your top 3 cycling inventions from the past 10yrs?

[village idiot]

was thinking about this last night whilst out for a ride on the moutain bike...

i starting riding properly in 1987 towards the beginning of the MTB revolution. I have seen the introduction of things like front then full suspension, elevated chainstays, foam cycling helmets, bar ends, eletronic gear-shifting, elliptical chainrings (as fitted to the original pace rc) etc etc.

however, in the past few years, i would say that the inventions which have changed my life the most have been:-

1.) Camelback hydration - just so convinient
2.) Disc brakes - no more fannying about with clearance on rims or build-up of mud
3.) Pop-lock for my forks - effectively giving me two bikes in one

what are yours?

[Nick_F]

Click-shifting in all its forms.
SPDs with float, ditto.
Er...

[longblackcoat]

My 3:

1 Suspension that works rather than the awful RS Judys we used to put up with. Goes even more for rear suspension
2 Hydraulic discs
3 Tubeless tyres. I can go a whole season without a puncture now - bliss!

[Parrot of Doom]

1. The increasing power of LEDs
2. External bottom brackets (albeit with st seals)
3. Suspension

[TedMaul]

Nick_F said:

Click-shifting in all its forms.
SPDs with float, ditto.
Er...

Agree with both of the above and would put 'decent lights' as the third. Night riding through the woods with my lumicycles is a whole new experience - exhilarating fun!

[AbarthChris]

index shifting
Disc Brakes
Spd's

[Lord Pikey]

1. Dirt Jump / Freeride geomety.
2. V Brakes
3. AHead system

Edit, i think my list is more like 15 years

Edited by Lord Pikey on Thursday 28th May 14:23

[Beyond Rational]

1) The commonality and price of aluminium frames & components, which also leads to the greater use of CAM.
2) Hydraulic disc brakes.
3) Improvements in Fork design.

Some of these aren't the past 10 years as such, but the advances made within this period were important to me.

[chrisga]

My 3 would be:
hydraulic disc brakes,
decent suspension,
crud catcher - so you dont get cow pat in your eyes at warp speed...

Edited by chrisga on Friday 29th May 09:05

[Richair]

1. Disc brakes
2. Five-Ten sticky rubber shoes
3. The 'all mountain' bike; so I can go for an XC ride and still go flat out on the DH runs. (proud owner of a Giant Reign for 2 years now!)

Close call was: suspension that works (my RST mozo-pros 10years ago didn't really cut it) and X-Type BB and cranks. Square tapers really sucked.

[anonymous-user]

nothing in the past ten years but prior to that the DCD and SPDs

i could still be happily riding my old cindercone on the trails i ride now with the addition of those two innovations. sure rear suspension and disc brakes make life easier but they havent changed how i ride. if we still had v-brakes on every bike i would still be out come rain or shine for example...

[edward1]

SPD's, lighter more powerful lighting, disc brakes and although not really in the last 10 years but indexed gearing.

having said that the V brake was a huge jump forward in relativly powerful braking and simple light weight design.

[hollowpockets]

1. lighter materials for cranks/frames/forks etc
2. suspension that works
3. Disc brakes

ermm and

4. camelback
5. sticky rubber tyres

[gtikurt]

1 - Cassette hubs
2 - Pivotal seats
3 - New technology/development for lighter, stronger parts.

BMX'er here.