Bike imports into UK fall to 10 year low

[Cycleops]

Into making disposable stuff? If so can you enlighten me cyclops? **
Am a bit out if touch in that area. My brommie from last century is still running ok.
** Trust you won't tell me to google it as one soul did on here the other day. An honest question.

Quite the opposite, I think @Shadow121 was talking about products being unchanged for 100 years. That's what I was referring to.

 

[Blue Hills]

Quite the opposite, I think @Shadow121 was talking about products being unchanged for 100 years. That's what I was referring to.

ah ok - wrong end of stick this end - after having had a (nominally more expensive) dahon it's one of the things I value about the brommie - though they did change the frame length after mine.

 

[All uphill]

My personal theory (eg no evidence), for falling sales is the gap between many consumers' reasonable expectation that a bike should be usable and reliable from the day it is bought for at least a year and the patchy ability of the bicycle retailers to meet that expectation.

 

[Mo1959]

My personal theory (eg no evidence), for falling sales is the gap between many consumers' reasonable expectation that a bike should be usable and reliable from the day it is bought for at least a year and the patchy ability of the bicycle retailers to meet that expectation.

Wonder if this is partly due to them getting a bit more complex with the ever increasing number of gears, etc? Not sure they seem to run for as long without maintenance.

 

[Smokin Joe]

We're all looking for reasons that bikes don't sell, poor retailers, wrong bike, dangerous roads etc. But it is simply that most people don't really like cycling, everyone has ridden a bike, some seriously for a few years, but after X length of time the majority lose interest and don't bother any more. Our game is a minority pursuit, the odd spike aside, so let's just rejoice in being geeks and stop trying to be crusaders for the cause.

 

[Shearwater Missile]

My personal theory (eg no evidence), for falling sales is the gap between many consumers' reasonable expectation that a bike should be usable and reliable from the day it is bought for at least a year and the patchy ability of the bicycle retailers to meet that expectation.

When I was in the tv repair trade until I retired it was the same. The salesmen would sell the dream ie 60" screen tvs with the perfect picture but when it did`nt live up to expectation the customer would call the service centre for a service call thinking it was faulty, for a multitude of reasons. As an engineer it was difficult to tell a customer that is the way it is. Of course you may get an odd tv or whatever that is genuinely faulty and would be changed over without question. As I said the salesmen would sell the dream tv and did`nt wan`t to hear that it was`nt faulty.
Getting back to the topic. With any product it is driven by sales revenues albeit the latest this the latest that with the must have technology such as disc brakes etc etc. This was the same in the TV trade, remember Ceefax & Oracle and NICAM stereo sound and then widescreen tvs, just to mention three things, there are more that were introduced and of course to sell more. So basically the question is Where do we go from here ?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've only just skimmed this thread so perhaps this has already been raised: Have bike imports gone down relative to other stuff?

Is it necessarily a bike-related phenomenon or something that's affecting the economy as a whole? For example, are sales of golf bats holding up? Things like the recent transformation of the Pound Sterling into the British Lira will have affected all kinds of import markets.

 

[screenman]

Childhood obesity is rapidly on the increase as is adult, that may give you an answer, culture has changed over many years it is unlikely to change back very fast.

 

[the_mikey]

We're all looking for reasons that bikes don't sell, poor retailers, wrong bike, dangerous roads etc. But it is simply that most people don't really like cycling, everyone has ridden a bike, some seriously for a few years, but after X length of time the majority lose interest and don't bother any more. Our game is a minority pursuit, the odd spike aside, so let's just rejoice in being geeks and stop trying to be crusaders for the cause.

I used to cycle to get to work, but the experience wasn't encouraging, in the 90's I was riding a heavy Raleigh MTB frame three miles to work , and back again in the evening, I would often end up pushing it up hills. In 1998 I bought a car, and drove it 3 miles to work and back and didn't miss that old bike one bit.

It was only a change of life circumstances that led me back to cycling, I found myself free to do whatever I pleased, so I bought a road bike, in 2009 road bikes seemed to be perfect, gloriously simple rim brakes, 9 speed cassette and STI shifters, I couldn't believe how simple and yet amazing this machine was, my first ride was a short ride around the block, a few weeks later I made plans to try to cycle a couple of miles and then the distance and frequency gradually increased, I was hooked! But I wonder if I would have been hooked if I had bought the wrong bike? If I was in the same situation now what would I have chosen? Would I have been put off by a salesman trying to sell me disc brakes or tubeless, or 12 speed derailleurs, or hydraulic braking, none of which I would be prepared for, or would I have bought the £99 bike from a sports shop and wondered why it was so hard to ride and struggled to understand how anyone else would do it, only to leave it in the shed and quietly forget about cycling...

 

[Slow But Determined]

Cycling after the Olympics / TDF success was probably a bit like all the sheep who went out and bought the Three Tenors cd after Italia 90. They probably played it once then stuck it in the glovebox.

 

[screenman]

Cycling after the Olympics / TDF success was probably a bit like all the sheep who went out and bought the Three Tenors cd after Italia 90. They probably played it once then stuck it in the glovebox.

Cyclist who cannot seem to write a few words without insulting somebody may put some people off. Have you never tried something and found it not to your liking, what boring life you have led if you have not.

 

[Slow But Determined]

Cyclist who cannot seem to write a few words without insulting somebody may put some people off. Have you never tried something and found it not to your liking, what boring life you have led if you have not.

Not insulting mate, perfectly true, people get swept up in a wave of excitement with a current fad. As my example pointed out doesn't just apply to buying a bike.

How many thousands of Breville Sandwich Makers are rotting away in the back of people's kitchen cupboards?

 

[Blue Hills]

Yes - don't know if it happens anymore, but the council tennis courts used to suddenly fill when wimbledon was on. Then within days it seemed the wonky rackets went to the back of the wardrobe. I can understand how this would happen with racing machines in particular.

 

[screenman]

Not insulting mate, perfectly true, people get swept up in a wave of excitement with a current fad. As my example pointed out doesn't just apply to buying a bike.

How many thousands of Breville Sandwich Makers are rotting away in the back of people's kitchen cupboards?

Funny how the reader can see an insult and the writer not see one, love a cheese toasty.

 

[vickster]

Not insulting mate, perfectly true, people get swept up in a wave of excitement with a current fad. As my example pointed out doesn't just apply to buying a bike.

How many thousands of Breville Sandwich Makers are rotting away in the back of people's kitchen cupboards?

I still use mine when I fancy a toastie
(Although it's a Swan not Breville)