coast 2 coast wrote:Why would you want to bolt something onto your bike, that you can't fix when it goes wrong? You can't fix it, your local bike shop can't fix it, the place where you bought it from can't fix it, the wholesalers they bought it from can't fix it. Why would you want something on your bike that you can't service?
There are better examples ~ take my NuVinci hub, apparantly there's nothing in that hub but a load of transmission fluid, some steel balls and a couple of plates. Apart from calling the environment agency, i have no idea what to do, should it spring a leak... perhaps get a shimano alfine 8?... but until it happens (if it happens?) i'll continue to enjoy riding it. And i guess that's the crux of the matter, all of us have accepted the risk that by using more complicated parts to improve the quality of our jounrney, then we have done so at the expense of using equipment that may not be easily fixed, should it fail...i'm not arguing for bad designs, or for parts that are designed to wear quickly to increase sales or the stock holder's dividends... but out of the understanding that the more you ask a product to do; be a hub; to be that thing that the spokes are laced into, that the bearings are pressed into, to generate electricity, hold a disc brake, be weather proof, and to do this with as little mechanical resistance as possible, then the more complicated and harder to fix that product is more likely to be..
...however if you really want a bike that's unlikely to break down, but if it does could be fixed by anyone even in the most out of the way places, then somewhere i've got an old rod braked, single speed phillips... lovely...