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.

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.

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.