kdelong said:
Yeah, wake me up when they introduce a 20 speed. I remember when a high performance bike had a 5 gear freewheel and a double chainring. How many speeds do we need and how many riders would actually be able to use all of them?
Why a 5 gear freewheel? We only need one.
Bike and bike kit evolution is very limited, right now, in where and how far it can go. As far as performance goes, there's been very little performance increase with all of the bike evolution/revolution in the last 50 years. So given that, the last 50 years of bike development were at least not needed and at most irrelevant, right?
Of course, that perspective completely misses the fact that very few companies in competitive markets can continue to exist without product evolution, change, or just refreshening. And since the gruppo market, in the last two years suddenly became 50% more crowded, and since that new entrant was nearly instantly competitive and has taken a significant chunk of the OEM market, it's even more important for the companies to make changes, if for no other reasons than to differentiate themselves in the market and to avoid looking stagnate or as if they're just resting on their laurels.
As far as I can tell, neither Campy nor any government has mandated that cyclists will have to buy 11 spd Campy. Also, it does seem from all the forums and the cyclists I see around my town, you really can get by with just one gear.
Remember: cycling is about riding, not whining.
