The £100 bike

[RecordAceFromNew]

I definitely think it would need a few gears. I have many single speed bikes but that is my choice. The more reluctant cyclist would not be keen on one gear unless they lived somewhere evry flat.

If I only had £100 and want gears I would get the [url="http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/rockrider-5-0-men-s-2010-138413764/#INFO-DETAIL"]Rockrider 5 for £99.99[/url]. Same warranties as the Vitamin, 5 sizes including 2 for ladies. It is the one that beat all the BSOs when tested by the MBUK team in the recent Gadget Show.

 

[Hilldodger]

You can build cheap bikes if you use old stock but then you struggle to get the parts for servicing.

 

[palinurus]

I definitely think it would need a few gears. I have many single speed bikes but that is my choice. The more reluctant cyclist would not be keen on one gear unless they lived somewhere evry flat.

My colleagues sometimes comment on my regular commute bike. It hasn't got any gears! they say (it's got two, I sometimes reply, forward and reverse), how do you go up hills? they never look convinced when I say it's not so bad, it's not a very high gear etc. I think a bike with one gear would be a difficult sell.

 

[palinurus]

[QUOTE 1273888"]
CenterParcs have managed it, hub dynamo, 5 gears, rack. They don't pay much for each one, I read it was well under a hundred pounds in a recent flyer.
[/quote]

Interesting. Wonder how many of them they buy?

 

[Hilldodger]

Interesting. Wonder how many of them they buy?

Thousands every few months on a rolling contract.

 

[PBancroft]

Thousands every few months on a rolling contract.

Not the most robust then...

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Another vote for the Vitamin

I'm sorely tempted by one, and I reckon rebuilding the back wheel with an SA 3 speed hub 2nd hand off eBay, gear trigger, cable and frame cable clips, that should be do-able for £100 (albeit lacing the wheel up myself)

It's hilly round here

 

[Jezston]

Vitamin does look great, but like others have said single speed will put a lot of people off. I didn't realise they did a flat bar'd version, when it was mentioned I thought people were referring to the drop bar version which again I think people would find offputting - a bit too 'sporty' for a tootle about.

I'm sure if the Vitamin is only 80 euros (about 70-75 quid?) then you could stick basic mudguards, some kind of attachment for easily adding on an optional extra basket, and the clincher - some kind of cheap chinese made 3-5 speed gear hub for under £100 (SA's would be too pricey, I'm sure some chinese factory can - and do - make a basic knockoff).

I'd have thought hub gears would be preferable over a derailleur setup as it gives the advantage of being much lower maintanance and the user the ability to change gear when stationary. Mudguards I'm sure would be an insignificant extra in terms of costs.

Don't know about dynamo lights - might be too pricey. I'm sure selling them with some cheapy flashers already fitted or somehow integrated would be fine - I have some I got for £4 from Sports Direct for my hack and they are pretty damn visible.

Now just make them in a range of colours, and do a step through version - then advertise it heavily and you'd be on to a winner.

 

[Stingy]

Dutchie are the perfect example of everything you'd need in a bike - but they are £300 as opposed to £100. I'm sure the chinese could do something about that.

Some similar thoughts at manchester cycling about the same kind of subject.

I've got a Vitamin. It's great, although its been modified so much now that theres really only the frame and couple of minor parts leftover from the orginal bike. They are labelled as made in Portugal. Ive tried the £99.99 rockrider - its not worth the bother - the shimano gears are terrible for starters.

It's bizarre that they make such hideous pieces of crap to sell on asda/tesco when for the same effort they could make something closer to the dutchie and customers would have a bike worth using - rather than dumping in the shed to rust.

 

[Fab Foodie]

At train stations in Holland you can rent a simple 3 speed gas-pipe bike with dynohub guards and rack. Much like the Dutchie. Very no frills, very low-tech. I'd be surprised if they were £300.
How much to stick a 3 speed hub and cheap guards on a vitamin? Not much I'd wager.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Nobody would buy a basic bike for £100 when you can walk into a high Street shop and buy a 27 speed full suspension bike for £49.99. People at that end of the market are not cyclists in enthusiast terms, they do no worry about weight or quality, have no intention of maintaining it or paying someone else to do so and just want disposable cheap transport or a toy for the kids.

And an enthusiast who was skint could get a bettr bike second hand than could be made and sold for a ton.

 

[Piemaster]

Does the vitamin have a chainstay bridge? I'm thinking xtracycle conversion here, it's possible without one but better with from reading up on it. Hub geared rear wheel and sorted.
And why does xtracycle/big dummy frame/longtail bikes cost so much? I'm sure there would be a lot more popular if they were sold at lower cost.

 

[Gareth]

I don't know why the xtracycle kits are so expensive; but I do know why purpose built front loading LongJohns/Bullits/bakfiets and rear loading Big Dummies/Surlys/Madernas/Marsdens bikes are expensive, because I build my own versions: the Senton and Capability.

Why not go for a homebuild project utilising an MTB rear supension frame, and hardtail MTB frame?

I am currently building two (Free Of Charge) for the Norwich Pimp my bike charity project: http://www.eveningne...cycles_1_679375 from BSO frames, one that I am doing is based on a 26" wheels, and the second is based on 24" wheels.

There's plenty of long bike "how toos" on the net, especially on Instructables and here: Homebuilt Extracycle

Here is the strip out of the 26" wheel version on the bench up at my workshop;

I do like the looks of the Vitamin though, as I think they would be a good base for Polo bikes; I may buy 5 or 6 for the Norwich Polo teams that I sponsor

 

[Roadrunner78]

My workmate has the B'twin Vitamin. I took delivery of it and test run it. Very low geared. Otherwise apart from him asking me to maintain little bits, its held up to many miles of neglect. I honestly dont know how they build them and make a profit. It even came with lights! I'll be first to buy it when he gets fed up with it.

He got it from decathlon. £76 delivered. I got his old bike for free and did a SS conversion.

 

[gbb]

A £100 bike would only realistically appeal to occasional or low requirement cyclists from a volume sales point of view, which may mean the equipment could be tailored to suit (and therefor the cost minimised to suit)
15 gears ? is it really neccessary for most occasional cyclists. My son, although he commutes daily albeit short distance, rarely ever gets out of the middle chainring. Is a triple really neccessary for most low mileage cyclists.
No fancy looking (supposedly) oversize (and therefor heavy) frame. Simple and as light as realistically possible.

In my book, a 5 speed with single, maybe double chainrings, simple but half decent V brakes, simple but light frame, perhaps 26 x 1.5 tryes, that will make the bike a bit faster and more useable than having heavy oversized tyres that no-one really wants, no accessories.

The biggest problem then is...whenever i talk to anyone who wants a first 'cheap' bike, i tell them try to buy the best quality you can, and as simple as you can, you don't want suspension, you don't really want 100 gears because you wont use them, don't get a stupid oversized cheap frame because they're heavy.....and what do they do ?, buy a cheap bike with all those flaws. Why ?...perhaps its the flock mentality, perhaps its because all those things actually DO appeal to buyers, even though we all know theyre just a gimmick.
And 6 months later...they're not using that stupid gimmicky, overwieght bike because its cream crackered because of poor quality components, or because its just a plain shoddy bike.

I think the idea's fantastic BTW and i think it could be done.