2020 Bike Wants

Steeper seat angles on trail bikes and longer rear ends for larger bikes

SWAT like storage on bikes.

Or really good framebags for tube and tool.

I want to see downhill bikes return from Yeti and Evil.

And more up and down bikes get short seat tubes to run long travel dropper posts. Or make markings to allow the customer to cut the seat tube shorter if they wish.

Bar mounted lockout levers, especially for trail bikes.

Bikes that weight 25% less + and cost 25% less $$$

Electric gearboxes.

This isn't practical since:
1. not cutting the tube wouldn't give enough support to it, strengthening it makes it impossible for it to be cuttable
2. outside diameter for the correct clamp size might be hard to achieve
3. you need a notch to clamp it together
4. i wouldn't be surprised if the diameter of the tube increases lower down in the hole to fit the post easier.

Otherwise, i want steeper seat tube angles, most importantly, i want steeper ACTUAL seat tube angles, not this bent/offset malarkey that's being advertised as 76°. This is shite.

If the mountain bike industry can produce travel adjustable forks and cuttable handlebars, it can figure out cuttable seat tubes. Or just start running shorter seat tubes, like 450mm seat tubes on size large frames instead of 490mm.

Well in the same wein, why not cuttable chainstays then?

Not everything can be cut as easily as a handlebar. So shorter seat tubes it is. The thing is it's the same as with the seat tube angles, we have to go through a period of shitty products during the adjustment phase before we get the right products.

I do like the steeper seat tubes for climbing, but I hate where it puts the saddle when descending.

I’d like to see frames with optional linkages, optimized for air and coil. This middle area to work with both is an unnecessary compromise. No more 3 position forks. LSC and rebound on trail forks, LSC/HSC and rebound on long travel models. I’d love to see more gearbox models out there, only when they figure out a trigger shifter.

Would electronic shifting on a Pinion be good enough for your trigger needs?

As for the saddle, what do you mean? Is it too far back, between the legs? It used to be right there when we were riding 26" bikes with a bit less travel that didn't have bent seat tubes. Bent seat tubes are a relatively new 'invention' to tuck in the rear wheel when it goes through the travel.

I’d be very interested to see what could come of a mixed wheel size bike. 29 front and 27.5 rear, in case it wasn’t obvious.

157mm x 12mm, and 110mm x 15mm on all bikes, one set of hub sizes to rule them all.

Yes, shorter seat tubes. Let people decide what size they want based on reach and stack and not be limited by the seat mast. I seriously don't understand why some companies don't get this.

I can see the advantage of a long DH bike with big wheels, but I would like to see the return of bike park oriented DH bikes. I am not a fest series rider, not even close, but would like to improve my style on the bike, throw it more sideways in the air, pop the front wheel with ease, take sharp corners at speed, and have fun. Riding on a bigger bike sets me on straight lines, I just follow where it takes me. Just as the enduro bikes that aimed to climb like an XC bike, I wish for a very long travel dirt jumper. Short chainstay, small wheels, shocks tuned for efficient jumping and maintaining control on flat landings. Light weight would be nice as well. It would be better to have a bike designed from the ground up, but some companies already make custom chainstays and linkage for their pro riders (see rampage bikes), it would be nice it was available to order for weekend warriors.

Well, as someone who has never had an issue with not being able to get the seat low enough (i'm currently running over 200 mm of seatpost extension on a 480 mm frame) i, on the other hand, don't get why companies can't make proper seat tubes angle wise. And don't see an issue with the length of the seat tubes (seeing i'm running my 125/380 mm Reverb overextended).

Everybody has their own gripe and niggle. Bikes are being designed a few years in advance, when 200 mm seat posts aren't as widely available compared to the release date. And it's hard to deviate from the general 'population' of bikes. Look at how the Stumpjumper EVO is viewed like. I'm not in the least surprised they didn't make a carbon version of it.

The end of creaking CSUs.

(though so far so good on my 2017 Lyrik - so maybe already achieved).

Oh I'd like to see 34,9 mm seat posts in conjuction with more travel. And have them bespoke, like Bike Yokes, not just have a thicker pipe on the bottom. That and frames of course.

Supposedly no frame manufacturer is going for a 34 mm tube though...

In my mind there is no reason why 45 or even 50mm seat tubes should not be a thing.
With rear pivots and dropouts becoming ever wider each year, there is more space to fit in a wider seat tube. It's not like this would be a massive industry standard headache as shims could be easily manufactured and distributed.
This would at least be a step in the right direction towards making longer travel dropper posts with better reliability a reality as there would be more space inside for thicker seals and most importantly, the actual "stanchion" of the post would be wider so would be able to handle the added leverage of a longer stroke.
Just a thought...

Oh sweet someone found the next Sick Bicycle frame

Yup, I want to easily run a 200mm dropper on my XL frame.

How about chainstays that get longer as you size up? Nothing less than 445 mm on large 29ers

This is mostly a rant but here goes...

I have a long list of achievable things by 2020 (in the hands of intelligent hardworking people) but unfortunately they may realistically be 10-15 years out due to the ridiculous marketing development schedule because yay bike industry!!! Lets sell tiny incremental improvements because we can!!! whoooo!!!!!! We're so smart!!!! If we just package it slightly different but don't change anything fundamental these idiots will keep buying it!!!! So... 2020 goals still seem like a pipedream to me....

Anyway - Id like to see structural batteries (HEY E-BIKE ENGINEERS - LOOK - SOMEONE ELSE DID YOUR WORK FOR YOU!!! - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181018082702.htm) and id also like to see at least some ebikes have proper geometry, as proven by the numerous successful enduro bikes with reasonable bb heights, long tt lengths, proper chainstays and ha's under 65.5. Storing energy in the carbon used to make the frame would drastically reduce the weight of e-bikes, bringing them into the realm of "one bike" possibility for more riders. It would obviously drive the cost way up for a period but who wouldn't want a 30lb e-bike with decent geometry. You could ride with assistance on the climbs and lose nothing on the downhills. This will only make our sport better... Furthermore, it would not be hard to integrate electronic shifting into an e-bike in order to cut the power at the exact moment that the shift is taking place in order to save wear on the cassette. Literally that would take like 1 intelligent programmer messing around. Seriously.

Id like to see the big companies finally put some effort into improving gearboxes rather than making us continually buy their overpriced and shitty deraillers. I understand the efficiency argument, i just think you industry people are too stupid to get creative in order to get around it. Remember Honda? Big Japanese company? They figured out a basic solution preeeeeetty quickly... (Admittedly it did cost a lot but hey, that amount of polished swingarms don't come cheap... Worth it.)

Id like to see specialized sue someone else and flop miserably like the cafe roubaix fiasco - thats just for personal satisfaction though. Maybe someone will buy fuji's parent company and pull their trademark - that would also make me happy...

I want the bike industry to settle on one standard for things like bb and rear axles. I realize this is also a pipedream because I imagine bike industry board meetings typically go along these lines: "f*ck the consumers and making them happy - we're the bike industry!!! Lets keep selling them random useless standards because we dont have any other ideas for how to make our bikes better and changing something that doesnt need changing is perfect to sell more bikes. Now lets play the jerkoff cookie game with the interns to make them think we're cool. Sigma Pi 5ever!!! We're so smart giggle snort"

I think the current geometry on enduro bikes is getting better but nobody other than the small companies seem to want to actually make a progressive step. Its very simple. Steeper seat-tube angles, longer chainstays that get longer depending on the size, properly sized bikes for all human sizes. Slacker head angles. Lower bottom brackets. Longer wheelbases in general.

Also - how about designing durable products? Why does everything seem like its designed to fail after a couple months? Why do dropper posts still have that wiggle in the seat? Why cant you guys figure this out? How many of you active practicing industry engineers simply have high school diplomas? Seriously, how hard is it to actually use high end materials in your high end products? Im sick of opening expensive high-end products and discovering that they were manufactured using mostly cheap materials with some small higher end pieces to disguise the cheapness. I do not care about spending more for actual quality.

Side Rant - I'd like to see better trails being built. We dont need more IMBA style trail sanitation efforts. Darwinism. Learn to ride properly or break everything and go home to rant about braking bumps on the internet. We need more technical trails that are actually fun. Also steeper. Steeper better trails. Less pansies. Go ride a fireroad if you want that sanitized BS. Stop ruining the fun trails for everyone else. Everything doesn't need to be "all-inclusive."

So... to sum that all up without the anger. I want to see some structural battery progress for e-bikes. I want to see better geometry for e-bikes. I want to see standardized bb's and rear axles. I want to see steeper seat angles on bikes designed to climb. I want to see longer chainstays. I want to see slacker head angles. I want to see lower bottom brackets. I want to see more durable products built using better materials. I want to see less marketing and more intelligence.

120/160mm front an 120mm rear, 26" wheels , low slung average reach an HA, just like a little play 4X bike.....
like a slope bike for grown ups that doesn't break
I want a play bike
Play bikes should make a come back
ASAP!!

V10 XL frame for 27.5 wheel size! And please bring back reviews for 27.5 DH bikes, all we can read is about trail bikes or DH 29 niners.

If someone made a bike with modern numbers and a derailleur inside the front triangle, I'd buy it pretty much immediately. The Honda patent must be coming to an end soon.
Gearboxes just aren't the future