Technical Progress in Road Bikes

[fossyant]

I googled 1993 groupset and down tube levers were speced?!🤔🤔🤔

Durace perhaps but job blogs 105 maybe not??

Dura Ace 7400 got STI.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

You can have a whole new carbon roadbike with hydraulic SRAM Force (Ultegra level) for £1600 as an example if looking for decent vfm
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXPCDFOR22/planet-x-pro-carbon-disc-sram-force-22-road-bike

Bloody hell, that is a bargain.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Bloody hell, that is a bargain.

Was thinking the same ... isn't that a £1k + groupo??

 

[wafter]

I see where you're going and I don't entirely disagree. But I do think (hope) that quality mechanical shifting will be available for the foreseeable. It just won't called 105. So people who want a mechanical groupset called 105 will be out of luck. Shimano are hoping that the lure of the 105 brand name will pull some people up a price bracket.

As for brakes, I can see rim brakes getting muscled out. My bike has rim brakes so how will this affect me? Well, I think my brake calipers will probably last until the sun explodes, so it's a question of whether there will be a continued supply of rims with brake tracks, brake pads and cables for me. I'm not panicking just yet.

Nothing against discs btw. If I was buying a bike now I'd probably go for disc brakes. But I'm not, and I probably won't be until my current bike gets nicked or the frame breaks.

Indeed, I don't expect mech to disappear overnight / completely (although give it long enough and who knows..?), but can see it being pushed further and further down the pecking order until the only stuff available is of "keep it going on the cheap" quality as @ presta suggests.

If enough people follow a new fashion, the old one either goes obsolete because there isn't a big enough market to make them economical any more, or they become an expensive minority product only available in a few specialist shops, or they get relegated to the low quality, cheap & cheerful end of the market.

I think with bikes we're fairly lucky to have viable spares stretching back to standards that died for the most part decades ago - five-speed freehubs or tyres for 27" wheels for example.. probably a reflection of ongoing demand from emerging markets with old standards as much as anything else. Very little could be considered anything other than "utility grade" though.


As for the introduction of STIs, the wikipedia page on Shimano is pretty authoritive. STIs became a thing in 1990 with DA 7400, Ultegra 6402 got them in 1992 then I think 105SC followed in 1993. That was the whole lineup until Tiagra 4400 was introduced in 2001, Sora 3300 in 2002 and Claris in 2003 - all of which had STIs from the off.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Really ? I much prefer being able to change gear and still hold onto the bars. I don't see any benefits of down tube shifters.

Who said anything about down tube? I hold my bars and change gear. But even if down tube, plenty of advantages.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Dura Ace 7400 got STI.

I've still git a copy of "Bicycling" magazine dated October 1991. They had a road test on the then new Chorus Ergo Power groupset. Record brifters had come out a year earlier.

I've used nothing else since they came out in the Veloce range a year or two later and I've been clipless since the eighties. Each to his own, but I think downtube shifters are crap despite spending my entire racing career using them.

 

[Juan Kog]

Really ? I much prefer being able to change gear and still hold onto the bars. I don't see any benefits of down tube shifters.

I will definitely be keeping down tube levers on my touring bike . Less vulnerable to damage in a fall , Easy to switch to friction if rear derailleur becomes misaligned . Simple to change cable on the road.
I know I’m a pessimist.

 

[cougie uk]

Who said anything about down tube? I hold my bars and change gear. But even if down tube, plenty of advantages.

Bar end ? Don't you bang your knees on them ?

 

[cougie uk]

I will definitely be keeping down tube levers on my touring bike . Less vulnerable to damage in a fall , Easy to switch to friction if rear derailleur becomes misaligned . Simple to change cable on the road.
I know I’m a pessimist.

In 30 odd years I've not broken a shifter so I think I'll carry on like that. 👍

 

[Grant Fondo]

I forgot about downtube shifters, but definitely had these at one point.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Bar end ? Don't you bang your knees on them ?

No, the bars are wider than my knee motion

 

[Juan Kog]

In 30 odd years I've not broken a shifter so I think I'll carry on like that. 👍

I’m a late adopter of STI levers , but in 20 years I’ve never had a problem that prevented me cycling home . But being a glass empty not even half full kind of guy , I’ll stick with D/T levers on my tourer . After all they go with the Brooks saddle and Carradice cotton duck bags .

 

[Dogtrousers]

No, the bars are wider than my knee motion

Does it matter, given that you are lying down and your knees are ... wherever a recumbentist's knees are.

 

[Ian H]

Bikes are much better

1993 would have down tube shifters clipped pedals quill stem, 32h wheels steel frames

From 2003
We have sti, SPD/look, aheadset, 16/24h aero rims, carbon frames etc.

Chalk and cheese

Still like my retro steel bikes though on a warm summers evening...

For touring I'd definitely prefer the former.

 

[mustang1]

As a side note is anyone shocked at how expensive Shimano 105 Di2 is?

I am not shocked for several reasons:
1. I dont get shocked easily.
2. £1700 is retail price ao street price will be lower soon enough.
3. I would only buy a new bike with 105 Di2 so the bike company will realise the bulk saving.
4. Everything goes ludicrously up in price over the years.
5. It goes up even more ludicrously over the covid period.
Ho hum, what can we do.