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12 speed!?! Stop... just stop now.
Last Post 04/09/2018 01:14 PM by 79 pmooney. 3 Replies.
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 04/09/2018 09:06 AM |
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Come on, enough's enough
Signed,
Grouchy old men everywhere
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/campagnolo-12-speed-record-and-super-record-groups-launch/ |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 04/09/2018 10:04 AM |
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| Great more overlapping gearing options |
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zootracer
Posts:833
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| 04/09/2018 10:46 AM |
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| I can remember when there were only 5 cogs, 10 speeds. And chains laster forever. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3180
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| 04/09/2018 01:14 PM |
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My amplifier goes to 12. Beat Campy by a few years. (12 on the volume, 12 watts  )
But seriously, to address zoots comments - an observation on the intelligence of mankind. There are those who believe that domestication and agriculture have led to the demise of intelligence as intelligence is no longer needed to survive and breed. I propose that ready access to computers has furthered this. Let's look at the timeline of the coming of computers and the naming of bicycle gear systems.
In the 1960s, nobody had computers of any sort. (Oh there were a few computers that filled entire buildings that were barely faster than the ancient DOS 8086.) We named bicycle gear systems using the higher math of multiplication. (2 X 5 = 10 speeds, etc.) In the 1970s, pocket calculators became common but humans had still grown up in the pre-calculator age and still had higher math abilities. But as kids were raised in the calculator - soon to become computer - age, those skills were lost as they were no longer needed to survive and breed. (And no guy was going to get laughed at and turned down by "the girl" because she couldn't multiply either.)
So, problem. Bikes were evolving to bigger and bigger numbers of cogs and chainrings and the possible gear combinations were growing geometrically. The now dumbed down humans still needed to be able to describe their bikes and it becoming much more important to stake you place in the breeding pool by having more gear combinations. What to do? Simple. Revert to the days before mathematics. (Cro-Magnon man?) Count on fingers and toes. This will work until we get to twenty speeds.
So 8 more speeds to go. Say 5 years/speed. 40 years. Another 20 for a generation to come along that has seen only 20+ speeds, is now unable to document them and cannot impress the girls enough to get them in bed. Crisis! Mankind might have to invent something like an abacus to document cassettes. (Sadly, much more likely, someone will create an app and we will sink further down the evolutionary scale to probably below the chimpanzee.)
Ben (who has developed a different math where 3 chanrings and three cogs produce three gears and the 3 cog bike is a true "3-speed). |
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