At 06:28 AM 01/02/2007 -0000, Pete Marshall wrote:
>I hate the idea of bikes becoming
>disposable consumer products built only to last a few years rather than
>machines that can be used for life as was the way with many bikes from the
>past.
Actually, even cheap consumer bikes still outlast cars, if looked after. How many of us can say we regularly drive cars more than twenty years old? (Well, I do have a 1985 summer car, but it would soon turn to junk if I drove it in the salt in winter.) One reason big companies like Raleigh went down the tubes after the 1970s was that those bikes lasted too long and nobody wanted to pay much for a new one when the old one was still good. They tried offering new products like BMX, choppers and small wheel bikes, but eventually couldn't compete with product from Asia.
John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada