A Bike for the Masses?

I've occasionally thought (usually while trying to tune up some 60 lbs Wal-Monster bike with useless suspension and barely-functional brakes) that using today's manufacturing technology, it should be possible to build a reliable, repairable, no-frills bicycle that would retail for $100-150, making it accessible to low-income workers and poor students who need inexpensive, reliable transportation. It wouldn't be a high-performance machine or anything beautiful, but it would work and it would be repairable when it broke down. I would also recommend a range of accessories such as racks, lights and fenders that could be sold as aftermarket add-ons.

What it WOULDN'T be is an attempt to emulate some sort of "extreme" dowhill racing bike, with crappy suspension or poorly-designed disc brakes. Much of the investment in the typical big-box bike goes to making it look cool, as opposed to being reliable.

The big obstacle would be in creating a cheap bike that's meant as Basic Transportation, rather than being meant as a toy. Part of the reason that Big Box bikes are so unnecessarily flashy is that they're built as toys rather than useful objects. 


These bikes could be sold through bike shops or online. Preferably at a local bike shop, which would be able to easily maintain and upgrade a no-frills machine. If I were to design such a thing, here's where I would start:

Frame- Welded, straight-guage Hi-ten steel, in a fairly upright geometry. I'd keep sizing simple and one-size-fits-many. A smaller bike with 26-inch wheels in a men's and ladies' frame, and a larger bike with 700c wheels in a men's and ladies' frame. It'd have stamped semi-horizontal dropouts like an old cheap ten-speed, and eyelet holes in the dropout for mounting racks and fenders. No need for threaded eyelets, which would add money to tap, aftermarket accessories can be attached with nuts and bolts. American bottom bracket for one-piece cranks.
Fork- Rigid hi-ten with non-threaded eyelet holes for fenders. 1" threaded steer tube.
Wheels- aluminum single-wall rims, 36-spoke with bolt on hubs. 7[speed freewheel rear
Tires- generic semi-slick in 26" or 700c
Handlebars- straight mountain-style bars attached to a long threaded stem for maximum adjustability
Seat- Generic, moderate foam padding over a plastic shell. Use a straight seatpost (long as possible for max height adjustment) with a separate clamp to save costs
Brakes - this is a toss-up. I was going to say stamped sidepull calipers, because they're cheap yet can be made to work, but it seems like linear-pull brakes ("v-brakes") are becoming generic and cheap enough to be cost-effective, and offer better wet-weather stopping power even in their low-end forms
Drivetrain - Single 42-tooth front chainring, 7-speed rear with gripshift


A few bike companies offer an upscale version of this, but usually an aluminum frame, cartridge bottom-bracket, suspension seatpost and a few other frills make them more expensive. If this bike were made with the same production quality as the average big-box Huffy, it would be useable and way cheaper. It'd weigh a ton, and you might never love it, but you'd get to work on time.

Cheap, reliable transportation can mean the difference between a job and no job for a lot of folks, and with stagnant wages and rising fuel costs, the personal car is starting to become an unaffordable luxury to even the lower middle class. In coming years, the humble bicycle will be the most effective and democratic way of getting around for more and more of the population, and a decent cheap bike should be within anyone's reach.

What's That Cost?

Since I'm out on my bike all the time these days, I tend to run into other transportation cyclists a lot. Some of these folks are riding because they prefer it to driving, some because they can't afford to drive, and some because, for whatever reason, they no longer have a driver's license. Oddly enough, they all seem to want to talk about the same thing: the cost of our respective bikes.
I had one fellow corner me at a bike rack outside of a Target and subject me to a lengthy lecture about how much he paid for his bike, what the actual retail price was, what the price of the bike was the model year before and after, and what the cost of the other bikes he was considering buying at the time. Then he, of course, asked me how much my bike cost. "Um... I'm not really sure," I mumbled, "I got it on closeout, but swapped a lot of parts and stuff around." This didn't really satisfy him, so I eventually just said, "five-hundred dollars," which elicited a knowing nod and a "not bad" from him.
I didn't quite get it, but it seems to be a common thing. I mentioned it to my boss at the bike shop, and he said last time he and his wife were grabbing coffee after a Sunday ride, the same thing happened (the woman who approached them bragging that she had a "ten thousand dollar bike," which was only off in his estimation by about $9,000).
I'm really not sure how much my bike, as I'm riding it, cost. I know how much the MSRP was, and how much I paid for it when I bought it, but I swapped out a lot of parts, added some things, used some old parts I had lying around, got some stuff from a friend... you get the idea. I could probably tally it all up, but I don't actually care.
I guess it's another case of folks wanting to use their transportation as status symbols. After all, if you're driving an Escalade, everyone knows you spent a certain amount on it, but if you're riding around on a mountain bike, there's the very real danger that people might not realize that it cost you lots of money!
Yeah, it's kind of stupid. I figure even the most expensive add-ons to my bike, like the high-powered headlight for night commutes cost less than a tankful of gas for my old truck, and everything I've done to it serves a purpose.
A more interesting thing to me, in terms of cost/use/etc is to look at what I've worn out since I started using a bike as my main transport almost four months ago. I estimate I've got between 1,500 and 2,000 miles on the bike now (a cyclocomputer doesn't count as a necessity, so my "broke commuter" logic says I can't afford one), and have worn out, lost or broken the following:

A pair of pedals
Two sets of grips
Three inner tubes
Two sets of brake pads
One chain
One kickstand
Two water bottles
One bell
Two taillights
One headlight
One spoke

This is more interesting to me than what the bike cost, or what it weighs (another meaningless question that comes up a lot, the answer is "depends on what's in the saddlebag"), because it's both a tally of the real operating cost of the bike, and a mark of how much use (and care, I fix stuff when it's worn out or broken more diligently than I ever have on a car) my current vehicle gets.

What's it mean? I don't know. It means I'm riding my bike, I guess that's all.