Getting a cheap front wheel

Ah, Urban Bikes is still open? Yeah! They rock!

On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 13:22:35 GMT, Werehatrack
wrote:
On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 23:05:35 GMT, Jasper Janssen
wrote:
On 9 Nov 2005 14:40:18 -0800, "Ron Ruff" wrote:
ilyag wrote:
The front wheel of my cheap bike was just stolen. I am wondering -
what's the reasonable thing people do in this case?

Thrift stores maybe...

I haven't seen new $10 wheels for sale anywhere.

You gotta figure though, on a $60 Fury Roadmaster the wheels cannot be
more than $15-20 each.

The aggregate total cost of the replacement parts for a manufactured
item is typically four to twenty times the price of the item itself.

Even with that. Realistic retail pricing for a front wheel of Roadmaster
quality level can't be more than $20. In terms of the proportional cost of
the $60 roadmaster, the wheelset is probably closer to 15 for the set. The
frame, saddle, and combined other-bits (like bars, stem, seatpost) are
probably about equivalent at a few to five dollars each , which leaves
about $20 for the Groupset and $10 for assembly (half in the far East and
half at the store).

This has been true for a long time. In 1982, I noted that the cost of
the leather seat covers for a new VW Scirocco (at VW suggested list
price for the replacement parts) was over half of the price of the
car. Thus, even if Pacific had a parts distribution system for the
Walgoose and Roadmaster bikes (which apparently they don't, from what
I can see), the wheels would likely be well over half the cost of the
bike...each.

"Original spares" have that sort of relationship, but third-party spares
tend to be a bit more realistically priced -- and bike wheels are all but
entirely interchangeable.

Bikes returned to a Wal-mart for repair are just replaced, and the
"broken bikes" get flogged off at a steep discount periodically to
local breakers who scrap them out for the nominally useful bits.
There's a guy in the bookdocks in Indiana who has been parting out
piles of Wal-mart bikes and selling the bits on eBay for a while now.
I hope he has a use for the frames...

He probably sells them to an artist who makes steel-pipe sculptures.


Jasper

Yep, still open. I'm still kicking myself for passing on the Raleigh
Professional for $100 (at the time that was a lot of money to me)

On 11/10/2005 9:57 AM, maxo wrote:
Ah, Urban Bikes is still open? Yeah! They rock!

Wow don't they have garbage collection in Chicago,I have tons of bike
parts pulled from disgarded bikes.This guy www.bikedump.com sells
wheels for $20-$30 but you can get a whole bike for that price at a
thrift store.Find a bike repair shop near you and check their dumpster
or walk by the night before trash collection,you'll be amazed at what
they throw out.