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the minidisc of gears
I don't know why people always slate MDs. They were much better than CDs and held back by the music industry. They also came out before most think they did (early '90s) and until the iPod in the early '00s mp3s were actually pretty shit and tended not to be a great deal smaller for the tracks they could hold. IMO 10yrs is actually a decent amount of time for tech to stay around for nowadays.
IMO a better eg is blueray DVDs / similar which barely anyone but the manufactures want and will have been made redundant much faster than MDs ever were.
/rant over
hugo7-
I wasn't using MD's as a example of poor tech, quite the contrary! My mother works in radio production, and her company was quick to move to Minidiscs. I spent most of my childhood with a minidisc player.
Minidiscs, a lot like wired electronics, represents a great leap above the respective industry standards they superseded. Lighter, less prone to breaking, more consistent and easier to use. They're were both adopted quickly and with praise by individual users and larger companies. However, they were still hindered by the many of the problems of the previous models (skipping / wires), as well as introducing their own (increased storage & fragility / junction boxes attached to a stem. come on, what kind of ridiculous afterthought was that?).
Minidisc, much like Di2 and EPS, was a great improvement, and a necessary stepping stone in technology and development. But you'd have to search pretty hard to find an individual or a company who relies on minidisc rather than digital storage now. I get the impression that in 7-10 years time, as Shimano and Campy move to wireless shifting and it trickles down to the affordable groups, you'll be similarly hard pressed to find someone who would prefer wires.
That's why I can't really enthuse about buying a CAAD10 with 10 speed Di2 and 19mm wheels. It's already been superseded by 11-Speed, and with the advent of SRAM wireless on the horizon, I don't really see much point in investing. That would be like someone seeing a iPod and saying '1000 songs? no thanks, I'd prefer to cart a backpack of minidiscs about'.
MechaMorgan
Caad10 would make a fantastic winter bike. Pity the wheels aren't wide, the group is 10 speed and I think wired electronic shifting is the minidisc of gears, but it's still tempting.