At 12:42 PM -0700 8/30/02, Tom Dalton wrote:
>I assume that you mean these countries consume more parts relative
>to their population size. The US is a major market for Shimano,
>Campy, Rockshock, etc, despite the realitve scarcity of riders.
Compared to single little countries but not compared to the EU. Does
any one have the BBJ or BR&IN numbers?
>An american who rarely rides twice a year on summer vacation might
>buy a new bike every five or ten years (10-speeder in 1975, MTB in
>1983, full suspeneded MTB in 1994...). Many Europeans ride daily on
>the same bike for half a lifetime. Lots of 60's era bikes on the
>roads of Italy. Lots of use, not a lot of buying.
Lots of speculation but I see no real numbers. Americans are huge consumers, on that you're 100% correct. The one thing manufacturers love about Americans is the are amazingly brand loyal. This is shown daily on this list alone. Build a good name and you can make inferior product for almost 10 years and survive. You're also right that there are lots of bikes from the 60's on the roads in Italy, but most of those folks have "race" bikes at home too. My wife just got back from 7 weeks in Belgium, Germany, and Italy and one of the things that always surprises her is all the club rides she sees have 40-60 people. Most of these people are on "modern" bikes. Whenever I'm in Europe I spend most of my time in museums or at cafes with cyclists. If you still have doubts I can put you in touch with my buddy Enno who manages one of the major Presto shops in Amsterdam. and sells A LOT of high-end bikes. Ghent, Belgium (pop. 150,000) has a brilliant huge shop called Plum. They have a ton of modern bikes and classic bikes. The smallest of towns have good bike shops. For every American who buys 3 bikes in 20 years there is 15 Europeans that do the same. This is does not include the rest of the world. Ciao, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives SB, CA
PS: If any list members are ever in Ghent go to the Plum shop. Go
way into the back room and you're find new full classic SR bikes on
the rack from builders you've never heard of.
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