Recently we have noted three areas of new technology for road and mountain bikes that we see as being things that will affect bicycles in the future. Your next bike may very well have one or more of these new developements that are already being used on production bikes today.

Differentially sized head sets with tapered steer tubes This new developement first seen on some road racing bikes looks to take the lowly head set and change it forever. The idea is that a larger bearing surface can handle loads across a wider surface than a smaller bearing. This applies most effectively to the lower race of a head set where stress is highest due to the forces exerted by the road or trail on the contact patch of the tire. A smaller race can still handle duties up top. To accomodate a straighter line for carbon fibers in steer tubes to follow, and thus retain their strength, a tapered steer tube is utilized on road bikes using the differentially sized head sets. Of course, these headsets are also integrated and in the case of the Trek Madone, the bearings reside in a specially molded pocket directly in the frame itself, eliminating traditional cups all together. This “E2″ steerer tube/headset technology has also been introduced in Trek’s new Remedy all mountain bike.

A differentially sized head set will not only allow designers to add travel without sacrificing strength, but will allow head tubes to remain short and keep front end heights at a minimum. Now that suspension fork manufacturers are taking a look, you can expect to see more of this technology in the future. We think it’s particularly intiguing for 29″er use where shorter head tubes, low handle bar height, and high strength are all big priorities.

Integrated front derailluers We are already seeing a couple of these for 2008 and expect more in the future. Why? Because as suspension systems become more complex and more is demanded from them, room for the lowly tube mounted front derailluer is tight and in some cases eliminated all together. To allow more freedom in suspension designs, the integrated front derailluer for mountain bikes is becoming more interesting to designers. Actually, you might think of it as a glorified “braze on” front derailluer, which road bikes have used for decades. We see it as a standard item on future all mountain and free ride dual suspension bikes along with a possible place amongst 29″er bikes. These big wheeled rigs have a lot going on around the bottom bracket area and we expect to see some designers take a look at using an integrated front derailluer design to solve some of the problems 29″er designs are up against.

Inboard/Integrated bottom bracket bearings Yeah, we know. Bottom bracket bearings just went “outboard” and now we’re talking about going inboard again already? Yup! There are already examples of this idea in the mountain bike and especially the road bike area today. One advantage to this idea is that it allows frame designers to beef up and stiffen the bottom bracket area of a bike by using larger surface area connections between the bottom bracket shell, seat tube, and down tube. It also tucks those bearings back in where dirt and grime might have a bit more of a difficult time contaminating the bearings. We look for this trend to get bigger.

Also worth noting is the move afoot to change the bottom bracket “standard” altogether. It’s called BB30 and was first developed by Cannondale and seen in it’s current form first at the 2000 Tour deFrance. It is basically a slightly oversized shell with a 30mm spindle running on press fit bearings. Specialized is said to be onboard with the idea and FSA is releasing their own models of cranks to be used with the BB30 standard as well. Other deviations from standard bottom brackets exist, but we see the BB30 as having the best chance to impact future bicycle designs along with the move to integrate bottom bracket bearings into the frames using two piece crank designs.

While these technologies may not be embraced by many now, we suspect that the designs mentioned will indeed be influential on future models of mountain bikes and road bikes showing up in your local shops.