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    Bike Industry Crisis Claims More Victims & Has Tech Gone Too Far? – The Wild Ones Podcast Ep. 21



    Check out the audio versions of the podcast here: https://podfollow.com/the-wild-ones/view

    Our debrief from the National Hill Climb Champs, turmoil at Islabikes and British Cycling, could e-bikes save the bike industry and has bike tech gone too far? Here’s the full rundown of this week’s episode:

    00:00 Jimmi’s unfulfilled potential
    02:32 ‘A dark day for cycling’
    08:43 Sorry Nic!
    13:08 Bike industry crisis claims more victims
    19:37 Cycling insurance just got a HUGE boost
    22:16 Do you insure your bikes?
    24:56 The problem with e-bikes
    26:51 More tech or cheaper bikes? The Big Question
    42:14 Overrated or Underrated: Cycling caps
    44:42 Overrated or Underrated: Heart rate monitors
    48:03 Overrated or Underrated: 12 speed
    48:59 Overrated or Underrated: Expensive watches
    53:39 Overrated or Underrated: Tattoos
    55:56 Fluff Up Of The Week
    56:51 Help! Should I upgrade to disc brakes?

    Watch us weigh bikes at the national hill climb championship here: https://youtu.be/O_IdcYmuZWs?si=Dh0HYtADG0aAjGN4

    Watch Remi’s Tour de France prank: https://youtu.be/wOur8qXvpnk?si=zBtZ0NSiWS-Rt2Vc

    If you’d like us to send in a question, story, some good news, things you’d like us to discuss or anything else, email us at wildonespodcast@cademedia.co.uk
    Thanks and see you next time.

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    42 Comments

    1. Arne Desmedt on

      I can say smartwatches doenst work on tattoos. I have fully tatted arms and I have to wear it on the inside where there is a little free skin for the sensor. I wish I knew this earlier haha

    3. runsforcheesecake on

      There’s already an answer to your more powerful e-bikes.

      They’re called motorbikes. Electric versions are available.

      Having people ride more powerful vehicles, that keep up with traffic, when completely untrained and with no requirements for insurance or safety gear is not a good situation.

    4. Stewart W on

      I’ve just recently ventured into the second hand bike world. Bought a used Trek Domane 5 series frame, built it up with Used Dura Ace group set, Fulcrum wheels, and carbon bars. The complete build cost £1300. A new bike of similar build would cost between £5k and £10k. Reckon I got a bargain.

    7. azolyak on

      I love the idea of a video on the second hand bikes / parts, but as someone who tries to buy things used out of environmental concerns, it's a huge time sink to make sure that everything you're buying is above board.

      Another challenge with the used market, at least in the US, is that individual components are sometimes as much used as they would be new. I was upgrading my touring bike from 9 to 11 speeds this summer, and I was able to get NEW mechanical Ultegra from reputable sources for basically the same price I would have spent on used 105 parts. 🤷🏻‍♀️

      Also, as someone who's had Tektro CR-720 cantilever brakes on a touring bike for years, I'd say disc brakes are overrated for most road and even many gravel applications. I've run 42mm tires with fenders on my touring bike for a gravel event and had 0 issues with tire clearance, and ridden in the snow and had no trouble stopping. I've only wanted more stopping power a handful of times, most notably a recent gravel descent so treacherous I had to walk the bike and still exhausted my hands squeezing the brakes. Aside from that I've never strictly needed them

    8. Austin Smith on

      Jimmy being the idealistic egalitarian who values accessibility above all else, and then going on to accidentally create a middle man marketplace is just hilarious. As if adding a major corporation between two people who want to buy/sell something would in any way reduce costs.

    9. Lloyd Grose on

      Some inaccuracies regarding BC they support a number of initiatives across country for go rides , Breeze rides , talent ID talent transfer projects and something I work on the city Academy / City Hub project which helps young people from diverse communities develop a lifelong relationship with the sport by reducing barriers to entry by proving bikes , equipment, qualified coaching , and by introducing pathways into the club network and the development pathway. Might be worth getting a BC representative on the podcast to clarify

    10. Jon Bingham on

      20mph allows you to keep up with most city traffic, current legal bikes in UK all go at 17mph ( legal limit is 25kmph or 15.5mph but legislation allows a variance of up to 10% above this hence 17mph) but this small increase would make it much safer to keep up with the flow of traffic in cities. I have an electric cargo bike which with the flick of a switch I can go from a legal 15mph to 20mph and it honestly makes huge difference. It stops cars constantly overtaking then me having to go past them again when they are stationary

    13. Heather Davies on

      I went out on my 1991 Muddy Fox today, I had fun and in all honesty, even though she’s stainless steel, I felt hardly any difference to when I ride my Trek road bike. Best cycle I’ve had. Get a retro Mountain Bike and have it renovated ….

    16. Tall_Tri_Guy on

      Look at the pinion gearbox, fully internal gearbox and just needs oil changed every 10k miles. They've just ventured into the ebike market too integrated with their gearbox.

    17. Bob Chekoudjian on

      As a bike commuter, I would love to see charging tech improve. I've done away with lights and gear that need batteries for rechargeable accessories but, it would be great if i could just plug the lights into a charger on my bike that would keep them topped up as I ride. Excellent point, Emily.

    18. Richard The Great on

      We own multiple bikes, one is a long tail cargo bike and in Ireland it's not very "safe" to cycle here, we recently visited Geneva in Switzerland and our eyes were opened to what amazing infrastructure looked like, we're thinking about moving. In our area, we're the exception cycling our kids places, in our estate there's maybe 3 bikes in ~500 houses. So on a normal day there's ~250 cars leaving the estate for school run and 3 cargo bikes.

      I love cycling though, it's a guaranteed duration to get to and from places, it's enjoyable, fun and I really like the idea of being able to stop to look at the some animals in fields, birds flying, swans etc.

      One thing to say though, EU laws (and similar in the UK) expect 250w motors but they can "peak" higher, so when I get to a climb with my cargo bike with a loaded weight of ~160kg the "peak" power kicks in, I still loose speed on some steeper climbs (6% over 400m) 26kmph down to 18kmph but it does the job.

    21. Will Hayes on

      I love the idea of e-bikes but the reality of my daily commute is crap old bikes with illegal conversions doing 20+mph without pedalling along shared use paths. Close calls are a near daily occurrence, and now it's dark on the way home it's worse as so many have no lights. I'm not sure what the answer is but I wonder if the rules for legal bikes made them more useful there would be less incentive to ignore the laws. These are essentially unroadworthy unregistered e-motorbikes being ridden on footpaths.

    23. kornenator on

      There was a video comparing a 10 yr old bike to a brand new from the same brand, both top of the line for their time, and of course the newer model cost more, but the key take away was inflation. When adjusted the old price for inflation, they were almost identical. I'm not completely convinced that bikes are more expensive because of disc brakes or other new tech that was introduced in recent years. I think Emily got it right there, it's not actually prices going up, but money getting more worthless, so we need to print larger numbers on it to have the same value as before.

    25. Austin Dempewolff on

      Garmin running power uses grade, wind direction speed, and some other stuff (allegedly cadence, vertical oscillation, etc.) to calculate a power metric. It seems to be internally consistent (e.g. comparing one run to another), but isn't really comparable to cycling power (which is actually directly measuring mechanical power). For example, a zone 2 run for me (paced via heart rate) shows avg. running power of 270W whereas my zone 2 power on a bike is usually at or below 200W–and 270W is definitely above threshold for me on a bike except at peak fitness.

    27. James Allway on

      Your saying about British Cycling but is UCI any better? They are killing Downhill and the World Enduro. There is no prize money teams have to pay there riders to race and next year they are raising the prices to enter so privateers or the lesser known companies are dropping out.

    29. Jake May on

      A quite simple solution to make cycling cheaper and at a more accessible price point would be government funding. In London drivers were literally paid to scrap their ULEZ non-compliant cars to buy an environmentally more friendly car. Public transport is often subsidised. Government should be making cycling more accessible by part funding people's ability to get on a bicycle.

    31. ketra krelek on

      concerning the heart rate monitors and tattoos- does that mean they don't work for people of colour, esp. deeper skin tones? or is it something specific about tattoo ink?

    32. Enwezor Nzegwu on

      So many sports governance bodies have problems because they are motivated by protecting themselves especially the leadership who want to keep their salaries and their organisation. The FA, FIFA, the swimming governing body – think it's FINA or something – they lose sight of what they were created for. They're essentially monopolies with no oversight. They hold a monopoly over us especially if you want to race and the more you race, the more tied you are.which I think rubs a lot of us up the wrong way in a world where if you don't like something, you switch. Not with BC.
      Maybe what we need is a law which forces all governing bodies to have independent oversight like the governors of a school, a group that can really hold the organisation to account or something even better. I imagine there are some countries or sports that have solved this problem. Or maybe as one of the podcasters said, make race points independent so different bodies can govern races but the racers will always get points.

    33. Garage Sale on

      Standardize parts and they become cheaper. A bicycle is a piece of equipment, as in other sports their is a point of diminishing return. Consumers have a several technologies to choose from the achieve the riding experience they want. A super light bike is not necessary, yet fun to ride.

    38. Graham Barker on

      theres always been more and more encouragement for 'ordinary' cyclists to get more and more tech, most of which wont make any difference to them due to the fact they arent fit enough or over weight or got a crappy older bike etc…..it has become a rip off….its up to them if they want to buy it i suppose…..but everything has just become over priced in the bike market….literally everything…..bikes, add ons…kit…shoes…everything….

    40. Christof Damian on

      Since you are sponsored by Garmin, I would be interested in how you use the more advanced features.

      For example: mine often says after a long ride, that I should take it easy for a few days. I often ignore this advice.

      One thing I recently found more useful is the Stamina information, which helps me with pacing long rides.

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