Why not? Last year, it seemed like everyone, and I mean everyone, bought a flat screen TV. Suddenly, it was the must-have item, and retailers slashed prices in order to attract customers.

Now people have brand new TVs to deliver them car commercials every 10 minutes, persuading them to buy cars they neither need nor can afford.

Can someone put bicycles into the picture?

Can't you see: a TV (some sort of TV) is an essential household market and you can use it while sitting on a couch and getting fat. But a bicycle is a dangerous toy that requires PEDALING (exercise!!!! ) to use. No American in his right mind would want one, not to use it a lot anyway. Maybe a bike-shaped object from Walmar to ride 10 miles a year...

As a matter of fact, most people do have bikes. It's just that they don't actually use them very often.

I'd have to think about it more. Hybrids have come-down in price.they call many of them : cross, fitness, city
recreational, now flat-bar pertains to the racier ones. In any case,it's not so much they've gone -down it's more that they have NOT gone-up,in years. I've seen a few 22 lb. flat-bars for $400,one was a Diamondback, NOT a crap brand,it rode well,it shifted really well.I almost bought it.It was black so I didn't ,the color took the wind out of my impulse buying sails. Anyway, a 26lb. similarly equipt bike,a road bike with drop-bars casts $900.It has STI shift ..OK but twice the price?. Trends cost alot.12 years ago, a Giant Hybrid, a good one cost $480. A compararble road bike cost $590, what gives ? Look at the price of mountain bikes, the prices you'll see,speak for themselves, the hard-tails,not suspension models.

Actually the big drop in prices last year was due to the electronic stores trying to keep up with Wal-Mart and its major drop in plasma and LCD television sets prices to try and gain control over that market.
The fallout from that is that alot of big box stores are forced to close hundreds of their buildings and some shops are even going out of business because they banked so much on selling television sets, it was quite a sad read when I saw the article online.

That $900 road bike is too expensive for Joe Schmoe, yet he'll drop a grand on the newest TV. Yes, I know, he needs the TV, while a bike is merely a luxury item.

Wait, he already had a perfectly fine TV. In fact, he probably has several TVs in different rooms of his house.

To each their own, I suppose. Joe Schmoe will argue it's no different than me owning several bikes.

Flat screens have a better picture in most cases so upgrading is undertsandable. Upgrading from one bike to another is quite easy and understandable. Good bikes are expensive and comparing the price to a TV is not valid as everyone already has a TV, the same as we have bikes. For many of us to upgrade to a new cassette that cost 300 or so dollars is a simple jump. The key is making bicycling acceptable, beneficial, and "cool". Currently cyclist are frowned upon by the general public, and who can blame them. I often see roadies (just yesterday) running stopsigns, not using handsignals, and taking up lanes when there is no need to. Many other cyclist are people who lost a license. Streets are not geared to be safe for cyclist either. So many hurdles, a simple idea such as buying a TV instead of bike is to easy.

I owe a debt of gratitude to one such person. I got a 12 year old Specialized Hard Rock that was virtually new, for free! It's been wonderfully reliable and fun.

That's probably the secret then. Big Bicycle needs to copy Big Flatscreen TV. They need to get Big Home Decorating Magazine to have lots of photo shots with bicycles in the back ground. Today Big Home Decorating Mgazine, tomorrow the world! Have any of you looked inside one of those lately? Yeah you have, if you're married. I've seen grown men flinch at the very sight of them.

I think all you have to add to a bike is a remote. Anything with a remote sells like hotcakes.

Is it possible that one day a big company like Trek or Cannondale advertises on TV like car manufacturers do? Every single car ad is about freedom and the fun of driving. You see them driving at high speed, sometimes in empty cities. I'd love to see a bike ad showing a bit more reality and how a bike can provide real freedom and practicality.

I've often wondered about this, and this is one of the ways I think bicycles can become "part of the picture". But I'm sure it's been considered before and struck down as too cost prohibitive. There probably isn't enough money to be made in bicycles to make a nationwide TV ad campaign feasible. If such a campaign were launched, the price of bicycles would increase, making it even less likely for consumers to plop down money for an item they were ambivalent about in the first place.

LOVE It, both posts, TVs as opposed to Bikes,perfect contrast. I have a huge TV, I don't watch it much , I have it because nobody would buy it when I decided to move,too old they said, it was 4 at the time. Seinfeld, when I did watch TV had that Klein hangin'-up in the back-ground, visible in every episode.
In at least one show,he eluded to the fact he never rode it. A few months back, a dude bought a Cinelli out-from-under-me, when I asked :"too bad, just think,a man my size just beat me to it,why not a 57cm"
The seller replied: "The size had nothing to do with it, he was a rich guy from the valley, he's hanging it, just the frame,on his wall" for decoration because it looked cool,like fine art.

Me too! I've picked up several older bikes with less than one mile per year of average use. One '73 varsity with brake pads which had never even touched a moving rim, a '68 Raleigh three speed in the same condition, an '86 Schwinn Sierra with no detectable wear on the stock tires, and a late '90's Allez with no signs of use.
I think most bikes are like flat screen TV's... Take one home, hang it on the wall for a while, and throw it away when it starts looking obsolete.