cycle tramp wrote: ↑2 Dec 2023, 8:22am
rareposter wrote: ↑2 Dec 2023, 7:54am
These systems are aimed at leisure, commuter and utility cyclists.
Most cyclists at that end of the spectrum barely know how many gears their bike has never mind ratios and sequential shifting and chainline. Many don't even know what brand of bike they're on! And when commuting to work, they don't want an "involving" ride and to be challenged, they want a reliable machine to get there and back.
For that purpose, things like e-bikes with auto-shift are amazing. They're enabling, they're fun and you don't need to have gone through some hierarchy of club cycling or learning to get there, you don't need to suffer trying to pull away from the lights in too high a gear. It minimises mechanical wear and tear and - although it's complicated internally - it's a very simple end product for the user.
They're another crutch, in the same way indexed gears are. Another sop to those who can't be bothered or who are to wrapped up in themselves. Another sticking plaster for the generation who would rather take photos of their food than learn how to cook it.
Life is very simple - the more you put in, the more you get out. Learning to change down before you stop the bike in traffic, is something you learn which then becomes second nature.. learning you can crest a small rise in a higher gear because you've sped up as your approached it and used the momentum to carry you over it - Another thing learnt. Learning that you don't need to use your bike gears in order, if the conditions allow it.
I've heard of more people being anxious in this generation more than any other... why? Because rather than rise to whatever challenge which face them they've sought to avoid it by using technology- as a result they have no sense of achievement and through no sense of achievement they have no faith in themselves and perhaps even a diminished sense of self worth.
My view on automatic gear shifting is still the same - it's there for the infirm or the mechanical inept.
Again google #underbiking - there's now alot of writing on the Internet about it.
A very interesting post! Well, I find it so. The issue you describe affects so many aspects of modern life besides cycling and a better understanding of its processes and techniques.
Perhaps the underlying general issue is the ever-increasing "division of labour" which goes hand in hand with a division of knowledge. There are so many procedures and activities requiring specialist knowledge and skills that it's become impossible to become adept at more than just a few of them. (Or , for some folk, any of them).
For some, the trend has been an attractive one, as not-knowing also absolves one of responsibilities of various kinds, which are transferred to someone else who does know. I know lots of people who are all too keen to avoid responsibilities of many kinds (I'm one of them) so remaining in a "not knowing" state can be useful! I have no idea how to iron a lady-blouse without singing it, for example.
****************
But some things really do need to be known and understood if you're to avoid them giving you, or someone else, a bite. Cycling is one-such as failure to understand the basic mechanics of riding a bike can cause all sorts of dangers, from merely getting tired too soon to being killed by a large motorised squasher; and many other dangers of various degree.
Many other everyday doings need to be understood too, as involving oneself in them can create serious danger to others. The obvious example is driving a car, which when performed ineptly causes dangers sufficient to murder and maim millions of others worldwide
each year.
The question is, then, what should be a base set of knowledge, understanding and skill required if one is to partake of various activities. Taking cycling as an example, I would hope to be capable not just of understanding how a bike works best in using my energy expenditure but also how it'll behave on the road, track or trail in various circumstances and with various antics upon it by me. Cost of not knowing can be fatal! At best, you may just be put off cycling because you come to feel that, "It's just too hard."
The thing is - when riding the bike, no "other-expert" can have the responsibility passed to them. Even the stoker on a tandem has to have some understanding of how cycling "works". As you ride along, you can't do so in ignorance whilst relying on someone else cycling next to you to control your bike and your pedalling too.
Personally I like to take responsibility also for maintaining me bikes. It's easy enough to pass a bike to an LBS expert .... but then the problem is, how do we know the LBS mechanic is an expert and not some lazy bodger? We have to understand
something of what the LBS mechanic fixed otherwise how do you know that it
is fixed?
Here, there's also the problem of reputation. One might trust someone with a good reputation to act as a proxy for us when making all sorts of decisions or acts on our behalf. But how, then, do you come to trust those who created such a reputation? These days, a reputation can be entirely made with PR, requiring no actual measured performance of the skill involved at all.
**************
In general, there's a lot of understanding - knowledge types - that any human needs to personally have to make the most of life and avoid becoming accidently degraded to various poor conditions, including dead. One such understanding that's generally very useful - essential in many circumstances - is the understanding of what used to be called, in the school syllabus, "mechanics", covering the basic Newtonian stuff around forces/masses of various kinds.
I'm often aghast at how some folk attempt what seem to me, a fellow educated in "mechanics", to be obviously dangerous manoeuvres - not just on a bike but in all sorts of other circumstances where a force and a mass are obviously going to wallop them or someone else if they do what they propose to do.
There are several other knowledge domains where a basic understanding seems essential, as responsibilities for dealing with whatever-it-is can't really be passed to an expert. Knowing how to parse, analyse and judge the utterances and behaviours of politicians vying for your vote, for example. After all, you cannot trust journalists and other-such to do it for you. They only do PR, these days.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
