State of the industry: a running thread

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lol at you lot! Modern bikes are ace, different wheel sizes bring different things to the table, 26” is all wrong if you are tall like me and regardless of any change in standards (which was just as bad in the early 90’s) you can keep your older stuff and maintain it no problem. This site is the biggest example of that!
 
My earliest memory of a bike shop was also a motorcycle shop, attached to a greasy spoon cafe. Everything needed was there on site; in oily jars, musty cardboard boxes or wrapped in wax paper on dusty shelves. Everything was there. The senior mechanic was in overalls, sporting an unlit pipe always hanging from his lip, thin yellow grey hair slicked back in a Brylcreem wave. On a long weekend ride home carrying our rods and tent we'd see him tanning it past us on a gleaming chrome racer; the overalls now swapped for tight woollens and racing cap. Pipe now lit and a smile wider than his handlebar moustache.

Some such characters are still apparent; anachronistic reminders of days when life was simpler and the world was a better place.

Capturing that mood is one way forward for cycling, for the cafe cycle shops at least, but the commercial pressures will against it. Complexity, and the opportunity to exploit such for gain, demand all the different standards and incompatibilities that frustrate those who favour cycling as an activity over cycling as an interest.

Perhaps there is a change occurring, but is it an electronic shift?
 
highlandsflyer said:
My earliest memory of a bike shop was also a motorcycle shop, attached to a greasy spoon cafe. Everything needed was there on site; in oily jars, musty cardboard boxes or wrapped in wax paper on dusty shelves. Everything was there. The senior mechanic was in overalls, sporting an unlit pipe always hanging from his lip, thin yellow grey hair slicked back in a Brylcreem wave. On a long weekend ride home carrying our rods and tent we'd see him tanning it past us on a gleaming chrome racer; the overalls now swapped for tight woollens and racing cap. Pipe now lit and a smile wider than his handlebar moustache.

Some such characters are still apparent; anachronistic reminders of days when life was simpler and the world was a better place.

Capturing that mood is one way forward for cycling, for the cafe cycle shops at least, but the commercial pressures will against it. Complexity, and the opportunity to exploit such for gain, demand all the different standards and incompatibilities that frustrate those who favour cycling as an activity over cycling as an interest.

Perhaps there is a change occurring, but is it an electronic shift?
Click to expand...

I find it interesting that it's rare for external forces (eg govt) to try to standardise the bike industry. Possibly, it is seen as too small.

I've often thought that electronic groupsets offer the possibility for cheaper bikes and repairs in the future at the low to middle end. It feels, for example, like it should be trivial to have an electronic mech that can be paired with any electronic shifter and run on any speed of bike. You simply bolt them on, pair them via a standardised app, see the speed/cog spacing and reconnect the chain. That's got to be a lot quicker than cabling and setting up gears - and opens up the possibly of standardisation across manufacturers etc bringing down costs. Do the same for brakes etc - and you might be able to significantly reduce the cost of manufacture and future maintenance.
 
greencat said:
I find it interesting that it's rare for external forces (eg govt) to try to standardise the bike industry. Possibly, it is seen as too small.

I've often thought that electronic groupsets offer the possibility for cheaper bikes and repairs in the future at the low to middle end. It feels, for example, like it should be trivial to have an electronic mech that can be paired with any electronic shifter and run on any speed of bike. You simply bolt them on, pair them via a standardised app, see the speed/cog spacing and reconnect the chain. That's got to be a lot quicker than cabling and setting up gears - and opens up the possibly of standardisation across manufacturers etc bringing down costs. Do the same for brakes etc - and you might be able to significantly reduce the cost of manufacture and future maintenance.
Click to expand...
But you would need a £1000+ smart phone to pair it with, which would become redundant half way through the life of the bike via operating system updates, then you need to get a new phone and that phone will only pair with the latest parts and so on, what if your phone dies?
 
Twozaskars said:
But you would need a £1000+ smart phone to pair it with, which would become redundant half way through the life of the bike via operating system updates, then you need to get a new phone and that phone will only pair with the latest parts and so on, what if your phone dies?
Click to expand...

You don't need £1K smart phone to do this job (a £20 secondhand one would do it), and you make pairing an open standard so people can create apps which run on any smart phone. And if you really don't have a phone, your local bike shop can do the pairing.
 
I think what's happened in the last decade is that online sellers have got the ear (both ears in fact) of the marketing departments, and they are no longer interested in fixing almost anything at all, unless it takes a £300 tool, like Chris King.
And wearing out fast, becoming dated, no longer being supported, is now the norm because they can ignore the few people in bike shops moaning to them about it, but they get a new article published, products for the influencers to try, buzzwords, all that stuff
 
And there's plenty retrobikers talking about buying cheap online, especially aliexpress, amazon crc...
(Not all obvs - im sure plenty go to their lbs if it hadn't been killed by crc)

These businesses try to pay no taxes and put nothing into the community, cycling or otherwise.
That's why it's cheap.
That's why the industry has lost interest in longevity.

They aren't paying for the hospital to pick you up when you've smashed your face in coming off your bike.
Bezos and Co are more worried about security on the private island.
 
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