Simple Machines

Back in my teenage days, I often found myself flipping through mountain bike magazines, constantly gasping for the latest and greatest in bicycle tech. Needless to say, my financial means were too limited at the time, so that fancy XTR group was naturally far out of reach. When I finally got my first full-suspension bike with disc brakes, I was overwhelmed by all those suspension adjustments and things that demanded cleaning after almost every ride. The supplied brakes where faulty and needed service from the manufacturer for several times, before I finally replaced them with a different set. After all these hassles, my lust for riding this bike was almost gone, and I barely used it at all.

For my first long bicycle trip to Sweden, my father handed me his cheap aluminum hardtail because my fully was clearly not up for the task. It worked mostly fine—except for the rear wheel and a tire that did not survive the trip. This journey taught me a valuable lesson: only use bike tech that you understand and that is simple to service on the road. And while a multi-week camping tour is a completely different story from shredding down the mountains next to my hometown, it really gives me peace of mind today to exclude overly complicated tech from my life. Sometimes when I ride over a rooty trail, I miss the suspension, but I am happy to accept a few seconds of heavy rumbling once in a while for the benefit of saved weight, maintenance, and cost.

Long-distance touring (aka randonneuring) also told me that ergonomics matter way more than the latest technological advancements. Better invest in a decent saddle, handlebars, and grips before even thinking about spending your hard-earned money on that electronic rear derailleur or wireless dropper post. Let alone the environmental impact of an industry that always tries to lure every one of us into buying new, ever more expensive stuff with shorter lifecycles because they need to generate shareholder value.

The bicycle pictured above has only nine gears, a friction shifter, and—since I occasionally use it for dragging a child trailer—also a kickstand. But it excelled in almost everything I tried to use it for. From attending a gravel event to multi-day loaded camping trips. It is just enough for almost anything I ever wanted to do on a bicycle. It has just enough gears with just enough range, just enough braking force, and is just light enough to be fun to ride. I like to call it a “Simple Machine.” All of my bicycles are now simple machines, and I have never looked back so far.