What is the best/most major upgrade in biking over the last 20

I had a bike with indexed shifting in 1989, are you sure you've got your years right?

I'd have to go with disc brakes.

Disk brakes or 27.5/29 tire sizes.

It's hard to pick one because stopping can be nice, but having the extra size to blast through obstacles and rough terrain is also nice.

d i s k
b r a k e s

>>1058439
When did it become common though? Disc brakes are also older than 20 years.

It's a tough choice for me, dropper posts, disc brakes, air suspension, or 1x drivetrains. All are much older than 20 years but have gotten far more popular in the last 10 years or so and improved.

>>1058452
I dunno what you mean by "common". I've owned exactly one friction shift bike, and I'm not exactly a fred. I've had, if I'm counting right, 9 bikes including my current one.
>disc brakes are older than 20 years
On the other hand, I only saw discs getting common on bikes I could afford within the last 5 years or so. I don't know what disc brakes you were seeing in the 80s but I don't think I ever even saw one IRL until the 2000s.

the obvious answer is carbon belt replacing a chain.

no oil, no mess, infinite gears

>>1058437
Integrated shifters (and MTB rapidfire style shifters).

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>>1058437
dick brakes and proper suspension

>>1058456
According to Wiki Shimano introduced and promoted indexed shifting in 1985, it probably became common within a few years after that so that puts it outside the 20 year window.

As for disc brakes, Shimano first introduced them in the 70s. Disc brakes on mountain bikes have been around since the late 80s and early 90s from Hope, Formula, Mountain Cycles, AMP, and probably others. I don't think Shimano got back into the game until 2000 with the M755.

Clipless pedals.

>>1058489
Also '80s

3 speed gear hubs.
We can thank cars for that.

>>1058490
You are right, damn I can't think of anything.
Maybe the compact Geometry or use of carbon fiber?

Pinion gearbox

The 90s rigid MTB with slicks

>>1058452
>When did it become common though?
almost immediately after its introduction, prob the mid 80s. SIS--Shimano indexed Shifting--in the levers is what killed Suntour despite arguably superior derailleurs.

To say that it became widespread only after 1998 is completely retarded. I had an LX group with trigger shifters in '95, and literally every bike in the shop when I got it had indexed shifting. The bike I ride now is an '87 Miyata roadie with SIS on the downtubes, and it was considered a base model at the time.

>>1058497
you know internal hubs were popular BEFORE derailleurs were, right? People wanted lighter 'race' style bikes so internal hubs got phased out and derailleurs got put on bikes that didn't need them, we're just coming full circle back to the internal geared hubs as cycling for plebs catches on.

>>1058456
>>1058475
>>1058439
>Indexing
Yeah, Shimano rolled out indexed shifting in the mid 80's. Other companies had done indexing earlier, but it never really worked well and didn't catch on. Shimano got it right, and overnight it was THE thing to have. Basically the final nail in Suntour's coffin, after they fucked up with the MounTech and Suberbe Tech derailleurs in the early 80s.

>Discs
Different companies have been monkeying around with discs since before mountain bikes were even a thing (ever see old tandems with rear disc drag brakes?), but until recently they were only ever widely used on dedicated DH race bikes. I don't think I ever saw a mountain bike that was capable of riding up mountains as well as down with discs until the very end of the 90s. When I bought a new MTB in '05, I recall discs were finally trickling down into mid-range bikes.

Composite frame technology. Not new, but possibly the technology with the most advancement and gains.

>>1058535
>we're just coming full circle back
Bicycle industry in the nutshell.

>>1058500
Well obviously 1997 road bike is really close to modern ones, but mountain bikes have evolved massively. And biggest thing must be either properly working and light weight dosc brakes or suspension in a reasonable price ranges.

Tire technology has improved a lot. Road clincher tires have become closer to tubulars tires in performance and have much better resistance to punctures. Mountain bike tires are lighter and stronger than ever.

My second choice for improvement is mountain bike suspension design. Today's mid-level mountain bikes are far superior to the best bikes from twenty years ago.

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>>1058543
>>1058475
We wouldn't have all this confusion if MTB ski lift users just stayed on /asp/ where they belong. Downhill 'cycling' isn't /n/

For me its air suspension with lockouts. Pedal bob was fierce on every 90s, 00s MTB I owned. Dropper post and dick brakes were also game changers.

>>1058596
XC hardtail using a lift
Not gonna hate-i'd use a lift if i had the option.

>>1058596
What confusion?

>>1058543
They were around in the early to mid 90s, before DH bikes were really any different to normal mountain bikes. I think the standardised mount was even introduced before 97 so that would definitely put them outside the 20 year window (the very early stuff in the late 80s to early 90s would've mostly used proprietary mounts so was very limited in what components could be used together).

>>1058596
>We wouldn't have all this confusion if MTB ski lift users just stayed on /asp/ where they belong. Downhill 'cycling' isn't /n/

Mountain bikes (at least XC bikes) have gears for riding up hills. If you can't do that, it's your problem. I don't care for downhill mountain biking but mountain biking is transportation. Off-road means nothing. Downhill cycling is /asp/ but so is road racing, cyclocross, and all that other bullshit if you want to be pedantic.

Back to the topic.

As a commuter I do think good LED bicycle lights are the single biggest upgrade in the last 20 years. At least for me.

>>1058671
>good led bicycle lights
this

10 years ago if you wanted light bright enough to clearly see the road like a car headlight you had to have a dynamo

now, $50 on amazon gets you a light that'll charge while you're at work and produce 1000 lumens for 4 hours, more than enough to get anywhere

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>>1058439
>>1058442
>>1058446
>>1058469
I was always skeptical about how great disc brakes could be until I tried my new ride out riding up and down hills and commuting downtown in pouring rain.

Just built this rig, my first bike with disc brakes. Any of my other bikes would have left my hands aching.

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>>1058674
>10 years ago if you wanted light bright enough to clearly see the road like a car headlight you had to have a dynamo

That's completely wrong though, I was commuting on battery powered halogen lights around the turn of the century. This thread is just full of children who think that old stuff they find on craigslist is representative of what things were like back in the day.

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>>1058688
yeah look at the size of that battery!


"What is the best/most major UPGRADE in biking over the last 20 years?


also IMHO carbon has a case for being the tech most developed/upgrded

>>1058674
The fuck are you talking about.

15 years ago I was doing night MTBing with an array of halogen lights bright enough to blind. There were a plethora of different brands and models available in the Nashbar catalog; it wasn't a new thing.

Sure, you had to sacrifice a bottle cage to fit the heavy NiMH battery...

Also, old school generator lights SUCKED. Dynamo hubs are a lot better than old generators, but they're still only viable with modern LED lighting. They'd be shit if you were trying to light up an incandescent bulb or a halogen.

>>1058696
>let's just move the goalposts a bit more

I forgot to mention, I was riding the halogen lights on a carbon bike. This site is 18+

>>1058437
E-motor? I don't have an e-bike, but for commuting this must be the best thing ever.

>>1058719
Why not just get a scooter?
>>1058468
>and MTB rapidfire style shifters
I thought that's what indexed shifting was.

>>1058723
No, the 1980's are just like friction shifters, but with discrete clicks, in downtube form for road, and later thumbie form for MTB.

Rapidfire/STI levers have multiple levers and return to the original position after the shift allowing for greater ergonomics and easy usage while still having access to the brakes.

Also uniglide shifting isn't that great.

>>1058738
And also they didn't have indexed front shifting and no pins and ramps.

>>1058723
>Why not just get a scooter?

Cause it needs a license, registration, insurance, mandatory helmet, and you can't use bike paths with it.

>>1058744
psh "reasons"

I don't think it's like that here except for the bike path thing, but then again they put "no motor vehicles" on the sign which probably includes ebikes..

>>1058746
how about you educate yourself on what the sign means instead of spouting unsubstantiated bullshit?

>>1058437
>but I might have to go with indexed shifting.
Indexed shifting has been around since the early 80s.

I'd say advancements in the chemical engineering of tire compounds and better metallurgy/forging for aluminum parts in the last 20 years has had the most noticeable impact, but it's hard to deny the advancements in carbon fiber technologies for frames/components.

>>1058763
I don't even

>>1058437
Enduro bikes.

>>1058500
>compact geometry
Early 90s Giant TCR. Just barely doesn't make the 20y cutoff.
>garbon
Introduced in the 70s, believe it or not, with the Exxon Graftek.
>>1058458
Belt drive has been around for over 100 years.

Bike technology has been slowly evolving over the last 20 years, and I'm not sure that better disc brakes or 11 speed freehubs really count as great upgrades. I think that the next revolution will be KERS systems, but it will be a long time before racing organizations accept that sort of thing.

>>1058788
It's weird, but most of the advancements in carbon are due to the advancements in CAD software, kinda like how electronic shifting became much better because of advancements in software.

So maybe we could say that the biggest advancement in cycling over the last 20 years is "Solidworks"?

>>1058437
>What is the best/most major upgrade in biking over the last 20 years?
It's something more basic than anyone would even consider: Materials technology. Carbon fiber composites, better metallic alloys and better fabrication techniques with them (hydroforming, etc). The proliferation of CF composites have made the price-point for them cheaper and cheaper to the point where even an entry-level road bike can be made with them. Better aluminum alloys and fabrication techniques are yielding framesets that come close to matching CF composites in stiffness, weight, and vibration damping, at a lower cost.

>>1058792
Oh you mean sport tourers from the 70s?

>>1058723
>Why not just get a scooter?
Plate registration and fuel.

>>1058805
>It's something more basic than anyone would even consider: Materials technology
You mean like this Anon mentioned here >>1058788 ?

>>1058810
Doesn't exist in Ontario, and I was talking about an electric scooter

>>1058800
>KERS
If you think a KERS system is going to be accepted in pro cycling, you're delusional. And any halfway-decent eBike should already be doing regenerative braking.

>but most of the advancements in carbon are due to the advancements in CAD software

You... don't understand anything about FRP, do you? Perhaps if you'd said "FEA" I'd nod along a little bit, but there have been a squillion advances in carbon fiber manufacturing that are 100% disconnected from making CAD software more user friendly. ProE 2000i may have been an ugly program but you could still do beautiful surfacing with it.

>Solidworks
And then of all the CAD programs you could have mentioned, you pick the most meme-tier one that sucks donkeyballs for complex surfacing. Creo, NX, and Catia are all far better choices if you want to do smooth surfacing. And don't start on about how Solidworks has a built-in FEA solver; it's a toy that makes pretty pictures.

>>1058437

Friction shifters are still cool. Disc is overrated unless you are MTB in which case they are amazing

The truth is: Tires

Tires are way, way, way, way better. 120tpi Schwalbe Ones, Conti GPX12900000luxury edition whatevers. Tires are amazing now

I've heard some people say that roadie tires were narrow in the past because 21c was actually faster than 25c, simply because tires sucked ass and had low TPI back then

>>1058844
>I've heard some people say that roadie tires were narrow in the past because 21c was actually faster than 25c, simply because tires sucked ass and had low TPI back then
That's bullshit. They've had tubulars with casings superior to modern day ones since forever. Modern clinchers are gaining parity with classic tubulars. They're not radically better. Modern clinchers are better than vintage clinchers, but even then you still had high TPI clinchers 20 years ago. It's more like 50 years ago, they didn't have high end clinchers.

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there haven't been any meaningful changes to the modern bicycle in the last 80 or so years

>>1058844
t. fair weather fred

>>1058685
What is wrong with your front fender

>GERMAN CYCLISTS
thanks captcha

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Big tires.

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>>1058939

MIPS in helmets. A MIPS helmet saved my life two years ago.

>>1058948
>MIPS
https://youtu.be/T2nvy_qsZlA

What yellow dot? He was off camera when he was explaining.

>>1058437
Tubeless tires (no, I don't mean sew-ups)

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>>1058914
Yes,the nexus 3

The proliferation of bike frame designs.

Up until the late 70s we only had road bikes for the tryhards and basic utility/commuter bikes for everyone else. Mountain bikes came around in the last 70s which changed things a bit, but there was a hard road/MTB divide.

We started to see some crossover designs in the late 80s. The bridgestone MB-1 and XO-1 are good examples of blending road and MTB designs.

Today hybrid designs are common for new riders and commuters. Serious riders can have 1 bike for all terrain year round. Major brands offer frames with varying levels of relaxed/aggressive geometry. Numerous snowflake designs are offered by dozens of brands.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the star nut and threadless headsets. They are on the cusp being that they popularized in the mid 90s. They make forks massively interchangeable and maintenance possible outside the shop.

Another thought, the sram power link. No tools required, you can remove a chain without damaging links and repair links on the roadside.

The great innovation that accompanied shimanos indexing in the mid 80s was the sis cable housing.

>>1060045
>>
>Another thought, the sram power link. No tools required, you can remove a chain without damaging links and repair links on the roadside.

How the fuck do you take it off without destroying it?

Nexus 7!
Best thing that ever happened to internal gearing.

>>1060060
>How the fuck do you take it off without destroying it?
you just squeeze it together and push it in

>>1059172
>The bridgestone MB-1 and XO-1
No, they're really meme bikes.

>>1060747
>you just squeeze it together
With what?

>>1060749
The correct tool, pliers, or if it's loose enough and you don't have bitch strength you can use your hands.

>>1060750
So you need to bring pliers instead of a chainlink tool. Awesome. Plus, what is even the point? If your chain gets damaged you need to push out the damaged chainlink with a tool anyway before you fix it with a power link. Now you need 2 tools instead of just carrying a pin in your wallet.

>>1060751
I wasn't the guy saying they were great for roadside repairs, I don't think I've even ever broken a chain. For me the good thing about them is they make it quicker and easier to split the chain when I'm working on the bike and they're resuable, compared to Shimano's single use pins.

Also, you don't need a tool to connect one, so it can be quicker to pop one in that to put in a new pin with a breaker, handy if you're racing.

>>1060745
yes!

My townbike is about the fall apart after 20 years of abuse, but the nexus7 still works flawlessly.

Fat bikes and/or e-bikes. Both are entirely new categories of bike which are still in their infancies and it remains to be seen what the heck changes because of them. They only became commercially viable in the last 20 years or so.

It took a long ass time for MTBs to go from their basic early hardtails to basic suspensions to what exists now. Similar story with BMX.

>>1061232
Recumbents too, forgot to mention

>>1061232
>fat bikes
Awful cancer, already the fad is ending
>e-bikes
These aren't bikes, they are electric motorcycles
>>1061233
>bents
Acceptable

>>1061237
all 3 are memetier but they can still contribute to the overall improvement of bike tech due to the different purposes each is suited for

>>1058948
How do I know if I have a MIPS helmet?

>>1061312
They have a yellow shell between your head and the helmet, and they'd almost certainly say so somewhere.

lol fat bikes cuz muh memes

>>1061232
>e-bikes
This is a thread about cycling, not about motorcycles. Fuck off. You are literally just a cageless cager you fat lazy fuckass.
>>1061312
They have an icon on the helmet, it's a yellow circle with the word 'MIPS' in black text.
>>1061443
The 'shell' isn't necessarily yellow, my MIPS helmet is transparent clear plastic. But yeah they have a plastic layer, that's what MIPS is.