add absolute black OSPW to that list. Came straight from hambini's teardown.

I'm riding oval chainrings on all of my bikes, road and mtb. Totally ended my knee pain after meniscus surgery. Year ago i've tried to ride on round rings and the pain was back...

I've had Magura's HS33 hydro brakes on my MTB in the late 90s. Best braking I ever had, full stop. The modulation was even better than on today's disc brakes.

Actually, most commuter ebikes in The Netherlands still come specced with hydro rim brakes (Magura). So they are still very much around!

I've got a set of the Magura mtb hydraulic rim brakes on a long wheelbase recumbent that I built around 1999. With the CG down at the centerline of the front wheel, that thing stops better than any bike on the planet: grab the levers hard and it will pull your eyeballs out of their sockets.

Magura hydraulic rim brakes works perfectly and are pretty much used in older mtb, trial and touring: great stopping power, great modulation and more reliable than any other hydraulic brake system. I've been using them several years in two retrofitted bikes and never had a single issue. All you need is a good pair of rims, because their power easily smashes fragile ones

My brother almost bought the SRAM Red hydraulic rim brake groupset. His thinking was that he could later swap the groupset onto a disk brake frameset and only have to get disk calipers. He ended up just buying a new bike instead.

Hydraulic rim brakes though could allow manufacturers to have a rim and disc version without changing the shifter. Also, magura for mtb or city bikes work extremely well! The race bike version had a cumbersome integration with groupsets, just the UNO one had a proper one. Another point on O’symmetric ... they work! They do what they claim to do... but the question is more: do you want to remove the dead spot?... and the answer to that is different for every individual... But nice set of choice as all those technologies might not have made it, but there were not “fake technology”.

I ride non-round q-rings and it totally ended my knee pain after meniscus surgery… the difference is fully perceptible to me. That’s being said it has not lived up to its initial commercial potential

One "innovation" from somewhere around the early 2010s, that seems to have quietly faded away, is stitching on saddles. I am not sure what the reasoning was maybe ease of manufacture or more stability on the saddle, but the end result was holes developing quickly in cycling shorts.

The Magura brakes on the P5 were great when they were working/position was set. But they made adjusting position a nightmare, and now you can't even find parts to service them

Haha, on the 2011 Giant XR1 Roam I bought second hand in 2018, I've got Magura hydraulic rim brakes, the first time I pulled the levers in a reflex (surprise silent Tesla from the right), the breaking was almost scary, very powerful brakes!

Ironically I landed onto this video immediately after watching Hambini's AbsoluteBlack OSPW teardown video .. lol

I really enjoyed this historical review. Thank you. Being a mechanical engineer, I liked the idea of biopace back in the day. The truth was that I found any benefit inperceivable. Now that I am in my sixties I tried Absolute Black ovals and I found that they have helped me with knee problems on my mtb when ride with low cadence. As soon as I get my crank cadence over 100 rpm I begin to develop a body bounce (for want of a better description) that limits further increases in cadence and therefore speed. As such I haven't bothered to replace the round rings on my road bikes as I don't see the need. I did like the planetary gear system for the Hammer but the complexity, weight and frictional drag properties are completely against the basic KISS principles that make the existing drive chain systems the most efficient. I can't wait to see what comes next. However I won't be buying anything "new tech" until it has been proven to be effective and efficient.

Loving the old photos of Cammish and his L Shaped cranks.

Cannondale need to bring back the Silkroad. I would defo buy a gravel bike with a head shock instead of that lefty they currently have.

I ride an oval chain ring on my MTB and it's solved my knee pain. Looking to do the same on my 1x gravel bike.

I'd never seen a Hammerschmidt crank! Obviously one of those situations where the solution is worse than the problem.

Olliptical chain rings work. Yes, we only see a few of then on TdF winners, but that alone should tell you something. I ove them and have changed to them on all my bikes

I used to run hydraulic rin brakes in the early 00s and they were the best. I still have them. They were also very popular with trials riders. Oval chainrings are also quite common now so I'm not sure why it's a fail

Regarding suspension on road bikes, Hincapie crash was from steerer snapping off, nothing to do with the rear suspension. Rhe weight wheenies and carbon frame advances in designed in compliance probably has more to do with things not taking off.

It would seem that tubeless tires have made the desire for shocks on road bikes go away. Just go on wider tires on lower pressure.

I have a suggestion: The Shockster. It was a bolt-on rear suspension "upgrade" for hardtail bikes, that attached to the rear hub mount and the rear brake bosses, and the rear hub and rear brakes mounted to the "sprung" portion of the Shockster. It was heavy, offered little suspension travel, had almost no damping, and was rickety too.

I have Magura HG33 hydraulic rim brakes on my 2002 Schauff Tandem. They work great and are able to stop us even on a steep and speedy descend!

Schlumpf two-speed gearing system is still produced. Decades long production history cannot be considered failed product. Truvative Hammersmidt on the other hand had short production time and was probably failure.

Non round chain rings are called oval chain rings, there big in mtb, hydrolic rim brakes (mainly magura) are commonly used on high end city bikes and trial bikes

Soft-tail steel, titanium or carbon frames by Ibis, Sun, KHS, Flex-Stay by Merida... nowadays something similar can be seen on some of BMC, Pinarello and other models... but not so often.

Another thing was the expanding, contracting chainwheel, which apparently has been invented and reinvented many times over the past century or so. I specifically remember the Deal Drive which got advertised and hyped a lot in the bike press around 1983. I never saw one on the road, or trail, though.

i have recently bought a bike with hammerschmidt cranks and they work amazing, the feel of instant gear change is something new to me

I wish I had the opportunity to ride the Cannondale Silk Road. It looks like a great product and I was happy to buy such a gravel bike today

Interesting video. I'd add the Girvin Flex Stem to your list. Back in the early '70's CCM had a two-speed rear hub called a "Duomatic" that changed gears you with by pedaling backwards. The downside was that each time you hit the brakes, it would change gears, and if you were in low gear when you braked, when you started to pedal again you would be in high gear, so you had to pedal backwards again. It was a druable and reliable , but bonkers system.

Metropolis 2 speed planetary crank is brilliant on ebikes with hubdrive motors. one chainline, no tensioner, no chainflop….and the extra few ounces are not noticed. And you can keep up with the cadence at high speeds to still provide some assist with yur legs. Still using this, and luv it.

I'm batting .400 on this one, as I own a Silkroad and use Rotor Q-rings 😁

I still have an old Trek steel road bike with Biopace that sits on my trainer as a warm up bike.

I had ovals on my singlespeed, can't say much other than that I liked them. The science seems to be mixed on the subject, so I'll probably stay away from it for now. I wish suspension on road / gravel bikes stayed as a more "passive" thing by engineering the frame material / structure, like lauf's fork, and topstone's rear thing.

Should have included the Absolute Black OSPW 😬

Mtb rider here and I thought that you would appreciate my two cents on oval chainrings, I live in the dry landscape of Valencia in Spain and I use oval chainrings on all my bikes, the single benefit that I found they offer is improved traction on dry and loose climbs, since fitting them I suffer far less wheel spins. I started with one to try it and quickly fitted them to both my off road bikes, I do however have a gravel bike and see no benefit to fitting one there.

I am trying to get my hands on the Hammerschmidt again, wonderful drivetrain, perfect for homemade dh bikes that had a singlespeed rear hub.

One of the worst was the Shimano XT STI mountain bike leavers inspired by road group sets. It was Shimano’s way of locking you in to using Shimano brakes and gears. A total disaster for Shimano that was quickly killed off.

The Bianchi road bike was a supreme winner. The Rock Shox guys could tell a story about that dork in the welding shop who used aluminum for the rear triangle instead of flexible CrMo steel, despite clear instructions for it. As there is no pivot in the back only steel at that time (and today carbon) was an option, but not brittle aluminum. The new Lux, Epics or Superflys have the exact same design with a virtual pivot using carbon. And it works extremely well. And of course, the Rock Shox Roubaix (Mag 21) was simply 1. generation and like a limp noodle. Fully suspension Roubaix bikes will come, definitely!

Luddites killed Biopace. If you lived somewhere with steep hills it was brilliant. Plus the difference between the nearly round outer and the more oval inner gave a touring cyclist a difference in rythym that made long distances easier on different muscle groups.I wish I had Sake Ring OvalTech as that was even more pronounced.

Back in about 1992 I got to go to a bike demonstration by the Legendary Hans Rey. He was the coolest dude, he even let me try out his trials bike which had Magura hydros on it. They were awesome and I immediately went out and got some, I am forever grateful. Magura makes some of the best Mtn bike products that have ever existed, and I have tried em all

I loved my Girvin flexi stem on my mountain bike. I couldn't afford fork suspension at the time.

Here's another sort of failed tech. Back in the 1980s, I put "tire savers" on my touring bike. They were small bent wires held just touching the tire tread for the purpose of catching and removing anything that might be working its way into the tire before it made it through to puncture the tube. I can honestly say that I never had a puncture flat the whole time I used them. Eventually, they went out of fashion. Their effectiveness was dubious at best.

ive actually tried out the hammersmidt cranks before, and it’s probably the best feeling shifting i’ve ever felt. instant change, and even the ability to change under a full load pedal stroke. too bad i didn’t buy it though since someone else got the bike it was on just a few days before i got the money for it

I had Shimano OvalTech on my Raleigh Massif ATB back in the 90s. They looked cool but 15 year old me couldn’t tell any difference between them and normal round rings.

As a point of interest: 1:31 that's Ian Camish (the top UK time-trialist of the day in the early 1980's) using the funny cranks. You might not have noticed that he is also using what look like clipless pedals before they were invented by Look. The curious thing is they are not really clipless - his shoes have been screwed into the pedal itself!

Shimano AX pedals and cranks. Due to the pedla design the crank had a stress riser. Mavic electronic shifting. The Bummer saddle.

Surprised you didn’t mention the Softride bikes in your discussion of suspension road bikes. Those things were hideous but you’d see them all over bike mags in the 90s. I even met a Bicycling writer out riding who was on one back then. He was also about the worst conversationalist I’ve ever met.

I had a biopace crank set on an old mountain bike . The only time I could notice any help or it feeling like it did anything was in the really small ring ( triple sprocket) and biggest ring on the back going up hills.

I quite liked the biopace chain rings on my first road bike.

Strangely enough I have ended up owning a bio-pace gear set and hammerschmidt. Both came on used bikes i bought. No L-shaped cranks yet.

Anyone remember the PowerCam crank? It had a cam in it to help relieve the dead spot with a cam to make it easier to push bigger gears. A buddy had this and it not only didn't work, the cams were prone to snapping.

The non-round chainring is still around as oval chainrings, but they are much more round compared to the earlier oval-shaped chainrings

My friend has the Hammerschmidt system on a high preformance mountain bike and it is a good system, it gives you a lot of range and less chaindrops

I have the biospace crank on my old Miyata. The only time I feel a difference is when I’m climbing off the seat. Then it feels like an flip flop flop as it goes over the edge.

I had biopace chainrings on my first decent bike. Luckily I don’t think it was oval enough to really change performance. I could never tell anyway

Oval chainrings are brilliant for several reasons but they don’t play well with front derailleurs so that limits them somewhat but I recommend anyone who rides 1x to try it, I’m never going back to round.

I loved the magura hydro rim brakes

Oval chain ring has been a great help for my knees, no mor ekneepain, but it won't give the same results for everyone. But for me it was helpful. As my channel name suggests I am a mountianbiker. I've used disc brakes for years, less contamination.

Campagnolo Delta Brake They look beautiful but the braking effect is very poor compared to the design.

I tried the RockShock road fork 20 years ago. I don’t remember any advantage, but the weight unbalanced the handling.

Steve Bauer's "chopper" he used at the 1993 Paris Roubaix.... it was a brave experiment and he said it took him six months to get used to riding it. Can't remember where his finished there, but Duclos-Lasalle won on a RockShox quipped bike. Bauer actually used that same bike for a week in the 1993 Giro, before it ending up in the scrapheap...

I LOVED my Hammerschmidt. It was so awesome! I wouldve loved to carry it over to my new bike but it just physically wouldnt fit.

Texas 1990, at least one team was racing bikes with tiny wheels . Possibly Romic was the brand of frames .

Non linear dynamics. Could work..maybe? will do an Infranodus on this!Bicycle 2.0 Punctures get rid of these and you’re onto a winner!

I ride future shock on the front end of my specialized got to say i think it’s brilliant..

I will add the Rotor hidraulic derailers, good as a project for an engineering thesis

Oval chainrings are pretty popular here. At least the absoluteblack ones are. See them a lot, I got one too, was only $4 more than the xt chainring. Haven't put it on yet since my chainring's still fine.

2:45. The chainrings are 72 degrees off. The notches on the interior of the ring should be behind the crank arm.

they certainly didn't make ian commish ride any slower ! - such class!

Check out the Cycles Hirondelle retro-direct, its a system with basically two rear sprockets, with one of them having a much smaller gear ratio and running in the opposite direction. It was designed to the cyclist could pedal backwards up the hills and forward on the flats and descents. The non-active sprocket would be freewheeling. Obviously this was overly complex, and pedaling backwards was horrible, and the pedals were unscrewed when pedalling backwards.

Well the hydraulic rim breaks are everywhere. Maybe not in racing but for a lot of travel or commute bikes they are preferred. I myself have magura HS33 installed on my commute bike and they are perfect. They don’t care about abuse. They perform a lot better than standard rim breaks in wet conditions and just require no maintenance at all.

I like my Osymetrics, especially at lower cadence with high torque. One probably need to adapt them before training round pedaling technique on round chainrings. Gears at the bottom bracket before the chainring are still a ting. And I am not talking about Pinion, but rather Schlumpf and now also Effigear. Also putting gears in the hub, after the cassette is not dead. SRAMs Dual Drive with three gears to greatly increase range, were axed with SRAMs complete hub gear section, but they are still hoarded and sought after in the recumbent space and Sturmey Archer has the Tripple Shift, that does the same. So Classified did not bring anything new, other than making it more limited with only two gears and electric and maybe a bit lighter and more efficient.

check out Shimano Dyna Drive cranks and pedals from the 80s. The pedal axle and crank threads were a massive 1inch diameter. Interesting but also faded out of existence

Oval chainrings are still big things

Magura (and Promax) rimbrakes are still used a lot on e-bikes. I hate them though, they're almost impossible to align properly with the rim, make your bike and rims very dirty and they wear away quickly. And these are just a grab of all the problems they create.

29 frame top tube cracked some eggs when alighted in a hurry

Di2 and other electronical gearing. Is a solution to a problem that don't exist.

oval chainrings are noticeable and not unusual in the mtb world at all

There is a Sram HammerSchimdt on my dad’s 2009 Norco Rampage and it feels better than any front mech I have ever tried.

Wasn't Hincapie's failure from the fork? Softail road bikes can be invaluable for riders with back / cervical issues (Moots YBB Road, for instance). I've had a ti softail cross bike (Vail Cycle Works) for 23 years and it is an absolute blessing on all rough surfaces.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Gripshift, which was huge in the mid 90s (but not really that effective, just flash or a little bit gimmicky) & then quickly taken over by "rapidfire" Shimano Index, leading to the standard shifters we use today.. As for Magura, it might not be as big as Shimano & SRAM but it's certainly not dead. It's more in the class of brakes like Hope if anything, just a fraction of the price.. I'm running Magura MT5s, Magura's entry level 4-pot brakes, on my downhill bike & theyre frickin amazing! Easily the best value 4pot brakes available. Better & far cheaper than the entry level Shimano & SRAM 4 pot brakes. The MT5s use the same calliper as the MT7, which was developed with input from Danny McCaskill, who rides Magura MT7s, so you know they're good! .Only difference with MT5 & MT7 is the lever, but the brake unit itself is the same. The modulation & stopping power is amazing, honestly cant recommend them enough! And only $300 NZD front & rear on Merlin UK, the same price as the cheapest price i could find for just one unit of SRAM XR, which are nowhere near as good, or even cheaper (for front & rear) than i could find for one unit of a lower model Saint 4 pot brake. And they have that Hope brake aesthetic too, for a fraction of the price, but almost the same level of quality.. Definitely don't write Magura off just because they aren't big.. As for the Ass Saver, i definitely always wondered about that, it always looked too small & too far away from the wheel to be effective.. Same cannot be said for the very simple guards that tie to your suspension forks on your mtb. Not only can they look really cool (the design on mine totally pops off), but there's a huge difference in mud & dust on the forks with & without, plus my front clothes are way cleaner. Very important when your trails are steep & on clay soil & need only a little drizzle to get muddy..

For mountain biking the hammer Schmidt was actually valid tbf

The real reason the SRAM hydraulic rim brakes didn't "take off", even though they were spec'd OEM on quite a few bikes in 2013, is because of the SRAM master cylinder recall debacle. The hydro rim brakes used the same lever as the discs, so when the recall was made, those were all stripped off of bikes (mostly unsold) and replaced with cable actuated groups on the rim brake bikes. The disc brake equipped bikes eventually got the updated levers, but the rim brake bikes never got hydro replacements. By the following year, bike makers were more "all in" on the discs, and the hydro rim brakes weren't spec'd OEM much. One could still buy them in Red/Force/Rival/S700 spec after-market up until a year or 2 ago. I have a pair of the S700 brakes on my road bike and they work great. They are consistent all the time (no degradation over time in actuation) and, since the rim systems don't heat up the fluid, they don't need to be bled often like disc setups. The lever feel is very nice. IMO, hydraulic actuation is a big part of the "modulation" feel folks talk about with disc systems. They definitely have more power than SRAMs cable actuated rim brakes, as SRAMs own lever force vs. braking force data released at the time shows. Combine them with rims like the Hed Turbine track equipped models, or a PEO ceramic coated rim, and the performance is arguably as good, if not better, than disc braking, both in the dry and the wet.

Can you remember the flex stem from the 90s,they were going to be huge.

I never understood lefty forks

4:57 if you can get one of these get them I recommend so easy and if your not serious rider they are grate

I had an oval ringset, I could hear the chain almost giving out

How about the Tarmac SL7 and the Absolute Black OSPW?

Was the micro spline from shimano ever a thing ? I've seen only one bike with this system in years and it's kinda cheap here where I live 🤔

Shimano Dyna drive pedals never really made it. But Magura Hydraulic rim brakes are far from completely dead, probably still the most reliable choice for fully loaded world touring.

Idk,those hydro brakes look pretty cool..I'd throw a pair on my ride

Lol oval chainrings are very popular and a good design

I want to presta included here one day.

What about the shimano front freewheel system.

My hss33 set hasnt had a bleed in 20 years and still outperform most cable actuated v-brakes and on par with well maintained disc brakes. They are very low maintenance and very tolerant of misalignment of contamination. Certainly not a fail.

The specialized Roubaix is proof that world of suspension brought from gravel is indeed making its way into road cycling again.

Road bike suspension must've been a nightmare. (I'm assuming a lot here but..) It would've been way too floaty and probably put a lot of stress on your shoulders/arms when trying to maintain your posture. But this is just my wild guess.

That kestrel frame with no seat tube or the Y-Foil and Softride frames. Eek