Interesting question here: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/688364/…

And yes, adding full suspension and disc brakes probably drove up the cost dramatically.

Has anyone ever heard the term "Souplesse" in relation to pedalling style? Seems to be French.

@Criggie There a matching word in French, for sure. But never heard of it in that context. The best translation for a riding style would "smoothness"

@Criggie I don't know, I make sure to only pedal with an entire bowl of warm soup. Don't want anything to do with "soupless".

"pedalling in circles" is definitely a thing, so "smoothness" kinda make sense. But we've moved on from the French being leaders in cycling so french words sound somewhat forced in place for modern concepts.

I'm sitting here fitting my $4 aliexpress cleats, btw

@Criggie It can also be this tendency of using French words to look smarter (although a bit outdated). But as a French speaker, I can say that words in that kind of context are often the wrong ones, or with spelling mistakes. I actually searched on the French websites and couldn't find a reference of "souplesse" being used to name a "pedaling style"

oui, oui :)

which sounds fancier than "wee wee" :))

@Criggie Yes, it comes up semi frequently on commentary if you are watching entire grand tour stages and not just the highlights

-grin-

It refers to the ability to have smooth/easy spinning of the pedals at a high cadence

Quote from BikeRadar: "A smooth, efficient pedal stroke is so important to cycling performance that the French even have a word for it: a ‘souplesse’ pedalling motion gives the appearance of effortless ease while delivering maximal forwards propulsion. "

Aunt A: "Oh Bertie, how do you move with such souplesse?" J. (thinking): "Because the blighter is entirely spineless you old biddy."

Interesting: for the pedaling style, another word would be used in French: mouliner (it's a verb, which means outside cycling: to grind, to mill). But a disclaimer, I don't watch cycling races (not even the highlights, so I may miss some technical expressions).

well building "down to a price point" has been a thing since forever in many industries.

you can have a better bike but it costs more

this suggestion of "no shit bikes" doesn't mean better cheap bikes, it means fewer ultracheap bikes.

That makes it harder to get into bike ownership for the very poor, so better quality used bikes are the only remaining option.

Sure, but what we want to achieve is getting manufacturers to hit the $100 price point without wasting $30 implementing rear pogo suspension that doesnt work whilst at the same time making bike double the weight and lowering efficiency

A good starting point would like the French (again :p) are doing for consumer electronics: there's a legal obligation to have a "repair label" (same style as with energy ratings), that is computed based on the availability/interchangeability of spare parts and/or tools required, the documentation,...). That wouldn't prevent from selling crap bikes, but that would make people think twice about buying a bike that may need to be replaced because it's using non-standard components.

I kind of doubt it’s possible to make some nice, easy and straightforward regulation for this kind of thing

which achieves the intended purpose

I understand that for "performance" bikes, this repair label would be lower than for "regular" bikes, but the issue for me is more about "utility/leisure bike" market than the performance one. The public of the "performance" bikes is also more aware of compatibilities issues (but if it allows to save 0.1W, it's worth the trade-off).

@Criggie It's highly concerning that answer has actually attracted some upvotes........

@AndyP Why? It’s not that horrible

as long as you don’t read it as an invitation for reckless riding

@Michael I'd consider advising random strangers not to use their brakes as plain dangerous. People are very much stupid enough to read that and decide to just keep going at roundabouts or junctions to gain an extra 0.1km/h on their average speed

If you are riding with someone and can see they are braking too much for corners etc then it could be perfectly valid advice, but it needs context

I hardly ever touch my brakes when on the road. Of course, that's because it's very quiet roads, there are literally 0 traffic lights in the entire region... and the fact that if I'm not heading up a hill I'm headed down one towards another incline.

There is literally one spot on my standard routes where I need to brake, because there's a left turn in the middle of a downhill.

Otherwise? The hills do all my braking for me.

I rather like braking. After braking there is also some nice accelerating.

Accelerating hurts - but I agree can be fun at times :)

@Renaud Funny, because when cyclists are "grinding" (in English), they're pushing too big a gear and pedaling slowly, with difficulty.

I'm pretty sure the 'grinding' metaphor comes from coffee grinders, where one has to turn a crank.

It's a made up term from some alternate reality universe that is barely recognisable to the rest of us. Tag should never have existed, and the world will be a better place when it doesn't exist anymore

It almost doesn't deserve a meta post; it's a single user who is spamming their pet term onto a bunch of other posts. I don't see any reason we shouldn't simply roll back those edits.

@Criggie - Could use a mod intervention on this post. I've done a lot of work on a couple entries that rendered other entries redundant. bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/1195/…

Done

Well that was interesting. I broke a master link on the bent, while riding into work. Not completely unusual, so i saw the slack chain and coasted to a stop. Could hear the chain dragging on the road.

Both sides of the master link were still there, on the same end of the chain

and the side plates were slightly splayed so the pin had lost contact with a side plate and both had spread apart like scissors.

Fortunately I carry a bunch of spares, so a quick fix and we're off..... but we're not

I push the pedal and it does nothing - instant thought was "did I break the freehub?"

So I backpedal to reset for another push off and encounter resistance.

I'd criss-crossed the chain

so Top of cassette went under the chainring, in a big figure-8 loop.

I was briefly tempted to ride on like that, then sanity prevailed

I’ve heard that you can generate much higher torques on a recumbent

because it’s kind of like a leg press

you'd think, but there's no upper body involved at all

so its about the same speed as a road bike in a still wind. In a headwind the bent goes faster

Acceleration in a bent is slower than a road bike too.

this is an unfaired recumbent btw - any fairings would help.

The only aero device I have is a chainring guard.