Pink helmets and funky baskets?

[Rig of Jarkness]

I have had the misfortune of trying to sort out friends BSOs purchased at that establishment with exactly the same groupsets, brakes and shifters. I stand by my summary above based on this evidence.
On what evidence do you refute my assertion that buying a BSO can put someone off cycling?

Well of course in the light of such strong statistical evidence what more is there to be said ?

And my love of cycling was fostered for many years on machines that Rapha-wearing cycling snobs would term BSOs.

[TimC]

It's probably also fair to say that the pink helmet and funky basket brigade are poorly represented on internet cycling fora.

There are quite a few pink yacf jerseys around and HK has a pink Brompton...

Is this pink enough..? (MrsC's summer bolide)

[Cudzoziemiec]

I haven't ridden VP's bikes but I have seen one. I agree it's a BSO but as to this putting people off cycling, I think it depends where you're coming from. If you're coming down to one from, let us say a Sabbath  , you'll certainly find it horrible. If you're coming up to it from nothing or from a rusting hulk you had as a teenager, you'll find it great. Bikes are much better made, even at the bottom end, now then they were in the past, thanks to alloy rims, V-brakes, light aluminium frames, etc. But if you're switching to a VP from something like a bottom of the range Spesh or Trek hybrid because you like the pastel pink and baby blue, you might well want to switch back again. Or wish major manufacturers made something more 'feminine'.

It would be curious to take a load of bikes belonging to equal numbers of men and women, photograph them, and see whether 'experienced cyclists' (that's YACF!) can tell which ones belong to who.

[Julian]

I got a great heckle the other day riding into town from the passenger in a little blue car.  "Is that a boy or a girl?"  *stops at the lights and looks at my face as I draw level with him*  "Oi!!  You're riding a MAN'S BIKE!!"



It might have been understandable from a small child who's been told that men's frames have crossbars, but the guy who was shouting must have been in his 30s.

[mrcharly]

Wouldn't be seen dead on one. Have you tried one?

If you told my step-daughter that she had to ride a drop-barred bike, or anything that looked like a hybrid/mtb, she'd tell you she would rather walk.

In sept she starts college. She'll be riding there on bike I got her last year. Heavy, single-gear, back-pedal brake, open frame with a basket on front. She loves it.

[iddu]

Is this pink enough..? (MrsC's summer bolide)

IWOOT

[Feline]

Wouldn't be seen dead on one. Have you tried one?

If you told my step-daughter that she had to ride a drop-barred bike, or anything that looked like a hybrid/mtb, she'd tell you she would rather walk.

In sept she starts college. She'll be riding there on bike I got her last year. Heavy, single-gear, back-pedal brake, open frame with a basket on front. She loves it.

You misunderstand me, your step-daughters bike sounds great.

The bike I ride every day is a 2010 Claud Butler hybrid from Evans (my dad bought it for me to replace my BSO which had adorned my garage for the previous 15 years) and is even lilac! It is considerably better quality than the VP Halfrauds offerings but came with crap tyres which would have put some people off cycling. I just replaced them with Marathon+ after the first 20 punctures pissed me off sufficiently. TBH if this were my only bike it wouldn't have really encouraged me to join the CTC and do longer rides. It's great for local sub 10 mile utility use though, and I tend to use it to torture myself so I am faster when I get on a lighter bike 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Is that the one you use for dog walking?

[Feline]

Is that the one you use for dog walking?

Yep, plus trips to the local shops and post office. I can park it outside and not worry too much about it getting pinched 

[Cudzoziemiec]

<Sigh> the days when Claud Butler was a highly desirable name are gone and buried.

[Feline]

<Sigh> the days when Claud Butler was a highly desirable name are gone and buried.

Yeah, I think they are probably now made in China, the brand name having been sold. I do get to ride on a rather splendid vintage Claud Butler tandem from time to time though 

[clarion]

Claud Butler had a stand at the York Rally.  They seemed pretty good last year, and improved this.  Not what they used to be, but back to being decent bikes.

[Wowbagger]

I got a great heckle the other day riding into town from the passenger in a little blue car.  "Is that a boy or a girl?"  *stops at the lights and looks at my face as I draw level with him*  "Oi!!  You're riding a MAN'S BIKE!!"



It might have been understandable from a small child who's been told that men's frames have crossbars, but the guy who was shouting must have been in his 30s.

I hope you told him that you were a man - Charlotte's hubby?

[Rig of Jarkness]

That's a perfectly nice looking bike Feline, well suited to its purpose and no doubt attractive to a certain set of the market.  But the VP bikes are clearly being targeted at those seeking more of a 'heritage' look. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

The Somerby seems to be going for a 'heritage' look, but the Brooke and Dalby look like any other hybrid.

[Feline]

That's a perfectly nice looking bike Feline, well suited to its purpose and no doubt attractive to a certain set of the market.  But the VP bikes are clearly being targeted at those seeking more of a 'heritage' look.

To me these looks no different to the other BSO hybrids they have for sale:



The 'cruiser' you could argue is going for a look, but there are already a heap of 'girly' looking cruisers in their range, the VP branded ones have added nothing new whatsoever.


TBH I think one of the worst aspects of the BSOs for sale is the effect it has on non-cyclists expectations of what proper bikes should cost (and cost to maintain). People are shocked to discover a decent set of puncture resistant tyres can cost half as much as their whole new bike did!

I was once in a position of being totally ignorant of what the effect was of spending under £100 on a brand new bicycle. I bought my BSO from an advert in my parents newspaper for £59.99 including delivery. The selling guff talked about the material the frame was made of in a way that lead me to think it's actually a good thing, and when I read the groupset was made by Shimano (a brand I had heard of) I assumed this meant it would be really good quality. The knobbly tyres sounded like they would give nice grip too. The bike ended up getting very little use and has never been more than 3 miles away from this house.

If I had seen a bike branded by a top female athlete I might have thought that she would have had a say in its design and components and therefore be just what I needed. I might have thought that there was no point increasing my budget since this bike was clearly good enough for VP. If she genuinely wants to increase take up of cycling in women and not just line her pockets then I think putting her name to these bikes is a mistake, personally. I notice the Chris Boardman branded bikes are at the upper end of the Halfords range in spec (and price). Are girls not expected to want decent equipment? Why not use her name and influence to lure women towards bikes they will love?

[Julian]

Yeah, that.

[clarion]

There's nothing wrong with putting her name to models at the lower end of the market for the casual cyclist.  But htey have to have some decent quality.  Boardman bikes are fantastically good value, but mostly for C2W and upwards.

If it were me, I'd get VP to sign up to a range which includes loop framed bikes, but also serious commuting hybrids and even road bikes, so women can get onto an escalator and move up if they want to having developed trust in the brand identity and image.  As it is, I doubt any purchaser would ever go for a second VP bike.  Mind you, once you've bought one bike from Halfords, you might never want to go back, whatever it is.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's not just girls, though; it's just that girls are a new target for this type of bike marketing. When I was about 14 or 15 a mate had an Eddy Merckx branded bike. It was a "racer" with drop bars and chrome forks, because that was the fashion back then, but it was no higher quality for its day than VP's are today. In absolute terms it was lower quality because technology has given us ubiquitous goodies like alloy rims and brakes which stop you when it's raining, and of course indexed gearing, even at the lower end of the market. The only difference is that it was aimed at teenage boys with a big name to sell it. From that point of view, the fact that girls are now deemed worthy of such marketing by bike manufacturers shows they are beginning to be taken seriously as a potential source of cash new cyclists.

[clarion]

That's true enough, and there are any number of examples of big names selling low end tat.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Just to clarify my post above: I'm not saying it's good to sell tat with high end names, just that it does happen and many who fall for it will nevertheless go on to appreciate better stuff (which may or may not have big names). That women are a new-ish market for this kind of dressed-up tat is better than being ignored. So I don't think it reflects badly on Halfords, it's just their marketing style; certainly VP might have done better to put her name to something higher quality, but those drawn in by her glamorous name might well be the YACFers of the future, so to speak.

[Rig of Jarkness]

When I was about 14 or 15 a mate had an Eddy Merckx branded bike. It was a "racer" with drop bars and chrome forks, because that was the fashion back then, but it was no higher quality for its day than VP's are today.

Funnily enough, I had one of those ! Gas pipe tubing, steel rims, steel chainset, suicide auxiliary brake levers.  Weighed a ton, and equipped with 42*52 chainrings and a 14-28 block.  In my ignorance I proudly regarded it as my first 'serious' bike.  Far from putting me off cycling it only encouraged me !