PedallingNowhereSlowly
Well-Known Member
Hence the incentives to make such bikes more affordable and more profitable for local bike shops.
Halfords and Decathlon are not 'bike shops' and this thread is about 'bike shops' ???
Bike shops discouraging new cyclists ?
- Thread starter MidnightRider
- Start date
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PedallingNowhereSlowly
Well-Known Member
Quite obviously a typo. Quite unfunny too.
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Not new to cycling at all, just had no idea what that abbreviation meant.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Well blow me. Halfords must have provided racks for their staff to park their bikes on the shop floor which fooled me into thinking they were for sale last time I was in there.
I blame marketing.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Which shows the level of ignorance we are dealing with. You’ve proved the point.
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Not at all.
The most basic DF bikes can be found new for under £500, and you can get reasonably decent ones for around £1K, so half of that £2K.
You can get a new CF road bike with 105 groupset for around £2K.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
PedallingNowhereSlowly
Well-Known Member
They are a big box retailer that sells bikes. That's not a bike shop.
matticus
Guru
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
I suspect that abbreviation is only in common use among those who ride recumbents.
But you are right about the level of ignorance among non cyclists/new cyclists, and that is why I really do not think that adding recumbents to their range is going to do much to help bike shops that are in trouble.
Bike shops that are in troiuble need to attract new custom, which often means new cyclists. And the point of this thread is that many seem to actually discourage new cyclists, but adding recumbents is not going to change that.
Recumbents are a niche market, and likely to stay that way, because for any non-cyclist or new cyclist, anything other than the standard diamond frame is a bit "weird", and when it also costs a lot more, they will take a LOT of persuading to try one.
I'd be interested to know what percentage even of keen regular cyclists ride recumbents, but I suspect that is a statistic which would be hard to establish.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Nope been in common use for over a century. Nowt to do with riding recumbents. I knew the term in the 1970s, only in past 8 years I’ve ridden a recumbent. How long you been riding a bike?
matticus
Guru
A big barrier to useful conclusions here is the diverse segmentation of the potential market:
You've got budgets from £40 to £4k
Shopping/short commute bikes - -vs- I WANNA GET FIT ... and then even I WANT TO LOOK LIKE PIDCOCK/KOPECKY
Health issues - may need an ebike, or a 'bent, or an upright step-thru ... etc ...
Storage - bike needs to be cheap (not thief-friendly) or a folder
Traffic-phobe, needs an off-roader in their area?
Lives in the Fens - vs- lives on Gold Hill Shaftesbury
et al, et al, et al ...
You've got budgets from £40 to £4k
Shopping/short commute bikes - -vs- I WANNA GET FIT ... and then even I WANT TO LOOK LIKE PIDCOCK/KOPECKY
Health issues - may need an ebike, or a 'bent, or an upright step-thru ... etc ...
Storage - bike needs to be cheap (not thief-friendly) or a folder
Traffic-phobe, needs an off-roader in their area?
Lives in the Fens - vs- lives on Gold Hill Shaftesbury
et al, et al, et al ...
PedallingNowhereSlowly
Well-Known Member
~35 years and I didn't understand the abbreviation.
The truth is, ignorance is not binary. It is a spectrum.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
A quick Google suggests that Halfords is the biggest retailer of bikes in the UK with 20-25% market share. It's pure snobbishness to dismiss them.
Let me guess, the reason that so many people buy the wrong sort of bikes from the wrong sort of shop is all down to marketing.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I'm struggling to decide which one is less likely in my case.
