The War on 74: the bike industry is threatening my granny

The right to repair is only as good as the availability of parts.

The mountain bike boom of the late 20th Century did two things (among others): it made the ISO/ETRTO 559 bead size the most widely distributed tire size in the world, and it made the 110/74 triple crank a universal standard. Those reliable points held true from the late 1980s through the 1990s, even though the bike industry started messing with chainring sizes and crank profiles by the mid 1990s, and introduced the concept of the 29er tire before the end of the century. They were trapped by their own previous success in distributing existing sizes on which they had based the first mountain bike designs.

Prior to the rise of 110/74, there were other triple crank bolt circle diameters, like Stronglight's 122, and TA's little circle of six bolts. Some early forms used the same BCD for all three rings, with the optional "granny" ring mounted on longer bolts with spacers. But triple cranks were mostly used by touring nerds, and even among tourists the majority used off the shelf double cranks with perhaps a 40-50 instead of a 42-52. As the idea of bike touring took hold, riders cobbled together what they could and headed out. Demand led supply, in the traditional way.

The Japanese component companies drove most innovation, making some nice parts for a lower price than the European manufacturers. From them we got the slant parallelogram derailleur and the 130 and 110 BCDs. As those two chainring sizes came to dominate, aftermarket component manufacturers offered numerous options for replacement rings. As the industry brought in new sizes, like 94/58, 94/56, and 4-bolt 104/64, aftermarket companies still kept up. So the industry hit the afterburner on proprietary sizes and asymmetrical bolt patterns to burn off as much competition as possible.

I wonder how much of the pathological and malignant competition in the bike industry is because founders and executives in bike companies used to race. Rather than look at the big picture of a unified world riding happily on millions of serviceable and durable (but sporty and fun) bikes, they look only at destroying their rivals and leaving a puking, miserable peloton collapsing in their wake.

I've felt confident over the years, recommending 110/74 cranks to riders who would rather be out on their bikes than shopping for parts or waiting for something to get repaired. Later, 104-64 seemed fairly stable among the newer generation of cranks as the two-piece configuration took over from the three-piece design. The most self sufficient riders accept simple equipment and learn to use it, rather than sucking up the latest convenience features in the latest temperamental shifting system.

Unfortunately, the industry finally noticed the happy escapees. The selection of 74mm inner chainrings has shriveled to just a few. The same goes for 110mm middle and outer rings. The selection of ring sizes has gotten smaller, reducing your ability to customize gearing to suit your needs. Because the 110 triple crank has been marginalized, most 110 rings are aimed at the road compact double, which uses only a few sizes. The most common pairing is 34-50, followed by 36-48 or 46. There's a fair range of 110 ring sizes just based on tooth count, but you have to look closely at the rest of the specs to see if you can make a particular ring play nicely with the others.You might find a chainring that fits the crank, but it's thin and light, designed to be used up and thrown away. You might need to use spacers the dial in the gap between rings so that the chain drops into place, rather than jamming in between rings or riding on top of one without engaging the teeth.

The pandemic-induced shortages make the shrinking selection look worse. Things might improve, but we're also up against the industry's timetable of obsolescence, so we can't know for sure when they will simply get tired of making something and cut a bunch more riders loose. And that brings us to the rest of the drive train.

A triple crank and eight-speed cassette provided a nominal 24 speeds. Riders now are now being told that they would rather have only 12 speeds, all in the cassette, with a tinfoil chain, and a derailleur that can barely manage to get the chain onto -- and off of -- a low gear cog that could be larger than 50 teeth. The chain angle is so extreme that you can't backpedal at all in the lowest gear on many bikes, and this limitation is accepted as the price of "progress." On the crank, which could be mounted to any of about a dozen bottom bracket configurations, the chainring may be mounted directly to a proprietary spline pattern, or bolted to one of a handful of new and different bolt circle diameters. Quality Bicycle Products lists 30 different BCDs.

Nice derailleurs that will work with a rational 24-speed system have become rare. Wider chains and sturdier cassettes have moved down to the bottom level of quality. Middle and upper end derailleurs are designed to work with the weird new cassettes and the rare double chainring crank using mostly dinky rings.

Cassettes themselves present another treasure hunt. Between what's unavailable because of the pandemic, and what the industry has deemed no longer necessary, finding your favorite gear keeps getting harder. Back in mid-August I built a 9-speed cassette for someone who couldn't begin to appreciate the ingenuity involved, since it's "just a bicycle." But I fix what can be fixed, because it should be fixed.

The Cog Farm saves the day again.

 

It's all made more difficult when a rider requires indexed shifting. Anyone who needs the gears to click into place will have little patience with something that requires finesse and accommodation. They want gears on demand. What makes it easy at the user interface is always more complicated under the shell.

A whole generation of riders has grown up with the idea that you use up a bike and throw it out as a complete unit, the way we do with our cars. There's a certain amount of Frankenbiking, but their failure may be as satisfying as success, as long as it's entertaining. The most recent home hobby project to come to us for help was four boys and a dad trying to bolt a 110cc motor onto an old Gary Fisher mountain bike. That hints at numerous trips to the ER. Get it on video, kids! Fortunately, all I had to do was pull a crank arm for them and provide a replacement with sufficient flare to clear the width of the motor. The motor was not mounted, so all I really saw was a beat-up old mountain bike and its eager test pilots eyeballing the dimensions and declaring victory.

When I spec a bike now, I try to make it as future-proof as possible. In addition to finding parts that meet the rider's current needs, I try to predict whether the consumable parts like chains, chainrings, and cassettes, will be there for the rider when they're needed. This only gets harder year by year. Mostly we have to be content to get out of the current crisis and worry about the future when it gets here. It's how humans do things.