Any material can corrode…the form of that corrosion may change, but it can happen to any material.
Back in the day, the company I worked for was the “Official Bike Supplier” to Walt Disney World Resorts. We worked with them to develop a “rust proof” cruiser that guests could use at the resorts…aluminum frame & components, stainless steel spokes and bolts…even the old SRAM “Salt Shaker” chain.
Guess what…we still ended up with corrosion (and yes, sometimes rust) on the bikes.
Sweat is incredibly corrosive…it can and will corrode almost any material it comes in contact with.
Using aluminum for bolts and other mounting areas on exercise equipment sounds like a bad idea to me…the strength of a stainless steel bolt is significantly stronger and, given that the average consumer is likely using the wrong tool and overtightening these areas, aluminum would likely lead to premature failures.
But trying to get a user to use more than WD-40 is a challenge. My wife hates touching grease. That’s why she thinks I’m here apparently. But going along with the ‘margin’ idea, cranking out ‘junque’ and charging people for break/fix and rust makes more margin, sadly…
Users that do use ‘grease’ usually use the wrong type, and either way way way too much, or not enough to make a difference. Funny how that works…
Purposely selling customers inferior product for the purpose of “margin”, when your business model is based on continuous customer retention, doesn’t seem to make much sense.
Again, there are a myriad of reason why steel is a preferred material than aluminum for these settings…
Peoples broad neglect and/or unwillingness to understand & properly care for the expensive stuff they buy baffles me. Sign of the times I guess, where the mentality seems to be “treat it with no care or attention and throw it away when it breaks”. But make sure to blame the makers/builders along the way (since we can’t be bothered to read the manual or consider any maintenance) because WE sure can’t be to blame
Just blows my mind. Ignorance is not an excuse IMO.
It’s potentially possible this stuff could be made totally idiot proof, but if my life experience tells me anything, someone will just make a better idiot. Not to mention the potential cost of making that “perfect” solution may well be so high that the intended audience would not pay for it
If you know you are a heavy sweater, do you wipe things down immediately after riding? Do you periodically wipe it down with a damp cloth + a bit of detergent? If not, doing these simple items would go a long way to eliminating the chance of things rusting.
To me, I don’t have a problem with steel framed stationary bikes - I did by a Stages SB20 after all - it just means I have to take a little care of it.
Not sure if our London peeps have time or interest, but looks like you have an opportunity to spend a bit of time on a TiltBike if you are close enough.
Interesting tangent here. They seem to be stepping up in a way with what seems to be their goal of production release around a year from now (per comments in the recent bike show).
the bike is really interesting, although it will be on the market soon, it will still have teething problems, i.e. it has to establish itself first.
The power measurement should be excellent, faster than any other power meter on the market, so probably extreme accuracy.
But it should only really work with Zwift, i.e. steering and such and with their own 3D Muov App, but nobody knows how good the App is, is the App also open for other Smart Trainers then?
The variety is also interesting, 7 different crank lengths to set, so to speak for children too if I understood that correctly.
Once you have the basic unit you can put different frames on it, so if your partner needs a much smaller or larger frame or just a TT frame.
I had time to watch this and they even answered a couple of my questions. Some interesting stuff overall and I watched the motion very closely when they got into the lab. I am pleased by what I saw in the form of steering and leaning, and the relationship that was what I call “semi-rigid”.
It seems possible to do either motion without the other to at least some degree, as well as both combined. It parallels some of what I have in my modified E-Flex front end with my spring connection between steering and leaning.
I really want to see what Ray and Shane have to say once they get them (as it sounds like MUOV are planning to get each of them units). Still tons of unknows here, but I like the progress they seem to be making.
Really, really, really hoping this passes the accuracy hurdle. If it does, then hopefully this will push Wahoo, Garmin, & Stages to innovate on the smart bike front to incorporate movement / rocker plate type functionality. I see this really where smart bikes need to go: resistance + bike + movement in a designed together package that is better than what you can cobble together from the separate components
I think everyone is overestimating the size of the smart bike market…as I noted in the “Wahoo future” thread, there is no doubt excess inventory of the KICKR Bike is a drain on their books right now.
The KICKR bike and the Stages bikes have all been on sale continuously for months now…a lot of analysis needs to be done to determine the root cause(s) of the excess, but I would be shocked if market overestimation is not one of the causes (if not the biggest).
At a minimum, we are seeing that the price point for such a bike is substantially lower than everyone thought…
It will be interesting to see how the TiltBike plays out, but I am somewhat skeptical that it even launches, let alone succeeds in the marketplace.
The price point an use case of the Muov is sure interesting. I also wonder if their choice to make quick-change sized frame is a good/bad choice. I get there “pros”, but when we look at what that means for a spending level in reality, I struggle to justify it vs a single/full-adjustable frame like the others.
That and the motion aspect, as much as it interests me, sets this one in a unique position for better or worse. Their timing kinda sucks too, coming in on the heels of this unprecedented era. Maybe it will workout as them bypassing much of the issues we see with Wahoo, Tacx, Stages on stock issues, but I think they still have a notable hill to climb when they get to actually selling these. And that all assumes they can actually deliver on quality, performance and reliability… not small tasks.
