Jaysus, this thread is painfull. My eyes are bleeding.
We have one of those dealer in RVA, as well, but I couldn't find his stuff right now. Conversions of just awful bikes at a nice, high price. Obviously, the business model works. Otherwise there wouldn't be a clone of it in every city. Perhaps, like McDonald's, this is a franchising opportunity, but to keep street cred they don't market it as a franchise.
Working business model or no, what this proves is that the free market doesn't exactly thrive on aesthetics.