cheap bikes? Could brakes and gears be designed so they require no adjustment, without making them more expensive, or too heavy? Could those parts just snap together? Are evidence-based design improvements possible for safety gear such as helmets?

fietsbob

Post Nuclear War over limited resources, all will be radioactive ..

Gyro

They'll all have motors and be called scoots.

rydabent

Mountain bikes and recumbents will continue to evolve. But because of the stiff neck old fools at the UCI racing bikes not so much.

MikeyMK

2037 is only as far away as 1997, and in 1997 we had full suspension aluminium bikes with 2/3x9 gears, double wall rims, sealed bearing hubs and hydraulic disc brakes.

Cheap bikes are literally identical, with steel hubs, square taper crank, quill stem..

But generally i just see refinements. Clever design has saved as much weight as materials, and as per the norm, latest examples will trickle down to common, mass produced, lower budget bikes.

The world of technology evolves by resource, research and development, so where's this going in the next 20yrs..? Well i think it's as like ly to slow down, as speed up. More people now have cars, there were fewer per household than 20yrs ago. Plus kids/teens don't go out on bikes like they did then, thanks to the entertainment world.
Things are getting worse for cycling's big incomes.

So whilst we have automatic hub gearboxes with belt drive, carbon ceramic brake discs, electric pedal assist with cruise control and regenerative braking, etc.. I wouldn't be too quick to wave goodbye to the humble, largely steel 18-speed budget bike - it'll be just the same in 20yrs as it was 20yrs ago.

twodownzero

Bikes in 2037 will still have chain drives and derailleurs if for no other reason than geared transmissions are not as efficient and human beings won't be any more powerful in 2037 than they are now.

Bike shaped objects will still be junk.

kcblair

Automatic electronic shifting. Press hard on peddles, auto shifts, ease up, auto shift. It will be standard, just like on cars. KB.

Folsomjack

Shop rate will be $ 495 an hour because no one can fix or repair any thing made after 2000. Pre 2000 models will be cherished and used by a diminishing population segment because ever-one else will be using both thumbs at all times. Could be a resurgance of uni-cycles

flik9999

automatic shifting, electric bikes will be the usual. Speeds of about 30 MPH, extreme range of these ebike as well like not 100 miles if you carry 2 or 3 big batteries but like 200 mph off a battery the size of an iphone.

Unpowered bikes will become a thing just for athletes and sport.

BlazingPedals

...at least, it will still rhyme.

Dahon.Steve

In 20 years from now, the fixed gear community will still be around but only stronger! LOL.

MrInitialMan

Perhaps velos will become more popular as well.

hay

velo will be hunted like vermin because no brakes.

PdalPowr

Well let's see.
What is one of the components we talk about the most,the tires.
I would think we would have developed tires that not only acceptably
repaired their flats but also their tread.

Onboard cameras are a given.
What about a pro-active avoidance system that activates the brakes of a car that is about to hit us.
Spokeless wheels is another given but one some of us would find hard to give up.
Admit it,the flash of spokes in the sunlight turns you on.

What about a gearless transmission that has an infinite range of positions.
No more clunky noises when we miss a shift. Pedalling uphill would become
almost as easy as downhill.

And finally an auto-piloted butler bike following behind with hot towels,
coffee and all the repair parts you could possibly need.
The butler bike would also throw itself under the wheels of a car about to hit you.
All the while making noises like elephants in heat.