On Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 9:13:13 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 4:25:14 PM UTC, wrote:
Sounds like the Gates Drive is a solution to a problem yet to be invented!
Andre Jute
"Because we could." isn't a reason, it's an excuse

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, Andre. So why are some of the bicycle manufacturers using it? What do they gain by making this kind of bike?

Because the people in their target market already have one or more of everything else. With a new product they might catch a few fashion victims, or even many fashion victims, what Duane calls "product differentiation". Lou took one for the team here, but not everyone knows a Lou, and some aren't even smart enough to ask him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...c4&app=desktop

OTOH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWAKtYGJZSM I thought SIS was a joke and step-in pedals, too. You have to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Specialized produces a lot of chaff -- but some wheat, too. The problem is early adoption, and after a few product generations, you can tell what is wheat and what is chaff pretty easily. I steered away from buying a replacement Roubaix because I didn't want active suspension, but more importantly because I didn't want to buy into proprietary hub dimensions. It's the proprietary stuff that is a PITA.

-- Jay Beattie.