Technological development = scraping perfectly fine frames?

The other day I was looking for some new spares at decent prices, mid range. In general at shimano hubs.
The research got me a bit thinking, as it seemed that it becomes more difficult to find hubs with QR/6 bolt disks to fit the 100/135mm standards. Looking at through axels I struggled to find decent hubs to fit in those dimensions to use them with adaptors. This made me wonder if a perfectly good, 4 years old, steel frame, for which you take care, might be obsolete in a year time because of that?

Personally I am not a fan of 2nd hand stuff when it come to wear prone moving parts and I am a bit worried due of the aspect highlighted above.

What is your take on this? Are you stocking on parts to run your bikes for as long as possible?

Yeah thats why the 'bike for life' thing is BS. Know someone who got an enigma titanium disc road bike with QR/post mount the year before flat mount/142 thru axles came out. good luck sourcing new (decent) wheels in five years time.

environmentally it's a joke for sure but it's planned obsolescence like any industry. just wait till we see boost axles on road bikes

boost axles on road bikes

and full suspension.

All my road bikes have rim brakes, 130mm QR rear wheels, BSA BB and 23mmm tyres.

Ignorance is bliss, but I'm also a bit of a luddite. Funnily enough I don't live near 20 minute multi-hairpin descents and I do most of my training on routes out of town with little/no stopping - I don't feel I need disc brakes.

Didn,t know too much about boost untill today. That will be pretty crazy together with Trasher's thought. :)

I use my bike more for adverture/comute/touring. Not into racing or trying to beat my times, but more of exploring and discovering the surounding and seeing new stuff off the beatten path.

@Pifko 130mm QRs are easily available for you at a decent quality? Meaning to be able to deal with the odd pothole or curb with out damaging it completly?

Disagree. Yeah, it's annoying when standards change, but you can still buy 7s screw on freewheels and brake pads for mafac racers.

The mid range stuff will become harder to find because it's only profitable in serious volume It won't disappear but fewer outlets will stock it. You'll still be able to get low end and 'boutique' 6 bolt / qr hubs in five years time.

FWIW the industry thinks you should have a new bike every 4 years or so, in MTB land that's every 1 or 2.

Are you stocking on parts to run your bikes for as long as possible?

I did this for a bit, hoarding chains and cassettes but there's no guarantee you'll ride as much tomorrow as you did today, or you'll even want to ride. Plus Marie Kondo offers a great maxim (paraphrased) 'store the stuff you need tomorrow where it should be stored - on the shelf, in a shop and not cluttering up your life and feeding your magpie habit'.

I wondered where the reference was to scraping frames but I think you mean scrapping...
I'm still riding my MTBs with 26 and 650b wheels

@Pifko 130mm QRs are easily available for you at a decent quality? Meaning to be able to deal with the odd pothole or curb with out damaging it completly?

I've had great experience with Shimano. I've had a pair of RS10 for the past 10 years, initially came on my CAAD10, and then moved to my commuter/winter bike, and now my turbo rear wheel. Still true, rim wall still going strong and cup and cone bearing hubs mean they're maintainable for as long as you can get ball bearings. I have another Shimano wheelset (RS81 C50), of which mirrors the above. If I was looking for VFM and durability I'd get another pair of Shimano wheels to be honest.

About the ball bearing. Having the curiosity of looking in more details at a BB I got replaced a year ago I had a thought of using at one point a cup and cone BB for the reasons you mentioned as it is closer to my philosphy of trying to mend things and minimal full replacement.

I think my point is I would like a mid range as it would give me a good balance between quality and price. With a low end I would be a bit worried of not getting me home while the boutique ones might be too expensive.

About hoarding I guss is a good point.

@MTB-Idle. Point taken. English not quite my 1st language.

23mmm

nice

for mid-range hubs, there's Hope RS4 and DT Swiss 240s . Both of those have replaceable end caps so you should be able use with QR and then, if the hubs last longer than the frame, they should be convertible to the new frame.

Hah, these are what I would term as Boutique!

Yeah £250 for a hub ain't fucking 'mid-range'.

It's interesting that, despite having 3 road(ish) bikes, I don't actually know what the standards are that you're referring to. I'm still running QRs and rim brakes (2 x 10 Campag is as modern as I have), and I don't anticipate any problems finding spares (even for the really old stuff). This sounds like a fairly standard instance of the most recent technologies, which trickle down from high-performance applications, running the risk of not ending up as the de-facto standard. If you always buy the tech that's very "now" you risk it becoming very "then".

Yeah, you are right 240s are expensive. DT 350 or Hope RS4 are "only" about 120 for a rear though.
Although I say that as someone who spent £30 on his last (front) hub.

I traveled to Australia last year and worked in a bike shop for a few months.

We had customers coming in wanting to swap their 'old' bike in for something newer. 2020 bikes had just come out and some of the bikes were only 2 years old.

Most of the guys wanted the 'new, faster' model, but didn't bother checking their tyre pressures unless they've got a flat (seriously, someone running 60mm Zipp wheels was running 50psi). Kinda made me realize it was never about performance, more about the justification for a new toy.

I guess it goes both ways as there's guys spending £10k on road bike and people chime in "yOu DoN't NeEd To SpEnD tHaT mUcH mOnEy UnLeSs YoU aRe RaCiNg" but then I thought (if I had the money) I'd drop £10k on a bike that I really want with 0 intention of ever taking it racing, just because simply 'wanted' a bike that nice (Colnago C64 btw).

Kinda annoys me because most of the bikes just needed a full service. With just about any bike you can get it to ride brand new just by putting on new hoods, new tape, inner + outer cables and giving it a clean. I feel it's the 'feel' of a new bike people like.

High-end kit is obviously worth it if you're in the top 1% of racers who are fighting for that extra second or so, but for 99% of people I feel a 'decent' road bike, that fits, will be quick enough.

I currently run a beautiful 1994 Colnago with 10sp Campagnolo on it and I'm really happy.

I also own a TIME carbon bike with 10 speed record on it, and it honestly rides as nice as anything you can buy for around £4k. I paid £500 for it because it's from 2009.

68mm BB, 27.2 post, 1 1/8th steerer and QR wheels on rim brakes is what I love, I'll be sticking with it for a good while!

I guess the hobby we love so much has always had incremental advancements in technology, but it's just getting a bit of a joke with how often kit is becoming obsolete.

JamesNQ, you are essentially a man after my own heart: a different generation, yes, but basically the same thoughts.

I made a decision in the '90's that I would not modernise my kit. I was already past my prime even as a vet, so this was hardly going damage my 'career'. In the past couple of decades I have made a modest effort to ensure that I would not run out of expendable kit: for example by collecting screw on blocks and TA chain rings. This has, for really quite a modest expenditure , worked quite well so far, and in fact I now fear I won't nearly have enough time to wear out the equipment I have.

I really cannot understand why non racing cyclists think it's important to update their bikes - I can only imagine they are victims of advertising. The idea that some new piece of kit will enable you to compete with the strongest riders would forgiveable in a fourteen year old, but what can one think of an adult who believes this sort of rubbish?

So far as obsolesence is concerned, I'd just like to mention (again) here that the five pin chain ring fitting which I favour was, I believe, originally introduced by BSA in 1904, but was still available in TA and Stronglight into the 1980's. I have a (probably) pre-war BSA crank mated to a TA Cyclotouriste chainring which works perfectly in....2020!

I suspect that a lot of the silly ideas which JamesNQ complains of are caused by the failure of these riders to take part in actual bike racing, especially road racing. The experience of being in a fast moving bunch, and still more being in a break soon demonstrates that 'it's not about the bike'.

I suspect that a lot of the silly ideas which JamesNQ complains of are caused by the failure of these riders to take part in actual bike racing, especially road racing. The experience of being in a fast moving bunch, and still more being in a break soon demonstrates that 'it's not about the bike'.

I'm not sure the modern brand of bike racers are immune from periodic upgrade syndrome from what I've observed...

Yes, I'm sure you're right - racing certainly doesn't give everyone immunity - but the realisation that you're never going to out sprint or out climb certain individuals, or do a 45 minute 25 without the aid of mechanical doping is a bit of a dampener to lavish spending.

Also, you might have thought that old age would bring immunity but I'm afraid there are some cases where it does not.

Another question: would anyone be brave enough (financially) to ride a fourth cat. race at Hillingdon on a £10,000 bike ?

I admit that there are exceptions, but my basic thought is that participating in actual racing brings realism.

Another question: would anyone be brave enough (financially) to ride a fourth cat. race at Hillingdon on a £10,000 bike ?

I haven't been for eight years, but wouldn't surprise me if there were £10k bikes in the 4th cat.

I really cannot understand why non racing cyclists think it's important to update their bikes...

If you count kom hunting on Strava as racing (which I’m sure the kom hunters do) then how many ‘non racing cyclists’ are there actually out there?

I'm not convinced by the claim that this stuff is neccessary even for top end races. I bet Chris Froome would have won all his tours with a Ultegra 6800, alloy wheels and a rim brake CAAD10 under him (except for the TT stages).

the realisation that you're never going to out sprint or out climb certain individuals, or do a 45 minute 25 without the aid of mechanical doping is a bit of a dampener to lavish spending.

Depends on your budget. My experience of working at a velodrome tells me that there are a lot of people who know that they are not physically competitive but they have the cash to be mechanically competitive.

And as for expensive kit in 4th cat races, I’ve seen people write off what must easily be 4 figures worth of lycra and helmet in crashes during the first part of their track accreditation and be back the next week with brand new kit to resit the class.

People turning up to do their first track league in the D group with Looks and Cervelos and Disc/5 spokes wheels is surprisingly common.

I’d actually say there’s a machismo pride element to writing off expensive kit. Broken bike = excuse to buy a new one.