Things the MTB industry does wrong

fatboyonabike

Captain oblivious
The cycling meeja aren't so tongue in cheek, it's just plain fucking misuse. Closely followed by "enduro".

Edited 'cos I missed a letter....
I had to google wtf "meeja" was, because my brain hasn't fully woken up..
it states it as non-standard spelling of Media!....or is it?
I wish there was some sort of standard for standards, there seems to be too many these days!
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
The lock in proprietary bs isn’t too sinister, if we suffered under a true monopoly with drive trains for example, it could be really evil.

i.e bolts with a 6.6mm diameter, 0.83mm pitch, left hand thread. Protected by a patent.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
It isnt just mtb that do this, every industry does. Sometimes it is to protect an innovation, sometimes it is just to burn up old stock! When I worked for manufacturing (albiet agriculture) new parts were a compromise if someone had made 13 squillion old parts. One thing I liked about my HRC trials bike manual was it listed every single part on the bike. Each part number told the history of the part, year first used, bikes used on etc so I could track down parts by finding another bike it came on which hopefully was sold in Oz. That way the usual 'what bike is it off mate?' didnt mean I got 'never heard of it' or t''it wasnt sold here' as the response. I remember getting a carby throttle part I needed off a CB350. Interestingly the Honda parts guys didnt have the same cross reference material so quoting part numbers usually was a waste of time. It didnt help the 50% or so bespoke parts made just for that model though.
 

ForkinGreat

Knows his Brassica oleracea
Yeah good on SRAM for setting an excellent standard, one for the rest to adopt.
I bet Specialized is furious that everyone else didn't adopt THEIR standard.
That being said, if they did, I'm sure Spesh would feel weird, and compelled to make a new, even more unnecessary and unpopular proprietary standard with highly illogical specifications.
 

Minlak

custom titis
Watched an interesting documentary last night about the advent of MP3’s was interesting to see all the record companies explaining that computers were for processing word documents not music - Napstar anyone? - I think two issues arise with further thought a public that doesn’t always know what it wants and industry trying to protect profits with proven methods
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Watched an interesting documentary last night about the advent of MP3’s was interesting to see all the record companies explaining that computers were for processing word documents not music - Napstar anyone? - I think two issues arise with further thought a public that doesn’t always know what it wants and industry trying to protect profits with proven methods
I think there was a bit of perfect storm of faster, cheaper PC's and internet access was getting quicker plus CD's were too expensive at the time.

Napster sure shook the tree and the similar crowd and reputation based tech moved into other areas.

Now media companies are happier to sell you a stream or subscription and loathe to ship physical products anymore.
 

andrew9

Likes Dirt
No one mentioned shock sizes yet?
Some shocks are orphans, and I'm not talking proprietary, they're standard sizes that only one or two models use.
If you kill a frame that's a few years old good luck finding another XL frame, or finding a buyer for a shock that only fits an uncommon bike.
Shocks are one of the most expensive individual components, probably 2nd after Forks?
There also needs to be a database of Shock sizes, like on geometry geeks or similar.

While Hub, BB, and Wheel size stuff is mega annoying, you can usually find a buyer or another frame for those parts
 

HamboCairns

Thanks for all the bananas
Something probably more geared to newbies like me but manufacturers are very light on small details to help you make the right choices when upgrading components.

For instance what is the correct brake mount spec? What brake/shift lever mount? How many links in the chain? What crankset offset?

Little details like that would help people like me!
 
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