Good Idea; Bad Idea

I want to try something new for today's post.
There's been a lot of new things going on in the bike-i-verse these last few months and I have opinions about nearly everything. What I'm going to do today is plop down a picture of something and say whether it's a good idea or a bad idea, and why. These are all real ideas, prototypes, and in-production models put forward by major bicycle manufacturers.

See-Thru Shifters

Good idea. It's fun to watch mechanical things do stuff.

Any sort of new brake design by the Look brand.

Bad idea! Such a bad idea! These past few months I've been working on a lot of the new Look bikes with their weirdo brake designs and I HATE THEM! "Innovative Brake Designs" in general should be banned. BMC has the same problem, especially with their "Time Machine" and the Fuji D6 is the worst bike on the planet. What's wrong with new brake designs? Well what's wrong with conventional brakes that major component manufacturers have spent decades of R&D perfecting? Brands like Look just say, "Hey, Pierre sketched up a new way to stop a bike by driving a steel rod into the tire. Let's run with that. Sorry Shimano, we got brakes covered this year." Assholes.

BB30, PF30, BB386, BB90 and other press-in bottom brackets

Good idea, bad execution. I'm sure I've railed on this elsewhere on the blog, but the idea of pressing sealed bearings straight into the frame is not a new one. Frame builders in France started doing it 80 years ago, but it wasn't really popular until Cannondale launched the BB30 system. The idea is simple: use an aluminum 30mm crank spindle inside two regular sealed bearing brackets that are pressed directly into the frame. It's lightweight, it's stiff, there's less waste, and it's easy to maintain or replace. That's the idea. In reality, companies have done a great job screwing it up. First, press-in bottom brackets put a lot of pressure on the frame builder to do a good job. The frame has to be straight and the holes have to be perfectly round. This is hard to do 100% of the time in today's "whip 'em out" style of manufacturing. Sometimes we see brand asking mechanics to add filler between the press-fit bearings and the frame, which is a band-aid repair for the manufacturer's poor workmanship.
The other problems is that every brand has to have their own thing. Lets take Cervelo: regular PF-30 brackets weren't good enough for them, so they made up "BBRight" (or BBWrong as it's called 'round these parts) It's exactly the same as everything else out there, except a few millimeters wider on one side. This means only a BBRight crank will fit on a Cervelo, and only a few companies make a BBRight model. Good idea Cannondale; bad idea Cervelo and everybody else.

E-bikes

Good idea for transportation, but it isn't a bike -it's an electric moped. Modern e-bikes are slick: the motor assist is in the hub or bottom bracket and it senses when you are pedaling and gives you a little boost. It's kind of like a nitrous oxide system on a car in The Fast and the Furious in that it won't last forever, but you get a serious boost while it's on. Most e-bikes also give you some control over how much assist you get and they have regenerative braking for when you're going down hill.

Disc brakes on road bikes and hydraulic brakes

Bad idea. Well, it's a good marketing gimmick. But now that I have some experience with road discs and the like I say there is really just no need and it's another complication or thing that can go wrong. Also, seeing that every single company that has released a hydraulic brake has also recalled it, that should tell you something. However, I will say that if you have a crazy frame and handlebar design that forces a brake line to do a lot of bending, like on the Trek TT bikes, hydraulic brakes have the advantage that they don't bind up or wear out as quickly as conventional cable brakes. I'm just waiting for electronic brakes to arrive.

Ok that's it for this installment of Good Idea; Bad Idea. Tune in next time for more and more and more!