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One point people overlook is that cars are an existing item that many people already posess. A fast change to biking can put a high demand on their production,

One point people overlook is that cars are an existing item that many people already posess. A fast change to biking can put a high demand on their production, which is also based on steel or, even worse, carbon fiber. And then in 6 months many people are going to trash or forget about the bike, essentially just causing a temporary production spike with lasting effects on the environment. I think more accent should be put on NMF bikes, Natural Material Frame, like those made of bamboo [0] or wood. These materials absorb CO2 from the air to grow, unlike steel or carbon which produces it. [0] https://diverahub.com/ https://diverahub.com/

nradov 6y ago
The bicycle supply chain was heavily impacted by coronavirus lockdowns in Asia. It will take a few months to resolve current shortages. https://triathlontaren.com/diaanour/ https://triathlontaren.com/diaanour/
C1sc0cat 6y ago
And these sorts of articles forget that 1 A lot of us cant or prefer not to live in the heart of the city 2 Most offices are not built with showers and secure bike parking - for longer distance commuters last time I worked in central London I wanted to use a Brompton but boss said no I cat store it in the office so that was that.
- dionidium 6y ago
  It's kind of silly to protest the feasibility of cycling because it requires a certain kind of infrastructure given the truly enormous costs we've endured to create -- and recreate in the case of cities that predate the automobile -- cities that accomodate the automobile. That all looks baked-in and natural to you, because it's always been that way, but make no mistake, it's the largest engineering project ever undertaken by mankind.
hanniabu 6y ago
I heard about this carbon fiber issue. Is there really no way to recycle/upcycle carbon fiber?
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  The problem is these materials are typically composite materials that have not just the 'raw' carbon fiber bits, but also various resins and other binding materials. We actually have the same problem of not being able to recycle fiberglass already. The early wind turbines which are now at end of life are actually just being buried (landfilled) rather than recycled (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51325101 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51325101). There is potential to overcome this (https://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/perhaps-were-getting-closer-to-fiberglass-recycling https://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/perhaps-were-getti...), and techniques for recycling other composite materials like SMC (https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/recycling-dead-boats/ https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/recycling-dead-boats/) could be adopted perhaps. But in the end it'll come down to the economics of it, and we really need to move to a world where repair and reuse is easier, rather than expecting a black box recycling process to solve our problems.
  - JAlexoid 6y ago
    Practically - we don't need to recycle long lasting products immediately(2+ decades). Take a GF boat or a CF* bike - both of them have a lifetime of at least 10 years. Storing them in a concentrated manner, will take a very small amount of space(we overestimate our landfill needs) and would make recycling or dismantling much cheaper when the tech comes in. (*CF bikes last longer than alu alloy frames, btw)

nradov 6y ago

The bicycle supply chain was heavily impacted by coronavirus lockdowns in Asia. It will take a few months to resolve current shortages. https://triathlontaren.com/diaanour/ https://triathlontaren.com/diaanour/

C1sc0cat 6y ago

And these sorts of articles forget that 1 A lot of us cant or prefer not to live in the heart of the city 2 Most offices are not built with showers and secure bike parking - for longer distance commuters last time I worked in central London I wanted to use a Brompton but boss said no I cat store it in the office so that was that.

dionidium 6y ago
It's kind of silly to protest the feasibility of cycling because it requires a certain kind of infrastructure given the truly enormous costs we've endured to create -- and recreate in the case of cities that predate the automobile -- cities that accomodate the automobile. That all looks baked-in and natural to you, because it's always been that way, but make no mistake, it's the largest engineering project ever undertaken by mankind.

hanniabu 6y ago

I heard about this carbon fiber issue. Is there really no way to recycle/upcycle carbon fiber?

throwawaysea 6y ago
The problem is these materials are typically composite materials that have not just the 'raw' carbon fiber bits, but also various resins and other binding materials. We actually have the same problem of not being able to recycle fiberglass already. The early wind turbines which are now at end of life are actually just being buried (landfilled) rather than recycled (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51325101 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51325101). There is potential to overcome this (https://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/perhaps-were-getting-closer-to-fiberglass-recycling https://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/perhaps-were-getti...), and techniques for recycling other composite materials like SMC (https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/recycling-dead-boats/ https://www.proboat.com/2016/09/recycling-dead-boats/) could be adopted perhaps. But in the end it'll come down to the economics of it, and we really need to move to a world where repair and reuse is easier, rather than expecting a black box recycling process to solve our problems.
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  Practically - we don't need to recycle long lasting products immediately(2+ decades). Take a GF boat or a CF* bike - both of them have a lifetime of at least 10 years. Storing them in a concentrated manner, will take a very small amount of space(we overestimate our landfill needs) and would make recycling or dismantling much cheaper when the tech comes in. (*CF bikes last longer than alu alloy frames, btw)