Overcomplicating the Most Efficient Transportation Machine
I started wrenching on bikes from an early age. From changing flats on my original Mongoose 20" bike to overhauling loose-ball headsets and bottom brackets on my dad's old Cannondale, wheels-up on the basement floor. Those times taught me basic but fundamental skills that landed me a job as a mechanic in high school, got me through almost a decade of working on bikes, and ended up with me here at VO. While most of those times and much of my early mechanic years were filled with changing flats, basic 7spd derailleur adjustments, and regreasing simple older tech, times are oh-so different now, and so are the bikes.
My dad's copy of Todd Downs' 2005 encyclopedia of bicycle repair- the foundation of my wrenching as a yoot
Even back then, as 11spd was beginning to make the rounds on production road and MTB bikes, the unattainably high end Dura Ace and SRAM Red gear that seemed so intricate and flawless then, now looks and feels no different than any other gear of its time when on a bike in the repair stand - especially looking through the scope of what's available on the market today. Much of which, folks are having a harder and harder time even approaching as a home mechanic.
SRAM Red 11spd rear derailleur. The best of the best at the time, while still taking design cues from far cheaper and simpler gear
Bikes, from the early stages of mass production through to the 1990s, had been largely the same. Rigid frame, pressed-in headset on a straight tubes, one-piece or three-piece cranks, and rim brakes. Nit pick and identify the outliers all you like, but that describes most of the bikes during that time. However, with the trickle-down effect of materials engineering into cycling in the late 2000's, things began to change - and get more exclusive. Suspension forks became normalized on off road bikes, cartridge bearings found their way into everything from headsets to jockey wheels, carbon became the gold standard for racing bikes, and model-year innovation became the standard.
I'm not one to groan about progress, though. Aside from the anecdote of "chasing the past," (e.g. riding a rigid hardtail mountain bike or pulling out your old downtube shifter bike) to gain some fleeting taste of the "good ol' days" of bikes, you'd be hard pressed to convince me that new bikes coming out today from almost any manufacturer aren't some of the best bikes made yet. Disc brakes, quality frames, excellent suspension design and kinematics, and tubeless tires offered in virtually every size imaginable. If you think about it, there are more options for folks looking to buy a proper bike today than ever before.
But with that innovation comes an increase in the level of technical know-how required to even attempt to maintain modern bikes. Shimano has a virtual school devoted to teaching mechanics how to work on their products. SRAM has something quite similar. Want to bleed your hydraulic brakes? You'll need to buy a proprietary kit and oil, and you better not screw it up or it'll be a mess. The same goes for suspension forks and frames. I've owned probably 5 full-suspension bikes, none of which I, personally, serviced the shock or fork on. I'm fortunate to have a shop nearby that specializes in suspension service, another area of bicycle servicing that has become specialized in the last 15 years.
This is on your bicycle.
Bikes of the 1950's to 2000's could once be stripped down with nothing but a tri-tool and a 15mm box wrench, assuming you hadn't lost your 10mm. Aside from a very short list of special tools (which you could pick up at any bike shop) like a crank puller, bb lockring wrench and puller, and a cassette tool, there really was nothing to it. As I started my time as a mechanic affordable two-piece cranks flooded the market, and with them came every bottom bracket standard under the sun. 142 Thru-axle spacing was quickly followed by Boost 148, and subsequently Super Boost and thus an arms race of new, bike specific tools and components began.
I type this all out not as a protest (though I come from a fortunate position of well over a decade of technical experience), but rather as an illustration of how complicated things got, so quickly. If you bought a road or mountain bike in 1985, you had a considerable number of options in terms of models, but you could take any bike home and maintain it properly yourself with a minimal number of special tools or specialized technical knowledge. Heck, that rings true even for bikes as new as the early 2010's.
My first 'real' mountain bike- a 2008 Vassago Bandersnatch, with SRAM X9 and BB7M brakes
Today, however, if you wanted to purchase a mid-grade road bike off a shop floor, you'd be likely ending up with something that uses a press-fit bottom bracket, internal routing that goes into a void, tubeless tires, hydraulic disc brakes, and maybe even electronic shifting that needs an app and special software for diagnosis and updating.
Heaven forbid you want to service your bottom bracket in a year or two. You'll need the proper tapered punch, an oversized bearing press, a torque wrench and bravery to take that on without fear you'd crack your carbon or destroy your aluminum alloy shell. It gets worse when you consider mountain bikes of today. We haven't even touched on e-bikes! There's just too much special knowledge and risk tolerance required for the average at-home mechanic.
An example of my most recent rig, a Norco Revolver FS 120. Quite removed from what now seem like "humble beginnings"
That being said, many shops offer lifetime free basic services and tune ups with the purchase of a new bicycle. They did at my shop at least, and it feels like this is the direction the whole industry is moving: "pay a premium up front, we'll cover you for most stuff." In tandem, the manufacturers are designing bikes that are less and less consumer-maintenance friendly, knowing that the customer is likely going to roll it into the shop 9 times out of 10 before attempting to fix it first. This makes the product more expensive, and leaves those of us who like to fix our own stuff hanging out to dry, in a way.
From an environmental perspective, making things obsolete or too difficult or expensive to fix, means that people will buy new things - which means more waste and emissions.
I think shops are going to be more essential than ever with the industry moving towards higher-end, direct-to-consumer business. It's just that their business model is being forced through a change, and they'll need to be mindful of that fact.
What are your thoughts? Do you work only on bikes of a certain vintage or are you able/willing to maintain all your bikes regardless of their complexity?
You think you’re old school? I learned to work on bikes before Cannondale or BMX bikes or 7-speed clusters even existed! But not all progress is bad. I ride a Columbus-tubed vintage frame, but it’s updated with indexed shifting, “brifters” (I love that word!), suspension stem because I’m tired of my shoulders and hands hurting, VO bottom bracket and headset—let’s face it, cartridge bearings are less work than their predecessor, and they go back to the 1970s. My only complaint with carbon fiber frames is the cost. But disc brakes, especially hydraulic? Electronic shifting? Proprietary seatposts and stems? If you paid me, I’d ride them. Otherwise, the author is correct: they are unnecessary complications.
To those who like vintage bikes there is the Western bike market, with modern bikes, but then there is the Eastern bike market of Asia, where bikes often have rim brakes, 6/7-speed freewheels and friction shifting while showstopper bikes have 8-speed freehubs and some of those older Shimano components are now Shimano-licensed and made in China. Dia-Compe has a big catalog of those components and Velo-Orange has some of them including 126mm 36h QR freehubs with cartidge bearings and DC-610 brakes. Sugino still produces bottom brackets and fine double and triple three-piece cranksets, its model XD2 is now renamed and offered by Rivendell). Microshift makes a 47T capacity 9-speed rear derailer, with or without a clutch, which works fine with 8-speed chain which works fine on 6/7-speed chainrings and sprockets, then on eBay look for Shimano FD-M371 9-speed 22T capacity front derailers, and that Microshift/Shimano combination works great for 3×6/7/8/9-speed gear trains. Not hard to find nice old steel frames in decent condition, check out old bike shops and community bike repair workshops. But if this could be of interest then get going on it now because those sorts of components already are quite scarce.
I would certainly agree with most of the sentiments here, but could make a few observations. I think the ‘right to repair’ is paramount, and that should come with the proviso that it doesn’t require expensive and difficult to acquire tools; and that spare parts are readily available for a decent amount of time after the original sale.
It is worth noting that some of the more recent innovations are for the better. As an example, other than press fit BBs, cartridge BBs are a big improvement for many as they are typically low maintenance and easy to replace with a few simple tools.
Also, the level of mechanical competence in many bike shops is fairly rudimentary and consumers are rarely in a position to understand this. This is exacerbated by a lack of any significant regulation, unlike some other industries.
More of a question than a comment. Can you still get components group sets ? Here’s a comment. The old square taper spindle bottom bracket works well. Yes hollow tech BB’s are lighter but not as strong. It looks different and attaches differently. That absorbs doesn’t make it better. I not asking here, I telling you it’s not better. Take a high end square taper BB from years ago and it performs just as well as anything. Don’t worry about the weight.
Just say NO to press-fit anything, internal routing anything, electronic shifting, motors, and all the other “innovations.” I enjoy working on my bikes nearly as much as riding them. So I’ve been collecting various cool frames that do not have those features. A carbon Fuji road frame with external routing and q/r’s. A Turner RFX with external routing. Various interesting steel and titanium frames. There are many bikes out there that have cool tech and designs – and they’re great deals since the industry has convinced consumers that the new stuff is better.
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