Originally Posted by
snafu21
'yuppie' couple with obviously new folded up BRomptons by their chairs. My 'old' Matrix got a sneery look of contempt, because I wasn't a member of their club.
The Brompton has been iconised as a British groundbreaking product, it works well because of the neat fold and it has that 'expensive is better cachet'. But there are better designs around for less money. I hope that Brompton prosper, and they have weathered some storms, but Brit companies tend to suffer badly from cash-flow, lack of investment and far-sighted management and thus are sometimes unable to meet or profit from demand in boom times.
The notion that there is a 'Brompton owner' type is highly specious. Although it is still mostly purchased by commuters there are those who buy it as a fashion accessory . There was a pristine pink one on e-bay a while back that the owner had kept just hanging on their wall, as 'design art'.
I have a Brompton, mostly for it's superior fold but I also love the look; I also have a Moulton, a Downtube and a Dahon; what type am I? ( rhetorical question )
Simple Simon suggests that pioneers of the folding-bike industry aren't just in it for the money and this seems to ring true. I'm not particularly up on the machinations of the Bicycle industry but I am involved in the Brewing Industry ( not just as a consumer I haishen to add ) and it's reached a stage where a few Companies own most breweries ( Inbev, Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Scottish-Newcastle ); they buy up smaller companies to control production and retail. They maintain the names but change the production quality, many consumers will still buy the name (brand loyalty or limited choice) even though it is essentially a different product. Another consequence of this is the illusion of choice, 8 of 10 pints bought in England are made by 4 Companies but there are hundreds of independent craft breweries eeking out a survival. This could easily apply to bicycles and is a reason why a huge concern like Dahon would want to buy out Brompton, if they could, in order to eliminate the competition.
If there is no ethical consideration in a business it is merely a money making machine; for instance, why produce folding bicycles if making guns could yield a higher return?
Was there a point in amongst all that?