Thursday Thoughts ~~ Reboot?

Technology advances.  So does marketing.  Take any good, functional, desirable product and two forces will work to change it.  First, there are the passionate devotees, who are constantly seeking ways to improve the thing.  Then there are the marketing folks, who simply want to find ways to make it sell more.  Both will try to change the thing.  The results are not always good or bad, and sometimes it can be hard to tell who is responsible.

On occasion some of these folks attempt to solve problems that don’t exist.  There are some basic areas that seem to cry out for “improvement.”  Weight, comfort, ease of use, braking, and reliability come to mind.  Always bear in mind, the people who make bikes want to sell them.  They want to sell more of them.  They will do absolutely anything, sensible or not, to make the new bike seem more attractive than the one you already have.

In the last 20 years, we’ve seen an enormous amount of change and advancement in bicycle technology.  As a result of this, high-end bikes have become incredibly light, surprisingly reliable, and much more versatile.  But you can only make a bike so light, and you can only add so many gears.

Now, it seems, the coming thing is to add electronics to the bike.  And why not?  After all, the addition of on-board computers and electronic controls did a lot for automobiles.

There are, however, some problems with this.  You see, it’s the human who is the engine.  It’s difficult to imagine tackling that problem with electronic devices.  No doubt someone will try.  Then the UCI will ban it from mass start events.  Then some big name racer will find a way to use the thing as a cheat.  (Come to think, something like that happened this year.)

We are not totally opposed to adding electronic devices to a bike.  We’ve been using a variety of cyclocomputers, GPS systems, and heart rate monitors for some time now.  But these are accessories.  If they fail, the bike keeps on working.

There are, and have been a lot of folks who think the wave of the future involves adding motors to the bike.  I wish them well.  I will never, willingly, have anything to do with such devices of the devil.  We are dedicated to bicycles here, not to thinly disguised motorcycles.

But what happens when the electronics are incorporated into the fundamental workings of the bike?  At this moment, Shimano is marketing an electronic shifting system.  It’s fancy.  It’s expensive.  If, no when, it fails the bike becomes unusable.  Others have tried this before, with very limited success.

As of this writing, the Shimano Di2 system is only available at the very top of their pricing structure.  It will, if successful, start to trickle down through the brand’s line.  Why would we want such a thing?  The answer is, “It makes the bike easier and faster to shift.”  Really.

I can only imagine what will happen in the field.  How will this thing hold up?  What will it act like when the driveline components start to wear?  What kind of abuse will it take?  And above all, what happens when the battery runs out of juice?

Above all, the thing depends on a computer.  We can only imagine what kind of things that will entail.  Do we really want to deal with software issues while riding?

Let’s look into the future for a moment.  It’s a beautiful sunny day.  You are out for a ride on your wonder bike.  All is well with the world.  But suddenly the bike shifts into an unwanted, gear, one that is exceptionally too high for the hill you are on, or way too low for the flat you are rolling.  A “system maintenance needed” light starts flashing on your dashboard.  You apply the brakes and the ABS system kicks in, bringing you to a very abrupt, shuddering, stop.  You attempt to restart the system, but it doesn’t seem to want to work.  You pick up the onboard phone to call for help.  The integrated GPS tells you that you are either in Marrakesh, or Sri Lanka, and the phone shows “no service.”  Congratulations.  You have just become a pedestrian.