Originally Posted by Tightwad
I couldn't agree more. Folk's who post anything here that is NOT in line with the wanna be racer,MTB
hero image is soon roundly trounced by the wanna be's. As to the European, especially the Dutch,view
of cycling just makes way more sense to me. Way more.
Sure, you can have bike races that are fun to watch just don't try to make me feel guilty that I'm not
a wanna be also. These Dutch bikes are just , to me, the best thing since canned beer. So damn practical.
The sad part is that , to my knowledge, Worksman it the last , and only, American bike maker that
still makes tough no nonsense bikes for just plain utility. It's also sad that Worksman may never
make bikes like the Dutch bikes because there is no market in the U.S. It's also sad that the Dutch
avoid selling in the U.S. due to the fear of lawsuits when some idiot crashes.
Wannabes???? Nice insult. I guess people that only ride bikes for recreation all want to "be like Lance"? It's not only the vehicle drivers that think this. I wonder where they got that attitude???? Suggestive comments from cyclists???? I myself see way too many assumptions on both sides for them to mean anything real in a discussion. Maybe what those others are doing is responding to stereotyped attacks on themselves.
If a company wants to make a utility bike in America, it will have to focus on the machine being efficient, and that's where a heavy bike just won't cut it. Being efficient is ingrained into our culture, and it will be harder to convince most Americans to slow down to the speed of European life. While steel is nice, the ones that will become the most popular on this side of the pond will be made of aluminum.
Is it really the fear of lawsuits when people crash that keep European companies from selling here, or are the companies afraid to take responsibility for the quality of their product? The Italian bicycle companies don't have any problems selling bikes here.