micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

There is one major issue with this article:

Yet, many bikes and bike equipment are still manufactured with only the other 26% in mind.

No. They are made with the majority in mind, since the European and Asian bike market, where significantly fewer people are overweight or obese dwarve the American market.

Projected North American bike market revenue (2024):
$10.44 billion

Projected European bike market revenue (2024):
$27.89 billion

Projected Asian bike market revenue (2024):
$42.13 billion

On an international market, if you don't matter enough you won't get special treatment.

Just imagine if 74% of Luxembourgians decided that their smartphone must have a USB-A port, as an essential requirement. How many major manufacturers would accommodate them instead of continuing to sell "normal" phones? Sure, they could put a USB-A port onto all phones globally sold, but why bother? It's more expensive and nearly nobody outside of Luxembourg would want that feature.

Edit: Source for the numbers (you can switch the displayed region)

I just checked, and the company website page on my relatively high end carbon bike has a listed max weight (rider+bike+equipment) of 120kg. Easy enough to find on the page.

That said...were I close to that limit, I think I'd opt for a steel bike, or maybe titanium if I have the money. Carbon is amazing but its failure mechanism isn't pretty.

I got an e-trike that lists its weight limit as 330lbs. However, the seat post only supports 220. So one bent seat post later, I’m looking for something that can support my fat ass and I’m coming up short. Help?

I agree that there exists a problem with unmarked weight limits and this affects larger riders, but I think the author's proposed change will not be sufficient to increase the availability of bikes with higher limits. The author writes:

My proposed solution, which I presented recently at the National Bicycle Dealers Association annual meeting, is to add the weight limit to the geometry spec sheet for every bicycle next to the standover height and reach

Publishing a spec is (and ought to be) a minimum obligation by a manufacturer, since the consumer has no way to compute these values on their own. So I agree with that. The problem is that unlike the standover height or wheel diameter, the weight limit is artificially constrained downward by limits of mechanical modeling software or destructive testing, and artificial limits like how much product liability the lawyers are willing to permit.

If bike manufacturers have a robust regime for testing up to 136 kg, then testing beyond that would require new processes and test equipment, all of which cost money. A manufacturer that complies with the author's proposed rule would simply publish the 136 kg and call it a day. So a frame that could have supported more weight has been marked lower than it ought to be, while fully complying with the proposed rule.

We run into the crux of the issue: economic demand for higher weight limit bikes is not perceived as being significant. So few will supply that market. Which means there's little demonstrable demand. Which keeps the supply small.

If this sounds familiar to this community, it's essentially the same problem as with micromobility from the regulatory aspect in the USA: only the automobile is viewed as "serious" transportation, so everything else is just for recreation and doesn't warrant its own infrastructure. So no separated infrastructure is built. Which keeps viable options like cycling and roller-blading from becoming popular. Which reinforces the perception as not being a "serious" mode of transportation. Repeat ad nauseum.

There are no easy answers to such structural issues, but we can take inspiration from the popularity of ebikes in the past decade: growing from a niche of motors crudly strapped to conventional bikes, ebikes nearly single-handedly transformed the perception of bikes overall, showcasing their strengths in sense urban areas like NYC for delivery vehicles: fast, nimble, cheaper than an automobile.

I think the author touched upon the niche that could drive higher weight limits, and that would be cargo ebikes. That space is growing as ebikes -- a bonafide transportation answer to American sprawling suburbs -- become more readily accepting, and more fairly-wealthy suburbanites take up cargo ebikes to move the whole family.

Of course, this is going to be a slow process. And it will take a while for cargo ebike prices to come down from the "luxury" range to an "affordable" figure. But I think that's the crack that will break the ice.

Weight limits on performance bikes are total nonsense. Probably are there just to comply some law. A pro enduro rider weighing 20kg less than me would destroy my setup any day.

I find hard to believe a traditional 26er with 36 triple cross spoked wheel from a reputable manufacturer can't hold up to any rider capable of moving on their own and sitting on a saddle any amount of time.

Unless they are heading to Whistler's a-line