This morning I had to go out to buy bread for breakfast so I decided to walk to our local bakery. It was 6:30 in the morning, sun coming up, quite cold, crisp fresh air, brown leaves everywhere, neighbors going out to work. Such an inspirational atmosphere.

Then I went out on the main road and saw so many cars. So many from VW,BMW, Renault groups as usual, but here and there some new unfamiliar brands poked my eyes. Then, naturally for me ,this got me thinking about the car industry and what is going on there, then our bikes industry which spiraled out of control. Finally what stuck with me are new acquisitions of bike factories in trouble and why not component factories, reasons for competitive differences between Europe, USA, Asia and South America. Just a lot of thoughts which were overwhelming.

These competitive differences got me the most. Second thing was, why are only the complete bike factories interesting for investors, why not others connected? Second question was easy, because everyone is looking to leave as little value as possible here, just sell not produce and contribute to the community. Even basic assembly processes are avoided here.

But first question was much more complex and I have written about this before, criticizing our factories for being not efficient and hard working enough. But with the most efficient and professional industry in Europe struggling I was wondering if I was wrong ?

When you think automotive, which is even more transport difficult than bikes due to size of the cars you may wonder, how come they are in trouble these days? Is it possible that we are not capable to remain competitive? Let’s not say innovation for the sake of argument because latest innovation is mostly software gimmicks nothing else.

Then I thought, what if you want to produce here ? Factory must comply with sourcing the materials responsibly, certified materials, respecting the worker rights, unions, pollution control, recycling, high quality expectations, administrative systems in place, industry standards and certification, after service and care, repairability and who knows what.

What happens when you import a car or a bike? It is true that you need to prove that this product reaches certain standards, mainly safety, there is no doubt about that.

BUT

Do you need to prove anything in terms of how the product has been made or how the materials for it have been sourced or is the maker recycling and taking care of environment up to EU standards? Do we ask anyone when importing about aftercare, repairability, spare parts availability after five years? The answer it simply: NO. We just ask the importer to prove the safety standard and origin of the products with a document and then, in the case of e-bikes, the product just disappears in the online world somewhere, no possibility to check anything.

Recently we saw a lot of buzz around slave workers from places we didn’t expect them from. That should ring a bell….

Of course these products can be priced lower than anything made here. If factories here would make their people work 12 hour shifts seven days a week, if they just threw away everything they don’t need, if they would paint and then just let the water directly in the drain, if they would have no exhaust filters, if workers wouldn’t have protective equipment, if we would fire half of administrative staff ….. Easily we would reach prices that are close to any of our competitors in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with 90% (not all but most) of the rules we have here. After all thanks to them we have good environment and life with dignity.

But if we ask one thing from ourselves, putting us at a competitive disadvantage, why can’t we ask our competitors who want to sell in our market the same? No need to play games, just apply the same standards of production to all players and then let’s compete. Oh yes, and one more point, we are not selling anything there anyway so what is there to lose ?

Let’s make a parallel in cycle racing.

Lets say we go to Tour De France, train hard, prepare well, make the greatest strategies, have the best bikes and support crew. Then we allow cyclists from other continents to freely use doping. Who do you think is going to win ?

We already had that in TDF and in cycling industry, didn’t we ?