"Isn't modern bicycle technology absolutely wonderful?"😍

[greencat]

Agreed, the geometry is interesting, but I wish I could go without the boost and the silly overdone bearings, and perhaps some v brakes.

V-brakes will be a stretch, but careful selection of post-2015 era will get you relatively modern geometry without boost etc. You will have plenty to choose from pre-2020ish.

 

[brocklanders023]

It's modern geometry that tempts me to get a brand new MTB. External BB, thru axles, tapered head tube... I'm not really that bothered and they're not going to make much difference on the pretty tame local riding. But that upright posture looks more and more appealing with each advancing year.

Yeah, I really like the position a steep seat tube puts you in, more sat over the bb than behind it but with slack front and a long top tube to balance everything out.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Thats not witchcraft, its electric motors and batteries

Stomps off to consult the Malleus Maleficarum...

 

[brocklanders023]

Thats not witchcraft, its electric motors and batteries

Not in my garage it isn't.

 

[Jonny69]

It’s a shame the backwards- and cross-compatibility of mechs etc stopped at 10-speed. If I stuck with Shimano and SRAM between my bikes, it was quite handy being able to share cassettes and various other bits between them. On the SRAM-kitted bikes they could mix and match between Rival and, say, X7 depending if I fancied drop bars or flat bars. Similar on the Shimano-kitted road bikes where I could flip builds between 105 brake/shifters and 10-speed downtube shifters for a more classic-looking build, use any classic-looking derailleur and even take cogs off the cassettes to fit in old spacing without excessive stretching but still maintain perfect indexing.

1x started working really well with 10-speed. 9-speed was just a bit gappy with 1x, but by 10-speed it was good.

NW chainrings work really well. Great innovation. I’m sure they were invented way back when, but they weren’t around.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Shimano 10&11 mtb are compatible, mostly, but the big pity is you can't get road and mtb to go together much, almost as if they spotted the developing market for touring bikes (read Gravel Adventure Bikepacking) and came up with the grx groupset to be road levers with mtb ratios - like we used to be able to do with 6,7,8,9 and early 10

 

[Cloverleaf]

However, conversely 12spd is compatible between SRAM and Shimano which is a first. Quite handy as it means the X01 shifter I have paired with the XTR mech works perfectly.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Got to be a fortuitous accident - Or did sram copy shimano cable pull to enable sales of components aftermarket, perhaps not feeling there was a big enough 12speed market to support 2 rival systems?

 

[Cloverleaf]

Based on the last thirty years of using Shimano I'd suggest fortuitous accident, but equally Shimano were later to the party with 12spd so who knows? Either way it meant I got to get rid of the crap plastic SRAM X01 rear mech when it finally bent itself beyond saving, albeit the Shimano cable routing line into the derailleur isn't as good for my bike. The XTR is a lot tougher though. I'll eventually swap out the shifter for an XTR one too.

 

[brocklanders023]

Yep, got 12sp Shimano/Sram combo’s.