Thanks for writing this Andrew- you’ve put to words a lot of the ideas bouncing around in my brain since this release.
On one hand, I’m a champion of good engineering that solves a ‘problem’ … on the other hand I hate to see our sport become increasingly luxury oriented where top the products that solve those ‘problems’ are only available to the upper middle class and beyond.
This makes me like my single speed that much more… and let me provide and example to go along with that sentiment.
When I bought my first new car in 2019, (a 6-speed subaru crosstrek) it was very hard to find the manual transmission… and the dealers were pushing hard to sell me on a CVT because of the driver assist technology packaged along with it. When it came time to sign papers, they pushed hard for me to get extra insurance to cover ‘computer issues’ citing that 40% or more of their vehicles now require $2k plus repairs to the automation systems during the lifetime of the vehicle.
I told them that’s why I bought the least automated vehicle they had on the lot, and that I’d take my chances.
_
Are we getting into drivetrains, (excuse me- transmissions) for our bikes that might justify something similar? Is the next thing going to be ‘transmission insurance’?
_
I sincerely hope the UDH tech can and does appear at NX and SX level, and that with that comes a drastic increase in reliability for those groups.
I’m excited to try linkglide.
In the meantime, I’ll be out there enjoying my singlespeed and my manual transmission :)
March 24, 2023, 8:50 a.m. - Vincent Edwards
Thanks for writing this Andrew- you’ve put to words a lot of the ideas bouncing around in my brain since this release. On one hand, I’m a champion of good engineering that solves a ‘problem’ … on the other hand I hate to see our sport become increasingly luxury oriented where top the products that solve those ‘problems’ are only available to the upper middle class and beyond. This makes me like my single speed that much more… and let me provide and example to go along with that sentiment. When I bought my first new car in 2019, (a 6-speed subaru crosstrek) it was very hard to find the manual transmission… and the dealers were pushing hard to sell me on a CVT because of the driver assist technology packaged along with it. When it came time to sign papers, they pushed hard for me to get extra insurance to cover ‘computer issues’ citing that 40% or more of their vehicles now require $2k plus repairs to the automation systems during the lifetime of the vehicle. I told them that’s why I bought the least automated vehicle they had on the lot, and that I’d take my chances. _ Are we getting into drivetrains, (excuse me- transmissions) for our bikes that might justify something similar? Is the next thing going to be ‘transmission insurance’? _ I sincerely hope the UDH tech can and does appear at NX and SX level, and that with that comes a drastic increase in reliability for those groups. I’m excited to try linkglide. In the meantime, I’ll be out there enjoying my singlespeed and my manual transmission :)