The Times - bike = best value product

Reading David Smith's column in the Times' business section today, I
noticed this:

QUOTE
....While haircuts are rising, plenty of things are still falling, which
set me musing about the best-value product you can buy these days. My
vote would go to the humble bicycle. You get a lot of steel, rubber and
technology for your money, and prices start at about the cost of a
tankful of petrol for a large car. Readers may have other ideas...
ENDQUOTE

(Original :
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8210-2147565_2,00.html)

I almost couldn't agree more but I think that unless petrol has gone up
recently, he's underestimated the cost of a bike. My wife's car is a
bigun and I'm fairly sure I've seen her put £60 or £70 quid in but I
don't think I've ever seen a bike that cheap. Then again maybe, in the
waste-not-want-not spirit of the age, the article was referring to
second hand bikes.

Not Responding said:

Reading David Smith's column in the Times' business section today, I
noticed this:

QUOTE
...While haircuts are rising, plenty of things are still falling,
which set me musing about the best-value product you can buy these
days. My vote would go to the humble bicycle. You get a lot of steel,
rubber and technology for your money, and prices start at about the
cost of a tankful of petrol for a large car. Readers may have other
ideas... ENDQUOTE

(Original :
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8210-2147565_2,00.html)

I almost couldn't agree more but I think that unless petrol has gone
up recently, he's underestimated the cost of a bike. My wife's car is
a bigun and I'm fairly sure I've seen her put £60 or £70 quid in but I
don't think I've ever seen a bike that cheap. Then again maybe, in the
waste-not-want-not spirit of the age, the article was referring to
second hand bikes.

I've seen "bikes" in supermarkets and department stores for well under
£100. You certainly do get a lot of steel for your money ;-)

~PB

Not Responding said:

I almost couldn't agree more but I think that unless petrol has gone up
recently, he's underestimated the cost of a bike. My wife's car is a
bigun and I'm fairly sure I've seen her put £60 or £70 quid in but I
don't think I've ever seen a bike that cheap. Then again maybe, in the
waste-not-want-not spirit of the age, the article was referring to
second hand bikes.

As long as you don't happen to go into the wrong Halfords[1] you should
find something labelled for sale as a bicycle for £69.99. You may also
find things like "two bikes for 80 quid" type small ads. I only know
through being asked "is this a good deal" by the odd aquaintance. Being
obliged to check the things out for them, I can confirm the price, but
not the suitability for purpose of said items. The small ad ones even
had steel rims advertised as a "feature".

[1] They advertise these as "half price", and in order to do so, are
required by law to actually try and sell these FDK's for twice the price
for a legal minimum amount of time.

JimP

--
Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to
grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after
all. - DNA

Not Responding said:

I almost couldn't agree more but I think that unless petrol has gone up
recently, he's underestimated the cost of a bike. My wife's car is a
bigun and I'm fairly sure I've seen her put £60 or £70 quid in but I
don't think I've ever seen a bike that cheap. Then again maybe, in the
waste-not-want-not spirit of the age, the article was referring to
second hand bikes.

I went China for Christmas - my brother, his wife and two children
live in Shanghai, but we jointly own a beachfront appartment in Sanya,
in the extreme south of Hainan Island.

While there I bought two Giant bicycles (they are, in fact, rather
small) for the flat. Their combined price was £85.

Quoted message said:

I went China for Christmas - my brother, his wife and two children live in Shanghai,

I was horrified to see a news item a couple of years ago about the
authorities' method of dealing with traffic chaos in Shanghai - they
noticed there were a lot of bikes, so they banned bikes in order to let
their cars get through easier! Sounds like a gridlock recipe. Did it
happen, and does it still apply?

<[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I was horrified to see a news item a couple of years ago about the
authorities' method of dealing with traffic chaos in Shanghai - they
noticed there were a lot of bikes, so they banned bikes in order to let
their cars get through easier! Sounds like a gridlock recipe. Did it
happen, and does it still apply?

Here's a link to the original banning story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3303655.stm
But then they seemed to "back-pedal"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3513119.stm

In article <[email hidden]>, Jon
Senior <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Supermarkets often have bikes at a £69 price point. They are worth
exactly what you pay for them and you get more steel than you would if you
spent more!

Last summer a friend bought bikes - all new - off ebay for himself and
his two kids. I don't remember the brand/s, but am certain they weren't
anything usually recommended on urc. I think the most expensive was
about UKP 79.

On a visit there I borrowed his bike and went for a short ride on some
local cycle paths with the kids. I found it really difficult to ride as
I couldn't raise the saddle high enough for comfort - the seat pin was
too short!

I'm about 5'8" and friend is 6'2", so I'm sure he must find it even more
difficult to ride than I did.

--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

Tom Crispin said:

I went China for Christmas

Were you shattered?

--
Dave...

POHB said:

<[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I was horrified to see a news item a couple of years ago about the
authorities' method of dealing with traffic chaos in Shanghai - they
noticed there were a lot of bikes, so they banned bikes in order to let
their cars get through easier! Sounds like a gridlock recipe. Did it
happen, and does it still apply?

Here's a link to the original banning story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3303655.stm
But then they seemed to "back-pedal"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3513119.stm

Shanghai is based on a grid road system, with three concentric
elevated ring roads, a north south elevated highway and an east west
elevated highway. Bikes are banned from the elevated roads, but as
there are very wide cycle lanes underneath, that is not a problem, and
they'd be horrid to cycle on anyway.

Many of the grid roads have motor traffic one way and bicycle traffic
the other way - cars are banned from driving one way and cycles banned
the other way, but mopeds seem to go either way.

The system works.