The road to bicycle hell is filled with not only good inventions, but also bad inventions. Ever since safety bicycles were used for penny-farthings, people have been inventing techniques to try to make them better. We’re pretty much done with bike design and have been for a while.So there’s a lot of room to try new things
As technology advances and time passes, it can be difficult to distinguish between technology that has simply been replaced by newer, better kit and technology that has truly failed. We pooled our brains and tried to think of ideas that hadn’t worked over the years.
In the road industry, certain technologies are often singled out and treated as failures. But if it’s still coveted by collectors, considered beautiful, or a triumph decades later, I think it gets a pass. No, it’s said that Campagnolo’s Delta brakes didn’t stop particularly well, but what if, even after all these years, something still makes a grown man or woman’s eyes glaze over, enough to part with a healthy wad of cash they own? Can it be considered a real flop?
Here we present a selection of bicycle technologies that have fallen by the wayside on the way to road bike perfection. This is not to mock our ideas. We have the utmost respect for the engineers who have worked hard over the years to improve the bikes we ride.
Chainstay mounted rim brake
There was a time, before nearly all modern road bikes switched to disc brakes, when several manufacturers mounted their bikes’ rear rim brakes on the chainstays just behind the bottom bracket shell. That position prevented airflow more than the standard seat stay position, improving aerodynamics and making the bike look cleaner and more futuristic. Almost all were variations of the direct mount system that slightly improved tire clearance in the transition period toward wider tires and rims.
The problem was that many of these brakes didn’t work particularly well during use. Because of this location, every time it rains, a lot of water and mud gets thrown around, which can affect performance.
The cable routing was also tight, making it difficult to achieve an acceptably smooth brake feel at the lever on some bikes. The appearance of many direct-mount models also discouraged riders from making adjustments themselves, and lack of maintenance only made the situation worse.
Bikes looked cleaner and more aerodynamic back then, but regular calipers mounted on the seatstays were more functional, and what’s more important than stopping safely?
Aqua Blue Road 1x Setup
Professional road team Aqua Blue Sport raced a 3T Strada bike with a Sram 1x drivetrain in the late 2010s. Although we didn’t test the bike ourselves, it’s safe to say that the gearing wasn’t particularly well-received by the majority of the team’s riders.
The use of a 1x, or single front chainring, has never gone out of style, and 1X setups are used in the professional peloton for high-speed time trials, hilly time trials, and even flat road stages. You could argue that Aqua Blue was slightly ahead of its time, but the technology wasn’t quite ready yet.
The problem at the time was that there was no gear available for road racing on all types of terrain, from flat roads to rolling trails to high mountains. Aqua Blue’s set-up was covered in considerable detail by the cycling media at the time, and it is believed that the team was primarily running his 44-tooth chainring and he was running an 11-32T or 9-36T cassette. This combination is what riders need on certain terrain and provides a gear range like the regular 11-28/39-53 tooth setup (or similar) used by many racers at the time I could not do it.
Some of the team’s riders openly criticized the technology, and it’s safe to say it was a huge failure at the time.
monolink saddle design
More than a decade ago, Selle Italia released a saddle and seatpost standard now called Monolink. This system did away with the traditional pair of saddle rails and instead used a large single-rail system to attach the saddle to the seatpost.
Saddle setups require specific seatpost clamp placement, and ideally manufacturers should adopt that standard to give people more choice. This system is said to increase the adjustment range of the saddle rails and potentially narrow the saddle in some cases.
At one time, many top-of-the-line road bikes used this system, but it never really caught on and never really gained a strong foothold. The brand no longer offers Monolink technology saddles on its website and the project is history. However, some off-road brands still produce saddles with a single rail design.
Vittoria Revo KXS Reversible Tire
Cyclingnews featured the Vittoria Revo KXS reversible tire in 2004, but it’s likely that this tire has been around for several years. The idea behind the tire was that one side of the tread was for dry conditions and the other for wet conditions.
Tires were only available in 23mm options at the time, with a claimed weight of 275 grams. Vittoria claimed that the dual tread itself improved puncture resistance.
In theory, this idea seems to make sense and save money. Just change tires depending on the conditions and riding requirements.
But in reality, this tire never really gets much traction (just kidding), and there’s probably a reason why we don’t see reversible performance road tires today. With the advent of tubeless tires and technology, we are now experiencing problems here as well, and changing tires in the garage will become a huge hassle.
scott drop in handlebar
Greg Lemond was known for his focus on technology and his meticulous attention to bike setup. He was the first rider to win the Tour de France using a try bar.
Lemond also rode the controversial and downright bizarre Scott Drop-In Bar. This bar was fitted with an additional section of horizontal handlebar at the bottom of each handlebar he drop. This design was intended to provide an additional aerodynamic hand position.
Lemond must have gone very fast with these handlebars, much faster than most of us have ever ridden, but the design was not aesthetically pleasing, never caught on, and is unlikely to appear again. There was no.
Handlebar controversy appears to be nothing new in cycling. I think the cycling media has been full of headlines about drop-in his bars in the same way that chats about his turn-in brakes and his super-narrow handlebars have been in the headlines over the last few years. Perhaps 10 years from now, there will be another handlebar scandal in the spotlight.