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Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance



 
 
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  #11  
Old July 26th 05, 09:13 AM
buzz_ig
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Default Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance

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?

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.

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

Ads
  #12  
Old July 26th 05, 01:29 PM
Simon Brooke
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Default Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance

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.
  #13  
Old July 26th 05, 02:59 PM
external usenet poster
 
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Default Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance

Simon Brooke said:

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.


Agreed.

The
fact that the bikes aren't being ridden means the people aren't getting
the value they expected for their money.


But they may well have only expected to ride it on a couple of
weekends. If that's the value they expected, that's the value they've
got.

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.


Not necessarily. Making the decision to rent implies that 1) you know
bike hire is available at all and 2) your rides will be in places and
at times when rental is viable.

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?


Because for many people there is no perception at all of this. Why
spend fifteen quid a day on a hire bike, when for seventy quid you can
get a perfectly good one (or, sometimes, two) from Sterling House, or
Cycle King, or innumerable other places, and have it available whenever
you want to use it? Better bike? It can't be that much better, surely?

A good friend of mine went through exactly this 'logic' process a while
ago, getting two bikes for the price of one - where one was well under
a hundred quid. I suggested renting, I suggested secondhand, I told him
he'd regret any new bike under a couple of hundred pounds, and he
wasn't having any of it.

And, having ridden one of the bikes, I was forced to eat my words. It's
not a good bike, but he had taken on board my advice about avoiding
suspension and any glitzy bits, and it is an astonishingly good value
bike.

Spending fifteen quid on slick tyres and twenty minutes truing the
wheels were worthwhile but made less difference than I expected. The
brakes work, the gears work, and for towpaths, or cycle trails, or for
gentle pottering around town it is actually very capable.

In fact, because it was too big for his wife but just the right size
for my girlfriend, I took it off his hands ...

John

  #14  
Old July 26th 05, 06:25 PM
Danny Colyer
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Default Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance

buzz_ig wrote:
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?


IME (sample size of 1), the former.

A few years ago, my sister wanted her BF (now her husband) to buy her a
bike for her birthday. He had a budget of £100. I pointed out that, to
get a decent bike for that price, it would have to be second hand. Then
I took a day off work and spent it riding round Sussex looking for
second hand bikes.

I found that Cuckoo Cycles in Heathfield sold ex-hire bikes that were
within budget and of good quality. I took her along at the weekend to
test one and she found it a pleasure to ride, but it had 2 flaws. It
wasn't new and it wasn't red. She was willing to do without one or the
other, but she wasn't willing to do without both.

She ended up with a £100 bike from Halfords. That was 8 years ago, it's
been ridden 3 times. She still (says) she wants to go out cycling, the
problem is that her bike is crap.

On the bright side, I spent a very pleasant April day riding round
Sussex and when I wanted to buy a bike for my GF (now my wife) I knew
exactly where to go.

--
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine
  #15  
Old August 10th 05, 04:14 PM
Alan Braggins
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Posts: n/a
Default Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance

In article , Danny Colyer wrote:

I found that Cuckoo Cycles in Heathfield sold ex-hire bikes that were
within budget and of good quality. I took her along at the weekend to
test one and she found it a pleasure to ride, but it had 2 flaws. It
wasn't new and it wasn't red. She was willing to do without one or the
other, but she wasn't willing to do without both.

She ended up with a £100 bike from Halfords. That was 8 years ago, it's
been ridden 3 times. She still (says) she wants to go out cycling, the
problem is that her bike is crap.


Too late now, but Halfords do sell red spray paint. Not as durable as a
professional job, but more likely to fit in a £100 budget with a second
hand bike.
 




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