On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 12:25:21 AM UTC, James wrote:
What's the point of clip less pedals. People ride happily with flat pedals.

VP-191, silky smooth if a little small under my size 12s.

What's the point of gear levers integrated with the brake levers?
People ride happily with gear levers on the down tube, or no gears at all!

People claim to be happy with a great many components that could be better designed in cycling, in the main because they think that suffering for your sport proves your manliness. It's a leftover from when cycling was a workingman's sport and killer endurance races were the norm. It's weird today, when the vast majority of cyclists are middle-class professionals, to see the same attitudes. Worse when the cyclists are engineers who definitely do know better.

I'd pay extra for a hydraulic brake lever integrated with a Rohloff rotary control, simply to recover space on my North Road handlebars. But that's a convenience and aesthetic judgement, not really a functional one as the bike I have in mind has worked fine with separate fixtures for 10K.

What's the point of disc brakes? People happily use rim brakes.

I have hydraulic discs. My discs are 622mm.

What's the point of multitudes of bottom bracket bearing designs?
People ride happily with regular square tapered axles and cranks to fit.

Square tape an effective design. Some of the rest may have engineering justifications, but most seem to me to be marketing exercises to corner a pot of money by establishing your own "standard".

What's the point of through axles? People ride happily with quick
release axles or solid axles.

What's the point of A-Head head sets? People ride happily with threaded
steerers and head set assemblies.

Actually, the A-Head assembly is one I approve of, because it requires fewer, more common tools to set up than the threaded headset. That said, on my everyday bike I actually lock down the A-head steerer tube and its associated bearings with a lockring (I use seatpost lockrings in these assemblies) at which the preload is set which is the point of the A-head, then insert a threaded type steering extender and lock it into the steerer tube to gain extra steer height, then fit the stem to that -- there's very little load on the spacers in between the stem and the locking.

Also, the A-head can be adjusted on the road, whereas a threaded headset is -- in my experience anyway -- unlikely to budge in response to the short spanner you can fit in a take-along bicycle toolkit.

What's the point of .... I think you see my frustration with the current
thread.

Well, here's another one for you: what's the point of a flat back on a bike, of contorting your body to drop handlebars?

I haven't bothered going tubeless on my newly acquired gravel touring
bike (1) with 42mm WTB Resolute tyres. If I start getting punctures or
run out of traction and want lower pressure, and think tubeless goop
will help, I might try then.

(1) Marin, Four Corners.

A point definitely arrives on my Big Apple 60mm balloons when you will get fishbites. For me it's pretty low, around 1.5 bar, but my roads are all blacktop, including even the smallest lanes. What happens is that you hit a pothole at speed on a downhill and your ride is instantly ruined. I haven't ridden on gravel roads since I lived in Australia, but I'd expect my tyres to be good at about 2.4 bar on good gravel and nearer 3 bar on gravel due for grading -- at which point they ride like their wretched cousins, the Marathon Plus. One would also want to know something of the sidewalls of your Resolute tyres.

Andre Jute
Ah, gravel roads, I remember them more fondly than they deserve