A rant about thread-less headsets

On August 6,2001 I wrote an article called "Disk or that, you decide" about the big push by manufactures to have everyone switch to Disk brake systems. I'm happy to find out that I'm not the only person who feels bike manufacturers sometimes put the wrong foot forward. I understand that manufacturers are in the business to make money but bike magazines should help support the riders. Thumper from Dallas has good reason to feel that some mountain bike magazines appear to be influenced by advertisement dollars to the point where we the readers of such rags must question the value of the information that is presented. I say don't buy the Rag any more and tell your friends not to buy it either!

Here is Thumpers view on the issue.

A few of years ago, a rider I know, named John Rader, who lives here invented a little thing called a thread-less headset. Fork manufacturer loved it, because they no longer had to cut and thread steering tubes. Bike manufacturers loved it because they didn't have to re-cut steering tubes to fit each size frame. Mountain bike magazines loved it because they make their money from, guess who, bike companies and fork companies. Riders for some strange reason don't seem to be able to think for themselves. They (we) end up believing what the magazines tell us. So now all riders think that thread-less is the way to go because that's what the magazines say. Well, to the point, now we are stuck with a bike that has no vertical adjustability of the handlebars. This led to riders with a seat that is 5 inches above their bars. Guess what, back pain and uncomfortable riding, but better to be uncomfortable than not to be cool, right.

Well, along come the manufacturers who say, we have something else to sell you... riser bars. They then trot out their publicity machine (a.k.a. bike magazines) to tell us that riser bars are cool and make riding more comfortable. Well, if you hadn't taken away adjustable stems in the first place, there wouldn't be a problem. The point is, we need to THINK. Never, ever read these "unbiased" publications without thinking about the number of ads you see from bike manufacturing. Thanks Thumper from Dallas. I won't even get in to the other big BS issue that was caused by this stem high and size design which was everyone having to run out and buy funny looking saddles. I'll Rant about that in another article.

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