this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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Technology
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Wait'll you find out about ebikes!
I mean it's all e-waste at this point. My bikes are all carbon, which ain't recyclable, plus the shifting is all electronic, and yeah my eMTB is a ticking timebomb that will be otherwise useless if either the battery or motor quits.
On your other points: Carbon bike frames can be repaired, so even though they aren't recyclable, they can still last a long time, so they're not the worst. Electronic shifting feels a bit gimmicky to me, but all the mount points for the shifter and derailleur are standard and they can probably be swapped out for a standard cable shifter in the future without changing other parts on the bike.
It's pretty gimmicky for sure. The electronic setup on my road bike is pretty finicky too, id rather cables to be honest, but it's just the way everything is going. It especially sucks when you are at the door all geared up and ready to go, and realize that one of your batteries is dead.
Electronic shifting felt gimmicky to me until I tried it. It's actually pretty awesome, although if you don't want to spend the money for it, there is also great mechanical shifting still available.
My road bike is electronic shifting and absolutely awesome. Every shift is absolutely perfect, and I set it up to handle compensating the large gear jump between front chain rings automatically so I don't have to shift the rear to compensate myself. Also, since I'm still getting used to the new gear ratios compared to my gravel bike, it's nice that my headunit can warn me when I'm doing something stupid with the gear selection.
I sometimes wish my gravel bike was also electronic, but it's not like I enjoy it any less because it isn't. It's a "man, if I had a shitload of cash laying around" not a "I neeeeeeeed this" thing. I still put 3,500 miles on the bike, it's still an awesome bike, I still have reasons to ride it.
Oh, I'm definitely upset about ebikes with motors and batteries integrated in the frames, with no replacement parts available. Often you can't even install used parts because the firmware needs to be flashed by a dealer for your specific bike.
I own an ebike now and I've built one in the past. The one I built had a powerful mid-drive motor and could easily have been reverted to a normal bike (I got hit by a car before I ever got to think about that) and the ebike I have now has a basic bafang hub motor with a bolt-on battery, all of which I could easily replace if they failed.
The motor controllers on both bikes are/were also able to be reflashed or replaced without going to a specific dealer.
There is no reason that companies could not design ebikes and their components to be repairable, replaceable, and reprogrammed by users except for profit, and it's gross as hell.