Planned obsolescence in cycling

You're absolutely right - I was thinking this with the example SRAMisms I gave too and was gonna leave that disclaimer, but bravo - I couldn't have put it better than you.

Anything created before or after Hollowtech II BSA68 BBs is banned. Problem solved.

About time the EU weighed in on a single BB standard..

Would end up Campag 😬

They're not the ones that voted for Brexit.

You just know Britain would end up picking Campag (because bus) while EU would use Shimano.

Great topic, the beauty of cycling is not only the exercise/transport aspect, but simplicity of the bike and tinkering factor. I get that not everyone wants to work on their own bikes, but learning how to take care and then upgrade my bikes as a kid gave me a lot of satisfaction.

Making bikes unserviceable at home is frustrating, but deliberately not making spares or parts being written off due to labour to repair is shitehousery.

Not to get into the mech/elec groupset argument, because I'm sure Di2 is banging but it's a shame high-end mechanical isn't on offer new and you're restricted to second hand/fire sales these days. Better get the Abe Simpson yelling at cloud meme out...

Not cycling but… 31 years ago I bought a Berghaus Vulcan. The elastic around the lid failed a couple of years ago.
I found out a couple of months ago Berghaus offer free repairs.
Here is Dibble Junior loading up for Boardmasters Festival

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There is an Anti-obsolescence thread for examples of things that you've bought for life: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/252678/

(never really got going)

SRAM are piss takers - you need a special frame to be able to use their latest rear mech.

GTF!

I completely agree, it would be great if there was a good spec mechanical groupset still available for road, something like 2x10, short and long cage mechs, fully rebuildable. I just don't think there is a market for it, I probably wouldn't buy it. We are already in a small minority of people who would actually want to understand and repair parts and it's an even smaller minority who would pay more for 'less'.

One thing that I think is driving the perception of planned obsolescence (that's getting harder and harder to type) is the reduction of product cycles. Companies are expected to update their bike every 2-3 years, either to be compatible with something, or to follow the latest geometry trends etc. It ends up in a race to be the first to release an ebike with new X motor or whatever and other more meaningful developments get left behind. This also creates a huge list of parts that you need to keep available for service which is a big cost for warehousing and distribution. We all had the hope that 3D printing would solve this for the world, and I think it is helping, but we can't solve everything with filament. It's great to see companies like Madrone keeping parts going, I hope they get some success.

To be honest, that hasn't bothered me too much, as they at least approached the whole UDH thing pretty tactically and successfully - get loads of MTB bike manufacturers to use their Universal Derailleur Hanger system for Eagle AXS, then drop a new RD design that incorporates a UDH (so only works on UDH frames), and now move it over to gravel where only some bikes have UDH. They haven't brought it to road at least, which is a good thing. We might end up there in a few years time though. Who knows.

Most people don't work on their bikes.

No one is making you buy frames that require non-standard shit or dumb groupsets

It's mostly "look at my new thing" willy waving nonsense.

It's still them trying to corner the market and you'd have to buy an adapter to run anything non-SRAM.

Yeah, it will/is creating a situation where only some bikes are UDH/frame only and therefore only they can have the latest and greatest of SRAM Red XPLR or the Eagle Transmission groupsets. I guess that kind've nerfs the 'Universal' in the UDH name lol.

The same could be said for disc brakes, but we don't get annoyed about brands not adding a brake bridge so that we can still run rim brakes. The main advantage of the new derailleur is the way it mounts, it also allows them to get 13 cogs on the cassette but I would say that's more of a by-product. If you don't have a frame that allows you to take advantage of that mounting style, then buying the new derailleur would be pointless anyway.

Design for repair is a surprisingly challenging topic, especially in the landscape of things resembling consumer electronics (eg head units, electronic shifters/mechs, etc). Designing for repair often pushes the cost of objects up, and companies are threading the needle of cost/repariability for the home mechanic or civilian/repairability for a service center. (Or, indeed, repairability for no-one.)

And it turns out people often like "paying less right now" than they like the idea of "buying a thing that can be repaired". Regardless of what they might say they prioritise.

Really obvious place you can see this is the consumer electronics industry's growing love of glue and adhesive. Why use expensive screws that need metal nuts/machined receptacles when you can just glue your phone together? Who's ever going to take it apart? Makes it thinner, too! Compare that to something like, say, the Framework laptop - lovely bit of engineering, repairable, upgradeable, and the trade-off is aesthetic and chunkiness that isn't exactly a blocker but isn't de rigeur.

(I hate glue.)

But with a bike... a bicycle, by default, literally is designed for repair. It's all (largely) on the outside! You can see how it works! (Even hydraulic calipers, no way am I going back to mechanicals). So the idea of chucking a composite pedal because it costs as much to repair as to replace... well, sure, only if you factor the environmental cost at zero. Which, sadly, enough people do to make it a thing.

I don't have an answer. But it's depressing, and doing something about it is better than not. A tool that costs as much as a new pedal, long term costs less than a new pedal.

I've bought 3rd-party bearings to fix my own Speedplay pedals. It's a fiddly job but doable. Would be nice if shit like bearings was available as spares but it ain't.

Now they've gone to Wahoo they don't even produce half the spares they used to so it's got even worse.

Its nice that Speedplay pedals were so serviceable.
I would rather that they didn't need servicing so often though...

Down this road today - my Elite Fly bottle valves are degrading and need replacement. They say that sunshine can affect the material - I suppose it's a good thing I live in England where it's not sunny.

They sell spares but shipping is €25 for two valves... I can get five new bottles for that price!

You could get two new bottles, take the valves off and keep bottle in the cupboard as spares of it came to it.

I mean, bike shops where my partner is from won't even touch tubeless tyres, they're not going to deal with Di2 or hydro piston replacement :D

Hope did it if you sent the brakes. I have done a few with donor pistons, I think you can buy pistons for some SRAM brakes, but I agree some people cannot be trusted. Bike mechs should be hold to some standard but half of us are teenagers in minimum wage

I've got a couple of bikes with 11 speed shimano 105 groupsets - very nice it is too. I also run a winter hack on 9 speed sora kit. To be honest, I'm not really sure that I need the 105 stuff. I'm getting slower and older so why pay the extra? Horses for courses. Fiar play to shimano for making decent spec 'lower tier' kit that works well.

They sell spares but shipping is €25 for two valves... I can get five new bottles for that price!

See also chainring v chainset. Started noticing around the advent of ht2 that it’s often cheaper to buy a whole new chainset than replacing rings. I guess there’s usually a half decent used market for bare cranks and must be down to full chainset getting reduced but rings not so much.

I used to swap out worn chainrings. I've just ebayed a tonne of old ones.

A lot of my cranks now used DM systems, so you have to swap out both "big and little" at the same time if one of them is worn.

The trick is to own way too many bikes so it doesn't feel like you're rebuilding one every other week :D

I hate that Shimano changed their chainrings to this asymmetrical shit.

Lighter, stronger, cheaper. Pick two :)