Bike Voodoo Economics
Here’s a bike manufacturing question that I suppose applies to every other industry to an extent…
Why is there such a rapid, juggernaut push to consolidation?
Why is there no (sustainable) money in diversity, craftsmanship?
(I just note a bit of the thread about Clement and Vittoria and recall rumors that new Thai Vittoria’s aren’t as good as the old…)
On the one hand, I see a bit of diversity at the high end of things: the infinity of CNC parts for $3K MT-bikes.
I don’t know much but this type of thing makes my thoughts jump to the new stove we just bought. It’s a plain box. How can people STAND to make this sort of thing with their lives? “I spent 30 years making plain box stoves.” Where’s the pride? We bought the box because collectors are making it hard to find good old stoves. We do estate sales so we see what CRAFTSMANSHIP used to be like in EVERY HOME.
I’m on a bit of a hate management kick right now. Owner management AND labor management. Hollow victories everywhere, it seems to me.
Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe bikes and bike parts LAST a lot longer nowadays and are easier to use, more comfy? I think of old car tires and new ones. New ones are better. New cars don’t need tuneups. (They just get totaled by the ins comp when the main computer fritzes….) Old bike stuff was QUAINT but maybe somehow lacking? —Have to rebuild all bearings after riding in muddy rain…that WAS a pain. But somehow DEMAND isn’t what’s going on here. I know that practical commuter bikes aren’t in vogue, but there’s a force that seemingly doesn’t WANT them to be in vogue. If IMAGE is everything, companies could SPIN sensible bikes in a way that they’d sell just fine. Couldn’t they? I’m thinking of Gabe Konrad’s fave bikes of the 50’s (or what have you), with the INTEGRAL fenders, lights, racks, chainguards, pumps, repair kits. NOW THERE’S A REAL BIKE! Bizarre to think that if bikes are ever to take off it wouldn’t be by way of the best all-round bike.
I went to buy a frame-pump the other day. Mine are all munched and trashed. Duct tape on all of them. I thought I’d get a nice blue number to match my frame paint. HA! Pick any color as long as it’s short, ugly and BLACK. THIS IS PROGRESS? I told the guy that a stubby mt-bike stick wouldn’t be what anyone would prefer for a road bike, if you wanted a nice look. He had the nerve to say it was a matter of opinion. I said no it’s a matter of fact. If you need the space, that’s one thing, but if you want looks, you don’t want a stickpump. A color-coord pump that FITS a frame’s design is FACTUALLY a better looking pump for that frame. Sure, at some far-out point some freak might think SLAPDASH RANDOM parts look good on a bike, but you’d get 99.9% of folks alive now or dead from all history voting for ‘integrated design LOOKS better.’ I mean, it’s the definition of design. But here’s a guy DEFENDING his world of pick any color as long as it’s short and black in terms of LOOKS. Hey, let him defend it in terms of monopoly capitalism, and some types of touring and mt-biking, but otherwise… (I’ll go see what Colorado Cyclist has to offer…)
