Due to age and injury, I've pretty much moved over to e-bikes for commuting. What I'm finding is as bikes get more advanced they are getting harder to fix.

So last night I had a flat in the pouring rain on my way for a nightshift. In the old days with one of my many non-e-bikes, I could fix a flat in probably 15 minutes in crappy conditions, I've fixed scores of flats over the years. Trying to remove the Bontrager E6 Hard-Case Lite from the rim was impossible. Even the wheel skewers no longer have quick releases so I had to dig out my multi-tool to get the wheel out of the frame.

After 30 minutes I admitted defeat asked the wife to take me in the rest of the way and bring a Schwalbe tire I hadn't gotten round to replacing the stock Bonts with.

So at work I still found the tire impossible to get off the rim, I took it over to a mate who was an ex-bike mechanic who was working the nightshift too. Even he was bemused by the almost tubeless-looking tire that was stuck to the rim. As I was going to replace the Bonts anyway with Schwalbes we decided to cut off the tire. It took two of us, me holding the wheel down and him pulling the tire off, (he's a man-monster), to get the tire off. Not an easy job.

Then of course I have the fun fitting the Schwalbe.

I'm not even going to mention the delicate hydraulic brakes too, or the increase in tools you have to carry around.

I love the improvements that technology offers but we seem to be losing the simplicity of being able to fix something by the side of the road to get us where we are going.