Can we make bicycles sustainable again?
lowtechmagazine.com
lowtechmagazine.com
hyper optimizing something implies all low hanging fruit has been picked.
For the uninitiated: that is less than one tank of gas (ca 70 kg CO2) in my Toyota Prius.
I argue: it's not. It's polishing. It's functionally a bit time-wast-y compared to reductions in the cost, and price of ebikes.
I tell you what I'd like as a bike rider: I'd like the post evergiven/covid supply chain behind my brake fluid fixed. It's insanely expensive to replace brakes and gears and wheels on a street bike these days: I ride a Movida 200 which is a pretty average, low end disc-brake unit with fluid breaklines, and I am up for a horrendous cost in parts to replace: the labour I can understand, this isn't a zero-work job. But the supply chain fragility in bicycles is truly scary: I paid twice the base cost of my (admitedly secondhand) bike, repairing it these last 2 years.
I know: I should learn to do this myself. I did once long ago last century take apart a sturmy-archer 3 speed hub gear, and remake it, and I did have no left over parts. Amazing. Some of the springs were like fairy-floss. Now, I have old person shakey hands and to be frank I'd rather pay a hipster to do it for me, but the parts cost is just obscene. I'm not paying his tattoo costs, this is some anonymous bike part warehouse in the cloud, which is ripping us all off worldwide.
>I paid twice the base cost of my (admitedly secondhand) bike, repairing it these last 2 years.
Because the base price of a bike is just about nothing. So it makes sense that skilled labor quickly overtakes the cost. And you usually get a hefty discount on the price of the bike when you buy it second hand considering just about everything on the bike excluding the frame is a consumable item.
Apparently hydraulics, instead of cables. Cf. https://www.bicyclehabitat.com/how-to/disc-brakes-101-pg362....
I have hydraulic brakes on one of my bikes too. They feel great (so accurate and responsive!), but I'm glad I haven't had to get them fixed yet...
In addition, do know that the discs and even brake fluid will need to be replaced at some point to keep things working well, hope this can avoid a bad surprise!
Hydraulics are great, and I have fixed mine. The parts are NOT a problem to acquire at all. I will say, however, that bleeding them is a bit fiddly and a pain, compared to bleeding car brakes, in my experience. I've done bleeds on both Shimano and Tektro brakes; the Shimanos were definitely better, but still not as easy as car brakes. Which is why I happen to know Shimano caliper prices off the top of my head: I'm thinking seriously about swapping the Tektro calipers for Shimanos because they're easier to work with, both for bleeds and for pad changes (the Tektros require removing the caliper from the frame; Shimanos do not).
So again, I'm wondering what the OP is griping about. There is no supply-chain problem with hydraulic brakes that I can see.
Maybe its my bad timing, buying a 2nd had bike when it was end-of-life for one model of brake, and now it needs work, people have moved onto the next 'best thing' and I am behind "can't get the parts"
(I know one respondent disagrees and says they are both easy to fix, and easy to get. I am just reporting both what I was told and what I find when I look. "easy" is very contextually defined in both cases. It would be very easy for me to confuse myself, order the wrong bits, or manage to dismantle but never re-mantle things.)
The nice thing about hydraulics is that, once they're set up, they're good until you need to change the pads usually, and even then the fluid is probably fine unless it's old. Rim brakes, on the other hand, need constant adjustment and fiddling just to keep them from rubbing, as the pads wear. I don't miss them one bit.
Hydraulic brakes are definitely fun but my bike is a compromise between low effort and utility. I'm running a 2x right now and running a barend shifter up front because my height and bike geometry means I often knock the front derailleur cable out of place. I should probably just switch to a 1x at this point.
Cycle shops I ask in, say parts are a nightmare or were, the last time I asked. Maybe its about market size, maybe they just don't want the hassle.
Where you are, and your budget, affects availability of things. Are you in my market?
Back in the US during Covid, I needed a new derailleur hangar because I bent mine, and wanted it quickly so I could go riding again. My local shops all said it was hard to find and expensive, and I'd have to wait a month just for them to install it (and they wouldn't sell it to me directly) for a small fortune because they said it needed to be specially bent (it didn't). So I found an online shop that had it and bought 2, got it in a few days, and installed it myself. Sorry, but after that experience, the people saying "support your LBS!" can shove it.
The other thing you should be aware of is that the exact part you're looking for may not be easily available. So if you want to replace a whole caliper, for instance, you'll probably have a much easier time finding a compatible caliper (probably a newer design) than finding another of the old one. Mfgrs are constantly updating their product lines, so it's frequently cheaper to just get something newer rather than an exact replacement, though of course there's limits here (you can't easily change from a 10-speed drivetrain to an 11-speed one, for instance, but you can easily mix-and-match different 11-speed cassettes). For hydraulic brakes, on road and hybrid bikes these days, they mostly all use the same flat-mount standard, with a few different rotor sizes.
OK, so "wear the risk" -great: I take my bike in to the shop, and either I get it back at 3:30pm or.. its 3 months for replacement parts to make it, assuming the supplier has parts. Or, I have to ditch them and go back to cables. Or, an alternate vendor which means new levers, and pipes, and disks, and pads and ....
I'll go canvas my options with some other stores. Who knows? Maybe I'm being sold a line of guff here?
(and its a Merida 200 not a Movida. I was having a bad hair day)
But you're making an invalid comparison: the real comparison is between Ultegra and 105. The two are functionally the same, but Ultegras are a bit lighter and use better materials (probably carbon fiber handles, for instance). The year I got mine, the 105s were physically larger too, so the internals weren't as advanced; not sure about today.
Tiagra is a 10-speed shifter, while Ultegra is an 11-speed, so they're certainly not compatible at all. You can assume that Tiagra will be even more cheaply-made than the 105.
So for me, the cost of maintenance quickly outpaced the cost of the bike. But it’s still a pittance compared to the cost of car ownership.
I would say don’t learn to do maintenance yourself unless it’s something you enjoy. I enjoy riding my bike but hate tinkering with and fixing things. My bike is to get me around, not be a source of grief and annoyance.
> We’ll take apart your bike piece by piece, overhaul the bearing systems and put it together again. Then we’ll perform a full-tune up, install new brake and shifting cables if needed, and give it a thorough cleaning. It’ll ride like new.
http://gladysbikes.com/mechanical-service
I always tell them to just replace anything you’d replace if it was your bike. Generally after 3 years there’s something they replace like rebuilding a wheel or something. I’ve always been very happy with the service and value because other than light cleaning and oiling I don’t put any effort into maintaining my bike.
The mechanic (same guy I’ve seen for the past decade) told me (in a backhanded compliment sort of way), “This is really a testament to how well a bike can hold up with no maintenance other than an overhaul every few years.”
And then for certain things you need multiple spacers, or you can only mate this handle-bar with this type of headset/stem etc...
Bikes are fn awesome machines.
I'm not really sure where the unrealistic expectation of zero dollar expense on maintenance of a bike comes from, but it seems the norm. No matter what though, it is still pennies on the dollar for any kind of expense from a car. The most expensive thing I can do for an upgrade to my bike is to have hydraulic brakes installed, and that's <$400 with paying for the labor of someone else to do it. Like you said, brake pads get replaced, but the set for my biker are <$20. Yes, it's not free and definitely non-zero, but it rounds to zero when compared to car ownership.
Well, sure, if you want to ignore the standard an unambiguous meanings of "cost" and "investment" for poetical reason.
Bikes suck for a few things - weather and only one person and no storage.
I am a pro-dealer of Fox Shocks products and am looking to becoming an Orbea dealer - potentially opening my own shop.
Also, I am designing 3D printable components based on my being a daily biker for two decades.
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Also - you can go to importYeti.com and look up bike suppliers supply chains, shipments and native chinese/taiwanese manufacturers (Taiwan produces a F-ton of bike frames....
You will see differences in pricing >$1,000 just based on the quality of components.
Some modern bikes have apps to tune their performance, blue-tooth wireless shifters, brakes etc.
I love bikes - but they arent as cheap as one may think (if their looking for performance on top of convenience...
Then just look at the prices of spandex biking clothes.
The same would be said by someone explaining why they spend so much on their Porsche ;)
admittedly e-bikes have higher initial costs, but even there $7,500 gets you something far up the fancy end.
You don't need disc brakes. You don't need carbon frames, or even aluminum ones.
These things are marginally better performing than their predecessors, but we want things to get better and better forever. That is exactly what makes it unsustainable.
We'd be better off settling for good and sustainable than best and unsustainable. That's all.
There’s a bunch of people who would gain more from losing weight than whatever the marketing department of the bike company tells them, but it’s great to have this choice. I’m having just as much fun cycling as I do reading up on the tech and tinkering with my bikes, that’s time I’m not spending on being interested in cars.
However, I've always had this hunch that if you were going to actually quantify the percent of times in which the stopping time difference between a rim brake and disc brake actually was the deciding factor in serious cycling accidents, my guess is it's very very very low. That is, my guess is the car appears so suddenly it doesn't matter what brake you have, or the accident would have overwhelmingly been best prevented by approaching the intersection differently to begin with, or it doesn't involve another vehicle at all, but instead involves loss of cyclist control.
I guess it's not so much the disc brakes I take issue with, it's how new bike markets seem to lurch from one new component type to another so completely without serious weighing of actual costs and benefits in use. So you end up in this situation where new bikes all have disc brakes without rim brakes even being much of an option anymore. Even when people are interested in them and have legitimate reason, the dynamics of the bike market is such it pushes them away from it.
I guess I feel like something is different about the current bike market compared to other markets I'm familiar with. It feels to me like there's this market pressure due to various factors (bike manufacturers, sellers, cycling community discussion dynamics) toward some form that's hyperoptimised for use cases that aren't realistic in general. Maybe this has always been the case -- the skinny tires of the 1980s were pushed using unrealistic theories and test conditions -- but my sense is it's getting worse overall.
Another annoying one is internally routed cables.
Some good things do happen though, e.g. thru axles, small and light TPU inner tubes.
Don't reward companies that want to push disc brakes (for instance) as a reason to ditch something that fits your purposes.
It's easy to cherry pick scenarios where a piece of tech would save you over the alternative, but life is holistic. We can adapt. The first step is to decide that it is worth trying to.
[1]: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-bicycl...
The kinds of cargo bikes that people get for home use are much smaller and presumably use a lot less CO2 than the commercial transporter with pedals they looked at in the paper.
Modern bicycles (except new e-bikes with chain guards and internal hub gears) require degreasing and lubing every two weeks, These are not going to be very attractive to people who use other means of transport, because cars don't need this sort of frequent maintenance.
What's your basis for your claim of such frequent maintenance? Also, what do you mean by a modern bike?
But when I had a basic hybrid bike I similarly just cleaned it every few months at most when it got dirty from wet rides. Worked fine for years.
Yes and no. Modern 11/12 speed chains maybe, but my commuter (9-spd) gets lube every 4 months or so. Yes, I have to monitor the chain wear and change it every few years, but that’s not very complicated. It goes to the workshop less often than the car.
They’re more expensive, but you can find non-electric bikes with a belt drive and a gearbox or gear hub which are very low maintenance.
and there's plenty of companies making "city bikes" that don't require super-frequent mainenance and are designed for durability and ease of use. you can get a bike optimized for light weight, but you absolutely don't have to.
Anything but the cheapest of components would last years with proper maintenance (which has cost in service charges: good bike mechanics don't come cheap)
Bikes that get ridden a lot are like the ship of Theseus...
You must have cared well for your bike if it lasts 40 years with that kind of milage.
That specific one is 40 years old, but I only owned it for the last four. All my bikes were bought used: like cars, once you roll them out the shop's door, you loose a significant amount of the purchase price.
Ask your local, independent bike shop for specific recommendations if you need those. Bikes components are highly standardized.
rivbike.com
They aren't cheap but the investment I've been told is worth it:
Disclaimer: Own an Orbea Vector and love it.
Trek, Giant, Specialized, Raleigh, Fuji... Some of these have become "just a brand name" under new ownership.
I also have a bike that I threw together from 40 year old parts, and can still get any replacement that I need from Amazon or eBay. I suspect demand from overseas may be keeping some parts for older bikes available.
I think you can contribute a lot to the lifespan of a bike by learning to do a bit of your own maintenance, so you can spot minor issues before they turn into component failures.
Brands will vary both in servicability between models and which hrands are available.
Avoid any integrated electric parts that the frame is builtaround (but a bolt on motor and battery is fine whether the motor is fitted to the wheel or pedals).
Likely far far less, the roads are insanely dangerous and toxic now.
I don't know what it is like in other cities but in mine at least one out of ten vehicles is now one of those new ridiculous monster sized trucks that not only cannot see you, they wouldn't care if they did.
The bicycle lane line is now something to cruise over for these drivers while they look down at their phones.
It's only going to take one more generation for people to stop even trying to bike anywhere, people don't want to be that stressed out.
I absolutely expect more people to be riding bicycles in this generation. It would be a complete failure on urban planners / municipal governments if that were not to happen.
But it has been over a decade since my road bike has seen pavement. I keep it to mountain biking on trails now because the traffic everywhere has gotten too insane, and the drivers just seem less and less aware/alert/smart/skilled.
And I've noticed in the last few month bad news of almost a half dozen champion bike racers killed on roads, the most memorable one in Italy, and one in San Francisco last week. The risk just doesn't seem manageable anymore.
This is the opposite of the direction we should be going, but it is what we have.
They’ll be out on the roads - get a bigger car and don’t bike. I’m sad about it as well but I don’t see many options unless you’re in a unique area.
For context, 1/3rd of Americans today are over 55.
Due to exponential growth and innovation everything any of us have ever known is one of a series of crazy experiments. I don’t think car dependency will turn out to be a good one.
VERY True!
And a huge amount of it is due to the corporations influencing against any form of public transportation in past decades.
The only thing that (almost paradoxically) is may be helping progress, is the surge in e-bikes. It's both bringing a lot of people into biking, and/or enabling them to bike longer distances, so encouraging a lot more. And apparently, the net exercise amounts are similar, so it's still a health benefit. With all that, maybe we'll get to serious support for biking one day. Soon, I hope.
That's not to say those yank tanks aren't crazy dangerous; they absolutely are. But getting rid of them doesn't make bicycling safe. Cars as a whole are the hazard.
That's about 2 months worth of my diet. Maybe less.
Like, if I cycle for an hour I'll burn enough calories to produce approx 1kg co2e from the foods I eat.
This is "switch off your LED light bulb" levels of daft.