Just because you can 3D-print it doesn’t mean you should

3D-printing is an undeniably cool way to make things, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the best way. Is a printed titanium hammer better than a welded one? Do $2,000 printed cycling shoes move the bar enough to justify their existence? What’s the point of printing sunglass frames? And was that handlebar that failed so dramatically at the Olympics even 3D-printed at all?  What is definitely very neat, however, is a new trend whereby companies like Muc-Off are starting to ship products in powder form whereby you add the water at home, instead of the company burning resources to ship mostly water around the globe. We also chat about Ibis’s move to local frame production, an insane alleged Ponzi scheme involving three well-known Italian cycling brands, and finally, we finish up this week’s episode with a bunch of reader questions for our always-entertaining Ask a Mechanic segment.