There are still millions upon millions of bikes out there with threaded headsets, many of them owned by people of limited means who will need to fix them rather than buy a new bike. Ditto for bikes with freewheels. That's why it's still possible to buy freewheels in this age of cassettes … and why it will be possible for some time to find traditional threaded headsets. They just may not be Record or DuraAce quality.
On Dec 11, 2009, at 11:19 AM, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > On Fri, 2009-12-11 at 11:03 -0800, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: >> Threaded stems and headsets are pretty much obsolete on new- >> production >> bikes, and the number of threaded stem/headset options is small and >> getting smaller. There are a few holdouts, like Riv and some custom >> shops, but I think even they see the writing on the wall (Legolas was >> threadless, and Roadeo apparently has a threadless option). > > More like catering to the tastes of the intended audience than seeing > the handwriting on the wall. If it were the latter, wouldn't you > expect > the frames designed since the Legolas (such as the Hillborne, Foy, > etc) > to similarly acknowledge the presence of said handwriting? > > >> As individuals, we can deal with obsolete or obscure parts with ebay >> and other small sources. But a bike manufacturer, who needs to order >> hundreds or thousands of headsets per year has to consider the risks >> of not having enough headsets for this year, and for service in years >> to come. > > It appears that Velo Orange, far smaller than most bike manufacturers, > had no difficulty sourcing high quality threaded headsets for the VO > brand. I think fears of the availability of threaded headsets are > greatly exaggerated. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners- > bu...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en > . > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
