Don't Cry for Bikes Argentina!

In the 2000s economists coined a term for a new economic trend: Globalization.  The world was getting smaller and closer.  Economists link emerging globalization back to the early 1970s with the “open skies” policy of airline travel.  It was then possible to be anywhere in the world in a single day’s travel.  This also meant goods could also be shipped anywhere in the world in a single day or definitely by the next morning.   Globalization continued into the 1990s with the first published and live websites.  By 1995 nearly every organization had some form of a website.  Websites made it possible to interact with the world in seconds, without leaving home or the office.  The speed and power of the web permeated other businesses and layers of society--everything needed to be quicker.  The world can be delivered right to your home or office with immediate effect.  

Except in Argentina.

It is summer in the Southern Hemisphere and that means the weather for biking is near perfect.  What it also means is that biking enthusiasts and bike buyers are pouring into the local bike shops looking for new equipment and new bikes.  Only once inside however, they aren’t seeing much of anything.

Bicycle manufacturing has, like many other industries, freely accepted globalization and has thrived with the practice of bringing the best the world has to offer together.  For any given bike, components come from Europe, Asia, the US and together a new machine is born.  Argentina would rather have every part come from Argentina.

This past February Argentina enacted a new law that restricts the importing of over 600 goods.  The idea was to guard domestic companies from unwanted competition.  The country has had some success but for the most part this protectionist economic policy has hamstrung quite a few industries, the local bicycle shop being one.  As a result fewer bikes are being sold in the country.  Building a bike is truly a global initiative and with restrictions on foreign-made parts it is very difficult to get a complete bicycle in Argentina.  One shop owner noted that for most of his stock something is missing: pedals from Asia, wheels from Europe, saddles from Italy, and so on.  The owner claims his business will be down 15% this year that ends today. 

Inflation has hit the bicycle industry very hard because of the new laws.  Take for example a $150 bike.  In Argentina it will sell for $700.   People are riding their old bikes, it looks like the 1970s with all of the retro cruisers rolling through the country (see photo).  

Buenos Aires, like other global metropolitan cities, wants people riding bikes.  People on bikes mean less smog, gridlocked traffic, parking problems and more.  This new policy comes at a bad time as the city of Buenos Aires enacted a “Better on a Bike” program that took ridership from 30,000 bikers up to 150,000 dedicated riders in just three years.  In 2013 Buenos Aires plans to build 30 miles of bike lanes.  The city has already opened 50 miles since 2009.   

What is most interesting is that foreign parts only make up 11% of bikes sold in Argentina but as one shop owner noted, people want a bike that is 100% finished and he sums up, “without those parts the bike is useless."

Visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net.  Have a Happy New Year!

When Csepel Bikes Ruled the World

The Danube is one of the most romanticized rivers in the world.  It is Europe’s second-longest river--only the Volga is longer.  It passes through ten countries before emptying into the Black Sea.  Eighteen islands lay in the flow of the Danube, one such island is Csepel (“CHE-pel”) in Hungary.  It is a unique island in that it was once the highly industrialized center of Budapest, the country’s capital.   Budapest is in itself a unique place.  If you like hills and castles try Buda, if you like flat land and nightlife then Pest is for you.  The city is two cities in one, bisected by the Danube.  Together, the capital is quickly becoming one of Europe’s fastest growing financial centers.  It is the home of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.  In between all of this is Csepel.

For bicycle buffs Csepel is an important piece of history.  Today, many eastern Europeans fondly remember the “Superla,” a bike born and bred on the island of Csepel.  The machine came off the line at the huge Csepel Steel and Metal Works factory.  Prior to a post-war state takeover, the plant was known as the Manfred Weiss Steel and Metal Works, built in 1837.  In 1928 the facility shifted some of its production away from munitions to bicycles.  The bikes were known as “Csepels.”

These bikes were classic cruisers with big seats, no gears and coaster brakes.  The pre-war company sold them at a brisk pace only to see production skyrocket during the war as armies realized the moving power of soldiers on bikes was much more efficient than soldiers on foot.  In 1945 the factory was destroyed by numerous bombing raids.  After the war a new Hungary was on the world stage and a new state-owned and operated factory was built.  In no time at all Csepel bikes were back and were being exported to all parts of the world—Holland, United States, Canada, England, Switzerland, even Iran and Egypt.  At any given time the factory held 20,000 completed bicycles ready for shipment (this provides some insight as to the sheer mammoth size of the plant).  It was the largest bicycle manufacturing facility in the world.

During the 1960s the plant saw some of it best production numbers, producing well over a quarter of a million bikes annually.  The company built a number of cruiser bike varieties with the “Road King” being a favorite of many buyers.  

The fall began in the 1980s.  With the Iran-Iraq war at full tilt for most of the decade exports of Csepel bikes to Iran ceased.  The company could not afford to lose any export business as they, like other long time bike builders, suffered competition woes caused by the boom in Asian lightweight bicycles.  Customers were leaving the cruiser in favor of the racer.  

With the fall of the Iron Curtain came privatization.  In 1989, Schwinn purchased a 51% interest in the Csepel Iron and Metal Works.  Bankruptcy came in 1993 when Schwinn dissolved.  Other investors tried to make a go of the large plant and its resources but it was shuttered for good in 2003.  Like other countries, today Hungary imports frames from China and then handles assembly.

But the old plant remains and Hungary has big plans for the place as it will be converted to a recreation destination to include restaurants and nightlife all accessible by bicycle.  And cycling technology is not dead in Hungary as the wildly inventive “Stringbike” continues to be refined by a revived and much smaller Scwhinn-Csepel company (more on that in a future post).  Visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net.

Exterior

Interior

The Ugly Trabant Made Bike Riders of Many People

The automotive website Edmund's recently announced a list of the worst cars of all-time.  In reading through their top ten we can see why more and more people are choosing bicycles over cars when it comes to a preferred method of transportation.  According to Edmund's the worst car of all-time was the Pontiac Aztec.  A car ugly enough to frighten children, the vehicle may have single-handedly killed the Pontiac brand.  And this was the arm of GM that gave the world the ultra-cool Trans Am, the fun Fiero and of course the GTO.  The next in line was a BMW disaster (is that possible?) known as the Isetta.  The thumbtack tiny machine had one cylinder and one door.  While we are counting, it also had 12 horsepower and even though it had four wheels the narrowness of the wheelbase made it ride like a three-wheeler.  What it did succeed at was sipping fuel and in a rebuilding post-war Germany, fuel was at a premium.   

But for the Sticky Bottle team the worst car of all time has to be the Trabant, East Germany's response to the Volkswagen Beetle.  

Was it really the worst?  Maybe not, there are some things to consider when history pauses to remember the sturdy little compact that Communism built...

The Trabant was manufactured for over 30 years beginning in 1957 finally ceasing production after the fall of Communism in 1990.  Over 3 million of these little monsters were built and it came in three useful varieties: a two-door sedan (the Saloon), a two-door wagon (the Universal) and the "Kubelwagen" a type of Jeep without doors and who doesn’t need one of those in their garage?

The Trabant was a simple device.  The original version, the P-50 was an example of simplicity, the P stood for plastic (the body was a plastic resin with hints of wool and cotton called “Duroplast”) and the 50 was short for 500 cc (produced by a smoggy two-stroke engine).   Most owners could easily repair the car with a new belt and a couple of spark plugs.  The body actually scored fairly well in crash testing.  For most of the car’s manufacturing life, a 10 year waiting list existed for a brand new Trabant.  This meant that most of the used Trabant’s were well-maintained because the first owner was never quite sure if he would have another.  On average the car spent 28 years with the original buyer.  

On the downside the Trabant was rather slow-footed, it required a sloth-like 21 seconds to reach 60 miles an hour.  Fueling the car required some effort.  The small six gallon tank was under the front hood and once it was topped off it would still need the requisite two-stroke oil additive.  The concoction would then need a quick shake to properly mix the ingredients.  The two-stroke engine, excellent in chainsaws and lawnmowers, spewed enough smoke to cloud autobahns throughout Germany.  The Trabant amazingly enough produced five times the amount of carbon monoxide as the average European sedan.   Most frustrating may have been the absolute lack of innovation and evolution.  The car never changed for better or worse.  Mostly never for the better.

This small beast finally died in 1989 (some production continued to 1991) with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern Bloc.  Some great photos of East Germans in Trabants driving into West Berlin captured Germany’s reunification.  This scene was immortalized in a mural depicting a Trabant smashing through the Wall (pictured).  Trabant collector clubs can be found the world over with roughly 100,000 still on the road today.  Visit our website for a Trabant commercial from 1969.  Click on VIDEOS at www.stickybottleteam.net.

Electro-Forged Bicycles—Just the Standard Greek Tragedy

The Greek Tragedy is a standard theater and literature formula and through time immemorial has proven to be a classic story-telling vehicle.  From the works of Sophocles to Euripides and all of the purveyors of the genre, the standing constant in the Greek tragedy is always the hero.  The hero is unmistakable in that what makes him powerful and unique always leads to his downfall.  The hero’s greatest attribute is at the same time his weakest quality and it destroys him in the end. 

The SBT mentions the Greek tragedy as a way to summarize the epic collapse of American bicycle manufacturing.  By now, many of you, dear readers, have uncovered the SBT crew’s love of old Schwinns and we are talking about the Schwinn before the outsourcing to Asia--the Schwinn of Chicago.  

In a previous Schwinn-themed post we decided not to outline the history of the company's decline.  In this post we are simply trying to find the source of the decline and we think we can trace it back to a Schwinn-championed technology: "electro-forging."  But first...

   

Schwinn is a Greek tragedy; its greatest strength was its fatal weakness.  From Ignaz Schwinn’s first bikes to the company that bore his name, the machines he and his workers created were hand-built.  Mr. Schwinn put his name on the line and on his bikes, the company left behind the conventional wisdom of building bikes for the large department store chains and branding the bike with the name and logo of whatever store was selling the machine.  Instead, Mr. Schwinn decided to sell “Schwinn” and the bikes would be sold through hardware stores or bike shops that would be Schwinn-specific retailers. During the company's ascent of the 1950s, Schwinn grew stronger and secured more and more market share.  

The company seized upon the derailleur quickly and a variety of “ten-speeds” came out of Chicago and into the suburban garages and streets of the United States throughout the 1960s.  Later, the idea of electro-forging allowed the company to build more bikes faster and cheaper and it is at this point we begin to see the decline. 

Since the earliest uses of fire, the forge was part of the building process of just about anything.  The heating of most metals will lead to the material changing composition.  These molecular changes allow products to be created from raw material or allows the modification of an existing product.  Later, coal permitted forges to burn hotter, longer and the coal-powered forge helped usher in the Industrial Revolution.  Schwinn took the fire from the forge and replaced it with electrical current.

The electro-forge technology used by Schwinn was a process of sending high-heat current through the tubing and into the joints in order to seal the parts together.  It was a form of soldering almost.  What it did was eliminate welding.  That welding was done by hand and by humans.  In the 1960s and for decades hence Schwinns were electro-forged by machines.  Schwinns were now massed-produced on one of the grandest of scales--cheaply.  Later, the company realized that electro-forged technology could be outsourced to Bridgestone in Japan and Panasonic in Taiwan and the cost per-unit dropped yet again.  At the same time in the United States, Schwinn’s American manufacturing plants did not change with modern updates and processes.  It was now too late, Schwinn’s great ascent into technology was forgotten and old methods were killing the company.  

The bicycle boom of the 1970s brought lightweight bikes built with a human touch to the global market.  New bike builders were using alloys and aluminum while Schwinn was still electro-forging steel.   Schwinn was one of the first large manufacturers to grasp new technology early on, yet when new technologies were required later, Schwinn failed to capitalize on the evolution of skills, people and machinery.  

Visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net.

Our Christmas Wish

It’s Christmas all over the world.  The Sticky Bottle Team blog has enjoyed readership from many parts of the globe and we want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

The American classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is highlighted by the character of Linus with his poignant reciting of the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke to children gathered in a small school auditorium.  Luke’s Gospel is a joyous telling of the birth of Christ for it quotes the heavenly angels who declared that they were bringing “tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”   We here at the SBT wish all people a holiday season and New Year filled with great joy and happiness.

Luke ends the story with “on earth peace and goodwill towards men.”  A world with greater peace and goodwill to all of the world’s people is our greatest wish and we think of the Christmas carol “Little Drummer Boy” and the verse that hopes for peace “for your child and my child too.”

May peace be with you--as you, like many of us--reflect happily on the memories of those we have lost while we hold in good faith the promise of our families and our future days.  May today bring you all joy, family fun, quiet solitude, and clear wonderments.  May you be graced by the calm presence of holy angels no matter your faith.

Thank you again for reading this blog.  Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  

·        Happy Christmas

·        Joyeux Noël

·        Gelukkig kerstfeest

·        Frohe Weihnachten

·        Buon Natale

·        Wesołych Świąt

·        С Рождеством

·        ¡Feliz Navidad

Santa is Bringing a New Bike!

It is Christmas Eve and for many parents around the globe this means assembling a new bike.   And for some parents it may be their child’s first bike.  It begins easily enough with the unpacking of the new machine followed by the removal of cellophane, tape, nuts, bolts, screws and assorted parts.  You have looked forward to this moment to take an easy half-hour of your silent night and dedicate your ingenuity--and a cold six pack--to the task of giving a child the gift of two-wheeled independence.  

Next comes the trip to basement or the garage for the requisite tools.  Without a doubt you will uncanningly grab a Phillips when what you really need is a regular head screwdriver.  This then leads to the discovery that all of your sockets are in inches and what you need is a metric set.  You realize that is at your neighbor’s house.  

You get to work with a set of substandard tools but above par know-how.  The directions unfold 26 times and it is laid out on the family room floor like the plans to Overlord.  Where to begin?  You query.   When all else fails you look at the picture on the box.  With the age old adage of “lefty-loosy” and “righty-tighty” you get down to business.   At some point in the process, the construction collapses like a house of cards.  You let escape a torrent of obscenities, the spouse enters with a question about the decision to piece the bike together while enjoying adult beverages.   

You gather your senses, determined not to let 12 pounds of disassembled steel tubing and rubber get the best of you.  After a deep breath you begin anew.  The socket slips and the knuckles crash, the screwdriver slides and scrapes the skin.  But, against all odds the machine is taking shape, higher and higher it climbs.  From chain guard to tires to saddle to handlebars the mighty bike is looking much like it was when it was first drawn on a Taiwanese drafting table.   

You rise to your feet and ignore the cracking of your knees as you straighten to take your first glimpse of the red and white shimmering flash of pure speed.  You give it a test roll and it works.  You hold out your tired and mangled hands, you give them thanks for a job well done.  You gaze around the room and wait for an applause that never comes.  It seems everyone has turned out the lights and gone to bed.  They have truly settled down for a long winter’s nap.   So there you stand, chain grease swiped across your brow.  For a short time in the process you where broken, now you are better.  Tomorrow morning your child will thrill at the sight of a new brilliant crimson bicycle and you will revel in the bouquets tossed your way.  A heavenly choir sings in your head while the child states matter-of-factly: “Red! I really wanted the blue bike!” You reach for the first aspirin of Christmas.