{"id":2203916,"date":"2026-10-17T11:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2203916"},"modified":"2026-10-17T11:43:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T08:43:00","slug":"why-this-biker-is-stoked-for-international-repair-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2203916","title":{"rendered":"Why this biker is stoked for International Repair Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Stoke<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is an occasional opinion series highlighting the things that get us stoked about mountain biking. \ud83e\udd18 \ud83d\udc4d \ud83d\udc4f \ud83d\ude4f<\/p>\n

Today is International Repair Day<\/a>, a holiday I didn\u2019t know existed until Ritchey Bicycle Components wrote about it<\/a> this week. Of course I\u2019m always stoked for an excuse to celebrate, especially when it involves an idea I fully support, like the right to repair.<\/p>\n

The right to repair, in case you aren\u2019t familiar, is the idea that consumers should be allowed to maintain, modify, and repair items they own without relying exclusively on the original manufacturer. International Repair Day is coordinated by the Restart Project, which advocates for<\/a> the idea largely for environmental reasons.<\/p>\n

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The thing is, I think the bike industry \u2014 unlike the automotive and tech industries, to name just two examples \u2014 does a pretty awesome job supporting our right to repair. And why shouldn\u2019t they? We\u2019re all riders, after all, and bikes are simple machines. I have no idea how my iPhone works, but I can tell you a bike\u2019s chainring connects to a chain, which in turn drives the rear wheel. Simple.<\/p>\n

Brands like Ritchey and Wolf Tooth<\/a> are outspoken on riders\u2019 right to repair, and others, like Park Tool, invest in educating riders on how to repair their own bikes. We take it for granted that even the biggest bike companies like Shimano and SRAM make all their tech docs widely available to anyone, and not just their certified mechanics.<\/p>\n

Now sure, there are examples of proprietary bike designs and cheap bike shit that\u2019s riveted together with no chance of being repaired at home once it breaks (and the cheap stuff always<\/em> breaks). But imagine if our bikes were locked down like our iPhones, and a chain snaps during the ride. If it were a bricked iPhone instead of an immobile bike, we\u2019d be borrowing a friend\u2019s phone to make an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar. <\/p>\n

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Now that I think about it, maybe this is why bike companies are going bankrupt all the time. They\u2019re playing too damn nice. Meanwhile, many in the tech industry are raking in record profits by selling devices that can\u2019t<\/em> be repaired. [Note to bike companies: I kid. Please do not take repair notes from the tech industry.]<\/p>\n

The environmental piece of repair is nice, but frankly that\u2019s not my motivation. For me, it\u2019s all about time and money. Time on my bike. Time I don\u2019t<\/em> have to spend schlepping my bike to a repair shop. And the money I save by repairing my bike rather than tossing the whole thing in the trash when it stops working. <\/p>\n

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