FirstFlight
Senior Retro Guru
There are no new ideas, just ones adapted for modern uses with better materials. Go look through a couple of the history books that cover the 1890's and check out what was available 100+ years ago (when ALL bikes were mountain bikes): non-round chain rings, suspension forks, shaft drive, internally geared hubs, rear suspension, clip-less pedals, trail-a-bikes, "hygenic" saddles.........on and on. About the only thing they truly didn't have were derailleurs.
Stuff like elevated chain stays and triple triangle were almost completely market driven and not engineering driven. Sure they came up with "reasons" that you needed them but the reasoning was pretty thin. The same thing supposedly happened back when racers weren't able to be sponsored by bike companies. They came up with designs that were unique enough that you didn't need a decal to know who built the bike (IE: Hellenic stays).
Stuff like elevated chain stays and triple triangle were almost completely market driven and not engineering driven. Sure they came up with "reasons" that you needed them but the reasoning was pretty thin. The same thing supposedly happened back when racers weren't able to be sponsored by bike companies. They came up with designs that were unique enough that you didn't need a decal to know who built the bike (IE: Hellenic stays).
