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207 points LorenDB | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.347s | 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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sidewndr46 ◴[] No.41841729[source]
Exactly what specialized tools do you need to work on a car? Are you counting closed end wrenches and sockets as "specialized" or something?
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1. jrmcauliffe ◴[] No.41842866[source]
Had a mobile mechanic unable to change the timing belt on our 10 y/o Volkswagen Golf because the balancer is now secured with a proprietary lock-ring instead of four hex bolts.

He said this sort of thing is getting more common and even if he did want to buy all of the required bits and bobs he wouldn't be able to fit them all in his van.

Even in the 'good old days', you weren't getting very far working on your car without things like gear pullers, timing guns and feeler gauges. All things that technically you could be using for other things, but not exactly in the average toolbox of someone that doesn't work on cars.