The world is cruel and ugly. There are plenty of justifiable things to be upset and distraught over. I don’t want to hear about those. I want to know what bizarre out of left field takes you have that infuriates you.
I’m still upset about Tenochtitlan falling and being buried. I’m a gringo, I shouldn’t have an opinion about Lake Texcoco being drained centuries ago.
Bicycle drivetrains keep getting more complex and expensive. A 3x9 drivetrain is beyond adequate, bulletproof, and inexpensive. But NooOoOoOooo, it’s nearly impossible to get a quality bike with 3x9 now, without a full custom, DIY build. Everything has to be 1x11/12, which is expensive, touchy, and very particular, all while still lacking the gear range of 3x9.
It all seriously sticks in my craw.
For mountain biking at least, 1xs are superior due to the narrow-wide chainring, not to mention completely eliminating a derailer and associated controls. I don’t understand how this could possibly be more complicated or expensive than a 3x9, but I’m sure these companies have found a way.
Fully agreed. Narrow-wide rings are absolutely a boon to mountain biking as are derailleur clutches. And 1x is superlative for hard trail riding on that factor alone.
A factor in the issue I take is the proprietary nature of modern bike drivetrains. With older drivetrains, we could mix and match to our hearts’ content. But now, even within a component line, e.g. Deore XT or SRAM X[n], specs such as pull rates can be different even for the same cog count. “These are the only combinations of components we think you should use, and we will do everything we can to block you from customizing.” Shimano is especially egregious about this expensive mess, and they know it, which is why they tried to un-hash things with CUES.
Pretty much everything 3x9 all works together. Road derailleur and cassette with mountain crank and bar-end shifters? Sure! Gear range for days. I sincerely believe this is to sell more bikes. Want to climb hard pack and mixed surface? You need a gravel bike! Want to get groceries? You need a commuter or loaded tourer! Want to go on a fast road ride? You need a road bike!
It used to be really easy to build up a bike that could perform most bicycle functions well. Mixed-surface, loaded, commuter/grocery-getter, randonneuring, snow, rain, club rides… one bike with maybe a wheel change*. Good luck with that now. Gravel bikes are kinda filling that niche now, but the components and frame manufacturers are again trying to fracture that even further. The gravel drivetrain won’t have the range to cover all the use cases without a cassette or crank change.
Moar rant, moar example: my partner works in an LBS. We can literally afford to buy any bicycle we could want. She wants a general-purpose gravel bike, and it’s not even a case of “just spend more money to get these additional features.” Component selection on a pre-built, geometry, wheel selection… all tightly engineered to cover as few use cases as possible. Okay, we’ll build from a naked frame. Oh, the more racy geometry frames lack braze-ons and can’t fit a 50mm tire.
*It makes complete sense to have a full-squish mountain bike for the aggressive off-road stuff, and those bikes are necessarily different. Even for that case, I can hang with the LBS trail/flow rides on my do-almost-everything bike. My current do-everything took me more than six months to source compatible parts and troubleshoot. This used to be a matter of just pulling the trigger on the parts I wanted.
Halleluja! I just want my Deore XT 3x9 back.
I’m sorry, 1x11? I’ve never really shopped for a bike more expensive than like $500 and the idea of getting less gear options for more money is wild to me.
There’s surprisingly a fair bit of overlap on the gear ratios of a 2 or 3x that makes a 1x11 or 12 have a similar range of ratios. However you do have to sacrifice either a bit of top end speed or climbing ability so you see a few more 2x on road bikes. I’ve never found myself wanting more from my 1x mtb drivetrain
Agree with the overall sentiment: the trend towards more complexity is silly, but triples are terrible.
I don’t know what this all means, but I do know my son blows through bikes like crazy. The chain always, always get fucked up and falls off. Even with a cover, even if it’s a more expensive bike, they don’t last.
I had the same bike all my childhood needing nearly no repairs, yet my kids bike is constantly broken.
The root cause of what you describe is a build or maintenance issue. Properly built, tuned, and maintained bikes don’t drop chains.
Lol The root cause is a 12 year old with ADHD.
As someone who has a 1x11, all I have to say is:
Push click, push click, push, push… push…