Because the track goes, you don’t know what you’ve acquired ’til it’s gone. That is true of the whole lot besides herpes, which you don’t keep in mind that you’ve acquired till it flares up once more. STDs however, this aphorism continues to resonate as biking journalists lament the disappearance of the mechanical bicycle drivetrain:
Clearly I agree with him, for all the explanations he cites, and extra:
What you by no means must do is keep in mind to cost a mechanical drivetrain.
Or replace its firmware.
Or keep in mind to switch these tiny hidden shifter batteries that you simply forgot about.
Or fear that you simply leaned one other bike up in opposition to your electronic-shift highway bike, and never solely drained the battery, however really destroyed the battery by over-draining it. Yeah, I did that with a Di2 setup a number of years in the past.
Additionally, a few years in the past, I discovered an AXS battery on the aspect of a path about 2500m above sea degree, excessive and deep into the Swiss Alps. I hope somebody misplaced their spare battery. As a result of if that had fallen out of their mountain bike derailleur there, it could have been a very lengthy day caught within the improper gear earlier than they made it again to civilization, the place they’d have been in a position to shift once more.
Although for the document I don’t hope the rider who misplaced their battery solely misplaced a spare. I hope they misplaced their one and solely battery, discovered the error of their methods, and instantly changed their digital drivetrain with a mechanical one once they lastly made it again to civilization. However then once more, like most retrogrouches, I’m bitter and twisted.
And my twisted bitterness doesn’t cease there. As somebody who believes in mechanical drivetrains I ought to really feel vindicated {that a} story like that is showing in a mainstream biking publication, and I ought to applaud the writer for writing it. However I don’t, and I don’t. Sorry, however because the fertility clinic stated to the hypospermia sufferer who missed the ovulation window, that is too little, too late.
Granted, I’m not instantly aware of this specific author, and for all I do know maybe he’s been staunchly defending mechanical shifting within the biking press for many years. Even so, that is yet one more publication that for years and years has given us headlines like this:
And now I’m supposed to lift my tankard of ale and emit a hearty and sturdy “Hear, hear!” as a result of they’ve positioned a single wilted flower on mechanical shifting’s grave?
I don’t assume so!
And what do these publications have to indicate for all this new-tech rubber-stamping, anyway? The bike firms don’t even purchase advertisements from them anymore! In actual fact, as I learn this specific article, I stored seeing advertisements for nicotine pouches:
Similar to I refuse to put up the Compulsory Tomac Photograph, I additionally refuse to put up the Compulsory Tour de France Riders Smoking Photograph (or the Compulsory Mario Cipollini Smoking Photograph for that matter), however as promoting income turns into more and more scarce and the biking media continues to wither I believe biking is ripe for a takeover by Large Tobacco. First get all of the riders hooked on nicotine pouches, then regularly re-introduce cigarettes for his or her pre-climb lung-opening qualities, and shortly smoking will as soon as once more be seen as a wholesome life-style selection.
Look, the mechanical drivetrain is lifeless, and YOU PEOPLE (that’s the biking media) have no one in charge however yourselves. Go forward, hold telling me that issues…
Have by no means…
Been higher:
And sure, that video is a glowing assessment of a metal highway bike, however it’s a metal highway bike with a carbon fork and disc brakes and digital shifting:
That actually doesn’t make it a nasty bike–little doubt it’s a wonderful bike–however nonetheless, I don’t assume bikes like that ought to get to say membership within the metal bike neighborhood:
So sure, high-end mechanical shifting is lifeless, and it’s not ever coming again. How do I do know? Properly, again in…I dunno, possibly 2017?…I briefly returned to bike racing. Now, please word once I say “bike racing” I don’t imply I used to be coaching or setting objectives for myself or attempting to win. No, what I imply is that I went again to racing within the park on the morning time as a result of it’s a good way to get a quick group experience in, possibly perform a little socializing, and be house by 9am. Principally, it was the equal of a standard particular person becoming a member of a fitness center. I even acquired a motorbike for it:
I’m not precisely certain, however I believe I acquired that bike in 2018, and I obtained it at minimal private expense–sure, partially as a result of I had “connections,” but additionally as a result of it was a racing bike with rim brakes and mechanical shifting, which even then just about no one wished. It served its function very nicely, too, although after awhile I finished racing once more and switched it for an additional Specialised higher suited to my life-style:
Looking back that was a greater gravel bike than the PRJCT GRVL bike (for me anyway), however that’s past the purview of this put up.
The purpose is, you may barely promote that plastic Specialised as a brand new bike even approach again in 2018. Admittedly, that’s extra due to the rim brakes than the mechanical shifting, however one begets the opposite. See, folks demand disc brakes now; extra particularly, they demand hydraulic disc brakes. If folks had been okay with mechanical disc brakes then the drivetrain firms may hold making high-end mechanical shifters that labored with both disc brakes or rim brakes. In actual fact, in some alternate dimension the place issues really made sense, the mechanical disc brake would have develop into the usual for highway bikes. Think about a pro-level Dura-Ace mechanical disc brake caliper, and having the ability to use the identical shifter on a contemporary carbon disc brake race bike or the one you love 40 year-old metal body.
However this didn’t occur. As an alternative, I’m fairly certain the Dura-Ace 9100 drivetrain on that Specialised represents the final totally mechanical, non-fluid-filled top-tier highway racing group Shimano ever made. Braking went hydraulic, shifting went digital, and all cables and hoses went contained in the body, or else vanished utterly. Consequently, just about all high-end frames have inner cable routing, and increasingly more of them aren’t suitable with mechanical shifting in any respect. Once I put collectively that PRJCT GRVL bike utilizing a totally mechanical drivetrain, by far essentially the most troublesome job was routing the cables by means of the body. In 2026, any particular person not affected by my (maybe irrational) degree of dedication would would have concluded that merely utilizing wi-fi shifters and cables and extra versatile hydraulic brake traces was a much better selection. They’re charging the whole lot else of their life anyway–the cellphone, the TV distant, the watch, the e-reader, the Apple pencil–so what’s just a few extra batteries on the bike?
Principally, the holes within the frames have closed up, and no bike firm goes to open them up once more. It’s like that earring you used to put on in highschool. Strive placing it again in now and it’s not taking place–at the least not with out numerous ache and bleeding.
You’re asking the bike business to bleed for you, and so they’re not gonna do it.