Hi All!
This morning brought the latest edition of the MakeUseOf newsletter to my inbox, with a link to a larger story ("Thou Shalt Consume: The Story of Consumer Electronics") about consumerism, planned obsolescence, and the increasing pile of consumer waste resulting from a throwaway mentality on the part of manufacturers and consumers alike:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/electronic-waste/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=2012-04-17The upshot of the article is more and more manufacturers are finding it uneconomical to stock replacement parts, so the consumer is left with only the option to purchase a replacement when a product dies. Repair is dead; replacement is in.
Though there is nothing in the article directly bike-related, it did remind me of the same issues applied in the cycling world, particularly wrt to the ever-changing derailleur development cycle which stands in contrast to the more stable IGH hub market. From my perspective, bicycling has changed radically over the last 35 years I've ridden "with intent". I still have a number of beloved bicycles with 120mm OLN spacing, one with 126mm, and one with 135mm. Except for the tandem and Miyata (both with 1989 7-speed drivetrains, one freewheel/SunTour, the other cassette/Shimano), everything runs on freewheels at the rear. The chainrings are all plain (no shifting ramps), the chains and gear-teeth are all wide and unusually long-lived by today's standards, and nearly everything is friction-shifted. There's one set of bar-end shifters (friction), some thumbies (indexed) and the rest are downtube (all friction except for one indexed set).
It all shifts well enough in my admittedly practiced hands, and has already lasted a very long time.
Sherpa took my from cycling Luddite to the 21st Century with 9-speed indexed Shimano and now the Nomad has removed me from th escalating parts-development arms race, duplicating the gearing (and hopefully exceeding the lifespan) of my favorite 1984-era bike in a stable, IGH platform.
Whew.
A visit to a local racer-oriented bike shop yesterday showed how far the market has come: carbon-fiber and hydroformed aluminum dominated the sales floor with steel reserved for lower-end recreational and utility bikes. In a corner by the workshops was a bucket filled with dead carbon forks, some looking perfect to the casual observer. A close look revealed pretty minor scuffs and scratches in the clear coat, mostly from fairly gentle abuse. One was incurred when the bike toppled in a garage and the fork caught the arm of the lawn mower parked next to it. A frame was damaged beyond safe use when the owner installed P-clamps for a rack and lightly crushed the carbon stays. Another out by the trash skip had damaged chainstays from a rotated wheel reflector. I experimentally squeezed the thin part of a discarded alu frame's top tube and was amazed to see it bend under my thumb in much the same manner as a soda can.
Boy!
Speaking with a shop worker, he agreed their current stock weren't as robust as past offerings, primary due to a change in materials...and consumer mentality. He observed that more and more customers expect to
buy performance rather than
earn it, and so desire the lightest frames possible. As he put it, "Something's gotta go" and it seems that "something" is long-term durability. He did point out the shop is seeing more and more annual (!) purchases of high-end bikes, a move that made some sense considering the cost of replacement parts, the labor charges to install them, and ever-shorter product cycles rendering last year's drivetrains partially obsolete.
All this got me thinking...
What happens to old carbon frames? Locally, they hit the landfill, where they're likely to stay for awhile. Quite awhile. The alu frames are taken to the local metals recycler.
In the bigger picture, where does this put us as cyclists? How does this affect our buying habits? What will we be riding in future?
I can't afford a new bike annually. I also don't see the need. My Nomad is built for stout, and I expect to use it for the next 20 years and beyond, as with my other bikes from days gone by. Steel is real in this regard, resistant to damage, repairable, and long-lived. The drivetrain should last awhile, and the tires and specs are all now-current standard dimensions.
What are your thoughts wrt "The New Consumerism" and bicycling? Will riders/buyers rebel? Will the "green" movement catch up and cause us all to realize the greatest recycling is maintaining what we have? Will bikes be made more service-friendly with small parts made available as PlanetBike has done? See:
http://ecom1.planetbike.com/smallparts.html , where they say...
This is a comprehensive list of all the little parts that you may have lost, crashed, or worn out. To encourage you to rebuild your stuff rather than toss it in the rubbish bin, we offer free shipping on all spare parts.
Is this the future, or is it more and frequent buying and disposal of the "latest" so we can continue in a pursuit we all love?
Best,
Dan.
