adlai

So like how important was the jump from 7 speeds up through 12 speeds? When I ride an older 8 speed system I like how it seems to feel a little more solid with the thicker chain. But also the thinner chains of ten speed and up seem to be able to go at more extreme angles.

it seems that triple front derailleurs are gone now.

through axels do feel more solid though I’m not sure how much they really matter unless you’re putting a lot of weight on it.

Cheap carbon seems to have won out in frame design.

disc brakes are better at stopping but with some rubbing issues and slightly more complicated maintenance.

maybe my favorite advancement has been suspension seatposts and improved saddles like vulcanized rubber and new leather designs.

shelbyfv

Staggering insight but didn't we do this a few weeks ago?

3alarmer 

.
...marketing has seen great progress. No way you could have sold bikes for 5 to 10 grand back in the ancient times.

DangerousDanR

Tubeless tires.

Koyote

Beat me to it.

wolfchild

Greater selection of "adventure type bikes" is probably the best thing that has happened in the last 20 years....Not much improvement in components or anything else.

Here is a list of things I don't like:

- newer cranksets with direct mount chainrings...I hate those and I am still using the older 4 and 5 bolt designs
- internal cable routing...I just hate it
- thru axles... I am still using nutted axles and quick release axles
- different axle spacing standards...I have two bikes with 135mm spacing and one with 120mm spacing.
- way too many different styles of disc brakes and each one has different pads... It's a jungle out there for brake pads.
- tubeless tires

Fredo76

Selle SMP TRK

indyfabz

Motors.

rosefarts

I’m not super impressed with road bike progress. E shifting is a game changer. Aside from that, it’s not a huge deal. Remember that 20 years ago Shimano had 9 speeds and Campy had 10. American Classic had super light carbon or magnesium wheels. Frames were available in aluminum, carbon, ti, scandium, and magnesium. This isn’t the dark ages. New super bikes are amazing but they aren’t fundamentally changing the sport.

The huge leaps IMO are in mountain bikes.

66 degree head angles, true refinement of suspension, dropper posts, 29ers, 27.5, mullets, tubeless, wider tires, and wide range 1x, clutched derailleurs. All combined this fundamentally changed mountain biking.

Mountain bike progress trickled into road and especially gravel with disc brakes, slacker geometry, clutches, and 1x. Basically it created all road bikes that aren’t CX racers.

GhostRider62

LED lights

Atlas Shrugged

I like your glass half empty way of looking at things, these are things I hate;

Beans in my Chilli
Snakes
Loud chewing
Self serve gas stations
Paper cuts
Cauliflower
Moochers
People who use the express checkout with more than 10 items.


I like all of the newer tech with the exception of integrated bar/stems and hidden cable headsets.

GhostRider62

e-Tap wireless shifting is the bees knees

Polaris OBark

No one has mentioned the ability to cary golf clubs?

tyrion

The most important improvement is probably all the bottom bracket standards we now have to choose from. More choices more better.

veganbikes

I can agree with DM chainrings that is fine and ICR yeah take or leave it a lot of different pads yeah not a huge fan but not a massive bother there are quite a few brakes that use the same M525 Shimano pads. However I am curious why you dislike thru-axles beyond just I have stuff already? They make it super easy to installed a wheel properly the only drawback is it takes a little extra time but it stiffens things up at the axle which is good and it really makes it hard for thing to fall out or be done incorrectly. Plus the added width makes for a more stable wheel especially going with more gears which is happening.

Yeah proprietary sometimes sure but if you just always keep it in the same place it won't be a problem. The only time you lose stuff is if you just place willy nilly every time I am working on a thru-axle bike I just put the axle right back with a couple turns which is a second or two and never lose anything. No springs to lose or anything just a single quite large axle.

Polaris OBark

One can never have enough standards.

indyfabz

I came close. Bought a new bike in 1993. The frame alone was $1,500 in today’s dollars. Entire thing was was about $4,000 in 2023 dollars including tax and labor for the build.

My 2001 Colnago built with DA was probably north of $5K in today’s dollars.

GamblerGORD53

Awesome >>>
LED lights
Rohloff14
SA XL-FDD dyno drum brake
Stainless 2.3/ 2.0 spokes
Far better tires that go 10,000 miles
Sealed bearings, especially for BBs
Old style chrome swept handlebars

NonSenSe >>>
Bare alu anything, especially stems and rims
Thru axels/ nutso 142+ mm dropouts
Pie plate 46T+ Rear cogs
Eyelet rims
Plastic/ Alu fenders, that are seldom long enough to be anything but decorations.
Hydro brakes
4" tractor tires LOL
Crazy slope top tubes inline with seat stays. LOL.
Grips now all have the feel of used car tires. LOL.
Tubeless goop

wolfchild

Because they require a frame and fork which is designed for use with thru axles and nothing else. I have a lot of wheelsets at home which are in perfect condition some of which I build myself, and my 3 bikes which I own wouldn't be compatible with thru axles.. TBH I never had any issues with installing wheels with quick release or nutted axles even on disc brake bikes...Many thru axles are also proprietary which makes it even more complicated if you want to have extra wheelsets, or if one ever got lost or damaged. I just see it as a pointless upgrade which wouldn't benefit me in any way.

3alarmer 

...if you really want to go there, bicycles were much more expensive, relative to average annual income, in the 1880's and early 90's.

I treat of this quite thoroughly in my as yet unpublished manuscript, "The Absolute and Complete, All Time Best, History of the Bicycle". Also, since it came up, my method of defining cycling into two distinct eras, BDB (before disc brakes), and PDB (post disc brakes), promises to put the entire field of cycling history on a firmer footing. Which I think you'll agree it could use, having been a little wobbly in the past.

I have not included the various BB standards in the work, because I refuse to lower my standards.

veganbikes

The thru axles don't have any bearing on the wheels you can swap wheels quite easily with other thru-axle wheels the proprietary-ness of that is not going to change anything.

I can understand not always being compatible with the hubs but a lot of modern hubs have replaceable end caps so you can run them on a 135 or 142 axle or whatever at the front. Not really a problem on that front.

Yes having parts already is a reason not to upgrade to something but to not like it for that is a bit silly.

indyfabz

The GMC Denali.

datlas 

BikeForums

CrimsonEclipse

Disk brakes. Hands down.
Keep all of the other tech. I'll never buy another rim brake bike again.

Through axels are a distant second. I would purge my skewer QR's if it were practical.

3alarmer 

...unless you buy used, I think you'll have trouble finding people making and selling them in the future. I make no judgement on them, one way or the other. I like them on my car.