What's been a backwards step in technology for you?

[Ming the Merciless]

I use Campagnolo Ergopower on the bike in question. The change from bigger sprockets/rings to smaller uses a thumb movement on a small lever on the inner edge of the shifter. An inner lever shifts the other way and changing by one gear is a short click on the lever. Multiple single clicks or one longer movement can be used to shift multiple gears in either direction.

I have Shimano Tiagra on my CX bike and I don't like the STI action as much as Ergopower's method, but I still prefer it to the down-tube shifters that I used 30+ years ago!

You should try modern ones. Superb execution.

 

[Black Sheep]

Not just that the shifting is far quicker, slicker and precise on the bar ends .

bar ends, cor that's posh.

I used to change gear with my knee on the downtime shifter, I'd actually got it pretty much perfect when sprinting away from a set of lights to just lean forward a bit more and catch the lever and knock it forwards.

Changing down the gears was a lot more hit and miss.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Remember the good old days when you got a puncture in the car, you swapped the spare wheel over and off you went? On the way you'd see a tyre repair place, pop in, get the puncture fixed then you were sorted?

Sigh. Set off for Inverurie this morning. Damn, rear n/s flat. Up on the jack, pop the skinny "runaround" tyre on and go to the tyre place nearby.

"Can you fix my puncture?"
"Can't see you until Thursday"
"But it's a VW Fleet car, I'm supposed to have priority"
"Thursday"

Buggrit.

Head to another company nearby.
"Can you fix my puncture?"
"Yes, we can sort it about 11"
"It's a VW Fleet car"
"Ah, we don't touch them, sorry"
"It's ok, I'll pay cash"
"Sorry, no"

Head to another company nearby

"Can you fix my puncture?"
"Yes, no problem. Is it your car?"
"Er, ye-es"
"OK, I'll just pop the registration in the compu... ah ... it's a VW Fleet car, we don't do them"

Head to VW Dealership

"Can you fix my puncture?"
"No, go to a tyre company"

There's no way I'm driving nearly 200 miles at 50mph on one of those skinny tyres so I've finally managed to get booked into a garage that will fix my VW Fleet car at 3pm - 40 miles away in the wrong direction

Oh and only if it's a puncture repair. It's a 24hr wait if they need to get a new tyre in

 

[Nigeyy]

Following on from this.... microwaves and cookers that have a plethora of options ("defrost regular", "defrost maximum", "defrost latte", "air heat", "super convection", "max security" etc, etc). Of course the switches go wrong.

I don't think I've ever used any other settings than on, off, time for a microwave and on, off, set temperature for an oven. Why did all this come about? Were domestic engineers crying out and pleading for all these features and the manufacturers responded? While I don't mind the added functionality for those who want to "air fry" their food, I do think its a step backwards effectively forcing all these different modes and resultant reliability issues on those who just want to turn it on and use it.

The oven light bulb blows.
I switch the power off, replace the bulb, turn the power back on, light still doesn't work. Turn power off, remove bulb, confirm it works, replace it, turn power on, light still doesn't work. Repeat several times. Eventually read the manual, nothing works until the clock is set. FFS.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Electric mirrors on cars. It is the simplest thing in the world to move a mechanical lever to adjust the mirror, why complicate it with a load of expensive electrics that are no better of faster?

Particularly as most cars are only ever driven by one person and the mirrors are untouched after day one.

 

[Nigeyy]

At least over here in most toilets they have an electronic hand sensor to feed out a paper towel.... Of course you get people flapping their hands frantically in front of it as the sensor ignores them because well, invariably they stop working. It does nicely remove the huuuuge effort involved in grabbing a paper towel though (uh.. wait, I still have to do that don't I?)

What exactly was wrong with having a box that held paper towels that each time you grabbed the last one hanging another one would take its place? No electronics, no moving parts. Now you have not only electronics but also moving parts! I call this a step backwards in technology.

When I see one of the hand sensor things I can't help but wonder about all the resources that went into to making that non-recyclable electronics chip board as well as -granted it doesn't take much energy to run one but put them all together -the energy wastage.

 

[ColinJ]

Following on from this.... microwaves and cookers that have a plethora of options ("defrost regular", "defrost maximum", "defrost latte", "air heat", "super convection", "max security" etc, etc). Of course the switches go wrong.

I don't think I've ever used any other settings than on, off, time for a microwave and on, off, set temperature for an oven. Why did all this come about? Were domestic engineers crying out and pleading for all these features and the manufacturers responded? While I don't mind the added functionality for those who want to "air fry" their food, I do think its a step backwards effectively forcing all these different modes and resultant reliability issues on those who just want to turn it on and use it.

I agree 100%. I really couldn't be bothered to RTFM for my super-microwave oven. It has about 30 different complex programs but I only ever use the special mode for baking potatoes, or quickly defrosting/heating stuff using the standard microwave mode.

 

[Nigeyy]

I had to laugh -I bet we are not alone!

I agree 100%. I really couldn't be bothered to RTFM for my super-microwave oven. It has about 30 different complex programs but I only ever use the special mode for baking potatoes, or quickly defrosting/heating stuff using the standard microwave mode.