AMuzi wrote:

As Andrew says, standards are wonderful.
That's why we have so many.

Thanks but I pilfered the expression from
Sheldon Brown.

Often in the bicycle press it says "this
conforms with the x.y standard" but it doesn't
say how many bikes are constructed like that,
or speculate how many are likely to be.

I guess any bicycle manufacturer can change
a mm here or there and pretend it is a new
standard? But isn't that actually the opposite
of a standard?

Still, bikes seems to be standardized to an
amazing degree, at least those I see are.
They are even called "standard bikes" here
(which means not a road bike, and not MTB) and
they certainly live up to the designation.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573