- we salvaged 100s of discarded e-bike batteries
- we found that 90% of components were like new
- batteries were thrown away because of the spot-welding and the glue which prevents repairability
- we spent 2 years (and 5 patents) to design a robust, safe, and easy to assemble system that requires nothing but a screwdriver
Our batteries have been in use since 2 years in the streets of France, on micro-mobility e-bikes, in the harshest possible conditions (rain, snow, cold, heat, shocks), and we're very happy with their performances!
We're now opening it to the general public (for conversion kits, and to replace old batteries that are no longer manufactured)
We plan to open-source at least part of the embedded software, so people can write extensions (to let their battery "talk" with any e-bike system, and share it — using WASM embeddable code — to other people on the web!)
Let's fight planned obsolescence!
(and if you're looking for a new battery, there's 25% off on https://get.gouach.com)
Minor grammar tip - saying "since 2 years" is a tell that you're a non-native speaker. It's a common mistake that most people will understand, but the correct phrasing is "for 2 years."
I'm sure this is a pitch you practice a lot, so I wanted to help for next time.
“Since” goes with a particular moment in time (rather than an amount of time) to refer to the period between that time and now, like an old restaurant saying “making pizza since 1922” or for recent events like “since yesterday.”
The other two examples work, though 'since yesterday' is still slightly forced unless its an answer to a direct question.
So what's your point exactly?
The app just allows to connect over Bluetooth to the battery if you want to set a wifi password to retrieve your data and set alerts!
It also lets you configure your battery for any type of e-bike system
https://docs.gouach.com/connected-batteries/monitoring-inter... explicitly states "In order to access the connectivity features, you will need a Gouach client account."
None of this is the end of the world, and I'm glad the batteries will continue to work as batteries after you go out of business, but it does come off as hypocritical given your big talk about repairability.
https://docs.gouach.com/knowledge-base/frequently-asked-ques...
We've seen that our design does not pose heating or resistance issues
What is your team's background in battery safety?
We've developed a LOT of experience on safety after fighting a few fires haha, this is why we added a lot of software and hardware safeties (fuses everywhere, alerts, etc)
Oh and we designed a fireproof casing to be extra-cautious that nothing would happen to our clients! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJETffg0kFc
I own a Specialized Vado SL from 2022. Can I use your battery as a range extender?
So, why is the link redirecting?
The link was our original pre-launch page, and now redirecting to the Indiegogo campaign!
The product does exist, and is in use, but until now our clients have been B2B, who are able to pay upfront for the commands.
As we are now opening to the general public, and we're a startup, we needed a schema like Indiegogo to get the money upfront and be able to buy the materials to assemble all the batteries!
We're expecting to ship at the end of the year
Um... Paris isn't exactly a harsh climate. Send some batteries to me in a month or two and I'll show them winter. Proper winter starts when it stops snowing.
As for e-bikes, my usual observation when one comes in with an intermittent error is "We've managed to make bicycles as reliable as computers. What an incredible accomplishment for our species."
We only work on the electric drivetrain on Trek bikes (and others that use Bosch). I can vouch for the fact that as of October 2024, the electric drivetrain stuff can be handled from the on-bike computer and an app isn't necessary for basic functionality. I'm sure you get some more features with the app, but you don't need it to just go for a ride.
Batteries come with some wrinkles. Many manufacturers (not just Trek) want to make them easily removable so you can take them with you to charge and prevent them from getting stolen. They also want them to integrate nicely with the frame visually. The result is frequently some amount of compromise in the proprietary direction.
That said, Bosch appears to make some standard-ish batteries that are used in less-integrated installations across bike manufacturers.
Big issue with Bosch systems is that they use DRM to lock-in users, so that they need to buy (very expensive) Bosch batteries.
Bosch batteries are well-designed, and very safe. But still issues can happen. If you want to check a fun battery fire video, here's a comparison that we've made between a Gouach fireproof battery (disclaimer: I'm a co-founder) and a Bosch battery!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJETffg0kFc
(the video is not perfect because we had to drill for one battery and not the other for technical reason, and it doesn't change the result, but just for the sake of it, we're planning to film a new one next week haha)
[0] Like the USB dongle you have to have to run their diagnostic software...
I agree the various (totally random) BB standards are a pain; every bike build I've done has meant that I CADed and then 3D printed the tool (100% infill PETG, takes ~2 hours on a Prusa MK3S).
Curious how long it is before we get 3D printing tech easy enough to where shops can have a printer, download any special tools for a bike assembly, and make them in a few hours.
Hope is a great example of a manufacturer who does this today: https://www.hopetech.com/open-source-tools/
Whenever you put a computer into a device that has historically been reliable and never needed a computer, you instantly limit its reliability to that of the computer (which usually becomes the most failure-prone and/or non-repairable part in the device).
Removable battery is as good as a removable power cable right?
On the point about the power cable, this is more directed at hub Drive motors. If I can't disconnect your motor to remove your wheel, I'm not going to fix your flat tire.
- 1 1/8 steerer tube, or maybe tapered
- Threadless a-head headset in any common SHIS type. Threaded ones won’t last as long.
- QR or common thru-axle
- Any common BB standard (threadless ones are actually fine but require a well made frame, and you’d be surprised how many expensive frames are not well made)
- Always a round seat post and get 27.2mm if you can. Bigger if you care about dropper posts
- Rim brakes are fine unless you are doing serious off road. If going disc, hydraulics offer great performance for the price.
- Flat bar shifting components are much more interchangeable and better value that drop bar!
- If going drop bar, consider older 2x11 speed mechanical equipment. It’s much cheaper and it was competitive at a pro level not so long ago.
- External cable routing!
- Aluminium is uncool, but it represents a sweet spot in terms of weigh/cost/durability
- Tyre volume, not frame material, is the most important factor in comfort
- Never buy a bike that doesn’t fit you
These tips won’t get you the best bike (in terms of absolute performance) but it will be reliable, easy to fix and good value.
No idea what SHIS, QR, BB, dropper post or flat bar mean. Is this racing bike lingo?
QR is quick release (as in wheels)
BB is bottom bracket
Dropper post is an MTB thing and so are flat bars!
mountain bikes have a "flat" handlebar that is mostly straight from end to end.
They also have dropper posts - this basically converts a bicycle seat into an office chair. A handlebar lever you can pull will let the seat move up and down hydraulically and when you release it it stays in that position.
People use it to pedal normally with the seat up, but on tricky trails you can drop the seat down out of your way.
back to handlebars, drop bars are what road bikes have. They are the curled handlebars that look like a C from the side. If you lean forward, you can grab them by the "drops" and aerodynamically pedal harder.
I did look up "dropper" posts. Hadn't heard of those before.
I have a Trek 920 that people covet when I ride around. I replaced all the drive components a few years ago, since they were original from the early '90s. After it threw a chain and almost caused me serious injury I noticed hey, there's a bunch of teeth missing from these gears!
I learned a lot doing the overhaul... especially that you need a bunch of bike-specific tools!
I'm pretty sure my old Schwinn Continental is still in my parents' storage space, too...
Here's how I bought my bicycle, as a total casual: Went to craigslist, typed in "bicycle", bought the one that looked to be in good shape for $50. It's lasted me 15 years and the only maintenance I've ever had to do on it was change tire tubes. I don't even know much about it. It says "Specialized Crossroads" on it, I guess that's the brand name.
My only objection is brakes. If it can fit your budget, mechanical disc is worth the lower maintenance, adjustment, weather resistance over rim brakes. Disc in general have the fringe benefit of being able to swap tire sizes for different purposes.
Hydraulic disc are smoother and somewhat more effective, at the expense of money and ease of maintenance.
I've never owned high quality rim brakes, that could be the issue.
For dry climates: wax lube. Wet lube is only for rainy climates and attracts dust like mad. Chain guard is a must for non-leisure riding.
And if you don't like changing tires very often and don't mind the extra free exercise of added rolling resistance, kevlar armor bands are a must have with green snot slime. Still have to carry a vulcanizing patch kit, levers, and a pump because goatheads are pure evil.
I confirm. High-end bicycle here, "only" 8 years old. Full carbon (frame and wheels).
Bottom bracket is now a bit noisy. I went to a shop only doing that brand and...
"Oh but it's a threadless BB, the company doesn't make that anymore. And because it's a carbon frame, it's too complicated/risky to change it. We suggest you buy a new bicycle".
That'd be on a five digits bicycle supposed to be of the absolute best quality. And, well, it definitely has one of these not well made expensive frame.
P.S: had to google the acronyms you used but I suggest everybody here to listen: GP knows what he's talking about.
-There are some decent internal cable routing setups. The newest fad (through-headset), though...
-Comfort has a ton of variables, of which tyre volume/pressure/type/details(inserts/etc) are a major part of, but not the be-all-end-all. Grips, handlebars, saddles, pedals, crank length, etc, etc, etc, etc...
Nowadays of course I have the whole kit, the Park truing stand, various truing wrenchs... and that's it. Oh right I use painter's tape to mark problematical spokes. I've built three sets of fabulous wheels that take a lot of abuse but let me still set personal records at (say) TdT.
Now we get to the flame wars. I've been endurance cycling 50 years, since I was 14 or so. I completely understand the arguments for disc brakes for tandems and touring setups. What the disc brake people are not telling you is that the hand fatigue problem was solved by $40 Avid Single Digit rim brakes 25 years ago. I have a set on my mt bike that are truly single digit sufficient for most rough descents up to say 3000' and maybe an hour. Probably you need to do some exercises if you're doing those and having fatigue. I have been at Moab doing an insane gonzo abusive descent and noticing that hmm might be having safety issues soon with my forearms, and hmm, I need to get this descent done... but that was before the Avid brakes. My 20 yo Specialized frame FrankenBike with Avid SD brakes is not being replaced in I guess forever because it is gonzo abusive ready and it just works.
Edit: Oh if anyone has a nice set of used Avid SD brakes I'd really like to replace the way too sensitive Paul sidepull brakes on my gravel bike. I put the dumbest pads possible on them and they're still too sensitive. I'd happily trade if I could fully refurb the functionality of the Avid brakeset.
I've never heard of the hand fatigue thing. I agree that it sounds like BS.
Yes rim brakes are worse in the rain, but they’re not that bad! I wonder if people who say this have tried a modern dual pivot road caliper or decent v-brakes. They have easily enough stopping power for commuting in rain.
The only modern bikes with threaded tend to be low end anyway. Best to avoid!
Are you including Shimano pressfit BBs here? Never had problems replacing it, not even needed special tools.
Yup I confirm. I'm never buying that again.
Highly recommend!
I only buy bikes with online tech manuals containing exploded diagrams, dimensions, part numbers, and torque specs.
I look through the parts and verify that either the manufacturer has spares available on their web store or that they’re common parts available anywhere. I also look up older models and make sure the manufacturer still has manuals and parts for them too so I have confidence I will still be able to get parts in 5 years or so.
- Industry jargon
- Industry jargon
- Etc etc
The reason I've got disc brakes is because of how precise and pleasant the feeling and feedback in the brake lever is. It's pure bliss.
I know it's totally overkill but the to me there's no comparison in how pleasant the brake lever is, so I don't mind paying a bit more.
enough said
On the most part, bike manufacturers use standardized parts that can be replaced by and end-user with sufficient know-how and the tools to do it. There aren't that many companies making drivetrain parts, so you tend to see Shimano and SRAM just about everywhere, and maybe the odd Campagnolo-equipped bike every now and then. At least here in the US. (Unrelated, Shimano's product range is crazy - somehow their components come stock on bikes ranging from $250 up to $12k or more.)
Outside of < $200 Wal-Mart bikes, I've never had any trouble repairing or finding someone to do "normal" repairs or maintenance on a bicycle. I'd like to know what prompted the article, unless the real point was to complain about E-Bike batteries, which is not something I can really comment on.
Visited many local bike shops, got a lot of bad advice there (same as online), then finally got told what to order exactly at one online shop because not even their supplier had it.
Maybe the blame is not on the manufacturer here because they wanted to make it less repairable, but if showed me a lesson in non-standard components. (it's an 11-speed Ultegra on a QR, which seems to be very, very uncommon).
But just the amount of "just do X" responses I got showed that there are too many fine details.
Chain on the other hand if it starts getting noisy it gets a generous squirt of rock n roll gold and a rag for 5 mins then its fine for another long while.
I know back in the day I could abuse the hell out of Nexus/Alfine 8 speeds, had one on a Chicago Schwinn that I rode in all sorts of weather, and another on a Diamondback Tandem that was ridden through tornado warning weather [0] on top of the overall abuse of being on a tandem with two experienced riders.
[0] - 10/10 would totally do again.
The bike was a write-off as a result.
Oh... the Alfine hub that is supposedly nice and weather-proof get some rust in it that pitted some of the bearing races in the hub. Turns out those are not replaceable short of torching the hub.
I bought a Rivendell about 10 years ago and it's probably my last bike. Is a steel frame heavier than carbon? Yes, a bit, but I don't have to throw it away after a crash, it rides like a dream, and the weight difference is less than the extra "water bottles" I carry around my midsection. Most of the weight of the bike+rider (which is what you have to haul around) is the rider, not the bike, and the frame is just a fraction of the weight of the bike!
Even though new bikes are getting more and more proprietary, I don't foresee a time when I can't buy a new Shimano cassette or other replaceable parts.
You should check AliExpress for those. You might be able to find some knock-offs. AE is actually really good for things like this. The other place to check is Ebay, in case someone is selling NOS (new old stock).
Bicycles are beautifully fixable and tweakable. Back at the shop we had hundreds of old bikes and half-bikes and hills of parts. Our power was vast and we were a wellspring of goodness. Our reputation was international. My boss was a master spoked wheel tuner.
I can smell it now.
A lot of bikes are often designed for racing, the equivalent of exotic cars. So new standards that have very marginal benefits are routinely being created and then abandoned when it gets rejected by the market or there is a new, better standard. But things that are mundane and standard today were cutting-edge when they first came out, and likely emerged from several competing standards.
Alongside it at the station are so many nice looking bikes, but chances are mine will outlive all of them and not get stolen either. Anyway, if you're getting a bike as transport, get yourself something used from way back that was a high quality bike back then. Some of them at least were built to last, they're easy to repair, and are still way lighter than most modern bike shaped objects.
1: https://maximumfun.org/episodes/lets-learn-everything/70-the...
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.
The kids in my neighborhood are zipping around on these things at 30 MPH. In my state it's illegal for these kids to be riding around on these things, but the law isn't being enforced. Probably more of a hassle for the officer than it's worth.
And safety? Bwahahahaha! Kids are riding these at 30 MPH in shorts, t-shirt and maybe a bicycle helmet. Just the other day I saw three girls who appeared to be middle school-aged hop on an e-delivery type bike and ride 3 up! All they were wearing were those super short and super thin shorts girls like to wear, and a t-shirt. Not a single helmet. Yet there they were riding 3 up on this e-bike on public streets just after the peak of evening rush hour.
It's insane! I'm continually amazed we're not seeing more news stories of kids getting hurt on these things. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're not seeing these news stories, but I'm amazed we aren't.
Will that same law apply when the kid is operating a motorized vehicle? Especially if they're operating that vehicle illegally?
TBF, it hasn't been a problem so hey, maybe these kids have a lot more sense than we give them credit for? Maybe I should just be grateful that those girls were outside playing instead of being in a screen and were feeling a little "dangerous" and rode 3 up on an e-bike?
Compare to any disc brake bike I have owned (bought later than 2010)... everything is super smooth. I just can't believe both my dad and I (when I was teenager) were completely inept and now as an adult I can magically fix bikes.
To that end, you are correct that most people are just needing to clean their bike. Replace the occasional consumable part of it, maybe. Keep it clean, though, and you are unlikely to need to replace any parts anytime soon.
Edit: And, again, limit this to ebikes and things change pretty rapidly. It is trivial to get an ebike to 25mph.
Otherwise, doing routine/basic maintenance on a car, such as changing the oil, requires a means of getting under the car (ramps or jack and stands) and of handling large amounts of fluids (drain pan and funnel) neither of which you need to do the equivalent work on a bike.
A torque wrench is much more important for car maintenance than for bike maintenance (and you'll need a bigger one!). Depending on the condition of your car you may want a breaker bar.
Obviously doing anything with the suspension requires a spring compressor, and troubleshooting certain engine problems requires a compression tester, but those are needed infrequently enough that they can be rented or borrowed.
And that's before getting into the model-specific specialized tools for something like a timing belt change, or anything electronic (though I recommend anyone with a car should get a cheap Bluetooth OBDII reader).
A torque wrench is a specialized tool...for torquing a fastener. I use the torque wrench to torque fasteners on my truck, my motorcycle, some random piece of equipment I want to repair, etc.
I have seal drivers for driving seals on my motorcycle. I also can use them on hydraulic cylinders, or any other random seal I want to drive in.
The only truly specialized piece of auto repair tooling I have is a tool that is cast and machined specifically to fit inside the engine head to remove a portion of the valvetrain for maintenance. It's a very boring once you understand how it works, but I'm not using it for anything else.
As for a spring compressor, I've been doing suspension work for about a decade now and used one zero times. You just don't need it for routine maintenance. I guess if a spring breaks, you would need it in some weird circumstance possibly.
For someone who owns a car and nothing else with an internal combustion engine except maybe a lawnmower, most of those tools are only used to work on their car.
There are of course also specialized tools you need to work on a bicycle- tire levers and a chain link breaker, for instance. But they're much smaller and cheaper.
And a chain whip, and a lockring bit for brakes/cassette, and another bit for the bottom bracket, and some pin spanners maybe, a derailer alignment gauge, maybe crank puller, tire levers, chain breaker, and master link pliers. Hydraulic brakes? Bleed kit, piston press. Pneumatic suspension? Shock pump. Tubeless? Better get a syringe to refill sealant through valves (and don't forget the valve core wrench) or reset your tires every time you need new sealant.
Various BB tools, also for disc brake lockrings
Chain whip
Bleed kit
You can force a missing link with other tools but the dedicated pliers are really much better
Manual for my latest car recommends against jacking up under the front axle, so a jack and stands are out for getting underneath it.
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.
Yeah, there are a lot of bottom bracket standards, most of them aren't proprietary, they're just different. Bottom brackets are a lot better than they were 40 years ago too -- back then you could pull them apart, replace the balls, repack the grease, and change the cups and spindle. And you had to. Now, you get a cartridge BB or a minimal pair of cups and some standard bearings. My sealed bearings now last a lot better than my cup and cone ones did.
Hubs are similar. Cup and cone bearings can be maintained, but they pit, and no one ever really had replacable races. So if your bearings were bad, you replaced the wheel. With better hubs, you just pop out the bearings and pop new ones in.
Old school (7-8sp) Shimano jockey wheels _never_ spun freely. Sram 11 speed ones, even on apex, spin beautifully, and in the case of my gravel bike, are outlasting the derailleur.
I think we're in kind of a new golden age of cycling. There are tons of interesting bikes being made by small providers, using 3d printing, old school steel fabrication, custom carbon. There are tons of small company parts -- most CNC, but some additive. Basic non BSO components are pretty reliable, and even Shimano's low end isn't that bad for the casual crowd. There's a niche for everything, tracklocross or basket bikes or cargo or gravel or mountain touring or full squish. And there are even road bikes too.
iFixit has some good rants, but this isn't one of them.
Bikes started being less repairable when manufacturers noticed that steel frame 10 speeds were lasting multiple decades. If parts continue to be available, those frames are still going to be in use another 50 years from now. Particularly where cartridge bearings are used.
Carbon fiber bikes are part of the trend. Will we eventually see a straight up plastic adult bike frame?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_carbonate
For example, if you have ever changed out old Duracell alkaline batteries, the white stuff on the contacts means they leaked.
"Diethyl carbonate is used as a solvent such as in erythromycin intramuscular injections."
Ethyl acetate: "The LD50 for rats is 5620 mg/kg,[24] indicating low acute toxicity. Given that the chemical is naturally present in many organisms, there is little risk of toxicity."
Lithium ion electrolyte is extremely hazardous when inhaled. I would not attempt to handle, open or modify cells without engineered ventilation and appropriate training and protection. If a cell is punctured or suspected to be leaking, I would evacuate to fresh air immediately and activate a hazardous substance control team.
"N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone is a relatively innocuous compound with an LD50 of 4150 mg/kg (oral, rats).[5] It is non-mutagenic."
HF is only formed in combustion, but then so are a lot of other more hazardous chemicals.
But getting the occasional whiff of electrolyte (which I admit actually has a quite pleasant smell) or having some skin contact from a leaking cell is certainly nothing to worry about.
I know plenty of people who regularly work on cars, washed their hands with gasoline and probably came into contact with much worse, yet still lived healthily into their 80s and 90s.
Asking regular people or even highly technical people to assess cell geometry, type, quality, balancing and cell capacity issues is going to result in people dying in fire. It just isn't that easy, even if you start with brand new, matched cells.
Fireproof casing sounds great, as long as it's also being charged in a fireproof bunker. Unfortunately, that's not usually the case for consumer products.
Noticing that in the video of the cell vent testing - Bosch vs. Gouach the electrical wire harness immediately turns black. If you charge this pack in a box filled with paper and a cell vents, will it start a fire?
How are you going to thoroughly test with your production parts before shipping to customers next month?
Yes! The battery is quite safe now! We have iterated on the design for close to 4 years now.
We have added safeties everywhere so that even a misplaced cell wouldn't be dangerous. And as you mention the fireproof casing is the extra layer of safety, so that if there is an unlikely thermal event, no flames can go out.
We've been running those batteries for around 2 years on about 1000 shared mobility e-bikes in France, so we're quite sure of the design!
What does EU-certified mean with regards to battery safety?
I think the sticking point with UL is that you need to know the specific application in order to assess the downstream risks. Are you able to do the UL certification for multiple bikes, or just a specific model?
Are you able to get UL certification for multiple different cell brands, or do you need to do a different certification for each type of cells used in the pack?
I'm assuming mixed salvaged cells are off the table for UL certification?
Steel frames are heavy beasts. Aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys or carbon fiber is waaaay lighter in contrast, and weight is king at least if you're not running with electrical assistance.
It's exactly the same in cars, there we have exactly the same trend towards lighter but more brittle materials.
My e-bike is somewhat around 20 kg, that thing is a tank in its own right, and it's hell to haul around when our beloved Deutsche Bahn once again manages to fuck up elevators.
Ever drop an AA battery? Nothing happens. Drop an 18650, you can easily have a little 1000 degree rocket shooting fire and toxic chemicals out one end.
Nominal cell voltage is fairly standard and is dictated by cell chemistry. Standardized connector is welded zinc tab, for various good safety reasons.
Essentially the entire rest of the article is about ebikes and proprietary batteries, motors, apps, etc, and yeah, that's all true. I'd probably have just killed the bottom bracket section of this article and had the headline mention ebikes rather than try to generalize.
It reminds me of not being able to pick a milk without getting scorn from somewhere (real milk ~ cows, oat milk ~ sugar, macadamia milk ~ env impact, soy milk ~ hormones, etc). All the while we're watering alfalfa to feed cows for beef.
Oh boy the bikes are less repairable, even though half the city dwellers could be replacing cars with electric bikes. A car has way higher repair bills and up front purchase costs not to mention the ongoing costs.
Over in analog mountain bikes, we have the new UDH standard, and basically everything else was standardized except some bearings. All mountain bikes are pretty modular. The main manufacturers make the frame, and then bolt on parts from different brake, shock, etc suppliers. There's at least two of each, which keeps things competitive.
The last 3 bikes I’ve bought have had BSA.
Of course this should be the case, but even then I'm not sure it would help, as they will simply make the spare parts so costly that it's uneconomical.
Maybe there should be a 'standardization' score, somewhat like energy efficiency scores, that could then be mandated.
Or mandate that parts interfaces must be documented and published as standards, and be free and open for competitors.
The basic problem is that almost the whole of business has discovered or decided that their reason for existence is to get money out of people, and that providing the best products and services they can is merely incidental and not actually necessary, especially if they all play the same game.
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.
For e-bikes, some manufacturers try to lock users down with DRM. And the last part that's hard to repair is the battery!
But at Gouach (disclaimer: I'm one of the co-founder), we really wanted to provide a way for people and company fleets to have observability and agency over their batteries, so we've designed (took us 2 years haha) a repairable battery that's working very well now! You need nothing but a screwdriver.
Added benefit is that you can now decentralize production and repair: any shop can produce small batches of batteries, or repair them, without complex equipment or specialized training!
Ok well, first I destroyed the threads on the cranks meant to interface with the bottom bracket tool. Thus requiring a shop visit. And the shop, after consulting with the frame manufacturer, cut the destroyed cranks off with an angle grinder (and posted a video to their Facebook page - you don't usually see that many sparks in a bike shop).
But hey, I now have a nice, let-the-pros-do-this-job souvenir (the wrecked cranks). And my bracket/bearings are creak-free and spinning quite nicely three years later.
Do you think they are high because that's what it takes to pay for labor and rent, or are they high because the owners are greedy and are getting rich?
For centuries companies have chased the fantasy of infinite growth, and we're running out of room. If we don't start contending with this in a serious way, and applying changes to our society to accommodate it, we will only ever see more of this.
It's huge in that it does a lot of business, but the market itself is incredibly small. If you want a processor for your next PC build, you have 2 flavors to pick from. Or a Mac.
From nearly a decade of bike industry experience, I can say that most people should not be doing their own repairs, or should at least have someone check their work. Lack of experience, shoddy mechanical aptitude, and poor attention to detail can all add up quickly to missing teeth and broken bones, or worse.
Sort of like gas-guzzler taxes?
If we're going to be officially judging what is repairable and not repairable, we should commit to dealing with it fully rather than half-assing and leaving infinite loopholes.
I suspect subsidies and corporate taxes and the rest are a convoluted mess that might not serve people as well.
not bike related, but say airpods would fail, 12v car battery would pass.
The one thing I realized right away was all the stuff you take for granted on complete bikes that add up super quick. Oh you got some sweet disc brakes? You need brake lines, and brake fluid and have to know to set them up and bleed the lines, and you need brake levers. Oh, nice wheel set, you need tires as well, and you have to get the wheels trued before you put them on. You need a crank set, and pedals, and a chain and handlebars and a proper stem and grips and the list just goes on and on.
It took me about three months to get all the parts together. I kept everything in the box at the shop, in the basement. Once I got everything together, myself and two mechanics who love building bikes, sat around the shop putting it all together which took quite a while.
It was a pretty big wakeup call that yes, you can build a bike from scratch, but you also need a huge amount of knowledge and patience to put it all together. Even after I had put my bike together, it took several attempts to get the disc brakes dialed in which I've never had to deal with on a floor model. Same thing with the drivetrain and getting both derailleurs dialed in.