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Aside from modern #ebikes, and possibly disc brakes, bicycle #technology stopped "innovating" for the average person during the 1990s, and actually the #quality and environmental #sustainability of #bicycles since then has been declining.
While it certainly has advantages for competitive racing, carbon fiber is not recyclable in any meaningful sense, and its benefits are so marginal for the average person that it really has no place outside of racing.
No one outside of racing needs electronic shifting, and even that is arguable. Very few people outside of racing actually need more than 7 cogs in the rear (the primary exceptions being off-road and touring bicycles used in mountainous terrain). Most people don't even need the power of disc brakes; for most people, rim brakes are cheaper, lighter, simpler, and offer sufficient stopping force. No one outside of racing needs tubeless tires or aero wheels and other components.
The kinds of bicycles and bicycle accessories that people need to help manage their daily transportation needs in comfort and convenience without motor vehicles are the kinds of things that interest me, and are the kinds of things that are most lacking from the current market, though things have certainly improved in recent years.
Non-standardized, non-user-replaceable Li-ion batteries should be banned outright, as should ebikes that require a smartphone to operate.
I would also like to point out that the needs of racing cyclists and fitness cyclists are almost diametrically antithetical, yet the industry and the community both commonly conflate the two.
A racer needs to expend as few calories as possible and expend as little effort as possible to go as fast and as far as possible, to win races.
The *entire point* of fitness riding is to expend calories and engage in as much effort as possible, to build physical fitness. #bicycles #BikeTooter
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