Originally Posted by
katsup
If you take your car into the mechanic, you have to leave it with them while they order parts. I blame those automobile advocates for telling everyone to drive.
This is true, however, at least in my case I've never had to wait more than a day for regular repairs. There are a couple of services in town that maintain stockpiles of parts, and provide same-day delivery, such as NAPA. I think it's just that the car repair business is bigger and more organized, and can support businesses that exist to carry parts inventory. Also, the car makers are required to maintain a certain level of spares for older cars, don't know the specifics. And then, there is relatively little market pressure to adopt new standards. Nobody chooses one new car over another because of how the spark plugs, or the wheels, are attached.
When I got in a crash, it took longer, because the body shop had to find replacement parts. And I have a friend who works on racing cars that are shipped to his shop. His projects take weeks. Many of the spares have to be made on the spot.
When I was a kid, the local Schwinn dealer had the parts on hand to repair virtually any bike. There were simply fewer standards to deal with. The economy may also have been more forgiving of businesses that carried a big inventory.
My own experience has been that two things are game-changers for improving the use of a bike for basic transportation. 1) Being self sufficient for at least basic maintenance. 2) Spare bike. The downside of our car culture is that housing is more spread out. The upside is that bigger houses and more space mean that most of us have space for a second bike, that doesn't need to be fancy.