Death of the derailleur?

[awol]

Just came across this video with the same title.

 

[PeterCo]

My 1951 Raleigh Superb-e has a four speed Sturmey Archer and a Yose e bike front hub set up. The saddlebag contains the battery etc. I have only done a few hundred miles of mainly twenty mile trips. I rather enjoy it.

 

[Benjahmin]

Nice. I believe that's what used to be called a Gentlemans bike. Either that or the local bobby, whatever happened to those?

 

[vfr400]

I have only done a few hundred miles of mainly twenty mile trips. I rather enjoy it.

The question we need to answer is whether anyone would enjoy the same bike more with a modern Shimano 8-speed, the new Shimano gearbox thingamabob, Shimano XT 9-speed derailleur gears or anything else.

Then there's another question whether anybody would enjoy the same ride more with an entirely different bike. No doubt, someone would have enjoyed it more on a penny farthing bike and someone else more on a dongled Bosch bike.

Personally, I'm pretty sure that I'd enjoy the ride more on my bike with 9-speed cassette gears. I wouldn't complain about riding that Raleigh superb if it was the only bike I was allowed to have. Just about any electric bike is better than no bike at all.

In summary, I can't see the Sturmey Archer 4-speed causing the death of the derailleur, nor that Raleigh Superb putting Woosh and Haibike out of business.