Re: Suspension losses

On 1/10/2025 5:18 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

 This makes me reflect on the criticism of electronics in bicycles. ... But what about measuring the
amount of power applied to the pedals, what about telling the cyclist
who balanced he splits the power between left and right, by
instrumenting the pedal or the bottom bracket? 

Yes, that can be done with enough sensors and electronics. But it seems like useless information to me. As with much computer software, it seems like "feature bloat." Why would anybody but a racer care?

What about replacing
those awkward cables and complicated brifters with simple electric
switches and an encrypted wireless channel? Is that bad, because a
blacksmith can't repair it with his tools, like giving a horse a new
pair of horse shoes?  

Of course, you're welcome to use electric shifting if you like. (Or brifters, which I don't!) But my life experience with electronic devices makes me suspicious. I've seen too many examples of electronic devices that simply stopped working, with no possible way of diagnosing the problem - at least, not by me. And while I'm far from an electronics expert, I'm better than the average citizen.
Two days ago, my kid asked me to figure out why an electric blanket wasn't working. The controller refused to turn on. I opened it and confirmed that it was getting supply voltage. Beyond that, the pile of dozens of surface mount electronic components was incomprehensible to me. I suspect Jeff might have been able to diagnose it, but not me. Here's a photo:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/16972296@N08/54259119364/in/dateposted-public/
I know electric blankets are old technology. I know they functioned well for decades with maybe a rheostat and perhaps a couple of other components. Why add unrepairable complexity?
Similarly, a good friend recently told me about her adventure with her relatively new washing machine. During an expensive service visit, a repairman told her the problem was somewhere in the main circuit board, and that the only solution was to replace the expensive board. Our washer is something like 35 years old, uses an electro-mechanical timer, and will probably work well for whichever grandkid inherits it.
I'm positive my shifters are also going to be working for whichever grandkid inherits them. I wouldn't be confident about electronic shifters.

What about LED lights, then? Shouldn't we get
back to incandescent bulbs, powered by bottle dynamos?

I love good LED bike lights. And in some cases, the LEDs are direct replacements for incandescent bulbs. But I still use bottle dynos on two bikes. They can be more than fine, depending on service requirements.

I think we should not and can not turn back the wheel, at least not like
this.  I accept that there are reasons to keep bicycles simple, or to
keep at least some biycles simple enough to long lived and usable even
without much maintenance and without exotic stuff. But the question is,
what makes a component or material exotic? Is a specific bowden cable or
a gear hub or hub generator really less exotic and simpler to
replace/recreate than, say, a LED light or a wireless shifter? I doubt
it.

It depends on the LED light, I suppose. Some seem to have on board electronics as complicated as that blanket controller, and I don't know why. (I am curious about that, having opened up one Busch & Muller headlamp.) But I've opened and repaired both gear hubs and hub dynos from the 1950s. They now work perfectly. That won't be true of current electronic shifters 50 years from now.
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- Frank Krygowski