[TheThinkTank] low end bikes, Invisible riders

[Sherief]

I'm starting to think now about what the minimum cost of a new bicycle along
the lines we're talking about would be... It would take some research but
with a decent cheap steel frame, the rest could conceivably fall in line for
around $100-150, could it not?  With a little work and some fine tuning
between this think tank, maybe we could get something rolling and in each of
our respective neighborhoods start actually competing.  Thinking about here
in Austin, a hopeful starting point is that we're better positioned
(geographically and in the community) than any walmart to offer or promote
such a bicycle to people who need bicycles.

What about build kits even, along the lines of ronald's comment?  Save on
the labor-intensivity of this kind of project on one hand, and offer people
a discount for building up their own new bike, helping them along the way
and teaching them the repair skills they should know for their new bike?

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 2:40 PM, ronald ferrucci <ronald.ferrucci at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Agreed. I actually meant road bike, it is 9:30 pm here in italy and I
> have been drinking. Also, my fingers sometimes make decisions my mind
> is not aware of.
>
> I do not think most people need all the gears. When I ride around in
> the city I use my fixed gear, because really that it all I need. Never
> had a problem. when I go for longer rides, I take my road bike,
> because I may like to be able to shift into lower gears for wind or
> hills or higher gears for straights and particularly downhills. Of
> course I am talking in the past tense, since I only have the one
> geared bike in italia.
>
> Again, I think bike collectives can be useful because people can get
> an actual good bike used for less than the cost of a cheap crappy bike
> at wal-mart, and they can learn how to maintain them and therefore
> also save on expenses in the long run.
>
> On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 9:25 PM, Erik Ryberg <ryberg at seanet.com> wrote:
> > Single-speed bikes are real bikes.  Like any tool there are all kinds of
> > trade-offs to be made.  Brakes cost money, require maintenance, and weigh
> > something, but on the other hand they are needed if you want to survive
> the
> > ride, so most people opt to carry a set.  Gears have all the same
> > disadvantages and if you live in a flat place and all your riding is done
> > for straightforward utilitarian purposes, then it might make sense to
> stick
> > with a single speed.  There's no need to tell a person that they don't
> have
> > the sense of a child, or that they are ridiculous, or that they are not
> even
> > an ordinary person just because they prefer a single speed.
> >
> > I just wish there was a way to give the bike-criminals over at Wal Mart a
> > bit of real competition, at least in a small way, with new bikes that
> > actually work and that still only cost what the Magnas do.
> > -Erik
> >
> >
> >  ronald ferrucci wrote:
> >
> >> If they get to
> >> the point where they need and understand the gears, I think they will
> >> realize it is time to upgrade to a real bike.
> >>
> >
> >
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