Re: repairs and obsolescence ish

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 5/5/2025 8:33 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Just had my old bike light repaired for £20 which considering its
replacement cost seems more than worth it.
 
And I do like that Exposure Lights whose lights are MTB or off road focus
mostly have a we will repair it if you manage to break it!
 
Ie it’s not a black box that is disposable.
 
Sort of related is Hovding helmet or rather I guess non helmet
 
<https://bikerumor.com/hovding-airbag-helmet-brand-deflates-w-bankruptcy-filing-following-overturned-recall/>
 
<https://youtu.be/HS9Q6D992M4?si=6uKvsagMPgeCbrBV>
 
Which came up on YouTube and Berm Peak, and as Seth says I’ve never thought
about having to charge my Helmet or so on, and with the app now dead much
like some other bikes with app stores that have gone bankrupt your rather
stuffed.

 
Seems like Hovding saw this cartoon:
https://sheldonbrown.com/airbag-helmet.html
and said "Ooh, what a good idea!!"
 

I think it’s the timing aspect as Seth says, ie when helmets became
mainstream ish, plus modern helmets are lot more comfortable and just
invisible in use.

Does seem to have some interesting technology though which hopefully can be
used, further down the line in some applications.

I do have some skepticism about devices which are so dependent on
electronics, software, etc. But it's the world we now live in.
 
 
 

Rather depends on the how and the why, I believe has been a push back by
consumers for example with car dashboards in that while screens and so on
are fun, they’d like some buttons still please and so on.

Electronic shifters and so on are one thing and folks do say it’s quicker
better shifting, but these is mostly from big brands that are likely to be
around for decades, though who knows about Campagnolo?

Compared to either the Hovding helmet or VanMoof though the latter have
relaunched but even so the positives of the Apps and connected features
aren’t wildly convincing.

Roger Merriman