David HembrowNov 19, 2024

This is the peak of bicycle technology.

It's a bike which a local customer brought around yesterday because it's been a few years and she thought it was about time that someone had a look at it.

I know it looks terribly old fashioned, but hear me out:

This is a reasonably light-weight, efficient bike, with effective gearing and brakes. Nothing on it is unmaintainable.

This bike came out of the factory in 1982 (May 1982 according to the stamp on the rear hub). It has admittedly had a fairly good life, always having been kept indoors, but it's been ridden a lot yet needed almost no work.

The front rack had a broken non-essential part which I removed. The rubber strap / snelbinder over the rear carrier rack was broken so I replaced it, and the skirtguards were perished and falling apart so I replaced those as well. Otherwise, I've just checked that things were working and added a bit of oil. One of the pedals was running roughly until I oiled it.

Bike shops don't sell bicycles like this any more. Modern bicycles are not designed to last a whole lifetime, like these were.

https://www.dutchbikebits.com
#bicycle #BikeTooter #cycling #repairability #righttorepair #netherlands #ProperBicycle #NotAnEBike #dutchbikebits

Show threadDavid HembrowNov 19, 2024

The frame is made of steel with really nice lugs and good quality brazing and very good paint. There is no rust anywhere. The mudguards are probably stainless steel. Again, there's no rust. Other parts are aluminium, and of course there's a bit of plastic and rubber.

I can still buy all the inexpensive parts I need to repair this bike, but I can't get the parts required to repair some modern bikes. Electric bicycles in particular become completely unmaintainable after a few years so I usually can't help people with those. But if you have one of these lovely old bikes and you take a bit of care of it, it'll last your whole life.

This is the level of reliability we should demand from manufacturers of everything that we buy.

Show threadMarcos DioneNov 20, 2024
@hembrow "Electric bicycles in particular become completely unmaintainable after a few years so I usually can't help people with those". What about electric kits? We electrified a Yuba Kombi (which probably qualifies as proprietary) with a Virvolt kit, and we already replaced some parts of that, but now I wonder how smart was choosing those two brands.
Show threadDavid HembrowNov 20, 2024

@mdione I've no experience with either of those brands so I can't comment on them specifically.

I doubt that any electric bike conversion kit can be expected to have a very long lifespan. But if you keep all the old parts you can of course convert the bike back.

One of the problems with modern bikes built with motors at the factory is they're becoming so incredibly chunky and inefficient. They're half way to being motorbikes and not something you'd ever want to pedal without a motor running.

Show threadhyakinthos

@mdione
The kits certainly bring some future proofness because you can always simply remove them in the worst case.

The batteries on the kits are likely still an proprietary mess, but the bottom of this article brings up a possible emerging sustainable solution (the #infiniteBattery):

https://www.ifixit.com/News/101675/bike-manufacturers-are-making-bikes-less-repairable

I would look for a kit that can use the Infinite Battery.
@hembrow

Bike Manufacturers Are Making Bikes Less Repairable

Just like cars, tractors, computers, and seemingly every other product category, bikes—and especially e-bikes—are going all black box on us.

iFixit
Nov 21, 2024 at 11:14amWeb
Show threadDavid HembrowNov 21, 2024

@hyakinthos Unfortunately, the most likely outcome of will be that this gives another "standard" to choose from, next to the other proprietary batteries.

It's also still a very expensive replacement part ($330/€430/€317 depending where I look on their indiegogo page), which means it won't help to repair old bikes because few owners find it economically viable to spend more than the value of an old bike on a part. In any case, when e-bikes fail it's often not the battery, but the electronics, wiring harness or motor. So being able to buy a battery doesn't get us that far.

E-bikes are poisoning the second hand bicycle market. They drive up the price of new machines so that fewer are sold at the same time as leaving us after just a few years with a stack of "bikes" which can no longer be ridden or repaired. I worry about the future of mass-cycling, which has always depended on a good supply of second hand machines because most people can't spend 1000s on new bikes. I've pointed this out for some time now. e.g. here:
https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2022/03/the-challenge-of-declining-bicycle.html

Note that my article from early 2022 is actually older than the discontinued older model of the "infinite" battery, which was called "Pony". They clearly have a very different idea of what a long product lifespan is than I do !
@mdione

The challenge of declining bicycle sales in the world's leading cycling nation

A few days ago I quote tweeted this graph from Datagraver on twitter with a comment that "Sadly, cycling is dying in the Netherlands." The ...

Show threadhyakinthosNov 21, 2024

@hembrow
Some of that contradicts my understanding. Netherlands is relatively flat, so e-bikes don’t make much sense. When I visit NL, I rarely see e-bikes. Maybe I’m not paying close enough attention.

But I also recall that bicycle theft was a huge problem in NL, and that the reaction was for most people to switch to quite cheap bikes. I wonder to what extent the avg price of €603 is due to people paying over €10k for a very lightweight high end bicycle.
@mdione

Show threadhyakinthosNov 21, 2024

@hembrow
I’m sure you’re right in saying the 2nd-hand market is depleted of good options if e-bikes are proliferating. But I would not regard a converted bike the same way. Batteries and motors lose a lot of their value when used because they have short lives. But a converted bike is easily converted back.

Although a hub motor is a problem because then the wheel must be replaced. But if it’s a mid-drive motor kit, no new parts are needed in converting back to a muscle bike.
@mdione

Show threadhyakinthosNov 21, 2024

@hembrow
The great thing e-bikes are doing is getting people out of cars -- people who would not make that switch if they thought they had to do much work. So making e-bikes an enemy risks persistent “car-ificiation”.

E-bikes make the hills go away. So an e-bike motivated me to ditch public transport (which is even worse than e-bikes). Then when my e-bike got stolen, I went to a cheap muscle bike which I am happy with.. had to be baby steps to get there.
@mdione

Show threadMarcos DioneNov 21, 2024

@hyakinthos @hembrow to MOST hills :) There are a few here that bot ebikes I tried couldn't make, but then so few people live up there that it doesn't matter :)

And yes, after the ebike, going back to the accoustic one :) was a walk in the park.