'At the workshop we jokingly refer to carbon frames as single use plastic:' Hobby cycling is far from a ‘green’ activity

On my ride into work one day last week, I ended up stopping to pick up several gel wrappers from the side of the road. Our shop is on a pretty popular cycling route and this is not an uncommon occurrence. Then, later that day, we built up three bikes from scratch and practically filled the skip with waste cardboard packaging. This got me thinking about how environmentally friendly cycling really is.

Undercover Mechanic

Cycling Weekly's Undercover Mechanic will be publishing his thoughts on the state of the industry once a month. He's been working with bikes for over two decades, offering servicing on models from some of cycling's best (and worst) marques. You'll find him at all major trade shows and events, just don't expect him to make himself known.

There’s no disputing that riding a bike instead of driving a car reduces pollution and emissions, but how much of your riding is instead of a car journey? If you are reading this, you are very likely to be a hobby cyclist, as opposed to someone who rides a bike solely for transport. Unless you live somewhere like Denmark, probably, a pretty small percentage of your cycling replaces a car journey. On the flipside, as the owner of a cycling business, I can confidently say that dedicated ‘cyclists’ consume more products associated with bike riding than people who just jump on and pedal to work. Most of the bikes I see grinding up the road to the local industrial estate are typically old bikes that rarely get replaced or upgraded.

So with that all being said, I don’t think it is a giant leap to say that the true environmental impact of cycling - for the average cyclist - is from the manufacturing of the products that we all love to buy.

The production of bicycles involves a lot of resource intensive processes. Aluminium, steel and titanium all have to be mined and processed. If you’ve ever seen a bauxite mine and the processing energy required to turn it into aluminium, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Metal frames are at least recyclable though.

And then we have everybody’s favourite frame material, carbon fibre. This is incredibly energy intensive to manufacture and nearly impossible to recycle. At the workshop we jokingly refer to carbon frames as single-use plastic, but to be honest, that’s not far from the truth.

Bamboo is touted as the ultimate alternative. But, whilst the seven tubes of bamboo used to make a frame are inarguably better for the environment, the carbon fibre and resin used to hold them together aren’t.

Added to that, the majority of components on a bike are essentially consumables. Most tyres these days are made from synthetic rubber derived from petroleum and reinforced with carbon black, a material linked to air pollution. Brake pads and chains shed micro plastic and metallic debris into the environment. And how many of you recycle your old bike parts when they are broken or worn out?

Working backwards from the actual bicycle is the manufacture and shipping of that product. The majority of bikes we ride are manufactured in China or elsewhere in that region. The factories there heavily rely on coal fired power stations and are then typically shipped halfway across the world to point of sale.

Part of the problem is the constant aggressive marketing of new, ‘better’ products to cyclists, which may only feature very slight design changes, but encourage us to upgrade our bikes frequently. There are very few B-Corp cycling brands, Chis King is an example of a company breaking the mould, with products that can genuinely outlive most of their owners. I have a Chris King headset which is currently on its fifth bike, and I bought it in the 90s.

If my visit to cycling’s biggest annual trade show, Eurobike, last year was anything to go by though, change is in the air. However, this comes with a degree of Greenwashing. For example, I’m not sure quite how many headset spacers made from recycled carbon you would have to sell to move the dial, and, whilst it was refreshing to see just how many tyres were starting to be made from recycled materials, I’d like to understand how much energy is required n the process.

I think fundamentally the industry needs to move beyond marketing gimmicks and actually instigate some transparency in the environmental impact of the materials, manufacturing and supply chain. There also really needs to be a shift in the perception of the life-cycle of a performance bike. We don’t all need to be riding around on the equivalent of Formula One cars if they’re only going to last two to three years. Just like Formula One have set rules for how long an engine needs to last, maybe the UCI should be introducing similar guidelines.

And also, how about a little more circular manufacturing? A few years ago, I went to a council meeting, where Isla Rowntree - of the since-closed children’s brand Islabikes - was trying to launch and promote an impressive circular manufacturing initiative. Essentially, she had designed some lovely stainless steel kids' bikes that could last many years, with the idea being that rather than buy a bike and then throw it away when your kid got too big for it, you would lease one from the company and simply hand it back at the end. It could then be cleaned up and leased back to the next child. It was a truly progressive idea, but, the brand has since ceased trading.

Of course, you, as a reader, can’t dictate what cycling’s leading brands do. So, how can you have an influence?

Well, firstly, just look after your bike. Having it well-maintained will make everything last much longer. Secondly, when you are buying something new, look to see if spare parts are available to repair the item when it wears out. Hubs are especially an area to consider this, as we wrote about in a previous article.

But maybe it’s as simple as thinking twice about that new bike. Is it really going to improve your relationship with cycling? I look forward to a time when cafe stop bragging rights are about how old your bike is rather than how new. If the crowd that ride L’Eroica are anything to go by, they seem to be having just as much fun as the rest of us.