Advocacy & Safety - Survey about bikes

Hello. We are doing a small marketing project for Washington University in St. Louis and would like for you to spend a couple of minutes answering the following survey. Your help is appreciated.

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?VV5VDGX8CMDQR9J4VFH1NS0A

Thanks!

I get the impression the company that commissioned this survey has some connection with "chainless" bikes.
I like the question about how often do you service your bike. Twice a year was the maximum allowed. Like most keen cyclists, my bikes are continuously serviced throughout the year. They get stripped down once or twice a year but are tweaked, cleaned and lubed monthly.

CHEERS.

Mark

And there was an odd question about breakdowns caused by the tire. Well, yeah. I get a flat, I change the tube, and I'm on my way. I guess I really don't consider that 5 minute interruption a breakdown.

This is the most whacked out survey I have ever seen. It is hard to believe the perpetrators even know what a bicycle is. Perhaps it is a subtle joke.

Paul

What a stupid survey!

If this was the target audience it would be a stupid survey. Now, if you're just the average Joe or Jill walking around a shopping mall or department store who doesn't think about bikes all that much, e.g., they look at them as recreational equipment along with lawn darts and that old canoe sitting in the rafters, then this survey may provide some useful feedback. After all, anyone who has taken the time to search out a bicycle discussison forum is hardly your average Joe or Jill and as much as it hurts to say, sales of department store bicycles far exceed bicycle shop bike sales by millions of units. So, again, if you step back and look at the survey from the perspective of someone trying to get feedback from the average Joe or Jill, it probably will give them the data they are looking for.

Thus, sergv's real error is that he has taken a survey that should have been administered at random to a large population (folks walking around in a shopping mall or coming out of a grocery store) and put it in front of a highly skewed sub-group. If he's put this survey out to a large number of bicycling lists then he's really screwed the pooch because the results will be so skewed that they will be nearly meaningless given the target market for their product.

Just my .02.

If this is a marketing survey (which it is obvious that it is) then they are talking to the right people because we are the ones that would or would not buy it not the casual mall shopper thats for coke and pepsi surveys.

Interesting.BMW motorcycles dont have chains,maybe others to but gear changing is of course different.Carbon fiber chains?In our lifetime.

If this is a marketing survey (which it is obvious that it is) then they are talking to the right people because we are the ones that would or would not buy it not the casual mall shopper thats for coke and pepsi surveys.

Are you sure? With over 100 million bicycles sitting in garages and basements and annual sales somewhere around 15 - 16 million units per year in the US, you would consider the 8k or so subscribers of this list (or the 300 or so subscribers who will most likely look at this thread over the next day or so) to be a relatively good cross section of your average bicycle consumer? Bear in mind, the majority of the bikes sold come from department stores like Walmart, Kmart, etc...

http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/insight/fact_sheets/

I'm not casting stones, but I think that many of us who are very close to the bicycle scene sometimes loose perspective on how much influence we have on the overall market and in the overall scheme of things. Moreover, any survey conducted on the internet based on voluntary interest in an open solicitation will be even more biased in that to take the poll you have to have a computer and be predisposed to want to take a poll, among other things.

FWIW: This is what they are most likely referring to by chainless bicycles. Shaft drive has been around since before the 1900's.
http://customer.manufacture.com.tw/~worldscape/se2.htm

I like the question about how often do you service your bike. Twice a year was the maximum allowed. Like most keen cyclists, my bikes are continuously serviced throughout the year. They get stripped down once or twice a year but are tweaked, cleaned and lubed monthly.

Actually, Mark, the survey asked how often I take my bike to be serviced. Since I do all of my own maintenance and almost all of my own repairs, I checked "never."