Originally Posted by
lasauge
The things that make me want to shake my fist mostly have to do with the bike industry pushing fancy new things on riders whether they need them or not, to the point that bikes without them seem to be lacking something and ultimately these things just cause more problems than they solve when you consider the cycling community as a whole:
boost spacing
road tubeless
suspension on cheap bikes
hydraulic disc brakes on road bikes
1x on everything
mandatory dropper posts
integrated headsets
pressfit BBs
And greatest evil of all: patenting ideas so that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th companies who want to use a good idea all have to come out with parts that are all mutually incompatible.
I propose a modern constitution of Lycurgus for cyclists: all bikes should come with friction shifters and tires no wider than 2" and be cable-actuated. That way we can spend less time coveting other people's bikes and just ride simple, reliable, fun machines.
Of the above, suspension on cheap bikes is probably the number one issue. But that really gets to the biggest issue, which is too many people buy bikes that actually make them want to ride less, not more. Department Store mountain bikes are not really made for mountain biking, nor are they fun to ride elsewhere. So they end up with heavy bikes which they don't want to ride (in the event their parents let them ride them) and require more maintenance than what they should ride, which is a basic BMX or commuter style bike.