Originally Posted by
Koyote
I went through this about a decade ago, when I was helping to create a bike rental program on a college campus. We were looking for good, sturdy, low-maintenance commuter bikes to rent out for nine months at a time, and we were buying three dozen of them to start out -- so, we were price sensitive. We figured out at that time (2011, I believe) that a $500-$600 retail price point was where we could get something that wasn't going to be a box of trouble. Today, with some inflation, tariffs, and Covid, it's a bit higher.
When a BSO goes for around $200, I refuse to believe that a
simpler sound bike for a private owner
needs to cost three times that.
I'm not denying that today they do, but I see that more as the result of a mutually delusional vendor/customer loop, than an "only way things could be".
So take that buffalo bike; give it a rear derailleur for a little more capability across terrain, but leave out the silly shocks the stores push. Design for maintainability and ease of assembly. Manufacture and import them in BSO volume.
(I did say
private owner above; bikeshare bikes tend to be heavier and costly to withstand abuse. A basic bike doesn't need to be atypically durable and it doesn't need exotic materials it just needs to be ordinary. While not designed to be throwaway, price point needs to include possibility of having to replace after theft, but in terms of damage parts commonality would help with major repairs)