Raise the Hammer

I'm really enjoying your articles lately, and I have to say this one is my favourite so far. I share your perspective on all things bikes - from the unbeatable price/performance ratio of a quality steel frame to the absurdity of the impractical junk being sold half-assembled and ready to fall apart at large retailers. When I was in my teens I ran a repair shop out of my parents' garage and I couldn't count the bikes that people brought me almost straight from the store, assembled and adjusted just plain wrong.

I believe the times are changing and practical, transportation driven cycling and its requisite products are coming back into style. I remember reading a couple years ago when gas prices were high about bike shops running out of bikes because they couldn't keep up with sales - and it was commuter bikes that were most in demand. I went to a local bike race a couple weeks ago and met someone with a new CCM road bike - a modern, steel frame bike with similar performance to my old school road racer, now in mass production for a few hundred bucks. I don't set foot in box stores, but I'm pretty sure 3 years ago all they were selling were 60lb full suspension bikes and balloon tire retro style cruisers - bikes people buy for style, not necessarily to use.

Obviously people are cluing in like never before to how easy, cheap and practical it is to use a bike as primary transportation. Now I don't know how much 20lb of steel per bike could support an industry previously geared to producing steel for 2000lb cars that everyone had at least one of, but the steel industry is older than mass car ownership. I believe the future of industry in Hamilton is in sustainable energy, advanced manufacturing and still in part steel, because there is no replacement for it. As LRT becomes more widely used, technology more standardized and equipment more mass-produced, and the cost goes down accordingly just like it did with cars, that stands to be our best chance at salvaging and reinvigorating our steel industry. A local bike industry fed by that steel would naturally follow.