Gear count fanaticism and the endless quest for 1 more cog

There is no question that our hunt for quick, easy solutions for long term problems has led us down the path we are now traveling today.  Our world is bombarded with an array of "instant fixes" while the word "free" is thrown around left and right in desperate attempts to sell us the idea that one can get something for nothing.  We are told that the stuff in our lives is not good, fast, compatible and chic enough to rationalize continuous usage, repair and love.  So quick we have been in disposing of our new stuffs predecessors in the name of supposed progress that we often forget that there is typically plenty life left in said objects.

 One of the Taylor brothers (a highly revered trio of traditional frame builders from Britain) once said "I don't like progress.  I think as you get older you find that it isn't progress, its only change and it isn't always change for the better.  When your young you accept all the new idea and new designs and you go along with it. As you get older you find they don't stand up and you become very skeptical of progress".  When it comes to drivetrain component this quote would not resonate more with me. 

this is Rotor's 13 gear cassette.  It is going to change the way you ride bikes.. bonus
 points to Rotor for throwing in the hydraulic actuated derailleur

  Always a trade off

 

  With the advent of Sram's 12 speed cassettes hitting the market early in 2016 I watched as people went nuts over the idea of 12 speed, %500 gearing in the package of an 10-50t cluster.  Yes; that's right; a 10 tooth high gear.  "For the love of God; when is enough enough?" I couldn't help but think to myself as bike geeks rushed forward with open arms for this newest tech that would promise amazing shred-inducing riding and newfound climbing abilities.

  For a quick reminder, a 650b x 2.4" tire with a 2x9 speed setup using 22x32t chainrings on a 11-36t cassette gives you an even lower gear than the 32t ring/10-50t cassette 12 speed equivalent.  Was the 9 speed stuff of the early-mid 00's really so unbelievably inadequate that the mountain bike think tanks needed to spent the next 13+ years in r&d concluding that saving a few hundred grams was worth all this trouble.  Of course they did, as do any company predicated on exponential growth/sales models.  And truly a few grams was really the only "gain" here whatsoever as everything else lost points in the big equation.  Narrower sprockets with narrower chain rings wore quicker.  Even more extreme chain lines cause even narrower chains to wear more quickly.  Wheels with far more dish and less bracing angles will have an inherently shorter life expectancy.  None of the the preexisting 11 speed stuff was compatible in terms of indexing, free hub spacing, and derailleur usage.

 The point here being that as we have hunted so much for more and more cheap and easy gearing, we have simultaneously given away more and more of the quality, longevity, interchangeability and overall value that came with the seemingly less proprietary (though still often so) gearing arrangements of yesteryear.  I am not saying that I fundamentally believe that we all needed 11-36t cassettes coupled with 22/32t chain rings using 9 speed chains in the first place as much as I am trying to suggest that maybe we have gone even more full circle with this stuff than ever before.  We are being sold the same technology of the early 00's back to us in an ever so slightly varying package.  Ramped cogs on cassettes still spin on freehubs that still use index shifting while still offering an incredibly wide gearing spectrum.  And yet here we are drooling over the idea of buying/building brand new wheels to support the new freehub that supports the new cassette/chain/chainring/derailleur that gets shifted with the new shifter; all in the name of maybe a few hundred grams saved and an incrementally quicker shift if at all.

here we have srams patented "pivoting chainring".  This is basically Sram coming out with a public acknowledgement that running a cigarette-paper thin chain at a ludicrous angles is inherently exacerbating the detrimental effects that already existed in your previous 1x11 generation drivetrain.  Yet again throwing more unnecessary technology at a solution to a problem that maybe shouldn't have existed in the first place?

Why we buy it

 As I write this post I have a Sram GX eagle group sitting in the JBI shopping cart for the small bike repair I work at (by request of customer of course).  This is the absolute bottom end version that sells at an msrp of $550 for a crankset/bottom bracket/chainring, cassette, chain and shifter.  For perspective the top end Sram Eagle xx1 equivelent sells for $1,500.  As I will quite likely be the one installing this bit of kit on said person's bike I will inevitably be going through the motions in my head as to weather or not the "upgrade" will bring new bliss inducing gearing to this rider's experience.  For that kind of money spent on replacing already well working parts I would absolutely hope for a truly game changing product.  

The bike industry and its tech-infatuated love of progress will constantly have the susceptible ready to pounce on the latest upgrade as it tightens it's jaws of influence.  We are told we will "climb more efficiently", "descent quicker", "shift faster" and "shed grams" all in the process.  We are spoon fed this stuff as we gobble down the baby food mush of the bike industries blended up and recycled/rebranded ideas/tech.  We want easy and free solutions to inherent issues of both biking and life.  We want to float up hills without exerting energy.  We want effortless sprints.  We want bikes that weigh nothing as every effort we make is measured by our peers on Strava.  No longer are we riding just to ride for fun.  We have been so effectively sold the idea that cycling is a quantitative above qualitative experience that we cringe at the thought of wasted effort.   

The fact remains that at some point if we want to pedal up a hill we have to do just that; pedal.  No matter how much money and technology you throw at the act of turning crank arms with your legs, it takes a frighteningly similar amount of energy to get up that hill with or without the newest buzz-improvement in between your legs.

Getting burnt on the bike world

There comes a point with anything where you reach a plateau of sorts in your work.  You learn, experiment, help others, and in more ways than not give much of what you have to your craft.  You get real world experience, discover truths and disinformation through trial and error as well as having a plethora of humbling experiences along the way.  Sometimes there comes a point where you hit a wall of sorts with it all.  You find that you are lacking motivation to move forward with things for various reasons and begin questioning your place in it all.  I believe that for my own reasons I have as they say in the cycling world, met the man with the hammer.

Fitting in

Iv always struggled to find any sort of identity in the bicycle industry/culture.  Subscribing to ideals that undermine the shop/industry status quo, never fitting the bill of either a road or mountain cyclist, lacking the finances and desire for high end bikes and all the kit to go along with it has put me in a somewhat queer box of sorts.  In March of 2016 I wrote a blog post called  "Not a roadie, not a mountain biker, just a cyclist" in which I spelled out the various conflicting states of trying to fit into a particular genre or sub-genre of cyclist.  As it was for me two and a half years ago it still stands; the less I make attempts to conform to the varying, heavily marketed, often alienating and divisive cycling images that dominate the pages of magazines, the advert side bars of blogs and and the subtle product placement in various forms of media, the less I worry about who wants to ride with me, how I am perceived by them and and weather or not I will fit into the aforementioned boxes.

Now, far more than ever I am less and less interested in paying attention to market trends, being immersed in the growth-at-all-costs cycling industry, painting myself as a "serious" cyclists and being victim to the "more upgrades" mentality that dictates the discussions, lifestyles and attitudes of all too many cyclists.  It is for these same reasons that I tend to ride with other like minded people who are capable of breaking away from these confining molds while enjoying the lovely freedom that a bicycle ride, stripped away of all the racy/tech forward jargon and thinking patterns, can truly offer.

Myself explaining how sketchy but fun our ride was as I underbiked on my old mtb:  Photo - Cass Gilbert

The past and the present

 My work with bicycles has come and gone in a variety of ways.  I started getting into bike stuff by building myself single speed and fixed gear bikes, then for friends and neighbors, creating and maintained a bike related blog (still but less often), working a small side repair gig of my own, eventually becoming a mechanic by trade (now with a different shop) and being hired by the city as a bike mechanic/teacher/builder/dissembler/many-things-er (still).  I had and still have many friends and acquaintances in the bike world here in New Mexico with the long story short being that the connections still permeate much of what my day to day life looks like.

With all this having been said, its not the activity of cycling as much as bicycle culture, industry and waste that I am burnt on.  Maintaining a place in these worlds has become increasingly uncomfortable and difficult for me.  Investing energy and time in it all has substantially worn thin as I am less and less interested with many things bike related.  Though I still love to ride, build/repair,  write/read and teach/learn about all-things-bike related; I struggle to find the drive to become more embedded in these often niche and affluent-forward cycling cliques/communities and businesses/institutions.  Though my place in it all may be on the fringes of hip/cool/in, I know I am having fun, helping others, upcycling bikes and making meaningful connections all the while.  The blog has been a huge outlet for me to express and contemplate ideas while forging a deeper sense of identityless identity in this ever changing bike world.

 This is another good opportunity to thank those who have been friendly and supportive of me in my goofy and often off kilter ways of thinking and doing things.  I appreciate so much the friends I have made who embrace me as I come and are comfortable with my lack of fitting the mold.  Thank you all!