Here's my 2 cents I tried to send yesteday, but it didn't go through:
Barrie Carter wrote: "Here in the UK Dawes always were and still are, crap... No self respecting lightweight rider would be seen dead near one."
Of course everyone is entitled to his opinion. In comparison to the elite brands and models, I suppose you could say Dawes was crap, but I didn't think anyone here was making that comparison. Just because Dawes bikes were not the top echelon, doesn't make them crap. They gave a lot of bang for the buck. They did well what they set out to do; they hit the target they were aimed at. Other bikes could be named that cost more and gave less. You could just as well say, that for someone who needed a decent bike at a decent price, the high-end stuff was crap, because it was just too expensive. It's the law of diminishing returns. I'm not saying the high-end stuff is crap. In fact, if it does well what it was designed to do, then it's every bit as good as Dawes.
John Hurley
Austin, Texas, USA