My list of top 10 bicycle improvements (starting point is the original safety bicycle):
- pneumatic tires
- inner tubes
- rim brakes
- butted Cromoly tubing
- alu rims
- freewheels
- LED lights
- Kevlar puncture guard
- clipless pedals
- synthetic chamois
I’d swap Strava for disk brakes. If anything, Strava has been a detriment to cycling by turning a lot of its users into selfish assholes. Quick releases should be on here somewhere as well.
I agree - I’d even go as far as to remove other stuff like “power meters”, “e-bikes” and “smart indoor training” for stuff that has actually improved the act of cycling since its beginning - like, among those you mentioned, alu tubing, tubeless/TPU, sealed cartridges or indexed shifting. I dunno, maybe even belt drivetrains could be in this list somewhere in the future given they can fix their drawbacks.
Ebikes have arguably been one of the biggest boons to cycling in general. Many people who often wouldn’t have cycled at all are now getting on bikes, and many more people who would have taken a car for a particular trip due to distance or hills are now also taking their ebikes instead.
Ebikes have probably gotten more people riding bikes than anything else on the list.
Need to add, class1 pedelec with a cap at 25 kmph are fine. The 32 kmph US versions ones are already questionable.
However throttle assist ebikes are a menace.
Also, the list is a bit roadie-centric. Add suspension, dropper posts and subtract “smart” indoor training, and Strava.
I think that adding wheels was the real GOAT of bicycling tech
