Isla's imagine project....

[User]

 

[Slick]

I do totally agree with her, and to be honest, I hate living in a society where it's cheaper to buy a new washing machine rather than get someone to fix it. The problem is, I think it's went too far now, and it's going to take a lot more than this to make a dent.

Every journey starts with one step, so good luck to them.

 

[I like Skol]

Lovely idea but I fear unworkable. I have two well used but excellent kids bikes that I have advertised for a not unreasonable sum but have had zero interest. People appear to either want a nice shiny new bike with super hero badges for their child, which will be wrecked within 2yrs and then thrown on the tip, or want to be given a good bike for free which will be abused, neglected, wrecked and then thrown on the tip within 2 yrs. There is very little interest in caring for quality items and passing them on to the next person to be used for several 'cycles' (see what I did there? ).

 

[400bhp]

Lovely idea but I fear unworkable. I have two well used but excellent kids bikes that I have advertised for a not unreasonable sum but have had zero interest. People appear to either want a nice shiny new bike with super hero badges for their child, which will be wrecked within 2yrs and then thrown on the tip, or want to be given a good bike for free which will be abused, neglected, wrecked and then thrown on the tip within 2 yrs. There is very little interest in caring for quality items and passing them on to the next person to be used for several 'cycles' (see what I did there? ).

Skol, you're actually wrong on this one (on the current children's bike market in isolation, not on other goods).

There is a massive second hand market for decent made children's bikes, and as myself (and I know others here too) I already treat child bike ownership as renting.

As an example, I bought a new Islabike 14 and sold it after 18 months. It cost me around £50. I then bought a second Islabike 20. Due to the inflationary increases of new Islabikes, I am likely to sell it for what I paid, or there is a good chance (if I wish to) to make a profit on it.

Islabikes are essentially looking to take a hold on this rental type culture that exists. A very clever and innovative way to do it. Is it a genuine sustainability desire by Islabikes or a clever marketing ploy? I don't know.

 

[I like Skol]

Skol, you're actually wrong on this one (on the current children's bike market in isolation, not on other goods).

There is a massive second hand market for decent made children's bikes, and as myself (and I know others here too) I already treat child bike ownership as renting.

As an example, I bought a new Islabike 14 and sold it after 18 months. It cost me around £50. I then bought a second Islabike 20. Due to the inflationary increases of new Islabikes, I am likely to sell it for what I paid, or there is a good chance (if I wish to) to make a profit on it.

Islabikes are essentially looking to take a hold on this rental type culture that exists. A very clever and innovative way to do it. Is it a genuine sustainability desire by Islabikes or a clever marketing ploy? I don't know.

This only seems to apply to Islabikes though. They have very cleverly positioned themselves to capture a niche in the market and I think this is actually harming the rest of the second hand child's bike market. There is a growing feeling among 'caring' parents that only an Islabike is good enough for their little darlings and nothing else will do. This has disproportionately inflated the price of the secondhand Islabikes while reducing everything else to almost scrap value. Caring parents with enough money will pay the high price because they are not daft and know they will get a decent bike that can be easily resold with very little overall cost. The rest of the kids bike market won't pay islabike prices and won't pay a reasonable price for a decent used alternative when they can get a shiny new full suspension MTB for £100 or less from the likes of Sport Direct!

 

[huggy]

Skol, you're actually wrong on this one (on the current children's bike market in isolation, not on other goods).

There is a massive second hand market for decent made children's bikes, and as myself (and I know others here too) I already treat child bike ownership as renting.

As an example, I bought a new Islabike 14 and sold it after 18 months. It cost me around £50. I then bought a second Islabike 20. Due to the inflationary increases of new Islabikes, I am likely to sell it for what I paid, or there is a good chance (if I wish to) to make a profit on it.

Islabikes are essentially looking to take a hold on this rental type culture that exists. A very clever and innovative way to do it. Is it a genuine sustainability desire by Islabikes or a clever marketing ploy? I don't know.

But this is why it will not work, if the monthly rental is £5 then those 18 months costs £90 I cant see it being £5 I don't need to do the maths but £15 becomes a very expensive bike.

Although people seem oblivious to the costs if you break it down to a monthly or weekly cost, iPhone £1200 your joking aren't you, £50 a month no problem.

 

[mustang1]

For my kids, I only ever buy IslaBikes. I don't even look at anything else. I also don't like selling my bikes on and prefer to give them away or sell back to Isla as a PX. This Bike As A Service model suits me down to the ground so long as pricing is reasonable.

 

[S-Express]

A very clever and innovative way to do it. Is it a genuine sustainability desire by Islabikes or a clever marketing ploy? I don't know.

I do. I suspect Isla is losing sales to Frog, Halfords/Carerra, Hoy, Wiggins, Sky and any number of other new 'kids bike' ranges that have appeared within the last 2-3 years on the back of the cycling boom.

Islabikes either has to adopt this kind of strategy and hope it works, or start thinking about reducing their prices in order to be competitive in a market in which they no longer have a monopoly.

Also, I think the video conveniently forgets that most materials on the average bicycle can be recycled anyway, so I don't think 'sustainability' is a particularly strong argument.