Planned obsolesence - but not necessarily for bikes!

Today I went for a breakfast at the Pancake House at the Forks, and they had 1958 prices all day to celebrate their 50th anniversary. 29 cents for a cup of coffee! Pancakes and waffles an breakfast specials... $1.29 to $1.99 ! And the restaurant was all decorated with LP 's and 45's and album jackets and balloons... I am sure that some of the younger generation has no idea what an LP or 45 are, other than looking like giant CD's!


New, new new... that is the way modern technology operates. Some things are practically obsolete by the time they come out onto the market. Printers, computers, digital cameras.. DVD players... Flash drives.. it all changes so fast..

But when I cycled in Holland, I was so impressed at the OMA and OPA bicycles that were kept fixed and repaired, and were 50 years old and still operating efficiently. As a matter of fact, I borrowed a bicycle from a farmer while staying near the old carriage house where generations of my family made carriages as a trade. I went for a long early morning ride to the North sea, and to 2 fishing villages, and when I got back, the farmer told me that my Dad had borrowed exactly the same bicycle at the end of world war 2, 20 years earlier, and had ridden almost the identical route! However, at the end of the war, there was no rubber, so instead of tires he rode on wheels with rope wrapped around them! That was the only difference. (It must have been a bit of a rough ride, with rope wrapped around the rims and no tubes or tires!)

So let's celebrate the technology of the bicycle and appreciate that a simple and well constructed bike from 50 years ago can still do the job of transporting people ecologically and inexpensively!

There is new technology of mountain bikes and derailleur gears and shock absorber forks and composite and alloy frames and disk brakes... and on and on... some of the technologies are very helpful. But the plain old standard bicycle has NOT changed all that much, and it is still a simple but amazingly efficient technology.

The LED lights that run forever on a couple of AA batteries and provide life-saving visibility at night for cyclists are one of my favourite technologies.

So let's appreciate the new technologies, but let's also celebrate the standard bicycle and hope that bikes stay affordable for functional use for all ages and sizes and shapes of people for years to come!

When it came to picking out a Pedicab design, I was fascinated with the highest tech recumbent bike, (electric assisted), from Germany.. the EcoTaxi. But 93% of the market that I surveyed preferred the classic horse and buggy - like Main Street Pedicab, with a more standard mountain bike at the front. It suits the historic feel of our old warehouse district and downtown area, even though it is not the most high tech solution to pedicab transportation. But it is reliable and very safe and durable, and it even operates better going up hills, because you can stand up and use body weight to get going...

So there you have it... The newest technology is not always the best!

Affordability and safety and accessability and durability.. these too are important.



Len (Ecorider)