A Follow-Up On The Make-A-Wish Post

 Earlier in the week I posted a list of wishes for the 2026 cycling season and I invited you, the readers, to chime in with any suggestions for wishes. I did get a few great ideas, and so I wanted to share those here in this follow-up post. 

I'll post these in no particular order, but I will say I think these ideas for wishes from my readers are brilliant. So, settle in for some thought provoking suggestions from the audience! 

Plastic Packaging: In an industry which prides itself on health benefits and being "green", you'd think we'd have eliminated waste in packaging. Especially plastic waste. But while things have gotten better in some areas, we've still a long, long way to go. 

Cardboard is being leveraged to be more versatile in packaging, and this has been a great development. However, when you receive a part from an online cycling retailer and it has several folds of those air-pocket packing materials in plastic, you have to just shake your head in despair.

Probably the worst offender here is new bicycle packaging. I know some companies are making an effort to reduce plastic packing materials, but a new bike generates a boatload of waste in the form of plastic zip ties, plastic sheet and coatings on components, and wheel/drop out protection. Not to mention the sheer amount of zip-loc type baggies you can accrue while building a bicycle.  

I agree with this idea. The bicycle and aftermarket retail segments need to do better here.  

Shimano Parallax hub set. (Image poached from the internet)

Serviceable, High-Quality Hubs: In terms of new bicycles for recreational and enthusiasts, many times companies use inferior, cheaper hubs, (and many other components not usually noticed by consumers). This causes issues when these hubs let in moisture and dirt. Many times these hubs are over-adjusted from the factory. They typically slip by in the build process at bike shops and big box retailers because adjusting bearings takes time. Accountants don't like it when labor costs are high. Then again, try finding an assembler who even has the slightest idea how to adjust cup and cone bearings. Between those two things, these cheap, cup and cone hubs can become quite a liability to the owner of any bicycle equipped with them. 

On top of this, parts to service these hubs are usually not available. Due to how many bicycles do not get ridden much, harvesting these hard to get bits at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective usually nets me a score when I am overhauling a Far East manufactured hub. Thanks to our generous donations we get, I can keep these hubs rolling. But this isn't the case everywhere. 

So, why not just make nice, decent quality Shimano Parallax hubs forever? The tooling can remain the same. Make some decent amount of replacement parts for service shops, and boom! Use these on every entry level to mid-tier bike with QR type drop outs. And then make through axle variants. 

Silver Components: While some efforts have been made to release limited edition ($$$!) silver and polished components recently, there are no really great options for riders looking for silver finished components. 

Obviously, how the stuff works is most important, and looks come second, or third, or.... But the point is, all this black, industrial design non-sense is not beautiful. And bicycles used to be an art-form. Now days, with the focus on aero, carbon fiber, and performance above all else, we have descended into making bicycles with a techno-edginess which, to be honest, is a bit dehumanizing and uninspiring.  

I'm not asking for a ban on black anodized components, or black fishes on components, but look at an original 1992 XTR group,, or any older road groups in a brand's top range, and tell me it is ugly. You cannot. It is beautiful stuff. A SRAM RED AXS crank looks like something spat out of a digital machine, rendering it with no line or surface worth caressing with the eye. You simply just ride the thing into oblivion and spend exorbitant amounts of cash to buy a new chain ring set when it wears out. Soul-sucking, it is. 

 On Shimano CUES: Someone also brought up Shimano CUES in the comments in the post from earlier in the week. While it was an interesting concept, Shimano kept this group-set idea from being great by manufacturing most of its bits for the group at an Acera/Alivio type level. 

This was not what I was hoping for when it was introduced. I was hoping it would be a forged alloy component line with compatibility with all legacy shifters and derailleurs. But Shimano went with a more entry-level approach and then saddled consumers with having no options outside of its ecosystem due to Shimano's choice to make the cable pull ratio specific to CUES.  

So, CUES, while interesting, is "not quite it" when it comes to a group which could have had a major influence in the used bicycle market, OE entry to mid level bikes, and with enthusiasts who want to tinker with bicycles. Instead Shimano made it a closed system and the air was sucked out of the room because of this.  

So, I wish Shimano would reconsider their philosophy in regard to CUES and redesign it with more upscale, all-aluminum bits with an eye to versatility and compatibility with older Shimano parts.  

As always, thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions. If you'd like to comment on any of this, please leave a comment in the comment section.