Bikes used to be fairly standardized to where you could do most builds and maintenance at home . Now there are hundreds of subcategories , parts are bespoke to the bike , and standards have all been obliterated. Duty cycles are very short . Brakes , BB , headsets , bars , axles , cassettes , freewheels each have half a dozen formats . Bikes are practically disposable. Costs are up over 10 years and quality on many aspects has declined .

There are hundreds of boutique brands and almost none are making any money. No one sensibly pays msrp you can find bikes 60% off easily.

When you think about productivity , in terms of how much utility can be produced by one person, it’s obviously declining . We have more tools, but the bulk of the effort has gone into getting attention rather than providing utility . Even the product development is more about marketing than utility