Bike Manufacturers Are Making Bikes Less Repairable

Im going to disagree - bikes are incredibly more repairable because of e-commerce. I no longer rely on local availability of parts, and lack of documentation when doing repairs. YouTube has infinite knowledge and Amazon/walmart ship literally any part to my door. Bottom bracket as an example I don’t think is fair - I’m an avid cyclist and have never once heard of anyone working in their bottom bracket. Chain, derailleur, cranks/pedals, brakes, handlebars, seat, etc are all very reasonable to do but bottom brackets everyone takes to a shop.

Additionally, shop prices (at least in Denver) are absolutely disgusting. A brake pad is $15 in my lbs, but the same one is $6 online direct from the mfg. maybe 2 minutes of labor to repair, but the shop will charge $75 minimum. I was quoted $130 for a chain replacement when I went in to get my recalled cranks replaced.

It's true for mechanical bikes!

For e-bikes, some manufacturers try to lock users down with DRM. And the last part that's hard to repair is the battery!

But at Gouach (disclaimer: I'm one of the co-founder), we really wanted to provide a way for people and company fleets to have observability and agency over their batteries, so we've designed (took us 2 years haha) a repairable battery that's working very well now! You need nothing but a screwdriver.

Added benefit is that you can now decentralize production and repair: any shop can produce small batches of batteries, or repair them, without complex equipment or specialized training!

Often times community bike shops will have tools to let you fix one. It is a kind of once in a decade repair though.

Yeah I've only ever had to use my bottom bracket tool twice in 20 years of cycling, wasn't so hard to do (moving from a cracked frame to a new one once, and replacing a bottom bracket that had gone in a bmx) - but I doubt most people would try to diy it - it just so happened that I had the tool in my 'every tool you might ever need' kit from China.

the online direct business doesn't have to pay rent for a shop space in an accessible part of Denver though, which is why downtowns can't compete on price

> shop prices are absolutely disgusting

Do you think they are high because that's what it takes to pay for labor and rent, or are they high because the owners are greedy and are getting rich?

I'm not saying these prices aren't painful, but I am pretty sure there are very few bike shop owners, let alone employees, with enviable wealth.

I've replaced a couple and the conclusion is that this definitely has economies of scale since you will very rarely use the tool. Better to go take it to a bike shop. It wasn't hard once I had the tools, but I'm not going to use the tools that often. And I'm more likely to lose the bottom bracket adapter tool than reuse it, if I'm being honest.

Simply high from a consumers perspective. Some shops certainly are greedy (PE owned, multiple locations, like evo). But for the truly lbs I don’t know the cause.

I replaced my own bottom bracket!

Ok well, first I destroyed the threads on the cranks meant to interface with the bottom bracket tool. Thus requiring a shop visit. And the shop, after consulting with the frame manufacturer, cut the destroyed cranks off with an angle grinder (and posted a video to their Facebook page - you don't usually see that many sparks in a bike shop).

But hey, I now have a nice, let-the-pros-do-this-job souvenir (the wrecked cranks). And my bracket/bearings are creak-free and spinning quite nicely three years later.

Totally agree - despite having most bike tools I might need, I'd watch friends time and again pay over £100 for a new chain fitted and maybe a minor 'service' if they were lucky in London. I'd offer to either loan them the tools, make the fix or walk through the processes, but to many people it just feels impossible to start taking a bike apart. The only reason I learnt is that I am tight/cheap and a massive set of (OK) tools was far less than a single trip to the lbs.