This just was printed in our local weekly newspaper... Somehow ties in with the changes in the bicycle industry. Will we be saying "Remember that bike shop that had all the cool stuff and old Joe who knew about bike mechanics"
From the "The Rhino Times" August 22, 2002 Uncle Orson Reviews Everything (Excerpted from) "Bicycles, Sandals and the 100 Best Poems". By Orson Scott Card
Note: Orson Scot Card is a world famous author with many works published including Ender\u2019s Game and the Abyss (made into a feature film.)
"When I was out in Utah, I got my bike out of my in-laws' storage shed. Hadn't ridden it in a couple of years, and it needed servicing. So I dumped it in the trunk of the car and headed for the shop where I bought it. The shop was gone. So, come to think of it, were the last three bike stores I had patronized over the past 30 years or so. Finally I found a Schwinn dealership in Orem that serviced bikes from other manufacturers, and as they did an excellent job of fixing up my bicycle, I asked why the other stores had gone out of business. "Wal-Mart," said the owner. "Target. Kmart. They sell cheap bikes and don't service them. So people bring them in here when they break down - which is usually right away - and then they get miffed when we point out that the crummy bike they bought isn't worth repairing - it's just going to have more stuff go wrong with it every few days." Ironic, isn't it? People who shop by price alone are the ones most in need of repairs for their bicycles - but because they bought their cycles from stores that don't service what they sell, the bike stores that would have stood behind their merchandise are out of business. When you go to a discount store and see bicycles selling for half the price of the bikes in the real bike stores, there's a reason, for that low price, and it isn't just "volume, volume, volume." They're not selling the same brands or the same quality as the bike stores. I shop at Cycles de Oro in Greensboro, and when you look at the bikes they sell, you'll see a few that are simply insane - you have to be way more serious about biking than I am to pay that much for a cycle. (Basically, these are racing bikes so light that they seem to be made of polymerized air and a little pixie dust.) But they don't sell anything, even at the low end, that they won't stand behind. I imagine the same is true at the other bicycle stores in town. Now, I can think of several reasons for buying bikes so cheaply made that they'll fall apart in no time:
You're so rich that you can afford to throw away bikes and buy new ones all the time. (2) You're so artistic that you need a
broken bike as a work of sculpture in your yard. (3) You live in such a high-crime neighborhood that you want a bike no one would steal. Your husband wants the bike as the exercise-mania portion of his midlife crisis, and you're sure the bike won't be ridden more than about five times.
OK, I'm not being fair. Since I haven't bought bikes at Wal-Mart or Kmart or Target, maybe those are great bikes and terrific bargains. After all, it was their competition who told me those bikes fall apart easily. But I do know this: If everybody buys their bikes at the discount stores, pretty soon there aren't going to be any specialty stores where people know how to service a bike and keep it running perfectly. And when that happens, all bikes become disposable. So if you can afford to pay something other than the rock bottom price, give a thought to shopping at a bicycle store with a good service department. The lowest price isn't always the best deal. Then again, the highest price isn't always the highest quality, either. Which is why I'm perfectly happy, for instance, to buy most of my shirts at Target. But not my suits. Then again, I don't wear suits."
Dale Brown
Greensboro, NC