Pinkbike Poll: Would You Rather...? Quick-Fire Edition
This week we're interested in some quick-fire polls. Less room for multiple choice and more absolute. Here's the rapid fire edition of Would You Rather...? all centered around bike tech.
Internal or external cable routing?
Do you like your cables on the outside and easy to service, or on the inside and requiring more work and occasionally a right pain?
Threaded or press fit BB?
Do you prefer using a BB spanner to thread your cups in or, in the absence of a bearing press, a hammer to smash them in?
Climb switch or efficient pedalling suspension system?
Would you rather be reaching down for the little climb switch to make your bike pedal well, or have efficiency built into the suspension system?
Mineral oil or DOT fluid in your brakes?
What do you prefer getting all over your hands, workshop floor, and maybe even the dog?
Suspension pivot bearings or bushings?
Lightweight bushings or cartridge bearings with balls and grease?
Room for a water bottle or a wild suspension design?
Do you prefer having a water bottle inside the front triangle, or would you forgo it for a wilder suspension design?
Drop dead gorgeous looks that last a month of riding, or a dog’s dinner that outlasts seasons of abuse?
A bike that you can't take your eyes off but that sounds like a bag of spanners and is due a full service after only a month, or something not as aesthetically pleasing but that will hold up to abuse with no need to even show it a tool?
Integrated cockpits or adjustability?
Futuristic looking integrated bar and stem combos that can drop weight, or a more standard split between your bars and stem for some ability to adjust?
A fully electric bike that thinks and does everything for you or a mechanical bike that you have control over?
Automation beyond belief that controls suspension, drivetrain, seat post and any other gadgets paired with the bike, or a mechanical system that has levers, buttons and switches but that you have control over?
Adjustable geometry or one fixed setting?
The ability to adjust your bikes geometry to suit the terrain, conditions and generally how you feel on that day, or one fixed setting for every eventuality?
Super progressive leverage ratios or flat as a pan linear?
Mega suspension leverage ratio progression, we're talking over 40% and high starting leverage ratios, or completely flat and as linear as it comes?
Zero pedal kickback and a really slow to engage hub or instant engagement and pedal kickback all over the place?
No chance of the dreaded pedal kickback ever ruining your day but a real damn slow to engage hub, or instant engagement but pedal kickback happening left right and center?
DH bike with a single crown or an enduro bike with a dual crown?
A full-on DH bike but with a long travel single crown up front, or a modern enduro bike with a dual crown taking the duties?
Clean looking hidden pivot hardware that needs octopus hands to work on or easy to access and work on visible hardware?
No hardware visible from the exterior of the bike and clean uninterrupted frame surfaces but you need 6 pairs of hands and 3 degrees to work on your bike, or easy to access hardware that's easy to work on but you can see it?
Got your own "Would you rather?" related to bike tech? Let's hear about it.
Easy to work on bikes with more visible bits and pieces, or something smoother and cleaner that's trickier to work on?
327 Comments
@ctd07 kudos for the honesty.
Not to mention, who the rich removes the bb cups more than once a year?
Maybe buy a new bike every decade too, that’d make a difference.
f*cking press bb’s suck donkey dick
I have PF and threaded. As long as the frame is well made the PF BB are easier, faster and cheaper to service (and also lighter but thats not a huge difference).
In a threaded BB you need:
- to unscrew, which requires a special tool per bb brand
- to clean the threads, which if you had issues can take forever
- to extract the bearings from the cups which requires special tooling, or buy brand new cups
- to insert the new bearing
- to screw things back in (most likely not at the right torque because most don't have the right tool *and* something to mount it on a torque wrench
In a PF BB you need:
- to pop out the BB with a tool that is universal
- swap the bearings (no extractor needed, no need to replace the cups.. thought these cost nothing because no thread)
- push the cups back in - don't even need tool/bearing press, you can gently hammer it in if you want
I've also met countless people that think the BB is their creaking issue while it's the crankset/seatpost/pedals/etc. Some do but it's rare (and when they do because your frame wasn't well made, you can press in a one piece aluminum threaded BB - but i've not seen that in a long time now)
At the end of the day i don't care which one it is too much, but the PF is just nicer.
I've had press fit in my: Pivot 5.7c, Intense Sniper, Giant Defy, Pivot Mach 6
I've had threaded in my: Santa Cruz BLT, Ibis Ripmo, Santa Cruz Nomad
I've replaced 1 of my press fit bottom brackets ever--in my 5.7c after about 3 years of riding in SoCal.
I've replaced my threaded bottom brackets every 3-4 months in every threaded bike I've had. I've tried ceramic, I've tried steel, I've tried Shimano, Sram, BB Infinite. All of them get creaky or crunchy way too soon. I have no idea why.
To me they are both very easy to service if you have the tool. Pressing in a press fit bottom bracket with the proper tool is actually really satisfying. It's so smooth and perfect! Press fit looks better, is lighter and stiffer too.
But I get that a lot of bikes are built with awful tolerances and it's never going to work well if the frame isn't made well. People are just blaming the wrong thing. Blame the brand for making a crap frame. Don't blame press fit. Your bearings are still press fit into your threaded BB...the main advantage of threaded is it is better at dealing with a frame with poor tolerances.
Ive heard its hard to set up correctly. The kind of thing i work in Shops.
took the wrong guess aparrently
i hate not finding new replacemet bearing for a BB95, And the ones availbale in internet are starting in 130 Euro? Seems crazy to me. Maybe its the current prices que are facing. The industry has gone mad.
Glazed
e: Oh just remembered that I installed a new brake on a bike with internal routing. Might aswell count that. Yeah, was a bit of a hassle, but I had to shorten it anyway...
But just holes in your frame with half ass rubber grommets, crazy frame constraints and angles to blindly smoosh cable through and in the end have lots of noise, internal cable wear because the endcaps suck/don't hold well or the internal structure is rough and endcaps that restrict what cables can go where unless you just through out their proprietary endcaps and use duct tape... NO!
That was the one advantage I could think of pro external cable routing. That said, don't quite see where internal cable routing would be an advantage for me personally. To each their own of course.
They are a pita to set up
The lines can pinch the cables
They make it harder to swap out parts
They are simply unnecessary unless you’re a dentist.
I have internal routing on my Demo, external on my RB. There's no hassle with either. The Demo has it done as it should be, you stick it in on one end and it comes out on the other. No magnets or fiddling needed.
I also happen to be a mechanic and work with internal routing on a regular basis. The Park Tool kit makes the job a breeze, and honestly it hardly takes more time than splitting and installing new zip ties or guides on external routing.
Pussy.
1. Super low top tube and short seat tube to have a lot of room to move around but no room for any storage.
2. High top tube with room for two (or more) bottles, tools all stored inside the front triangle.
I'd choose 1.
1. ride a mountain bike
2. ride a road bike
Would You Rather: A gorgeous bike that lasts one month of riding or a dogs dinner that outlasts seasons of abuse?
594
A gorgeous bike that only lasts a month
4965
A dog's dinner of a bike that outlasts seasons of abuse
Also Pinkbike:
That bike's &$#&*! ugly! And heavier than a neutron star! Kill it with fire!
1) a carbon mtb with a press fit BB.
2) an alumnium mtb that looks the same as that carbon mtb, with the same build, for the same price, but weighs half a kilo (a bit over a pound) more and has a threaded BB.
People are going to confuse that.
My kona operator was a progressive leverage/rising rate suspension and i bottom it out non stop.
My pivot is a progressive suspension falling rate and ramps up so hard i had to remove volume spacers from my shock.
Octopus hands would be very useful
A) seat a stubborn tubeless set up
B) route internal cables without frame tubes or magnets
B) It was hell of a fight to remove tires after letting them seat and spread on tubes, but then they fully seated after single pump push even without sealant
Would You Rather: Plastic Bikes or Metal with mitering & real welding?
Point about headset and frame bearing is irrelevant since head set is integrated but not pressed, frame bearing / bushings have less loads and rotates up 45 degrees or so, also intence/sc have greasing ports to simplify your life
A. Have an expensive bike and be a dick about it.
B. Have a cheap bike and be a dick about it.
On Pinkbike the correct answer is of course both A and B.
Might have been better to express the potential trade-off with suspension bob vs. stiffening under braking?
Yes, I do need to get out more.
An old school 10 to 15 year old reliable bike with modern top spec everything (ex Cannondale Prophet)
Or a brand new high end frame with low end spec parts?
Real question. My Cannondale Prophet is the old school bike with top spec parts.
A) another new BB standard
B) another new hub spacing standard
C) another new wheel size
D) screw it, all of the above
I just like to ride my bike. Always have, always will.
"Rascal...!!" (yelled from the top to the grand canyon....)
A) Short Travel (~120mm) with modern geometry
B) Long Travel (~160mm) but with geometry from a decade ago
y'all been drinking the "Enduro bike can do everything" juice too much.
Join Pinkbike Login