Change come hard in the cycling community

[tyred]

One area where I am a new-stuff junkie is GPS and other tech. Other people happily soldier on with perfectly adequate Etrexes and the like, or even paper maps, but I just have to have the latest techy toys.

Maps? I usually just go and get lost or make it up as I go along. It adds to the sense of adventure.

 

[Dadam]

That's a fair point, but the flip side is that, while I'm more than comfortable building bikes and doing any job required on them (including on hydraulic disc systems), my experience of Di2 as detailed above is that it requires some investment in diagnostics software; disc brakes, while simple enough in principle, are simply too vulnerable to contamination to be suitable for use in bikes, where the smallest amount of chain lube from the other side of the hub is enough to set the things squealing in a teeth-gratingly irritating manner. (And no matter how careful you are to avoid contamination, it does happen.) Fine, if the performance gains provided by disc brakes are important to you then that's something you can live with, but for me using the bike to get to work and finding rim brakes to be in no way inadequate - certainly not inferior to discs for the sort of riding I do - it wasn't. I tried discs and genuinely didn't get along with them: since selling the bike and going back to rim brakes, my riding has been entirely trouble-free and my bikes significantly easier and cheaper to service. And I've never once struggled to stop in time, in any circumstances.

It's weird. It sounds to me like you've been unlucky. All my bikes bar one have hydro discs (Shimano and Tektro) and I don't recognise those issues. They just work, stopping quickly and quietly. Maybe I've been lucky

The only time any of them have squealed is during wet conditions and then only while wet and not that badly. As far as I can tell I've not had any of them contaminated to any degree. When lubing or cleaning the chain I use a shield made from a cardboard disc (from a supermarket pizza) that stops overspray getting on the disc.

 

[ColinJ]

When lubing or cleaning the chain I use a shield made from a cardboard disc (from a supermarket pizza) that stops overspray getting on the disc.

I have a broken roof slate in my back yard which I use for that purpose. It also protects the rear tyre.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

They just work, stopping quickly and quietly. Maybe I've been lucky.

That's my experience with rim brakes. Maybe I've been lucky!😄

 

[Rhythm Thief]

It's a bit of a generalisation but not wildly off the mark to say that new tech is more reliable but less fixable. It's certainly true of cars: (arguably) fewer breakdowns but if it does go wrong, you are going home on a truck; computer says " no" vs giving the carb adjuster a twiddle. Likewise fixie vs gears, downtube friction shifters vs STI and so on

That's exactly it! I don't mind spending more time maintaining my bikes if the trade off is that I can fix it by the roadside almost regardless of what's gone wrong.

 

[Profpointy]

That's exactly it! I don't mind spending more time maintaining my bikes if the trade off is that I can fix it by the roadside almost regardless of what's gone wrong.

Another thought is when things are claimed to be "maintenance free" when it might be more truthful to say "not maintainable"

 

[Andy in Germany]

But what really goes wrong with 'high tech' kit?

9 years of MTB's and 6 of road bikes with hydro discs and not one of the 4 bikes has ever missed a beat.

Clipless pedals, 9,10,11 speed divetrains & thru axles have all performed as they should with no hassles at all.

Not tried electronic shifting or tubeless tyres yet.

To give a couple of examples from this week:

• A bike with the wheel replaced badly after the customer repaired a puncture: discs are sensitive, and the disc was bent out of shape. Fixable, but you need a specialised tool.
• A bike where the Disc Brake pads needed replacing because they hadn't been "bedded in" and had gone glassy. This costs a bit, and was delayed because the pads were not standard, so we have to order them.
• A bike came in with Shimano pads and Magura discs; these have different tolerances, so they aren't compatible. We now have to wait and see if the customer wants us to change the disc (€€) or the shoes/saddle/levers (€€€) so they're compatible.
• E-Bike came in for a diagnosis: the battery is dead. Customer ordered a battery through us (700€), then cancelled the order having found a cheaper (500€) battery online. The original Battery was already on the way, and cancelling cost 100€.because only licenced carriers can transport batteries; we can't even carry a loose battery from one workshop to the other on the other side of the town, so the customer will get an invoice for the 100€. If the new battery is a no-name battery, we can't maintain the bike any more.

Now, these are largely "human error" or the customer not thinking through consequences, but human error seems a lot easier to achieve with more modern tech.

That's not a criticism of people who use this tech, but there are drawbacks, and one is that it's often more complex and difficult and therefore expensive to maintain.

I don't (yet) feel the advantages for me outweigh the drawbacks, and even though I'm on a crash (ha,ha) course learning how to maintain all this tech, and having great fun fixing and testing some very expensive and high-tech bikes, I am still holding onto my very low-tech bike because I value simple reliability above what technology offers.

That said if anyone wants to offer me a Genesis tour de Fer or a Tern Oryx R14 (29") I would, with difficulty, accept...

 

[Ming the Merciless]

When electronic gears fail one is left stuck in one gear. The same I believe is true with a broken cable.

Replace cable in about 5 minutes and get going again.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Replace cable in about 5 minutes and get going again.

With a muiltitool. And possibly pliers/a Leatherman, both of which are compact and easy to carry.

 

[Andy in Germany]

It was the noise I couldn't live with!

We have a customer who has one dragging disc brake; it drives the mechanic potty every time he comes in because the customer doesn't ask us to fix it...

 

[Dogtrousers]

To give a couple of examples from this week:

• E-Bike came in for a diagnosis: ....

The whole ebike area sounds like a bit of a nightmare for you as you're actually stepping into the fringes of the more highly regulated automotive world.

Best of luck with it.

 

[FishFright]

All this old tech was once new and the miserable old gits moaned that it was pointless tech and obviously a marketing scam too .

Plus ça change .

 

[Ming the Merciless]

With a muiltitool. And possibly pliers/a Leatherman, both of which are compact and easy to carry.

For me a 4mm hex key and small needle nose pliers is all that’s required to replace gear cable. The pliers to cut cable, once clamped derailleur end.

 

[Andy in Germany]

The whole ebike area sounds like a bit of a nightmare for you as you're actually stepping into the fringes of the more highly regulated automotive world.

Best of luck with it.

Thankfully not for me personally, I'm not the finance department or the technical manager who carries the can if it goes wrong; I just train people.

 

[kingrollo]

The latter is incompetence. Tech (electronic) has a known history of not working for no known reason or easy way to diagnose / resolve.

There's usually a trade off in any innovation. Remember the TV that changed channel with a knob ....the trade off is you loose the remote control .

Remember pre Internet the scrum at the shops buying your Christmas presents - much easier with a couple of mouse clicks - trade off more white van men hurtling around like lunatics ...