Brain Vomit #39 Bikes of the future

In the future the bicycle manufacturing process will be similar to the process that everything else is headed. Repetitive tasks will be automated. In theory bikes should become cheaper but I doubt it, most likely shareholders will get larger returns on their investment till the manufacturing method gets adopted by the whole industry. Then the fight to see who sells their bikes for less begins in order to stay in business. Custom made direct to consumer will be possible by a lot of these big companies. Some are already doing a version of this, look at the new Enve bike for example. It’s only a matter of time till Canyon, Specialized, Trek, etc start offering some version of a custom geometry bike. Will they be better than what we ride today? Probably, most likely, but they won’t be that much better. Bikes have been pretty much the same for the last 150 years. The improvements made are less and less every time.

The methods for mass production will change.

3D printers will have a big part in all this. New materials will be made, new forms of production, more efficient than before, more cost effective. “Carbon Fiber 3D printed bikes” already exist though as a person who makes carbon fiber bikes and is an expert in 3D printing, I’m skeptical. Though I have zero doubts that the technology will be better in the future and “Carbon Fiber 3D Printed Bikes that are also recyclable” will be a thing. 3D printed titanium bikes already exist and they are super cool though I feel like these bikes in 10 years are gonna look lame as hell. Once it loses its novelty and is the norm, how would your work stand out then?

I don’t think a lot of makers are thinking about “then”? Most likely, like me, they are thinking about how they will stay in business today. We keep pushing out problems down the line or ignoring the cancer tumor that is now spreading to other vital organs.

We don’t have a production problem, we have a consumption problem. All the cool things we own today one day will be garbage. And they will remain on this earth for much longer than we have been on this planet.

It’s time we start purging out all the clutter in our lives and own the things that we truly want.

I hope we keep this in mind when we design, make and buy things in the future. I hope the bikes of the future don’t end up just being more trash for a later date.