Cp40Carl
Über Member
- Location
- Wirral, England
How is it that when I was a young lad in the 1980s I practically lived on my bike (for the record, a Brown Bros Vindec Racer...cool). At that time, I must have clocked up thousands of cycle miles, in all weather conditions, although never replaced a single chain, brake cable or gear cable. I also had and perhaps only 2 to 3 punctures over the space of many years. These days it seems that bike chains, tyres, cables and even seats have to be replaced every few months.
Motor cars seem to be in reverse to this; back in the 1980s they were very unreliable and you had to constantly feed them WD40 on winter mornings and mess about with feeler gauges and replace batteries, bulbs and other parts every few weeks. In comparison, modern day cars tend to just 'work' with seemingly little or no maintenance.
So, what do we learn from this? Are the car designers and builders in the 1980s now designing modern day bikes following their retirement (with final salary pension schemes)? At the same time, are the bike builders of the 1980s perhaps now designing and building the reliable modern cars of today (with a feeble pension to look forward to when they reach the same age as Master Yoda)?
Maybe I've just had a long day at work? It could be that I need to get a glass of white wine in my hand?
Motor cars seem to be in reverse to this; back in the 1980s they were very unreliable and you had to constantly feed them WD40 on winter mornings and mess about with feeler gauges and replace batteries, bulbs and other parts every few weeks. In comparison, modern day cars tend to just 'work' with seemingly little or no maintenance.
So, what do we learn from this? Are the car designers and builders in the 1980s now designing modern day bikes following their retirement (with final salary pension schemes)? At the same time, are the bike builders of the 1980s perhaps now designing and building the reliable modern cars of today (with a feeble pension to look forward to when they reach the same age as Master Yoda)?
Maybe I've just had a long day at work? It could be that I need to get a glass of white wine in my hand?