For something invented in the Victorian era, bicycles sure do change a lot from year to year. New materials, engineering advances, and the changing demands of riders keep the bicycle in a constantly evolving state. Economics can also play a role in this, for good or ill. Bicycle manufacturers need to sell bikes to stay in business. This can lead to some design decisions whose sole purpose is to drive future sales. This is called planned obsolescence. The idea is that the design will be obsolete within a known time frame and the manufacturer will be there to sell you a new model just in time. You see this in lots of electronic products, like cell phones or pop stars.

How do you know the difference between an improved design versus one designed to become obsolete? This can be tricky, even for those of us doing the manufacturing. Some real advances, like hydraulic disc brakes, seem here to stay and a benefit for many riders. It gets trickier when you look at bottom bracket designs, axle standards, or headsets. Of the dozens of designs out there, which one is going to stick around? Is it the right one for our customers? Should we switch now and risk pouring resources into a passing fad? Should we stick to our current design and risk falling out of step with the industry? This is the position many small builders face regularly.

Those of us at Rodriguez like to think we have a leg up on this question. After all, we’ve seen lots of designs come and go over the years. A lot of the time we can tell if something is going to be a lasting change because we can see how it’s going to play out over time. Or it’s possible that we just think we can and we’re guessing like everyone else. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

The advent of carbon bicycles has thrown a lot of these questions out the window. Does it matter if the design is any good if the bicycle itself is only designed to last a few years? Those of us building in steel or titanium are often expected to use the same components as carbon race bikes even if no one has any idea if the designs are going to stick around. (For example, the new T47 threaded bottom bracket design might eventually become the accepted standard for non-carbon bikes, but it’s hard to know now how that’s going to shake out until it does.) These can be difficult decisions. Some companies avoid this question for the most part by sticking with older designs and a classic aesthetic. We build a lot of high performance bikes that use state of the art components and sometimes it’s difficult to strike the balance between longevity and cutting edge. We’ve always built our bikes to last a lifetime and we don’t want that to change. It’s part of our ethos as a company and we still make the wrong choice sometimes.

When you come to Rodriguez for a bicycle, know that we’ve considered all of these decisions quite deliberately. We will try and build you a bike that meets your needs and will keep meeting them for the long haul. In a culture of disposability, we want to be the thing that stays true, year after year.