Hacker News Reader

All the numbers given here seem tiny in comparison to the emissions from manufacturing or using a car. It seems like premature optimization at best, and might even be counterproductive by implying that because some bikes are more sustainable than others, bikes are somehow unsustainable as a whole.

View on HN

>Reynolds, a British manufacturer known for its bicycle tubing, found that making a steel frame costs 17.5 kg CO2, while a titanium or stainless steel frame costs around 55 kg CO2 per frame – three times as much.

For the uninitiated: that is less than one tank of gas (ca 70 kg CO2) in my Toyota Prius.

To drive the point even further, I ride a steel frame road bike that’s older than me (1987 team miyata) and hope to have it last for many decades to come.

I read recently someone call something like this a hyperoptimization https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35431391

it's not really that either. it's a misoptimization. where you are optimizing the wrong part. which is why premature optimization is bad, because you are wasting your time optimizing something that doesn't matter.

hyper optimizing something implies all low hanging fruit has been picked.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com