The market has changed dramatically, at least in more sophisticated (read: high bicycle use) markets. Here in ABQ, there are many stores that sell Surleys and Salsas and doubtless Somas, and other makers of steel or, at least, well designed everyday bikes are popping up all the time. You have a wide variety between Cervelos and cruisers. As for aluminum, IMO, it is the best thing that could have happened to the low end market. Hoist an aluminum beach cruiser with alum wheels and parts, and then go heft a Varsity or Sports -- and the cruiser and even the hybrid and so forth will be well made, too, often -- as long as you can find hybrid/city bike without front suspension.
Several years ago a high end (=Cervelo and Orbea) shop carried a very nice aluminum Trek city bike, a modernized Sports, in metallic Kelly green, and it was a joy to behold and to lift -- didn't get a chance to ride it. Grant and, later, Jan (to mention just pioneers) have affected the market far out of proportion to their sales numbers. Much thanks to them! On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 5:24 PM, PeterG <ssubman2...@yahoo.com> wrote: > My wife had to go out of town for the week. Bored, I decided that I would > spend the day riding my Hillborne and then visit a few local bike shops and > see what's selling out there these days. I haven't really been to many bike > shops in the last couple of years (Rivendell has been my "go-to" place for > most all my cycling needs lately). I ended up visiting three shops here in > Reno, NV. I felt like I was in a weird sort of parallel universe. All of > the stores had their racks filled with carbon race bikes with the > handlebars wayyyy below the seats. When I asked to see bikes where i could > get my handlebars at or above the seat I was told at each store that they > don't make them that way... unless I was interested in a beach cruiser type > bike (single speed). It was explained to me that people want to go fast on > road bikes, so they need to be hunched down to prevent wind drag. When I > asked about seeing steel frame bikes, all of the salesmen told me that > steel bikes haven't been made in years.. .....WOW! At the last stop I made, > a young kid that worked there (maybe 19 years old) whispered to me that > there was a local shop that did indeed sell two steel bikes, gunnars and > surly's....but he couldn't remember the name of the store. Not sure if that > is true or not, but I give the kid credit for at least trying (his boss > tried to sell me a cervelo race bike two sizes too small for $7900 for > weekend solo riding). Is Reno an anomaly or is this happening everywhere? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- http://resumespecialties.com/index.html patrickmo...@resumespecialties.com Albuquerque, NM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
