I sense the bike industry is taking a page or two from the auto industry text book on marketing. A recent news article pointed out that some automakers have dropped their small fuel efficient and easy to maneuver small vehicles from their line up. More profits in bigger vehicles. We have been convinced that we all want trucks and SUVs. We all want cars and trucks with a gazillion electronic doo dads that do what they say they do and replace what we used to do like pay attention and use mirrors and shoulder checks. As I have quoted before, they can’t sell us more cars but they can sell us more car. The bike industry is convincing many of us that we need more bike. And I will point out that Tom Pidcock won the last WC short track and XC on mechanical shifting. No "game changer" bzzzt bzzt shifter. Droppers are game changing. Electric shifting. No.
Recently I bought a headset steepening adapter and a seat tube slackening adapter. Subtle changes but I prefer it. I agree that bike geometry has plateaued.
The wife has an ebike. She loves it because we can now ride together. She has a medical condition that prevents her from going hard. But for me the complexity of this motor and battery thing is a no go. The bike was creaking badly last week so I pulled the pivots and cranks and cleaned and greased them up. But I looked at the bb area and it looked like I didn’t have the tools to fix it so we took it to the shop. The figured out the chainring needed grease where it mounts. But then a single red light came on the display after reassembly and the motor wouldn’t go. Leave the bike and they update the software and it’s all good. Let me ask you guys: Who wants a more expensive more complex bike that we who do our own work but now are unwilling to do? Or car. Or my fucking bathroom faucet. I had to order a stupid 32 mmm socket the remove the cartridge. I get on the Grohe website and search for the cartridge I might need and get over 800 parts. They don’t seem to list my faucet any more but there are similar ones but they don’t show the part number for the cartridge.
One can go on forever with all kinds of new and improved bullshit "ubiquitous they" are selling us. Boas on ski boots, slapchop and vegematic. Blind spot beep fucking beepers, cables in the headset. Yeah they do what they say to an extent but how do they actually improve things? I need a big car because it’s more safe. Or maybe we all need smaller cars. I need guns to protect myself. Maybe we need fewer guns.
Frog in a pot of boiling water we are.
June 27, 2024, 8:57 a.m. - Andy Eunson
I sense the bike industry is taking a page or two from the auto industry text book on marketing. A recent news article pointed out that some automakers have dropped their small fuel efficient and easy to maneuver small vehicles from their line up. More profits in bigger vehicles. We have been convinced that we all want trucks and SUVs. We all want cars and trucks with a gazillion electronic doo dads that do what they say they do and replace what we used to do like pay attention and use mirrors and shoulder checks. As I have quoted before, they can’t sell us more cars but they can sell us more car. The bike industry is convincing many of us that we need more bike. And I will point out that Tom Pidcock won the last WC short track and XC on mechanical shifting. No "game changer" bzzzt bzzt shifter. Droppers are game changing. Electric shifting. No. Recently I bought a headset steepening adapter and a seat tube slackening adapter. Subtle changes but I prefer it. I agree that bike geometry has plateaued. The wife has an ebike. She loves it because we can now ride together. She has a medical condition that prevents her from going hard. But for me the complexity of this motor and battery thing is a no go. The bike was creaking badly last week so I pulled the pivots and cranks and cleaned and greased them up. But I looked at the bb area and it looked like I didn’t have the tools to fix it so we took it to the shop. The figured out the chainring needed grease where it mounts. But then a single red light came on the display after reassembly and the motor wouldn’t go. Leave the bike and they update the software and it’s all good. Let me ask you guys: Who wants a more expensive more complex bike that we who do our own work but now are unwilling to do? Or car. Or my fucking bathroom faucet. I had to order a stupid 32 mmm socket the remove the cartridge. I get on the Grohe website and search for the cartridge I might need and get over 800 parts. They don’t seem to list my faucet any more but there are similar ones but they don’t show the part number for the cartridge. One can go on forever with all kinds of new and improved bullshit "ubiquitous they" are selling us. Boas on ski boots, slapchop and vegematic. Blind spot beep fucking beepers, cables in the headset. Yeah they do what they say to an extent but how do they actually improve things? I need a big car because it’s more safe. Or maybe we all need smaller cars. I need guns to protect myself. Maybe we need fewer guns. Frog in a pot of boiling water we are.