Change come hard in the cycling community

[kingrollo]

Aside from not charging the battery I've not read of reliability problems with electronic shifting. Other than forgetting to charge the battery that is. Never tried it mind.

I've had a rear gear cable break, and have had front mech problems. Both probably due to my own lack of mechanical skills. So cable gears can fail just as electronic ones can.

Both cases most often due to user error.

I love electric shifting - but after six years of trouble free shifting out of nowhere the front mech went .....,£250 !!!! ....

It did put me off - but I've since swapped the lot out . . .....for 105 di2 ....!!!!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Remember pre Internet the scrum at the shops buying your Christmas presents

Post Internet there is still a scrum at the shops.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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 .

The remote control was a long stick.

 

[kingrollo]

Post Internet there is still a scrum at the shops.

Yes you can opt out - provided you have no problem lining the pocket of Mr Jef Bosos !

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes you can opt out - provided you have no problem lining the pocket of Mr Jef Bosos !

Our just buy Christmas presents earlier / at a time you see them or avoid the Christmas consumption entirely. No technology required.

 

[kingrollo]

Our just buy Christmas presents earlier / at a time you see them or avoid the Christmas consumption entirely. No technology required.

Yeah you could do that.,😃

 

[wiggydiggy]

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...

its not just hi tech stuff that trip us up. My own most recent mishap (snapped a bolt after using a kickstand with a too heavy load) is something that in hindsight has me thinking 'why didn't I check the weight limit' but then as I've never used a kickstand before isn't something I thought of. So whilst I knew what the weight limit was on the pannier rack, and made sure I wasn't overloading it, I never thought to check the limit on the stand once I'd put the panniers on the rack.

 

[matticus]

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 .

Like many things, there was a "golden age / Goldilocks" version of this - remember when the remote control was on a lead, so you couldn't lose it??

Ah happy days ...

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Remember the golden age when you didn’t have to charge a single bloody thing? You had so much more time to actually do stuff.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Remember the golden age when you didn’t have to charge a single bloody thing? You had so much more time to actually do stuff.

I remember the golden age of being able to charge things without having to worry about them exploding, I have to pay someone to sit and watch my eBike battery now whilst it's charging!

 

[kingrollo]

Like many things, there was a "golden age / Goldilocks" version of this - remember when the remote control was on a lead, so you couldn't lose it??

Ah happy days ...

I honestly don't remember that !!

 

[Dogtrousers]

I honestly don't remember that !!

Nope, me neither.

 

[ColinJ]

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 .

I remember a friend buying the first TV that I had ever seen with a remote control. I thought that it was shocking how lazy some people were! I mean... What is wrong with walking backwards and forwards across the room every time one needs to adjust the volume, change channel etc?

 

[bobzmyunkle]

I remember a friend buying the first TV that I had ever seen with a remote control. I thought that it was shocking how lazy some people were! I mean... What is wrong with walking backwards and forwards across the room every time one needs to adjust the volume, change channel etc?

TV remotes - obesity crisis. Has anyone studied the correlation?
Actually, I've put on weight since I got disc brakes.

 

[FishFright]

Remember the golden age when you didn’t have to charge a single bloody thing? You had so much more time to actually do stuff.

Like buying batteries ?