How come bicycle clothing looks so silly?

!Jones' Sock Puppet wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:00:42 -0800 (PST), in alt.war.vietnam
" wrote:

On Jan 15, 7:06 am, !Jones' Sock Puppet wrote:
In '70, one could buy a decent bicycle for $20 - $30 at a hardware
store. I paid $48.33 in '68 for my '66 Schwinn equipped with a Bendix
kickback and that was considered extravagant. In '70, I was in
Vietnam, so I didn't have a bicycle; however, in '72, I was driving a
cab and considered 40 bucks to be a decent night's book... I probably
averaged $30 to $35.

I was in Georgetown, DC in October doing a little urban hiking...
granted, that's a pricey neighborhood. We walked by a bike shop and
their window display bike had a $22K price tag!!! Sheeze! That's
more than I paid for my first *house*! It's even a fairly large part
of it when adjusted for inflation.

When you put multiple thousands of dollars into a bicycle, what you
have is a fetish, not transportation.

Jones
You can buy a $70 bike at walmart, target, kmart. they'll ride fine
and can be used to commute.

Oh, in today's market, methinks I'd budget about $500 or so for a
decent commuter. Then about half again for the racks, fenders, and
panniers... those accesories ain't cheap!

True, by the time they are marked up from the manufacturer, distributor,
and retailer, they aren't cheap. In reality, they are all extremely
inexpensive when included as part of the bicycle. A rack costs the
manufacturer under $2. As do fenders.

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:10:08 -0800, in alt.war.vietnam SMS
wrote:

True, by the time they are marked up from the manufacturer, distributor,
and retailer, they aren't cheap. In reality, they are all extremely
inexpensive when included as part of the bicycle. A rack costs the
manufacturer under $2. As do fenders.

Well, that's true of almost any consumer product. The actual
fabrication cost averages around 5% of the retail cost. The high-end
stuff has a much greater profit margin; however, that's driven by fad
and carrys the risk pf being stuck with lots of product that's no
longer in fashion.

As I recall, there are several LBS owners herein... ask them about the
huge profits they make.

Jones

!Jones' Sock Puppet wrote:
On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:10:08 -0800, in alt.war.vietnam SMS
wrote:

True, by the time they are marked up from the manufacturer, distributor,
and retailer, they aren't cheap. In reality, they are all extremely
inexpensive when included as part of the bicycle. A rack costs the
manufacturer under $2. As do fenders.

Well, that's true of almost any consumer product. The actual
fabrication cost averages around 5% of the retail cost.

It's really annoying have so few bicycles come standard with basic
accessories, especially on commute and touring bicycles where it's
pretty well accepted that the buyer will be adding things like racks,
fenders, bells, bottle cages, etc. $100 worth of retail accessories
would cost the bicycle manufacturer about $8, which would end up adding
maybe $22-25 to the retail cost. I was kind of impressed that the
Raleigh Sojourn comes with most of that stuff.

SMS wrote:

It's really annoying have so few bicycles come standard with basic
accessories, especially on commute and touring bicycles where it's
pretty well accepted that the buyer will be adding things like racks,
fenders, bells, bottle cages, etc. $100 worth of retail accessories
would cost the bicycle manufacturer about $8, which would end up adding
maybe $22-25 to the retail cost. I was kind of impressed that the
Raleigh Sojourn comes with most of that stuff.

Bike manufacturers have a symbiotic relationship with bike retailers,
which are usually service shops as well. Retailers depend heavily
upon accessory sales. When I was in the bike shop business, markups
on complete bikes ran in the 35% range, while markups on accessories
were usually 100%. The margin on bikes might cover the cost of
keeping bikes on the floor, but it was the margin on everything else
that made it plausible to do business.

If bikes in the US market begin to come well equipped with
accessories, then the markup will have to increase as well. That
might prove to be more economical for those riders who were going to
buy all that stuff anyway, but it would surely cost more for the folks
who would have bought only a small subset of the accessories, or none
at all. That doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea, but it's
something to consider.

On the other hand, there is the possibility that more comprehensively
spec'ed bikes would sell to more people, and economy of scale would
make it a net win for everyone. I'm not at all sure what it would
take in terms of accessories to get non-cyclists to buy in, though.
Maybe something that pedals for you. :^)

Chalo

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:45:36 -0800, SMS wrote:

It's really annoying have so few bicycles come standard with basic
accessories, especially on commute and touring bicycles where it's
pretty well accepted that the buyer will be adding things like racks,
fenders, bells, bottle cages, etc. $100 worth of retail accessories
would cost the bicycle manufacturer about $8, which would end up adding
maybe $22-25 to the retail cost. I was kind of impressed that the
Raleigh Sojourn comes with most of that stuff.

This is all fine if you like what is already on the RS, but if you do not,
then it is just wasted money.

When I look for accessories, then I have very specific requirements about
their construction as well.

So different folks, different accessories.

terryc wrote:
On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:45:36 -0800, SMS wrote:

It's really annoying have so few bicycles come standard with basic
accessories, especially on commute and touring bicycles where it's
pretty well accepted that the buyer will be adding things like racks,
fenders, bells, bottle cages, etc. $100 worth of retail accessories
would cost the bicycle manufacturer about $8, which would end up adding
maybe $22-25 to the retail cost. I was kind of impressed that the
Raleigh Sojourn comes with most of that stuff.

This is all fine if you like what is already on the RS, but if you do not,
then it is just wasted money.

When I look for accessories, then I have very specific requirements about
their construction as well.

So different folks, different accessories.

True, but it would be nice to have an "out of the box" fully functional
transportation bike, then you could always customize it later if you wished.

which reminds me... new year's resolution, I WILL gear out my bike so
that I can actually use it to go shopping. Gotta get on that. Right
after I fix the oil leaks and battery tray in the truck, and clean up
the house. Yes, my resolutions are boring.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

On Jan 24, 8:25*pm, Nate Nagel wrote:

True, but it would be nice to have an "out of the box" fully functional
transportation bike, then you could always customize it later if you wished.

In his magazine Bicycle Quarterly, Jan Heine sings the praises of
"constructeur" French touring and randonneur bikes of the 1930s -
1960s. As he says, if bike and accessories are well designed to work
as a unit when the bike is built, quality and reliability should be
higher, and weight a bit lower.

But I agree that riders may want different choices. Maybe the
ultimate is a custom bike with all accessories you want designed and
built as a system... for those who can afford such a thing.

- Frank Krygowski

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:53:04 -0800, Frank Krygowski wrote:

But I agree that riders may want different choices. Maybe the
ultimate is a custom bike with all accessories you want designed and
built as a system... for those who can afford such a thing.

Different people, = different touring = different bicycles.

The Q is "Is there enough people who want a particular combo to justify it
being prebuilt"?

I'd suggest that if it was, then it would have been already done.

"terryc" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:53:04 -0800, Frank Krygowski wrote:

But I agree that riders may want different choices. Maybe the
ultimate is a custom bike with all accessories you want designed and
built as a system... for those who can afford such a thing.

Different people, = different touring = different bicycles.

The Q is "Is there enough people who want a particular combo to justify it
being prebuilt"?

I'd suggest that if it was, then it would have been already done.

And it has - just in places where cyling for transport is the norm, not the
exception.

Clive George schreef:
"terryc" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:53:04 -0800, Frank Krygowski wrote:

But I agree that riders may want different choices. Maybe the
ultimate is a custom bike with all accessories you want designed and
built as a system... for those who can afford such a thing.
Different people, = different touring = different bicycles.

The Q is "Is there enough people who want a particular combo to justify it
being prebuilt"?

I'd suggest that if it was, then it would have been already done.

And it has - just in places where cyling for transport is the norm, not the
exception.




Indeed. As a Dutchman I scratch my head everytime when I see what is
considered a commuter bike in the US.

Lou