useless new bikes
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muddyfox_courier
Devout Dirtbag
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Well , when I say irrelevant .....
Ha . Capitalist pigs .
I was meaning ' type of ' , 'newness ' , coolness' . whatever .
You dont enjoy the ride any more or less on a better or worse bike . Unless maybe its falling apart .
I mulled on this for some time .
A few years back I was helping Alan's ( -bikes , in Wigan , my mate ) with his demo bikes thingy .
Basically , you could come out ,with me and my mates, on a dead good new bike .
No strings.
I had access to , and rode all the time , dead dead good, high- end bikes .
Scott sent us about 20 grands worth , that they couldnt prise out of my fingers , for instance .
Read the blog here . Go back in time on the archive a little . 2009 2010.
www.alans-bikes.blogspot.com
That was all me .
After 2 or 3 ish yrs of this , two things happened . I was a little pissed off with it . As nice as it is to ride new stuff , the reality was , every week I was transporting bikes , by car , meaning less riding , and , post ride , cleaning 2 or 3 bikes .
They were dead good , and brand new , and not mine , so they HAD to be cleaned .
The other thing was " the economy " .
Credit crunch , whatever . The manufacturers weren't as keen , and Alan wasn't selling much as a result of the demos anyway , so we gave it a rest .
For the first time in ages , I went out on my 10 yr old hardtail . A fisher Big sur . V brakes .
It was soooo good . simple direct . but liberating too .
I was Still out with the boys getting caked . on my hill . y'know .
Good friends . good times .Rivington village chapel tearooms. good caff.
The bike was irrelevant . It couldve been any bike .
It was , in one other respect , a simple vehicle .
Ha . Capitalist pigs .
I was meaning ' type of ' , 'newness ' , coolness' . whatever .
You dont enjoy the ride any more or less on a better or worse bike . Unless maybe its falling apart .
I mulled on this for some time .
A few years back I was helping Alan's ( -bikes , in Wigan , my mate ) with his demo bikes thingy .
Basically , you could come out ,with me and my mates, on a dead good new bike .
No strings.
I had access to , and rode all the time , dead dead good, high- end bikes .
Scott sent us about 20 grands worth , that they couldnt prise out of my fingers , for instance .
Read the blog here . Go back in time on the archive a little . 2009 2010.
www.alans-bikes.blogspot.com
That was all me .
After 2 or 3 ish yrs of this , two things happened . I was a little pissed off with it . As nice as it is to ride new stuff , the reality was , every week I was transporting bikes , by car , meaning less riding , and , post ride , cleaning 2 or 3 bikes .
They were dead good , and brand new , and not mine , so they HAD to be cleaned .
The other thing was " the economy " .
Credit crunch , whatever . The manufacturers weren't as keen , and Alan wasn't selling much as a result of the demos anyway , so we gave it a rest .
For the first time in ages , I went out on my 10 yr old hardtail . A fisher Big sur . V brakes .
It was soooo good . simple direct . but liberating too .
I was Still out with the boys getting caked . on my hill . y'know .
Good friends . good times .Rivington village chapel tearooms. good caff.
The bike was irrelevant . It couldve been any bike .
It was , in one other respect , a simple vehicle .
lowe1677":3f05vwac said:
Because a certain part of the market want an mtb for £99.99, and because they know nothing about bikes and it has a brand name on it, they are happy to buy it.
My LBS has been in business for over 20 years and the owner knows what sells. I could order a £5k road bike from him and he'd have it there within days, but the most expensive bike he has in stock is worth just over a grand, and the shop is packed full of bikes, just cheap ones that suit the vast majority of his customers.
yep we must have sold 30 sub £200 bikes to every 1 £500+ bike. some people just see a bike nothing more thats what cycle king are doing so well, its the stack em high and watch them fly theory.NeilM":g41dac2h said:
we never stocked king,cooks, xtr, ect because no-one ever wanted it and its not like we were a backwoods store, we were (and still are) in the middle of london. sure plenty of people wanted to look at the shiney stuff but it was a very rare day that someone wanted to pay.
fast forward 15 years, (i left in 9
the cheapest bike in my local evans is £300, i was having a chat with the manager and i asked him why they dont sell the bso's. he said evans as a brand dont want to be associated with crap and the aggro that goes with it. but whats more interesting than that, you can go in there on any given day and you will probably have to wait to be served due to the que in front! there is allways someone walking out with a new norco, felt ect and the local trail centre is crammed with 2k+ new bikes being wheeled out of new(ish) vw transporters. whats changed? dunno maybe its the ride to work scheme in effect, maybe the people that are riding these bikes (middle aged blokes) like me want to re live what we did back in the day so off they go and buy something nice.
iphones are £500+ if you went back 10 years people would have laughed at you for buying one. today theres a massive que outside the apple store (and probably every apple store in the world) its a phone!
people buy crap bikes and expect to ride trouble free to work but will quite happily pay £500 for something they will just sit there and thumb through the latest facebook offering.
humans, you cant beat em!
(is it me or have i mis-spelt que 3 times in this post?)
We_are_Stevo
Old School Grand Master
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put 'em all together and you're nearly there; queue......plenty of money out there, just a different demographic.
Because that's what most people want.lowe1677":epvr8h8u said:
Part of your problem is that you think they're cr*p, but they're not. My Orange C16-R commuter had Alivio and STX parts on it because I didn't want it to attract thieves. Many people on here think that Alivio and STX are cr*p, but Alivio and STX work perfectly. People who want to spend a lot more money to save a few grammes are just obsessive. Some people will spend more on a headset than others would spend on a complete bike, but all headsets work pretty much the same.
ah, no when i mean crap i mean crap. hi-ten frames, alloy rims on 3 piece steels hubs, generic open bb's pressed steel chainsets chains that stretch after 2 months, shifters that have more play in them than my mrs and plastic pedals. crap. give them 6 months and they will be at the point of failure or the owner will have to spend money on it to keep it going. even bikes with as low down as acera and rsx100 are still going strong. i know! my mbk has 300gs and it works fine, weighs an absolute ton but it works.Anthony":2mfmjmo3 said:
I think the op was refering to the kind of shite toys r us and tesco sell.
