Other classifications
I used to think there were bikes made to be used, and bikes made to be sold.
Bikes made to be used are fairly good quality and sensible. Today a Ridgeback hybrid would be a typical example. I like these bikes.
Bikes made for the mass market are cheap rubbish. To see these, try low cost, high street retailers and supermarkets. They are horrible to ride and impossible to fix. Their only function is to make money for the retailer.
I have now realised there is a third category of bike: Bikes made to be talked about.
These are often collectors' items, repainted to such a state of perfection that they are too pretty to ride. It can take years to find the right parts for these, and each component will have a long story of how it was bought e.g. "That's the Super Record crank, it used to have a Gran Sport I got from a cyclejumble but Hillary Stone was selling this one. I got the front mech off a wrecked Major Nicols I found in a skip," and so on until any normal person within earshot dies of boredom.
Bikes made to be used are fairly good quality and sensible. Today a Ridgeback hybrid would be a typical example. I like these bikes.
Bikes made for the mass market are cheap rubbish. To see these, try low cost, high street retailers and supermarkets. They are horrible to ride and impossible to fix. Their only function is to make money for the retailer.
I have now realised there is a third category of bike: Bikes made to be talked about.
These are often collectors' items, repainted to such a state of perfection that they are too pretty to ride. It can take years to find the right parts for these, and each component will have a long story of how it was bought e.g. "That's the Super Record crank, it used to have a Gran Sport I got from a cyclejumble but Hillary Stone was selling this one. I got the front mech off a wrecked Major Nicols I found in a skip," and so on until any normal person within earshot dies of boredom.
