On Value and Custom Bicycles
Modern economics tends to reduce all value to a universally exchangeable quantity that we call “money”. This process of simplification is convenient, for it allows all things to be exchangeable with one another. It allows for control, for taxation, for anonymity. But much is lost in this simplification.
Value is, or can be, complex. Historically, there were different forms of value, things that could never be exchanged for one another no matter the price. Heirlooms are this way. They are valuable because of their story rather than what they are in themselves. The material reality is less important than the history behind it. This is a form of personal and relational value. Here, quality matters more than cost. Uniqueness is far more important than uniformity.
It is cliché to talk about expensive objects as heirlooms as a way to justify a vastly overinflated price for a brand name. This is false. Brand names do not convey heirloom value, they convey antique value. They retain monetary value. But the presence or absence of a brand name does not thereby create heirloom value. Only real humans can do this in real relationships with one another.
Bicycles are now inconceivably cheap and expensive at various ends of the market. Wal-Mart bikes can cost under $150. I simply cannot understand where the profit is, and how much the workers are able to be paid. Having been a bike mechanic and worked on many of these bikes, I can say with confidence that the factory workers cannot possibly be proud of their work. They do not produce heirlooms, they struggle to make ends meet to produce subpar objects shipped across the world to lasts a season or two before requiring repairs worth more than the purchase price.
Top-range bikes cost upwards of $13,000 for factory made and mass produced objects. Like expensive watches, much of the value is perceived in the brand name and marketing claims. But unlike high end watches, such bikes do not tend to last a lifetime to become heirlooms. They are technological objects du jour, hype and waste and “marginal gains” for a deeply hypocritical industry claiming sustainability and environmental care.
Carbon fiber is essentially non-recyclable. Its lifespan, although potentially long, is limited to its use and manufacturing tolerances. Eventually the epoxy resins will fail and the bicycle rendered dangerous and trash. All this for the perceived and temporary value.
I produce steel bikes. Recyclable. The name “Axial” does not have gravitas.
I don’t claim that they will be heirlooms, though they could be. That’s up to you and what value you put into it. What I do offer with Axial Bikes, is a quality product built custom to your desires that will last as long as you value it (and ride responsibly, of course!). You’re in control of what a bike means to you, not marketing, nor the price you paid for it. You pay to employ a craftsman, and our relationship may just be the start of turning a chunk of steel into something that cannot be reduced to monetary value.
Of course, the lovely irony is that the Axial Age saw the invention of money and beginning of devaluation of relationships and heirlooms. Sometimes it’s by recognizing changes that we are able to see the value of what has been lost and so hope to intentionally reclaim it.