Interesting Article on the sustainability of bicycles on solar.lowtechmagazine.com/

[Imlach]

Like the old , "people were at their healthiest under war time rationing " quote . People don't always want whats best for them .

Change comes from the barrel of a gun

 

[Deleted member 69416]

Neanderthal right here, I have the Silver shifters and love them, because you can just switch from 7 to 8 to 9 speed cassette when you want to. I now have Dura Ace 9 speed shifters but use them in friction mode.

I used the Dia Compe mounts with Shimano bar ends to a Racing Triple mech . Slicktastic !

 

[Deleted member 69416]

Change comes from the barrel of a gun

Right you are Chairman . Chairman Miaow that is !!

 

[Imlach]

I have friction change bikes and I love them, that and fixed is what I grew up with. The change on the indexed bikes I have with a d/t lever or sti is just better. Sometimes progress works and works well. Why anyone would choose friction over indexed when the choice is there boggles my mind.

I like friction. But I have to admit it's from the standpoint that it's a Fk you to the industry. Friction makes cross compatibility a breeze. You can use 8 speed derailleurs to shift 10 speed, you can use a 12 speed shifter to shift 7 speed. It's beautiful. I quite like the feel of friction shifting on the wider gap cassettes. My experience using it on the 10 speed wasn't bad but the incremental change from perfectly in gear to grinding was miniscule.

PLP on YT obviously already shared the beauty of friction shifting and I think he is right.

 

[Imlach]

Right you are Chairman . Chairman Miaow that is !!

When I put a little red bottle cap on his tiny cute head I know the revolution is nigh.

 

[Imlach]

Sorry Jan, your thread has been spunked to death by us all. We are now talking friction shifting and groupsets and communism and cats

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

 

[Deleted member 69416]

View attachment 735215

It's much harder to do this with only one moving part !

 

[CassidyAce]

@grantoury That article was discussed at length here: https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?t=155260&hilit=aluminium+emissions.

Some of the figures are questionable, e.g. 'The most detailed life cycle analysis sets the carbon footprint for an 18.4 kg aluminum bicycle at 200 kg CO2, including its spare parts, for a lifetime of 15,000 km.' But where are the 18 kg aluminium bikes? An aluminium road bike is more likely to be in the 9-10 kg range and that, obviously, makes a difference to the CO2/KM figures. However, even if some of the details can be questioned, the general drift of the article makes sense.

 

[CassidyAce]

And to further my point about the bike being a political stance. I don't have any other forms of transport, it's changed my life for the better, drastically improved my mental health and given me more of an incentive to do things in life. As such I think it's about time we look at the deeper side of bicycling.

[Underlining added] If you'd like to expand, I'd be interested to read what you have to say.