Tag Archives: Steel bike

Upgrades in a Time of Obsolescence

Leave a reply

We enjoy technological progress too but, as a some of you may know from my editorial – So Much Silliness – this past winter, we’re also prone to some frustration with forced obsolescence and abandonment of support for the countless fine bicycles we’ve produced over the years.

Many modern bicycle design and component options indeed offer significant improvements in comfort and performance over those of years past. Unfortunately, precious few of these options for upgrades are compatible with what made fine bicycles so special, just a few years ago. For each fine bicycle we built over the past few decades, we pledged to maximize its timelessness… You’d love it so much that you’d wear out the parts, and need to replace them with the latest-and-greatest when that eventually became necessary.

Now it’s 2024, and it has become incredibly difficult to fulfill this promise, as so many of today’s offerings are designed to be incompatible with these favorite bikes.

Folks buy new bicycles for many reasons. The variety may be almost as broad as the number of reasons to ride a bicycle. Sometimes it’s to enjoy the latest technology of the day, thinking it will make them faster, or the coolest cat in their riding group.

We’ve always felt a critical component to ensuring success (thrilling the customer) upon delivery of a made-to-order bicycle is to start the conversation by exploring a customer’s WHY… That is, “What kinds of things do you hope to gain, achieve, or experience differently with a new custom bicycle? What are your favorite characteristics about your previous bicycle? What things about your old bicycle are you looking to improve upon? What kinds of riding have you done? What kinds of riding do you intend to do in the future?” There are as many ways to ask and answer these sorts of questions as there are people, but you get the idea of what we’re hoping to learn about you.

You spent a lot of money when you invested in that “forever bike” so many years ago. It’s still perfect for your needs, but now you’ve worn out the parts and want to take advantage of modern comforts and shifting systems. Why should you have to spend double what you spent back then, for a bike that we all now know will be obsolete in another few years?

If the answer is to upgrade to the latest technology, that’s easy. Any competent bike shop, with a modern selection and enthusiastic advisors, can simply show you the hottest bikes on their showroom floor. We can certainly please this customer with a custom bicycle too, but today it’s admittedly difficult to compete against the value of stock offerings if this is all you hope to gain.

In the custom world, however, the reasons for wanting a new bike are predictably deeper and more nuanced. Indeed, they can be as different from each other as the customers themselves. Most reasons include, if not revolve around, perfect fit and greater comfort, especially for longer distances and adventures. Some require adaptations for physical limitations and past injuries. Many reasons include confidence-inspiring performance and handling adjustments. Others focus on specific utility needs, gear requirements, or reliability issues. Almost everyone develops ideas about how they want their bike to look different – could be flashy, could be subtle, but different – from what everyone else is riding out of their “normal bike shop.”

If you are the lady who commissioned her dream bike 20 years ago, to comfortably ride with her group of friends, and it still fits and rides exquisitely… Sure, one can argue that disc brakes are better under many circumstances, but they’re not better for her needs.  Her bike’s hoods are worn out from years of use, and modern gears offer a more suitable range as she ages. Current upgrades only work with hydraulic disc brakes, but her perfect bicycle does not accommodate discs.

Perhaps you’re the gentleman for whom we built his dream bike 10 years ago, as a reliable companion for long-distance touring… Sure, one can argue that electronic shifting is nifty under many circumstances, but it’s not superior for his needs. By now he’s traveled and ridden all over the world, and his drivetrain has already been replaced twice from the miles, but his wheels remain almost bombproof because they were spec’d and built correctly from the start. Modern upgrades are incompatible with his wheels, and new wheels would be incompatible with his frame.

Our challenge, on behalf of the many cyclists who have expressed frustration with today’s lack of options to keep their “forever bike” going, has been searching for ways to legitimately upgrade without total replacement of all that was so important to the customer in that first conversation. This will be an ongoing challenge, and that’s a natural part of business, but in recent months we have made a concerted effort to prepare for these discussions, and to develop tailored solutions.

If you once invested in a fine bicycle, and you’ve been wishing it might qualify for upgrades or repairs, without considering the bike disposable… Hubbub has been preparing for you. Send us a telegram. We would love to help you keep your exquisite ride out there on the roads and trails, still performing exactly as you need it to.

So. Much. Silliness.

Leave a reply

As desperately as I want to agree with Eben Weiss’s recent Op-Ed in Outside Magazine, titled “There’s No Good Reason to Buy a Carbon BIke” – as I have my own history of preferring bicycles made with steel – I must respectfully disagree with his titled premise, based on reasoning that revolves around his comment that, [manufacturers] “can tune ride quality and maintain strength while simultaneously keeping the weight to a minimum in a way that’s not really possible with metal tubing.”

After almost four decades of studying bicycle design, and three decades of participating heavily in their creation – with a distinction of learning from direct exposure to every result, often in perpetuity – the value of my agreement (or minor points of disagreement) is roughly equivalent to a couple teardrops in the sea, especially in today’s world.

I would argue that it’s not only easier to tune the ride of a metal bicycle frame, but more economical, and the possibilities for tune-ability are infinite, same as with carbon. I personally find I prefer the ride of a tuned steel frame over any of the finest carbon bikes I’ve yet ridden. So then, where’s my disagreement with Mr. Weiss, of Bike Snob NYC fame?

Most modern high-end components are designed for what the “miraculous” qualities of carbon fiber can provide, with a focus on winning races. Of course we can, and do, build steel frames to accept these components but, in doing so, we must sacrifice significant characteristics of what used to make steel so fabulous, thereby losing a most important justification for steel, its ride quality.

Riders’ belief that “steel bikes are heavy” is perhaps truer now than in the past 30 years… Steel bikes now need to be overbuilt, so they are indeed heavier – and more critically, stiffer – than necessary. The reason they’re overbuilt is not because steel isn’t strong enough… They need to be overbuilt because most parts today worthy of the craftsmanship in a fine steel frame are instead designed for non-steel bikes that do need to be overbuilt – disc brakes, thru-axle dropouts, oversize steerers and headsets and headtubes, etc.

Bike Snob is of course in the business of satire and opinions, not having to demonstrate value for folks walking through the door of a brick-&-mortar establishment. We have enjoyed his commentary for many years, and watching the controversy stirred up by his posting this time is no different. Based on his later elaboration on his own blog site, it appears he too is getting a kick out of the silly controversy. There is no end to the amusement that comes with watching folks spend time and energy arguing for personal beliefs that are completely irrelevant to everyone else.

The bike in my stand, whatever the frame’s material, is important to its rider, and my job is to ensure she loves riding it, not to judge her choices. This is especially true considering that, especially today, her freedom to make wise purchasing decisions is extremely limited by what the industry pushes; and, in her enthusiasm for what she’s been sold on what magic the bike can perform for her, she may not even be aware of this.

Materials have advanced immensely. Carbon is just dandy, if that’s your thing. I’ve owned or ridden extensively some of the finest carbon bikes ever made, but I don’t have them anymore. I’ve owned or ridden extensively some of the finest titanium bikes ever made. I no longer have any of them either. Some of them I liked okay, but none of them impressed me enough to keep them more than a season or so. Likewise, I’ve owned and ridden extensively some fine aluminum bikes too. No, I don’t have them anymore. On a side note, we have produced countless supposedly “forever bikes” over the years that are now obsolete and barely supportable. When their components wear out, modern equivalent replacements simply don’t exist to fit on the same bike. Some obsolescence is understandable, technology advances, but we’ve been forced to accept that fine bikes are disposable. So Much Silliness.

None of this makes me right about much of anything, except as I apply it to either myself or keeping my customer happy to come back. Like Weiss, I will not admit to being a curmudgeon. I enjoyed my 5, 6, and 7-speed bicycles, but I don’t regularly ride one anymore. The history of bicycles (or anything else) is full of bad ideas. That’s how creative progress is made, and I enjoy legitimate progress as much as anyone. Far too many of the final product decisions made over the past 5-10 years in bicycles however qualify as regress, So Much Silliness, not progress.

For me personally, my newest bike is from 2015 and my oldest rideable bike is from the 1960’s, with several scattered in-between – 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, among the finest specimens created. Of the handful that I ride regularly, the experiences of riding them are exquisite, and yet unmatched by anything else I’ve ever owned or ridden. To me, and for my target customer, this is what matters most in a bicycle. They also happen to be steel, but I won’t claim that steel is the reason they’re exceptional. They’re all steel because I haven’t been impressed enough with anything else to keep it around. They were timeless, and there’s no excuse that the finest bicycles today, of any material, shouldn’t also be timeless.

I can carry on all day about my own preference for steel as a material for bicycles, and handily debunk every mythical objection to it. That said, there is indeed at least one good reason to buy a carbon bike. If you want a new bike today, the widest selection to choose from has been optimized using carbon fiber. This is not necessarily because carbon is inherently a superior material for anything but raw competition, but availability and choice in the market does make it arguably a superior purchasing option. Fair warning however… Mr. Weiss’s point that, “a carbon bike is thrillingly cutting edge until it’s about two or three seasons old, at which point it becomes yesterday’s hunk of plastic and nobody wants it, including you,” is truer now than for any material in the past.