In article <RqeIc.3047$696.1860@fe07.usenetserver.com>,
"ZeeExSixAre" <phil_leeIHEARTBASHGUARDS@hotmail.com> wrote:
> JP wrote:
> > My opinion is that if SRAM can address the weaknesses of
> > the Shimano shifters and return to the Shimano
> > compatibility that they had in their Quarz derailleurs,
> > they can fill an existing hole in the relatively high-
> > end market- Shimano drivetrain compatibility without the
> > Shimano. Once they get the market acceptance of their
> > high-end stuff they will be in a better position to
> > market cheap alternatives to Shimano. After all, it is
> > the relatively high-end buyers that know the weaknesses
> > of the Shimano brifters or maybe just plain resent
> > Shimano's market dominance, and are likely to care one
> > way or the other; many of the things that are discussed
> > here never even enter the minds of many people buying
> > lower-end bikes.
>
> Interesting theory.
>
> However, I think that the low-end road bike market can go
> quite a bit lower... Shimano's componentry are probably
> the biggest expense in the cost of a bike. Frames and
> forks for cheap road bikes can be had (by the bike
> manufacturer) for $50 or less. If you put a cheap, decent-
> quality road group on there (SRAM RD, FD, chain,
> brifters), (no-name hubs, spokes, rims, stem, bars,
> saddle, seatpost, crankset), then you've got yourself a
> road bike for $350 retail. This kind of price for people
> who are just getting into road bikes is VERY attractive.
It has. Look at the low-end department store bikes. No, not
those nice department store bikes that have Shimano Tourney
on them, I mean the really low-end bikes.
Oooh, Falcon! Microshift! These are the brand names of the
ultra-cheap components that seem to be bad Chinese re-hashes
of Shimano's cheapest designs.
A local sporting-goods chain with a fairly substantial bike
sideline (they even do some "real" bikes, mostly half-decent
MTBs and a few rare Sora and Tiagra road bikes, with the
occasinal showpiece "premium" 105-equipped unit) sells a
$C300 road bike. six-speed downtube indexed shifters, high-
tensile steel frame, and not a Shimano part I can remember.
That's where the low end lives, and I don't think SRAM has
anything to add to that market.
> Even though chances are theat the rider will upgrade
> within a couple of months or a year, they will have gained
> experience at a price that 30% lower than the retail
> prices of most current entry-level road bikes. Better yet,
> this will give the market more exposure and will allow
> people to worry less about their bike being locked up
> outside because it isn't that expensive. I bet it will
> also replace the commuter niche that is currently being
> occupied by hybrids.
The thing that everyone forgets about the hybrid-versus-road-
bike debate is this: the people who ride hybrids are slow.
They are much too slow to care about the primary advantage
of drop-bar bikes, which is better aerodynamics leading to
better speed. In exchange for trading, well, nothing in
terms of performance, people get a bike they can sit up on,
one that might have a nice suspension seatpost.
Some of these hybrid riders get to like riding, and some of
those start to ride longer or faster. And when they do, they
run into the limits of a hybrid, and start wandering around
bike shops "just looking," and some of them go home with a
road bike.
> We all search for "beater bikes" and they naturally have
> to be old to fit that criterion. I think that this
> shouldn't be the case.
We know that the current market has generated US$60 mountain
bikes, available to undiscerning consumers from a variety of
sources. There's no reason you couldn't build a road version
to the same quality level, given the demand. It would still
be a crappier than the better garage-sale bikes, which
typically sell for $10 in both road and mountain (rigid 6-
and 7- speed MTBs) versions.
No bike maker, not even the cheapest Chinese enterprises,
can compete with the ridiculous glut of unloved, lightly-
used road bikes, and the rising glut of unwanted early rigid
MTBs. These bikes, unlike the low-end new units, are not
crap. They feature well-built, lightweight frames made from
real frame materials (not "hi-ten"), components that can be
made to work properly, and brake levers that are not made of
plastic molded over a stamped sheet steel core. (Worse, I
have seen V-brakes of the same construction.)
--
Ryan Cousineau, rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com (http://www.wiredcola.com/)
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club
