"Eugene Cottrell" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:dr%[email protected]...
> Barry,
>
> You seem to have a one track mind on this subject. Bents have been around for at least 70 years
> and most people just don't like them. They make
lots
> of flavors of ice cream, but vanilla and chocolate are the most popular.
If
> you like pistachio, then by all means, buy it, but don't try to convince
the
> world that it's the best thing going. Bents have a very limited audience for a lot of very good
> reasons. They're uncomfortable, unstable, have
poor
> acceleration from a stop and are slower than the DF in most real world riding situations (i.e..
> they're only good on flat to rolling terrain).
In
> all the years they've been produced, there still isn't any standard type
or
> most popular. Everyone is tinkering trying to get it right and nobody has been able to produce a
> bent that is liked by a majority. Most of the guys in this group who say they love their bent keep
> buying new and different styles, trying to find the one that works. So far, it appears, there is
> none that works well enough to mass produce. I say, there are those that like bents and those that
> like DFs, so, why would anybody try to convince the other side that theirs is best? Certainly
> speed is not the primary consideration for most recreational riders anyway, whether DFs or bents
are
> fastest. And US bike shops are going to sell what their customers want. The bike shops around here
> that do sell bents, do not carry them in stock. They will order it and put it together for you if
> you want one. They just can't sell enough to justify stocking them. All of the LBSs around here
> have a demo (or the shop owners personal bent) to try, but they won't
stock
> any. Why can't you face it a move on, the majority just don't want a
bent.
> If you think they're wrong, then just swallow hard and move on with your life.
Do you know thing one about marketing? Do you know the history of the lightweight racing bikes still
known to this day as "10 speeds"? Are you old enough to remember when naysayers were calling them
"flimsy" and "unsafe"? "Look at those skinny tires!" the ignorant would exclaim, "Hit a pothole and
the whole thing will just fold right up! No sir, none of that flimsy imported speed bike nonsense
for me! I'm buying a real American bike, with comfortable balloon tires and pretty chrome fenders."
Well, what do you know? A few years later, thanks in part to enthusiasm from bike shop employees cum
amateur racers, and other speed enthusiasts, 10 speeds were all the rage. Every teenager had one.
They were sold in department stores by the millions. They were still uncomfortable and less safe
than balloon tire bikes; but one very important thing had happened: Public perception of the
benefits of 10 speeds now outweighed other considerations (discomfort, not as durable, extreme
riding position vs. upright). This did not happen overnight; but it did happen. 10 speeds were
almost singlehandedly responsible for the huge bike boom of the 1970's. It
The moral of the story: Any ignorant bozo can size up the current US bike sales picture, post to
Usenet, and say "it will be this way for evermore;" but they'd be wrong. Did we expect mountain
bikes to boom as they have? "Look at those silly fat tires! They're so heavy and slow! Who would
want one of those when they can have a nice 10 speed for the same price?" Sure, you can always wait
until something new becomes commonplace, and then get on board like it's something you always
believed in. That's the common way. But there are always a few visionaries around, working on
strange bikes - riding down mountainsides on a bike they call "The Clunker." Those kind of bikes end
up in the Smithsonian, because they change the way we think of bicycles. Many have said that
mountain bikes are really just a rebirth of bikes built in the 1890's. So what? The important thing
about mountain bikes is the same thing that is important about every bike: It's the dream that goes
along with it. Mountain bikes project a dream of limitless adventure. Road bikes project a dream of
winning organized road races. Low racers project a dream of maximum speed combined with
uncompromising rider comfort. The fact
who love them. Like 10 speeds, lowracers can be sold to other consumer demographics - all it takes
is marketing.
and unique. The same thing happened to mountain bikes (they are also safer and more practical than
road racing bikes). A similar phenomenon could happen to recumbents (including lowracers) if the
current crop of US built
riding my M5 around populated areas. Chicks dig 'em, and that's all male buyers need to know.
So I know how I want to market lowracers in the US. The idea for an Extreme Speed Race Series is one
part of that marketing equation.
-Barry
u1sa.34871$A%
