Gardening

Last night when I was riding home from work, I felt and heard some troubling sounds in my drivetrain. By the time I was about a quarter mile from home, I had a good idea of what had happened, because of a uniquely terrible weeble-wobble that occurred every time I tried to take a pedal stroke: something in my bottom bracket had eaten itself, most likely at least one bearing, if not more.

It was dark and I was tired, so I left the project of inspecting things further until the following morning. The following morning confirmed that it was time for a driving field trip up to the bike shop, stat. Sigh. I hitched up the car and altered my itinerary to make it a driving one instead of a bicycling one (bike shop; hardware store; grocery store 1; grocery store 2; work).

Thankfully, the shop was able to take a look at things today, and they had a replacement in stock. Given that they'd installed the previous bottom bracket less than a year ago, they comp'd me the part! Whew.

Meanwhile, I'm having some bicycling jacket ponderings. But before I get to that, I want to tell you a story from around 20 years ago. It will eventually become related. At that time, I had saved up for and bought a pair of fancy, noise-canceling headphones, from one of the very first companies to make and sell such a thing. Those headphones were wonderful in many ways - noise canceling technology makes airplane travel so much more pleasant, and the company touted its acoustic expertise. However, I eventually discovered that those headphones had a fatal flaw: the headband was made of plastic, and over time that rigid plastic fatigued at a swivel joint, and snapped.

What to do now? So much for a high-quality product. Seriously, there are a lot of other headphones on the market with sturdy headbands made of metal. It's not that hard. I pondered my options, and eventually decided that I wanted to just send the headphones back to the company that manufactured them. They weren't any good to me anymore, and it was a company that claimed to be all about quality, so I figured they should find out that I wasn't impressed in this instance. I didn't ask for anything, I just felt like they should have to deal with the consequences of their shoddy design.

...lo and behold, a month or so later, I was very surprised to receive a pair of brand-new replacement headphones in the mail! But given that they still had the exact same flaw, I gave them to my brother, and he eventually reported that they failed in the same place. I think he probably threw them in the trash to go to a landfill.

Anyway, regarding the bicycling jacket ponderings: when I lived in California, I had an opportunity to buy a lightly-used cycling jacket of a brand that is pretty expensive but with a good reputation among people who bike all the time, everywhere. I pounced. That jacket served me well for a number of years, but it eventually failed by way of all of the tape for the seams disintegrating.

Based on my appreciation of the jacket's functionality, I bought a replacement at full price from the manufacturer. All too soon, two zippers and velcro on that jacket failed. I still wear it occasionally, but it's basically barely a windbreaker, not a rain jacket, and on its way to disintegrating, too.

So, I'm ready to shop for a replacement. But just like with those headphones, I'm feeling like I don't want to just toss these previous two jackets into a landfill. I don't see an easy way to repair them, either.

So I think I will once again mail both jackets back to the manufacturer, with a letter. If the manufacturer has made a product that wears out and fails, they need to deal with the resulting waste.

I really hope they don't send me anything, so I guess I'd better say as much in my letter. I have appreciated the rain pants I obtained from the same company, so my issues with product quality aren't universal, at least. Well, one of two pairs of rain pants. It's just...if all our transactions are online, I'd like places to provide more information about durability and repair options for the goods they sell. I know I'm unlikely to turn the tide, but I don't want the responsibility of putting these things into a landfill.

Some companies are aware of this perspective, but more need to become aware. With any luck, my next jacket purchase, from a different company, will last longer and serve me better.