[prmoustache]

I think the key is most people are ignorant. If people knew how to maintain such a simple thing as a bicycle, they would maintain them correctly.

Cost is mostly a non issue for most people. It doesn't cost a lot to maintain a non high end bicycle if you do it yourself. If you look at the shimano groupsets on the lowest end of the spectrum like shimano tourney, you quickly realize they need much less bicycle specific tooling as the high end ones. For example instead of socket bolts they are using hex head bolts that can be torqued with simple wrenchs or a single adjustable one. The 2 only specific tools are the threaded cassette tool and the square taper bottom bracket extractor. Everything else can be done with a very basic set of tool and there is nothing super challenging.