Originally Posted by
colnago62
My plan is to ride 11 speed until it gets hard to find parts or there is a large jump in technology.
Today I'm riding a bike with Shimano 600 STI 8-speed. The shifting is flawless, better than any of the 11-speed systems I own.
Took 5 minutes to assemble a new 8-speed cassette from loose cogs at the local Co-op. Cost me $5. A decent new chain set me back $10. Or I could have bought semi-trucks full of this stuff online in minutes. So 8-speed stuff is not going away for as long as anyone on this forum will be alive.
As far as progress, adding another cog to the cassette every 7 years does not exactly count as progress. When the sorry bike industry develops a lightweight internally-geared hub with say 10 equal gear steps, then I'll gladly pull out the Gold Card.