I was just thinking about a similar thing. I seriously doubt Trek keeps the lights on at Trek world HQ selling Madones. For all the angst over the race-centric bike industry I'd guess 99.9% of the 15.7 million bikes sold in the US in 2011 were comfort, hybrid or MTB. Heck, 4.7 million of those were in the "under 20" wheel" category, which I assume is mostly kids bikes, not Moultons!
Pete in CT On Saturday, September 8, 2012 10:22:08 PM UTC-4, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > Just this year, Surly removed any restrictions on steerer tube length from > their warranty language. The old warranty was invalidated, supposedly, if > the steerer protruded more than 100 mm (4") above the headtube/headset. We > at HC have been ignoring that for years, but this year Surly gave their > blessing to long steerer tubes with the phrase, IIRC, "go nuts". LHT > steerer length for 700C wheels is 320 mm (about 13") and for 26" wheels and > 56cm+ frames, it's 380 mm (just over 15"). For most people, the full-length > steerer is plenty to get the bars high enough. Even when we cut some off, I > always leave an extra 10-15 mm, just in case the rider wants to go a little > higher someday without a new up-angle stem. Anyway, this is a case where > the conventional wisdom about threadless steerers being universally too > short is wrong. Incidentally, I don't believe this is a case of "the > industry" seeing the light as much as a case of saving money by not > pre-cutting the steerers. > > It's really nothing new that bike shops are selling non-racer bikes. > Everyday Mongo and I fix up old bikes made in the past 1-50 years. Most are > hybrids or comfort bikes or mountain bikes or 1970s and 80s 10-speeds or > English 3-speeds and the like. The fraction of older racing-inspired bikes > that come through for service is tiny. I suspect this means that people > have mostly been buying non-racing bikes for the past 50 years. Of course, > the shops like to push the sexier stuff. When I worked at Freewheel, which > is a big Trek shop (and former BStone dealer) in Minneapolis, we had lots > of racy bikes on display to greet customers when they walked in, but I sold > probably 2-3 Trek 520 touring bikes for every racing-style bike, and > probably 20 $400 hybrids for every race bike. I don't recall selling even > one $5,000-10,000 Madone, even though we had them to sell. > > On Saturday, September 8, 2012 2:53:49 PM UTC-5, Tony Lockhart wrote: >> >> It's nice to hear LBS folks saying that their sales are coming primarily >> from regular people. Kinda makes me wonder if more and more people are >> realizing the enjoyment that comes with cycling. Surlys are great bikes and >> it makes sense that they're increasing in popularity. >> >> I have a conjecture about the high steer tubes. I speculate that the >> bikes at your LBS are built up with uncut steer tubes so customers have the >> option of fine tuning their handlebar height. Perhaps potential buyers get >> the opportunity to mix and match washers to find the ideal height when >> going in for a fitting. >> >> On Saturday, September 8, 2012 11:10:22 AM UTC-7, lungimsam wrote: >>> >>> Sorry for the typos. I wonder if quill stems will be coming back anytime >>>> soon. >>>> >>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/3wTlPsAjEoEJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
