Innovation in bicycle technology
There still is some, but the basics are pretty much done
The bicycle is one of mankind's pinnacles of engineering. It is an elegant, minimalist and hyper efficient method of transportation that is also cheap and affordable. With a rich history of over a 100 years of innovation and refinement it has reached a state of near perfection.
This also means that any innovation that occurs is minimal, mostly rehashing of older ideas that never caught on, were forgotten by many and then re-invented. Sometimes though new developments in technology, means that an idea that was no good before suddenly becomes practical, even if it is for a niche that did not exist before, however more often than not it simply turns out that that the idea is flawed.
Some people might complain that larger manufacturers hardly innovate anymore, but this is true for any industry. Smaller companies innovate, if they are successful they grow and eventually refine their products for as long as they can, or are bought by a larger company and if they are less successful simply disappear.
In the past few years small companies have been using crowd funding to present their ideas to people in order to get the required finances for product development. This allows a very early peek into the development of products, which is often interesting.
However I am often slightly annoyed by some of the claims made by the inventors of the products. They are often presented as "the next big thing" for bicycling, but in reality have some serious issues, that make them impractical, dangerous or illegal to use in many cases.
Kickstarter
I have reserved this section of the website for analyzing Kickstarter projects. I realize that product development is not easy, and it can be quite a buzz kill to have some guy on the internet pointing out the flaws in your wonderful plan. Even though I will probably be wrong on some occasions I do not see any value in apologizing beforehand. Don't let the opinion of some guy on the internet stop you from innovating, then you will not get anywhere. Try and prove me wrong instead.