aquaplex2004 wrote:
> Im currently undertaking a project on the bike industry in the Uk for a
> University course and to be honest I have no clue whatso ever about
> bikes!
>
> I'm just wondering if some of you could let me know what things you
> consider to be important when buying a bicycle (price, brand, features,
> performance etc) please, and to also rank them in order of importance
1) Fitness for purpose. All bikes are not created equal, and while the
bike that Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France on may be very
desirable to a road racer it wouldn't be much use to me when I want to
do my shopping. So "performance" comes into this, but it's about
context of what sort of performance you want: my Freight bike is much
slower than Lance's Tour bike, but its performance at carrying a two
seater sofa is /considerably/ superior! "Features" is all built into
this too: I'll want features that contribute to fitnees for purpose, not
because they're there and are the Accessory Du Jour (i.e., disc brakes
I'll have where they'll be good, like if I was buying a high end
Mountain Bike, I don't want them on my folder as they'll just make it
heavier and not as compact a fold).
2) Errrr, that's it. If it's right for the job and I've got the money
I'll spend it and I don't really care who built it.
I think this is /not/ a common approach. The typical spend on a UK bike
is ~£100 for a *thing* made of cheese and gaspipe with a long list of
"features". The 3 bikes I use the most would account for 3 dozen of
those by price.
Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net
[email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/