Re-cycled living
Marcus Farley Tuesday, May 13, 2008 5.28pm
Re-cycled living (BikeRadar©.)
The feature on ecologically sound lubes and cleaners in a previous What Mountain Bike magazine got me thinking about our impact on the landscape.
As cyclists, we can be pretty proud that our hobby exudes green credentials. But does it really? Dig a little deeper and most of us can admit to: driving to the majority of trailheads; using public transport or our cars to commute to work, riding full suspension bikes that use large quantities of non biodegradable suspension oil and disc brake fluid. As for the solvents used in degreaser, well, don’t go there.
Most of us are obsessed with the latest designs, but do any of us actually consider how green the manufacturer is, as well, before we buy? No, me neither.
Back in the day, things were a lot simpler. My first proper Mountain bike, the Joe Murray designed Kona Explosif Pro had rim brakes and no suspension. I also lived around the corner from my local trail. The Suntour chainset did thousands of miles, unlike our throwaway modern equivalents. In fact, the only real damage to the environment was caused by a very small amount of grease and chain oil applied when needed.
Modern culture is obsessed with getting the next best thing, and it is a constant strive to keep up. But, come on, let’s stop and think and take stock.
As keen readers of this blog will have noticed, a new kitchen went in at home recently. But part of the old one is now in the garage, being put to use to house bike bits and gardening tools, instead of taking up room in the local landfill.
If we delve into the back of our garages, sheds and cellars, we may find our long forgotten old bikes, and half used lubes and oils. When we dig the old bike out, all those memories come flooding back of happy times on the trails, with only the tyres’ natural suspension between us and the trail. A project is forming in my mind to get my old bike back in to top notch condition, and ride my local trails on it now and again, in an attempt to reduce the carbon tyre print that my full suspension bike makes.
Check out two of the cream of What Mountain Bike’s ‘green’ rated products to help you pedal off on a more ecologically friendly foot Here and Here.
Check out the latest issue of What Mountain Bike here or click to subscribe and save here for more great products and inspiration to keep you fired up for riding.
User Comments
There are 5 comments on this post
Showing 1 - 5 of 5 comments
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marcus Farley
Posted Sun 18 May, 11:09 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Depends on how many stomachs you have? Plastic generally takes hundereds of years to biodegrade in a landfill, pparently...although i'm not quite sure how they know that?! Was plastic created further back in time than we thought, but kept under wraps (geddit!)..or have scientists got secret time machines that they use to go forward in time to landfills to see at what point varous objects biodegrade?
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tribegrandaddy
Posted Sat 17 May, 8:56 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
ate some of the wrapper on my powerbar today by mistake does this count as recycling
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marcus Farley
Posted Wed 14 May, 1:41 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
sorry, it probably wasn't clear enough - 'Most of us are obsessed with the latest designs, but do any of us actually consider how green the manufacturer is, as well, before we buy? No, me neither' was a reference to the whole industry - bikes, clothing etc. If you read my interviews you'll see i generaly ask the carbon footprint of the designer...i'm also rather fond of handmade bikes...
so no, i was not just thinking about lubes, i was thinking of the whole manufacturing industry of bicycles, components and cycling papraphernalia.
cheers.
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aegisdesign
Posted Wed 14 May, 8:00 am BST Flag as inappropriate
If you think your lube is the only environmental damage you're causing then perhaps you need to think deeper.
Where was your bike made? What are your clothes made from? Are they made in factories with environmental policies lower than the UK or even NO policies?
For such a relatively low impact pastime, often the equipment we use isn't very green.
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tribegrandaddy
Posted Tue 13 May, 6:47 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Well Marcus I recycle everything because coming from t,up north i,m so tight I wo,nt throw anything away in case someone picks it up and gets some use out of it
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