in message .com,
buzz_ig ') wrote:

Simon Brooke wrote:

If you inspect the sheds and cellars in your average suburban street,
you will find several dozen sub-£100 bikes which have been bought,
ridden once, put in the shed/cellar, and never taken out again. Why
aren't they taken out? Because they're no fun to ride. A bike which
isn't fun is pointless and a waste of money, because it won't get
used.

Do people who have cheap bikes hardly ever ride them because they're
cheap, or do people who hardly ever ride bikes have a cheap bike
because they hardly ever ride them?

People who don't intend to ride bikes don't buy bikes. Everyone of those
bikes was bought because the purchaser expected it to be ridden. The
fact that the bikes aren't being ridden means the people aren't getting
the value they expected for their money.

We may be of the opinion that cycling is a fun activity that everyone
would enjoy if only they could be bothered and/or had the right
equipment. But some people just aren't interested and only want a
vehicle for the 2 nice weekends in the year when they have the time and
the inclination.

Those people rent bikes.

Why tie up a lot of capital in an occasional play thing?

Why tie up /any/ money (and shed space) on an occasional play thing, when
renting gets you better playthings at lower cost?

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; First they came for the asylum seekers,
;; and I did not speak out because I was not an asylum seeker.
;; Then they came for the gypsies,
;; and I did not speak out because I was not a gypsy...
;; Pastor Martin Niemöller, translated by Michael Howard.