I was a bike mechanic for 5 years in the early 1980’s. Bikes were perfectly reliable then. A well maintained bike was ajoy to ride and would hardly fail you. A

I was a bike mechanic for 5 years in the early 1980’s. Bikes were perfectly reliable then. A well maintained bike was ajoy to ride and would hardly fail you. A clap trap beater was also reliable. So what has changed? The sturdy bikes of old were built within the tolerances of the materials and designs of the time. If you pushed the limits, you would break the bike. It seems the new tech as described by the author didnt solve a reliability problem. What it did was push the materials and construction methods. For instance he talks about hubs, spokes, and rear stays breaking. That never happened. But we laced wheels of 36 holes 3 and 4 cross. Modern wheels are straight laced and 28 or less holes. The change has lightened the wheel while maintaining the strength of the old wheel.