Advice needed on commuter bike
- Thread starter Rykard
- Start date
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mickle
innit
- Location
- 53.933606, -1.076131
Very few bike companies make their own bikes. Kona for example have their range of bikes built by three different manufacturers. Giant are the largest bike manuf. in the world. Twenty ears ago they realised that they were making the then best selling mountain bike in the world (the Rockhopper) and decided to launch themselves onto the market. They still make bikes for companies like Marin, Univega, Trek etc but their own brand cuts out these middle men. This combined with their enormous economies of scale make them hard to beat in the value for money stakes.
Merida are trying to 'do a Giant' at the moment, they are another huge manufacturer who make bikes for other bike brands and have recently launched themselves onto the market. They own a big chunk of Specialized.
In a market which is not seeing any significant growth each of the brands is struggling just to maintain their existing market share. It isn't like the height of the mountain bike boom where they would see double figure sales increases year on year. As a result you'd have to search long and hard to find a brand which offers poor value for money, they simply cant afford to be too expensive in such a competitive market.
The bottom line is that its much much more important to find a great shop than worry about which particular model to buy. If it fits you, you like the colour and it suits its purpose and your budget, the factory it came from is irrelevant. Do concern yourself with the quality of aftersales.
Merida are trying to 'do a Giant' at the moment, they are another huge manufacturer who make bikes for other bike brands and have recently launched themselves onto the market. They own a big chunk of Specialized.
In a market which is not seeing any significant growth each of the brands is struggling just to maintain their existing market share. It isn't like the height of the mountain bike boom where they would see double figure sales increases year on year. As a result you'd have to search long and hard to find a brand which offers poor value for money, they simply cant afford to be too expensive in such a competitive market.
The bottom line is that its much much more important to find a great shop than worry about which particular model to buy. If it fits you, you like the colour and it suits its purpose and your budget, the factory it came from is irrelevant. Do concern yourself with the quality of aftersales.
