What Bike Feature Do You Miss?

herzalot

herzalot

iMTB Hooligan
There are many threads on many forums addressing "What is your favorite innovation in bikes over the past ____ years?" Usually, dropper posts are at the top of that list. But the true curmudgeon in me wants to know...

What is the now-extinct feature on bikes that you miss most?

For me, it's really only one thing, and I miss it dearly...

gear indicators.

I really really really liked the final XTR version of the gear indicator window. It was small, but readable. I find myself frequently looking back at my cluster to see if I'm in 1, 2, 3 or 4. Yes, it matters to me. I wish these would come back. I can deal with the .3 gram increase in bike weight.

What do you miss?
 
Dunno if I'd call it a feature, but I definitely miss having more BB clearance and thus more pedal clearance than current bikes have.

I also miss the days before product lines got split in to numerous versions. Back in the day you just went out and bought a Boxxer, or a Marz Z1. Or a pair of Race Face turbine cranks. There was only one version of each of those and it was high quality (as long as you stayed away from Fox). How many different versions of a Fox 34 are there these days? And how many of them suck, or just sorta suck?
 
Sasquatch9billion said:
I was thinking yesterday about my old Pike with the travel adjust. You’d crank it down to 90mm and the bike would climb great. Then, at the top you’d just ease it back to 150mm for the dh.
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I always insisted on travel adjust at first. TALAS for Fox or whatever the Marzocchi version was called (RC3?) But then I started noticing the bike felt like I was dragging an anchor or pedaling through mud when I reduced the travel in the fork. Weird sensation. It was fine climbing up something steep, but on moderate climbs to flat terrain, it sucked in anything but the fully extended mode. My Marzocchi 350 that replaced my Marz 55 was the first non-travel adjust fork I owned, and I never missed it since.

I do miss the three position compression switches though - like Fox' CTD. I like being able to calm the fork on a climb! A supple 160mm travel fork bobs relentlessly while climbing fireroad or pavement, unless you are deliberately very smooth on the pedals.
 
herzalot said:
the bike felt like I was dragging an anchor or pedaling through mud when I reduced the travel in the fork. Weird sensation. It was fine climbing up something steep, but on moderate climbs to flat terrain, it sucked in anything but the fully extended mode.
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Remember Bionicon and its geometry adjustment system? Same sort of idea as Talas but front and rear got adjusted as part of one system. Seemed like a good idea that could be a quiver killer, and I knew a few riders on those bikes back in the day who really liked them.

So I think it was 10 or 12 years ago Bionicon had a demo day at my LBS and I went to check them out. I took their longer travel bike (160mm?) for a spin and found the exact thing you describe above. The rep had shown us how to adjust the geometry but didn't explain when to do it. So I figured the first mile of trail is pretty flat, I'll put the bike in xc mode. And all of a sudden it felt like there was all sorts of drag on the bike and it pedaled like crap. Raise the front end back up, and it felt normal again. I tried the xc mode on a very steep climb and it helped a bit, but as soon as the climb mellowed it felt like crap again until I raised the suspension back up. Seemed kinda pointless to me if I'd just be riding around in fully extended mode all the time. I had a bike that already did that just fine, thanks.

What's interesting is I had a RockShox Pike on a Heckler I bought in 2004-ish that had 1.5" or so of travel adjust. I used to always crank the fork down when climbing fire roads and never noticed any drag. And half the time I'd forget to extend the fork for the descent. Oops.
 
I really miss the friction shifters of yore - more accurate than even electronic shifting :thumbsup: (assuming you didn't look down for too long), along with the cantilever road brakes.

Sometimes I miss my 3 x 9 drivetrain.

I weighed my 2012 Cannondale Synapse (aluminum + cable actuated rim brakes), and then my 2018 Giant Defy (carbon + hydraulic disc brakes). 19 lbs vs 20.5 lbs, respectively.

EDIT: The Defy has a better/lighter wheelset too.:bang:
 
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