[TheThinkTank] low end bikes, Invisible riders

[Erik Ryberg]

Yes yes yes I agree!  There is so much opportunity here, both from the 
positive end (providing bikes that are better than Wal-Mart's) and the 
negative end -- attacking Wal Mart for selling those useless bikes and 
taking advantage of the poor.

Wouldn't it be fun to get say 500 bike shop owners to sign a letter to 
Wal Mart asking them to please stop selling those awful things?  The 
press loves to beat up on Wal Mart and I say we should help them do so!

Stop the bike crime! Down with bike criminals!

Erik

Sherief wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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
>     <mailto: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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> 
> 
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-- 
Erik B. Ryberg	
Attorney at Law
445 West Simpson Street
Tucson, AZ 85701
phone: (520) 622-3333
fax: (520) 792-6677