>>1798072These wheels cost hundreds of dollars.
Former Citibike mechanic
Bikes are serviced annually, and are checked and tuned monthly. Typical faults include headset, hub, and brakes. Most bikes are never getting serviced that often by the usual buyer.
Bikes don’t have a check engine light. But people are scared of maintenance. And the cheaper a bike is to buy the less someone’s gonna pay to get it fixed properly or broken parts replaced. They’ll just ride with one brake, or no lights, or a wobbly headset.
Weight matters if you live indoors and wanna carry it in. Which is important because steal and people strip down Citibikes all the time. All the time. For scrap or eBay I dunno- but it’s a problem. And those dock locks can be pretty good.
It was to where they’re asking for custom axles and French thread sealed BBs to lower resale value.
You can build and assemble something reasonably well but if you’re going to actually use a bike you need to maintain it.
Every innovation brings a trade off. Belt drives mean internal gear hubs. Both are reliable. Then- you have a flat. Internal gear hubs are fucking annoying to change, comparatively. You typically can’t use a quick release (Nexus 3, most Sturmey Archer’s 3 and 5’s- anything more and the cost rises). So you carry tools.
Most people struggle to remember leftie loosey.
Then you have to get the right tension again and maintain the right tension.
This is not at all ‘maintenance free.’
Shaft drives can be similarly troublesome for owners.
It’s all a trade off.
1x Derailleurs are alright, like a good 1x8. A middle ground. One cable. One housing. One shifter. One derailleur. Less to go wrong, same gear range or better.
Same with a lower gear count.
Less precise shifting required to hit the right gear.
Modern cable management means one big cable housing. Less to go wrong, lasts longer. Works about as well as internal gear hub between cable swaps.
Easy to change a tire.
