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207 points LorenDB | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.218s | source
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taeric ◴[] No.41841233[source]
Can't get past the intro sentence without getting triggered. No, most people cannot fix a bike. As evidenced by the horrid shape most bikes are in. Heaven help folks that get the brakes so that they need to replace pads. You are as often to see people that ruined rims as you are to see people that did that correctly.

Don't get me wrong, there is something there. Everyone can be trained to fix older mechanical things. This is true. And I, for the life of me, cannot understand why people get bikes that need apps to run. That is just baffling.

So, change this to "ebikes are not being designed with repairability in mind" and I think I lose near all of my complaint. I do have worries about people not realizing how powerful ebikes are. Reminds me of early dirt motorcycles you could work on back in the day. Didn't take too many kids getting hurt before people took those seriously, I don't think. Odd to see us go right back down that path all because a lot of parents assume the battery tech is the same as it was a decade or so ago.

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ThrowawayTestr ◴[] No.41841479[source]
Unlike car maintenance bike maintenance is way more accessible. You need like one or two specialized tools to cover the majority of the work you'll do on your bike compared to a car. People are just lazy.
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1. taeric ◴[] No.41842636[source]
I think the reality of most people using bikes in rather low stakes situations also changes things heavily. That is, many are riding bikes that I would not trust down a hill going 30+mph. But, notably, most people are not going anywhere close to 30mph on a bicycle.

To that end, you are correct that most people are just needing to clean their bike. Replace the occasional consumable part of it, maybe. Keep it clean, though, and you are unlikely to need to replace any parts anytime soon.

Edit: And, again, limit this to ebikes and things change pretty rapidly. It is trivial to get an ebike to 25mph.