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forum
Bike technology
A replacement front mech has just arrived for my bike - the updated 105 R7000 one. Sometimes I think we take all this precision engineering for granted. £22 and its an absolute masterpiece if you spend some time looking at it. 4 2mm adjustment screws, a seriously strong spring, 4 or 5 different materials, all in something that weighs mere grammes. Electronic shifting might be more high-tech but this thing is a mechanical marvel. Remember, it has to work on a whole variety of bike frames as a generic part, so it has to be highly adjustable but still perform in a predictable manner. Having grown up with downtube shifters, 5-speed blocks, and no indexing perhaps I appreciate it more...
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
Latest Forum Topics
Latest Comments
- Geordiepeddeler 3 hours 49 min ago
Cycling infrastructure does not force drivers to break the law, drivers are the reason they break the law, no one else.
- chrisonabike 4 hours 1 min ago
Ah but taking pictures of things to defy the man (avoid a fine) is righteous. Taking pictures of people to grass on them to the cops (perhaps...
- ktache 5 hours 51 min ago
But getting paid for it is the very definition of professional....
- ktache 6 hours 29 sec ago
Never had a Shimano QR fail on me. They just work. And the top end ones look good too....
- Backladder 6 hours 46 min ago
If you're only looking at the guy in front of you then you're going to crash whatever brakes you have, you need to look beyond them to anticipate...
- jaysa 7 hours 12 min ago
As a woman, this works great for me! My chain broke once, and a kind guy stopped with a chain breaker and sorted it all out for me. We stopped at a...
- andystow 8 hours 3 min ago
Same. I also have gone through a bunch of their tyres, and only the extralight disappointed (torn sidewall) but the standards are fantastic....
- chrisonabike 10 hours 54 sec ago
Indeed - but it's no more inconsistent than our current road design - very often UK high streets are "for shopping" and also a busy through route....
- mike the bike 11 hours 31 min ago
If you ask the world's leading economic commentators how many people have been rescued from abject poverty by capitalism the average answer would...
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5 comments
"Suntour in the late 70s to mid 80s, now that was a massive advancement, particularly in rear mechs.
A pair of Suntour power shifters, a cycle MKII rear and front mech with a Sedis sport chain and an Everest freewheel and you'd have changes absolutely buttery smooth and better than 5800/R7000 in my personal experience.
The design is tidy but I don't think the tech is anything special over and above what was around BITD"
Suntour superbe and suntour cyclone rear mechs were good, the sedis sport chain was very flexible laterally . Things were far more simple in those days .
Suntour in the late 70s to mid 80s, now that was a massive advancement, particularly in rear mechs.
A pair of Suntour power shifters, a cycle MKII rear and front mech with a Sedis sport chain and an Everest freewheel and you'd have changes absolutely buttery smooth and better than 5800/R7000 in my personal experience.
The design is tidy but I don't think the tech is anything special over and above what was around BITD.
The shifting action of a R7000 front mech is an improvement on previous front mechs I've used.
Yeah it's a big improvement. I've got a 5800-badged one of these on my best bike. Set and forget, reliable, easy shifting. Very impressive.
And it will last for ages too. Working pretty much faultlessly.
The shifter will probably die before it does.
Rear mechs never last as long as the front.