I think the advice was silly. But I think there is an extent to which modern bikes have failure built in to their design.
There is clearly a market for a fairly light, sturdy, simple, single speed town bike. But if one was designed and mass marketed at under £400 then the bike business as it exists would suffer as far as I can see.
I'd love to see any examples of bikes on the market that hit these criteria.
I don't think modern bikes don't have failure built into their designs - in todays litigious society they'd be fucked if they did. Although saying that there will be very few aluminium framed bikes left in 30 years, the alum framed bike is in many ways disposable (but at least recycleable) as its going to fall to bits with the same inevitablility as the fact that one day we're all going to die. Older bikes are generally heavier in every dept and this means longer component life for things like bars and stems, and in the main this means long product life. Reynolds 531 tubing was first introduced in 1932 and there are still loads of old bikes from this era being regularly used.
There is a market for light, sturdy, single/fixed bikes and its a market thats being exploited by the major bike firms after starting life as an underground cult...there are quite a few bikes on the market that meet this criteria: langster, giant bowery, raleigh rush hour, charge plug, SE lager, Bianchi Pista, Fuji track, the original On One pompino all get under £400 but I'd personally only go for the Pista, Fuji or SE as the rest are just plain nasty really. )sadly the excellent pompino went up spec and is £500 now).
The 400 quid langster has been a phenomenal success, so much so thats its almost made SS/Fixed riding mainstream and all the cool people will start another craze soon. Its made by the worlds 2nd largest bike manufacturer so perhaps their immense cost cutting ability and massive marketing machines are the reason why you're tripping over the fucking things in the smoke, I see more langsters than any other type of bike, easy.
I don't mean to insult Lanster owners but IMHO its one of the worst bikes out there - it rides terribly (esp the original version with straight forks), really harsh and imprecise at the same time; its welding is ugly and rushed, the colour schemes are a joke, the component parts are ridiculously cheap, the hubs in particular are gash, the stock tyres are puncture prone and lack grip.... I'd be suprised if the manufacturing cost per unit to spesh is over $125 at the factory gates. But besides all that who wants to ride around on a bike everyone else has?
Anyway its late, there are sub 400 simple bikes out there and some of them are even pretty good. And one of them sells by the truckload so atlleast this proves the bike makers are taking this market sector seriously.
. The driver earned a thumbs up and a grin, by braking in time.
