All this talk about bicycle forks is fine, but sometimes youve got to stop forking around and go ride:There was a time when a bike like this might have been considered extravagant:But now even an off-the-shelf plastic race bike starts at over six thousand American Fun Tickets:Wasnt Kaius that band with the guy from that other band? Im too lazy to look it up. Im also too lazy to look up why the Kyuss 01 One costs twice as much as the Kyus 01 Three. And Im not even going to make the feeblest attempt to look into theyre called the Kyuss 01 One, Kyuss 01 Two, and Kyuss 01 Three, when they instead could have just called them the Kyuss One, Kyuss Two, and Kyuss Three.Or else the Kyuss 01, Kyuss 02, and Kyuss 03. Or even simpler still, Kyuss 1, Kyuss 2, or Kyuss 3. Do they really need two digits? How many Kyusses (Kyussae?) are they planning to foist on us anyway? Lob help us.But I did go to the website, where I saw this:It was an animated slideshow type thing, and the next image was this:Followed by this:I guess the obsessive attention to detail doesnt extend to the site design.But maybe theyve been so busy obsessing over the details of the Kyuss that they havent had time to finish uploading stuff to the template, which is fair enough.But still funny.This isnt to say all stock bikes today cost the same as made-to-order one-offs. Heres one for $2,699.99, which still sounds expensive to me for a bike like this, but adjusting for inflation is about what one would have paid for an equivalent model in years past:The good thing about big bike companies is that they offer bikes that are 95% as good as the top-of-the-line models at a fraction of the price, but the bad thing about big bike companies is that their 95%-as-good bikes have all the same stupid gimmicky features as their top-of-the-line bikes, such as internal cable routing:All the cables and hoses on the Diverge 4 are internally routed. The dropper post routing on this alloy frame is a little different compared to the carbon model, with the dropper cable exiting the downtube briefly before re-entering at the back side of the seat tube. The upshot is that this promises to make installing the cable slightly easier.Do you think people are slowly waking up to the fact that internal cable routing is nothing more than a pain in the ass and should be abolished? Id like to think that maybe were halfway there:One thing I find annoying is the use of internal brake hose routing on the included FACT carbon fork. The hose is only inside the fork for eight inches, so in my opinion, theres not a lot being gained aesthetically or aerodynamically. And the downside is the need to re-bleed and futz with hose routing anytime you swap the front brake.He figured out that its completely pointless to run the brake line through the fork, so now all he has to do is extrapolate that to the rear of the bike and tell his friends.In a world that made sense the pro-level bikes would have the internally routed cables so that only the pro teams (and the people compelled to emulate them) would have to deal with them, while the other bikes that are more likely to be serviced by the rider or a local bike shop for whom time is money would have the cables on the outside, but Im sure designing the bikes differently is more expensive for the bike company than selling different versions of almost the exact same bike at wildly different prices.And of course any aesthetic gains of internal cable routing are more than offset by all the plastic crap that makes todays bikes look like todays crossover vehicles:For an alloy frame, theres actually a lot of cheap-looking plastic on this bike, notably the Future Shock headset cover and the large SWAT door. I suppose those bits would stand out less against a darker frame color.Selling every single bike in black only would certainly save Specialized even more money, so dont give them any ideas.Furthermore, the phrase large SWAT door in the context of bicycles is a huge turn-off. Bikes should not have doors of any kind. Its like reading a graphic love scene in a novel in which the protagonist is tracing the contours of their partners body and coming across the phrase nearly-full colostomy bag.But while internal cable routing may or may not be here to stay, Specialized is apparently ditching its rear Future Shock suspension:Some were disappointed when Specialized discontinued the Diverge STR, which featured 30mm of rear Future Shock suspension. Personally, I didnt miss having rear suspension, even when riding the chunky stuff, and I like the look of the Diverge 4 better than the old STR.Im old enough to remember all the way back to 2022 when this was cutting-edge technology:I guess it died.Heres what one overly cynical cycling world critic had to say about it at the time:Im old enough to remember when Specialized were all peninent about stranding customers with incompatible and redundant parts and productsyou know,because it was last year. Meanwhile, this new Diverge not only has all kinds of pivots but it will also ship with two different seatposts, which doesnt sound wasteful at all.Now here we are three and a half years later and its dead already. This is just a mobius strip of Specialized contradicting themselves.Who would have ever imagined that the whole suspend-the-rider thing that had already died years before wouldnt be here to stay?[Sadly no longer available.]I realize all of the above makes me sound like I have a negative view of the current state of bicycle retail, but in fact its quite the opposite. As far as Im concerned times have never been better. Sure, youll never convince someone who just learned about cycling yesterday to consider a bike with rim brakes, but if youre comfortable with them its like traveling to another planet with less gravity where you can jump 20 feet in the air and beat everybody else at basketball. Want a mixed-terrain drop bar bike an aluminum frame? Skip the $2,700 diverge and get a used cyclocross bike for the price of a high-end cassette:[Disclaimer: I do not endorse seller or bike, I merely cite the listing as one example.]Or, if you want to go deluxe and can live with the wattage-sapping weight penalty of steel, you could pay just over half of what that Diverge costs for what until very recently would have been considered a dream bike:[Disclaimer for this listing is same as the previous one.]Boy the bottom really has fallen out of both the used market and Portland, hasnt it?