ethos

I have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I build things that aren't really essential. My general feeling is that we all have too much stuff already and making stuff for people to buy, to add to their collection of stuff they don't really need doesn't sit easily with me. But it's how I pay the bills and feed my kids so I think it's worth trying to come to terms with it in a way that makes sense to me.

I think the bicycle industry gets away with quite a lot when it comes to justifying how things are made, where they're made and what the environmental and social impact is in the process of these things that are being made.

There's a general greenwashing that goes along with almost all bicycle product manufacturing. Bicycles are green right? They help take cars off the road, they get people to exercise and they make people smile, what's not to like? So we start from quite an advantage when we (the bike industry) try to examine our environmental credentials. I don't particularly disagree with this stance but I'm pretty sure we shouldn't be using this perspective as a way of shirking our more general responsibilities. Just saying you make 'bike stuff' isn't enough.

At the high-volume end (think Shimano components, Giant bikes etc), there's nothing different about the manufacturing process that sets them apart from any other high-volume manufacturing process. The fact that the product that's being made happens to be a bike thing and that bikes are good™, doesn't affect the environmental impact of that specific manufacturing process. The process doesn't know it's a touchy-feely bike thing being made. It's really no different to manufacturing a fridge or an alternator for a car or a lightbulb.

If you're manufacturing at high volume, it's normally to meet high demand and with high demand (normally) comes low prices and in turn, low margins. And it's these low margins that make it difficult to run your operation with the health of the planet at the forefront of your planning. Sure, you could try to prioritise 'green' operations, but it costs money and you'd lose out to your competitor and who knows where you'd end up. I'd like to think that people who start bike companies have a bit more respect for the planet and so maybe I'm wrong, maybe these massive companies are much better at looking after things than I give them credit for. I hope so.

What does all this have to do with me? Well, as I said earlier, I'm not super comfortable making non-essential items that seem like a little bit of a luxury so I have to create some ground rules for myself, some aspirations and some guidelines to follow to make it all just seem a little less frivolous and irresponsible. I'm still working out the best way to do all this and it's a constantly evolving landscape (literally), things will change and get better and some things might change and get worse but as long as we're heading in the right direction, I think I'm pretty ok with that.

So what are the practical things that I can do? How can I act a little differently to help me sleep at night?

The manufacturing process is just me, it's not wasteful and it's pretty easy for me to keep energy use low. When manufacturing frames, I can choose materials that have a low carbon footprint in their manufacture and transport. I buy tubing from Reynolds who are based here in the UK, Columbus and Dedacciai from Europe (Italy). There are tubing manufacturers in the US and Japan but I almost never buy from them anymore. I can make sure I use green chemicals in my machining operations and I can recycle as much of the offcuts/swarf/waste that I generate as possible. Reynolds recently published an Environmental Impact Study, you can read it here, it's worth a read. I'd love to do something like this myself but can't see where I'd get the time from. If you know someone that could, and would want to help on this, get in touch.

I try and do my final bike builds with components that are as local as possible. For gears, I use a lot of Rohloff internal gear hubs from Germany. Beltdrive transmission is also from Germany (although frustratingly I believe some of the parts are actually made here in Scotland before being shipped to Germany and then back to me). Brakes and cranks can come from Hope in the North of England. Headsets and bottom brackets can also come from Hope as well as from Rideworks who are based in the Midlands. Rims come from Ryde in the Netherlands. Sapim spokes from Belgium. If I'm not building the wheels myself, they'll almost certainly come from my 'local' wheelbuilder Derek at Wheelsmith. Saddles can come from Brooks in the UK (or Italy). So there's a good proportion of parts that come from (relatively) close by. Of course, most derailleur builds will end up with Shimano or SRAM components that come from Asia. Almost all tyres come from the Far East too. I think there are some options opening up on that front though. Fingers crossed.

The final thing I can do to limit the environmental impact is to not sell you a bike at all. And I've made the decision to not take orders from anyone outside of the UK. The carbon footprint for shipping a bike is pretty high. It seems high to me anyway. Depending on how you calculate it, it will cost anywhere from 60kg (bike shipped to Central Europe) to over 300kg (shipped to Japan) of CO2e. That's just the transport, not the manufacturing of the frame and components.

There are a ton of great, small bespoke bikebuilders all over the world. If you're reading this from outside of the UK and thinking about placing an order, try looking for someone closer. There'll be someone there and they'll be great. If you can't find anyone, drop me a message and I'll put you in touch with someone. If you really, really, really want one of my bikes then maybe we can work something out based around some kind of carbon offsetting scheme. I don't know. We'd need to work out the details.

The last thing I want to say about all this is that doing things the right way costs more money. All the stuff I've talked about costs me more money which means it's going to cost you a little more money too. I think it's worth it though. And I hope you do too.