tcs

You mean like the Enviolo Automatiq?

livedarklions

I wouldn't consider that adequate for a second, I'm not a racer or a sport rider, but I love the really high gears I use with my 53t chain ring. Some of us like pushing a big gear. I know "conventional wisdom" says we're extinct, but I see a fair amount of people doing that in the wild.

If anything, I expect that it may get easier to get different combinations unless 1x starts to dominate.

WhyFi

I would really, really dislike that kind of gearing - to me, it suggests super steep climbs that need to be crawled up and downhills where white-knuckle braking is more suitable than pedaling. I don't need/want anything near that type of low and I would like a little more at the top; the huge gaps between cogs would drive me nuts.

livedarklions

I'm going to go out on a limb here if we're going to make predictions:

If more and more of the purchasing is going to be done online, I would suggest that the notion of a particular bike "model" with a particular set of components might become passé. If the distribution becomes truly just in time, what's to stop the manufacturer from allowing you to choose the various components you want on your chosen frame? In other words, you'd select your handlebars, wheels, groupset, whatever, and then the company assembles it to order then ships it. I won't be shocked to see a complete overhaul of the supply chain coming out of the current arrangement's near-total collapse of the past couple years.

If this is the case, you'll be selecting the gear combination you want on a per-bike basis.

big john

What is a "too many gear bike"? Shifting gears on a bicycle is a pretty mundane task and doesn't involve a lot of thinking. My main road bike has Campagnolo Chorus 10 speed. It will shift several cogs up or down with one motion. My other, older bike has Ultegra 10 speed with a triple. It requires one click per cog going to higher gears but it will go as fast as you can click it.

Why not choose range AND increments? Most of my riding has been with others, mostly fast group rides. I did around 2000 group rides from 2001 until the pandemic.
When riding with others, especially when you are not the most gifted rider, it is essential to have a gear to match the speed of the group.

Herzlos

I'm largely stretching to find a reason why more gears can be bad; I agree you just need to shift more.

I've only had the shifting problem recently on a new 11 speed bike, where there's a fast downhill that changes quickly into a steep uphill and I found myself going from top to bottom gears pretty quickly which was done in 3 triple-shifts but it's a pretty niche case and whilst it took longer than I'd like, I wouldn't consider changing to a 6 speed bike to avoid it.

tomato coupe

The vast majority of people I ride with would find that gearing inadequate on a road bike.

WhyFi

I could see something like this happening, and it would be really cool for enthusiasts but it could/would be a purchasing obstacle/analysis paralysis for a lot of people. I think that they'd have to have easy peasy default configurations - color and size being the only real options - and then possibly a separate page where you could opt-in to custom configurations. They do something like this with groupsets on the sites of some of the online European dealers (pbk, Merlin), but they could still make it a little more n00b-friendly for people intending to buy ready-to-ride bikes.

Badger6

Same for me...regardless of where in the world I've bene riding. Sure 52-36 chainsets in the Alps/Pyrenees is nuts, but plenty of 50-34.

Badger6

The supply chains would need to be significantly improved for this to happen. Regardless, it seems possible that we could see a trend toward SOME choices, but not a fully customizable bike.

livedarklions

I'm not sure it would take that much improvement in the supply chains and there would be less likelihood of overproducing frame/component combinations. Thus it might actually make the supply chain more efficient.

livedarklions

I think this is one of those things that might look daunting at first, then people become accustomed to the choice very quickly.
I'm thinking of what Zenni has done for eyewear--I would've told you it was crazy to think that consumers could handle such a task not that many years ago.

But yes, I expect there'd be a default package of some sort, at least at first.

BobbyG

I would be thrilled to be 84 and still be able to ride and k'vetch (and coherently, I might add).

Zei gezunt, rydabent !

rydabent

And you are right about me not following fashion. I do and use what is logical and has common sense. BTW my bike a LWB bet is 14 years old, and my trike is 11 years old. They work just fine.

However if some well heeled generous person would like to buy me a folding Azub TiFly 26, I would be eternally grateful!!!!

phughes

The newest trend with be a return to single speed, geared for speed.

Rolla

Hate to break it to you, but riding a decade-old recumbent is a fashion statement, too.

mschwett 

well, here’s the latest thing: an automatic shifting derailleur system that can also shift while you’re not pedaling.

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/shimano-xt-di2-m8150/

Jeff Neese

Well, I rode thousands of miles of loaded touring on an '83 Trek 720, which only had 18. And before they invented 6 speed freewheels and triple cranksets, people toured on 10 speed bicycles.

indyfabz

Non-responsive.

Maelochs

Seems to me that I want a ratio for every situation .... but obviously "too many gears" can be an issue, because as a rider I have to learn each ratio .... (by the way, the common choices seem to be 50-34, 52-36, and 53-39, not 50-36) but with just 22 possible ratios it is hard to know whether the fourth cog on the small ring is a little higher or lower than the second cog on the big ring, etc .... so if I hit a headwind on a slight incline, how many ratios do I have to try, to get the right one? or if I am approaching a hill on the big ring, when exactly should I downshift and in what pattern (1 down up front, 3 up in the back for example) to get the same or similar ratio so that I don't have to markedly increase pedal pressure or revs when I shift?

When I used to ride more I learned pretty much the whole relevant range on a couple triples .... nowadays, sadly, I still get it wrong sometimes ... but "too many gears" is a function of rider ability, not the spec of the bike.

When I used to commute, which meant carrying a lot of weight (couple clothing changes, couple full meals, full water, weather gear, spares, couple pair of shoes, etc) I rode a triple mostly and never had "too many" gears. Hit a headwind on a Thursday when you have been riding hard every day since Monday and working and exercising between rides, and your legs and lungs will absolutely appreciate finding that "right" ratio where you don't have to push too hard or too fast.

Can you tour or commute on a single-speed? Shoot, you can do it walking, but that isn't really on point, is it?

As for lower gears in general .... can the phrase" personal preference" be any more relevant? The idea of "everyone has more top end than they need" is purely nonsensical ... as is the idea that everyone needs lower low gears, fewer gears, whatever .... Some people like to mash, some like to spin, some like to do both at different times. I don't often hit 90 rpm in 50x11, but I still like to push 50-11 whenever I want to .... whenever my legs and lungs tell me 50x12 is not as efficient for going faster. Nobody's business but my own.

I have an old Cannondale with 7 cogs and a 48-38-28 triple and I find just cruising, unladen, I use just the top couple cogs in the big ring ... So I should remove all the rest? On another hand, coming home with a heavy load of groceries --couple gallons of milk and yogurt, 20 pounds of rice--I use All the gears. I don't enjoy riding unladen as much because I simply don't have usable ratios to adjust for varying conditions ... but I love the bike and don't plan to sell or scrap it. Again ... personal preference ... (Why do they hate our Freedom? )

As for on-demand builds .... the breakdown in the chain is manufacturing. I assume a company like Shimano plans its production a year in advance, and the various major manufacturers choose the distribution of groupsets---based on the last couple years' sales---equally far in advance, when they order.

Shimano (or whoever) gains efficiency by doing long production runs---get the materials and tooling for a given product all set up and make a lot of them. To manufacture to order would be vastly more expensive ... sure, less unsold merch, maybe ,... but since most production is geared to pre-order, they don't have to worry about that as much ..... the manufacturers who can't sell bikes with unpopular groupsets carry that weight.

And a major bike manufacturer, say Giant ... they Could buy on speculation a specific number of groupsets and hope that their actual customer orders met their projections, but if for some reason they guessed wrong, they would be out of luck, because they would have bought groupsets they couldn't sell and would still need to buy more groupsets to sell the frames they had built. Not a good business situation.

"Build to order" is fine ... but "assemble to order" is easy while "manufacture to order" is expensive .... One possible "solution" would be for Shimano to raise its already ridiculous prices even higher, to cover for having to discount unwanted product, or to cover the increased cost of shorter, less efficient production runs.

70sSanO

The solution, however it is accomplished and when, is true variable speed gearing.

I would imagine someday people will laugh at how the neanderthals would argue gearing in preset increments when all that is important is covering the low and top end.

Through all the technological advancements over the years we are still moving that silly chain around.

John

tomato coupe

According to your "philosopher", that bike had more than double the number of gears you needed. Why did you have so many?

Koyote

I'm betting that no one has ever told that to anyone regarding a bicycle.

Jeff Neese

Well, that's what the bike came with. And I'm fairly certain I didn't actually use all 18 gears. Not to mention that loaded touring isn't exactly a "typical" circumstance that the average person will experience. Remove those 80 pounds of loaded panniers and packs that you're carrying, and you can probably ditch the granny gear. Remember that Grant was talking about the average rider - the "unracer". It's sort of implied that he's also not talking about other specialized pursuits like loaded touring.

tomato coupe

I suspect his definition of an "unracer" is: "Someone that needs only 8 gears."