Mine: Hyperglide and other ramped cogs--Shimano figured out how to market a product that was at least halfway worn out when brand new, design it to cause a shifting behavior that would wear it out even faster, and then have the brass to discontinue the predecessor, and scam the whole bicycling world into thinking that this was some kind of "improvement.:
The plastic seatpost and saddle rails that an American company made in the 70's. You were supposed to, like, pop the shell off of your Unicanitor and pry this plastic undercarriage into place. The post looked like PVC and flexed like it. A friend of mine, Rob Thomas, gave himself weird lower back spasms and had to take some time off the bike after riding with this thing.
David Feldman
> At 12:29 3/25/2001 -0500, Leonard Bulger wrote:
> >After all this discussion of the pinnacle of lightweights, how about
> >something completely different. I've always been more interested in
> >failures than successes, so what was the worst bike part? I want to
> >exclude junk made for department store bikes, but rather discuss parts
> >made for good bikes by companies who should have known better.
>
> <snip>
>
> Here's a short list, inspired by the "should have known better:"
>
> Campag Sport derailleur, and the other one-jockey-wheel units. As the
> freewheel cog gets smaller, it progressively engages fewer teeth,
> guaranteeing early failure by skipping. All this because someone was too
> lazy to look at the relative friction losses of chain deflections and
stuff.
>
> Campag Gran Turismo Rear Chain Strangler. Heavy enough to emulate a
tandem
> by itself. Shift waulity worse than old plastic Simplex. All in all, a
> thoroughly useless bit of junk -- not quite heavy enough for a good boat
> anchor.
>
> Cinelli M-71 WidowMaker Pedals. When lying on one's side after an
> "incident," really, really, awkward to reach the release lever to get
> out. If the accident hadn't sheared it clean off.
>
> Early Cinelli Bi-Valent hubs, which managed to kill a brilliant concept by
> making the parts too fragile for intended use.
>
> Boy, do I have enemies now!
>
> harvey sachs
> (who has one bike with the Cinellis stuff, for gentle riding)