[TheThinkTank] low end bikes, Invisible riders

[Mark Rehder]

Even if you build new bikes up with free labour the cost of parts  
(even at wholesale) will bite you.  There's no way you and I could  
take a $100 frame and then add everything else and keep it under $200  
total.

There's a reason pretty well all bikes are made in Asia, and most  
companies that still build in N. America soon start sourcing out over  
there when they want to increase production volume, which in turn  
helps bring the prices down.  Your basic "economy of scale"...

Case in point - those that manufacture recumbent bikes.  It's a niche  
market, and the prices were very high for many years, because pretty  
well all the companies were glorified cottage industries.  Everything  
cost them more, because they could only order so many parts at once.   
Shimano will charge you a lot more per item for a load of 500 rear  
derailers than they will for a shipping container with 10,000.

Oh, and let's also factor in the environmental cost of new bikes.   
Sure, much less than new cars, but steel tubes and chains and bars  
and wheels, and plastic saddles and grips and rubber tires all have   
be manufactured, and all of those processes pollute to some degree.

With all of the above, might as well do what most of our shops do -  
rebuild old but still functional bikes, no?

Mark Rehder - Director
re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op
http://re-cycles.ca

On 29-May-08, at 4:09 PM, Michael Wolfe wrote:

> I've been pondering the same idea.  I'm sure there will be many  
> disagreements in what is the perfect commuter bike.  I've been them  
> looking at them a lot lately including a very nice three speed at  
> REI.   Of course this is out of the specrtum of the goal but a good  
> starting point.
> http://www.rei.com/product/761468
>
> Remember the 100 dollar mtn bike frames Nashbar sold a few years  
> back?  I imagine something like that with a basic set of  
> components.  Flat bars.  Single chainring.,  6-7-8 gears in the  
> back.  700c 32 tires.  all else simple yet functional.
>
> hmmm..
>
> On 5/29/08, Sherief <sgaber at gmail.com> 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> 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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