Originally Posted by
dirty tiger
I never mentioned anything about "Dutch Bikes"
I just find it interesting that no German bicycle company has established any kind of niche in this country.....ZERO PENETRATION into the market place.
It's ironic considering how popular German cars and Motorcycles are in this country, "German Engineering" has a cult following here.
I only mentioned Trekking Bikes because they seem to be very popular in N. Europe but somewhat obscure here, and they seem like great bikes......although, as I type this I realize that the 29'er Adventure Bike concept that is gaining popularity around here could be seen as an American Trekking bike.
My friend had a Rixe bought at the Bicycle Exchange in Cambridge in the mid 1950s, and of course there were loads of Sears 3-speeds built by Steyr in the 1960s. I had a distributor that brought in some Kalkhoff frames in the late 1970s, but by that time the mark was really strong against the dollar and it didn't make competitive sense against the Yen. Ever since then, you must remember, the German manufacturing economy is really based on taking care of the workers and on protecting the home environment. Der Grune Punkt is based on every single item manufactured in Germany eventually coming back to the maker for recycling, and these costs are built into the price. So, buy a German bike and support the German environment; buy a German bike and support German national healthcare and pensions. Buy an Asian bike and you don't pay for any such things.