What do you think is the biggest gimmick in bike equipment?

Carbon Fibre Bottle Cages, when a $2 nylon one will do. :p

gclark8 said:

Carbon Fibre Bottle Cages, when a $2 nylon one will do. :p

Hey that was mine! I said at a bike shop, "saving 20 grams is great, until you put 2 pounds of water in the cages".

Road bikes that cost more than $200 when the ones at WalMart will do.

any carbon part smaller than a pair of forks, especially if it as to be tightly clamped

Carbon fibre spacers, carbon fibre handlebar end caps.

I think that would be ceramic bearings - the value is really low and the price is REALLY high!

Crankyfeet said:

What do you think is the most over-hyped, excess costing, part of a bike that really doesn't give you much benefit? Just interested in people's views.

I think I'd go for carbon in all of it's guises, particularly frames. Aluminium is unbelievably good value, probably has an equal, or greater usable life and can be very nearly as light.

So on a cost versus utility basis, yes, I give carbon the title of biggest gimmick out. It can look nice though, but terrible value.

Any alloy item that is wrapped in carbon.

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Colnago paintwork

made in italy stickers.

close second, made in france stickers

helmets mirrors #3.

pseudo carbon handle bar tape.

My local shop gave me some because they can't sell it. It looks as though it might be durable, but it's a bit slippery, as reminds me of the cheap plastic stuff I had when I was a kid

The Steel is Real idea. What a load of cow dung. People like Grant Petersen have taken it to gimmick proportions.

carbon fiber seat post. Has to be pretty expensive to be lighter than a good aluminum one and will cost twice as much for no benefit.

Ceramic bearings, for sure. People are convinced that they can perceive gains where there are nearly none at all. Best of all is that they are hideously expensive. Gimmick.

John Swanson
www.bikephysics.com

ScienceIsCool said:

Ceramic bearings, for sure. People are convinced that they can perceive gains where there are nearly none at all. Best of all is that they are hideously expensive. Gimmick.

John Swanson
www.bikephysics.com

That's a good one.

bobbyOCR said:

made in italy stickers.

close second, made in france stickers

helmets mirrors #3.

+1, quite amusing

Nothing beats those CF bar tapes! 😄

Interesting no one said 10 speed vs 9 or 8 or 7 for that matter. It's not a gimmick I guess, but is 10 really necessary?

ScienceIsCool said:

Ceramic bearings, for [/url]

HED said they can find no quantifiable difference on loaded wheels, but they still offer them 🙂

"There was a measurable drag difference between ceramic bearings and steel bearings when we tested unloaded wheels, but the difference was small enough that we could not measure it on a loaded wheel."
http://www.hedcycling.com/wheels/ceramicbearings.php