Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Topic started by: woollypigs on 31 May, 2008, 10:51:21 pm
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I have now done a few cycle trainings and bike checks, and I'm very shocked. I wonder how a parent can just let their kid ride around on these piles of junk.
I understand that it is their money and often they are not willing to spend a lot on something that the kid probably is going to grow out of if they do not break it before.
The service I had to do on these BSOs that weigh more than the kid, with little or no brakes, flat tyres, loose headsets, dented wheels with loose hub cones, and you are lucky if you can change the gears.
I wonder how I and others can tell the parents that a second hand bicycle would be so much better than the < £50 BSOs you can get on the high street. And teach them some simple maintenance so that the kid is not riding around on (dare I say it) a death trap.
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It does not have to be children on UN maintained BSO's.
I have had a few adults arrive for training on bits of metal that do not qualify to be even BSO's. Only 1 brake working, flat, split tyres etc.
Then there are the teenagers who insist on having their knees around their ears as they pedal, and then want a rest after 20 mins as their legs are tired.
Never mind if we all keep trying then things have to get better.
Geoff
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Afraid to say that a lot think that a £50 spent at Argos means it's a top end bike.
I guess we are all guilty in the same respect when buying things we don't fully understand, but when you see kids arrive at Doctor Bikes with these awful machines and normally to top it all a badly fitted helmet I do weep.
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Better education of parents?
Or don't people fix things anymore so don't know how it should be when its working well?
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Badly fitted helmet are not just newbies I have seen a few roadies with theirs on backwards. And even saw one today and I wonder how it stayed on his head.
Don't get me wrong but I don't think we should educate parents as I see as it common sense to check up on your equipment. You are using something and therefore you should periodically check if it works. Especially when you are talking about something that could cause you serious harm if not working probably. But then again we should educate people how dangerous it is when the bicycle is not road worthy.
But unfortunately people can't be arsed and therefore just let it run into the ground and get a new one when the old is broken.
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When I used to instruct and examine the National Cycling Proficiency scheme in the early 1980s, it was no different.
I remember one child turning up on a "Universal" cycle, which in those days were manufactured just outside Southend (Southend United still has a Universal Cycles stand. I've never seen a bike in it though). It was a folding bike and had been put together so carefully that the wheels didn't revolve in the same plane!
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It's not just old BSOs that are worn out that are the problem.
A friend of mine just bought a new one from Halfrauds, but was having some problems so was thinking of taking it back for a service. I saved him the effort by giving it a full going over in 5 minutes.
The brakes were lethal (levers touched the bars before they fully bit), gears were badly adjusted, etc.
It was in a state that a new bike should never have been in - a new bike that had then had approx 1,000 miles on the clock maybe, but not a bike that was almost straight out of the shop >:(
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It's a bit like people turning up at my lessons with £10 Argos plastic skates, and then wondering why the other people with decent skates do one push and roll for 10 meters. Decent recreational skates cost between £80-£250, my top shelf custom carbon speedskates cost quite a bit more!!!
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It's very often kids turn up at Go-Ride with parts that need adjusting or a simple fix but the instructor is not allowed to fix it because if they then break and are injured they can sue him.
The other day some kid was riding on the road with nothing but a bare rim on his back wheel, no tyre. I have also seen a bike painted with wall paint and BMXs with no brakes. And when I rode into school the other day some girl said "I like cycling, I've got a really good bike, it was £69 from Tescos and it has 18 gears".
My Dad lent my cousins two of our bikes: he had picked them up cheap at a boot sale and given them both good Dia Compe brakes and adjusted them up for us, then when we grew out of them they wanted them. After six months we visited and took the bikes to the park. All the tyres were practically flat, everything had rusted, the brakes had seized up and the gears wouldn't work, all because it had been left out. They didn't have helmets either. :(
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One problem may be that people don't necessarily want to give or receive a secondhand birthday or Christmas present - which is what most kids' bikes are. Same goes for any perceived "cheap" product.
So you get (if you're lucky) £100 of landfill* bike instead of a quite reasonable £100 secondhand machine that was £400 new and still works just as well as it did then.
*they may recycle the frame these days, if anyone can be bothered to take the bits off it, but I expect they just get crushed and buried.
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I've had similar experiences. Best was a brand new bike from Halfrauds that was clearly too small for the child. On being so informed, the mother demanded to know what WE were going to about it for her!
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My nephews birthday tomorrow so I had the great pleasure of building one of these (http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-0926.aspx) tonight. ::-)
How can something so small be so heavy?
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A couple of months ago my mum hit a teenager who came flying out of a give way at night on a bike with brakes that didn't work and no lights. He was ok apart from a sore elbow (she insisted on driving him to A&E to be checked over), actually the metal they make Fiat Puntos from is so soft that the car was more damaged with a dented wing and a broken hubcap. She was really upset by it even though he apologised and said it was his fault, it's still not nice to hit someone and she felt bad for a while.
My very first little bike was a shiny and new Raleigh from Father Christmas, but when I grew out of it the rest were secondhand and I was fine with this, the fact that they were 'boy's bikes' didn't faze me. My grandad was the car boot sale king and they often came from there.
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A few years ago that happened to me too, lucky we were both moving at slow speed. I was stuck on the A305 (south circular in London) and he just wanted to cross the road on his BSO, right out between standing pedestrians waiting for little green man. Even though he pretty much landed on his feet (he must be a skater or ride bmx on track/ramp) as he did some fancy falling/landing :) It took me some time before I was over the shock of hitting someone else.
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There is a major issue here of total non comprehension.
To you guys and gals a bike is a highly important and complex machine. One to be treated with care and dare I say it at times love.
To the rest of the world it's "a bike" an item that usually has problems, is to be thrown to the floor for parking and discarded like a used tissue.
And you really expect people to care?
Shen
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I agree with you on most of these points, it's a toy, kids will trow it around, forget it etc. Though still it is something that they take out on the roads.
Growing up as a kid *) if I was somewhere and someone saw that my brakes etc were broken they would let me know, then they either tried to fix it or found someone who could. My folks and others made it very clear that I could not ride a bike that was in bad shape.
I don't know if it is because of foolhardiness or the "throw away" society we are living in now that is the reason and therefore we don't care for ourselves and others anymore.
*) yes I had an interest in mechanics and liked to mend my bike and therefore took a bit more care in fixing my bike.
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There is a major issue here of total non comprehension.
To you guys and gals a bike is a highly important and complex machine. One to be treated with care and dare I say it at times love.
Exactly. If I set you all off on a quest to buy a chainsaw, I bet I'd laugh at what you bought. You'd be standing there rather puzzled with your £80 prize wondering what I was laughing about. A Mcculloch, ha ha, with a 20" bar ....on that engine...ha ha, cheap oil too...ha ha won't last long...good for cutting tissue paper.
If you sent me off to buy something that you understood really well and I didn't, then I would probably make the same mistake. I might not, because I do research any non-trivial purchase pretty carefully, but I'm a bit anal like that.
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I'd laugh at what you bought...
We trust shopkeepers to tell us what we should buy, esepcially if it's something we don't understand. Shopkeepers are friendly - and they ask us how much we want to spend. Enthusiasts come over all enthusiastic and tell us we need to spend loads of money. They're a bit *too* into their hobby. They're just not rational.
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Most people wouldn't understand the benefits of a SON hub which costs more than the average bike, and then needs to be built into a wheel, making the total cost about twice that of the average bike.
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I think the difference in Roger's example is that a SON hub, built into the wheel of the rider's choice is a specialist bit of kit for the enthusiast. A shimano hub on a higher priced commuter that comes with the hub and lights already installed is a more realistic option for those who are not that interested in cycling, but want a decent commuter. LED lights are more like the sort of thing most people would buy. And frankly for most, they would be crazy to spend over ten times the price of an adequate set of LED lights.
People don't understand bikes. Few people understand the difference between the bits on a £70 supermarket special and £200 for a reasonable cheap hybrid. They just think that the £70 bike is a bargain.
If you were to translate it into car terms and describe them as a BMW, Mondeo and whatever is the equivalent of a Yugo these days, then people would understand what they are paying for.
There is an old guy around here who cycles round on a straight barred Eddison that has some very well worn Carradice luggage. I would bet that people think that it is a cheap old thing rather than the custom built Rolls Royce of a machine that it probably is.
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There is a major issue here of total non comprehension.
To you guys and gals a bike is a highly important and complex machine. One to be treated with care and dare I say it at times love.
Exactly. If I set you all off on a quest to buy a chainsaw, I bet I'd laugh at what you bought. You'd be standing there rather puzzled with your £80 prize wondering what I was laughing about. A Mcculloch, ha ha, with a 20" bar ....on that engine...ha ha, cheap oil too...ha ha won't last long...good for cutting tissue paper.
If you sent me off to buy something that you understood really well and I didn't, then I would probably make the same mistake. I might not, because I do research any non-trivial purchase pretty carefully, but I'm a bit anal like that.
that depends on the spec you give. If you say 'a chainsaw' then you have no right to laugh as an 80 quid B&Q special fulfills that spec. If you want a durable one with certain capacity etc. then you could laugh if the obtained solution doesn't meet the spec.
'I want a bike to ride to work on'. A BSO is fine if it is flat and not far. A ten mile round trip and it would be inappropriate.
Just like chainsaws. A B&Q special would do 99% of what I need. Just like my McCulloch (or is it Pro wotsit) hedge trimmer. It seems a bit tired now - after three or four years of ownership and 20-30 hours use max it is probably time to service it. (It was starting to cut out after the last trim.) The only maintenance it has had is some bog standard engine oil on the blades and refuelling.
..d
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yup
and my mcculloch only has to work for about 20 mins at a time - enough to cut some logs into round bits to stack and dry. My back, combined with my workspace and regard for the neighbours won't allow any greater length of time. Still though, I remember being inordinately proud of my first 'real' bike bought second/third hand, and it simply inspired me to want to do more and do it better (still waiting for that bit....)
But bikes seem like 'stuff' to lots of kids these days and 'stuff' oozes out of every pore of their life. Harks back to the living simply/getting rid of possessions thread somewhere. A bike requires imagination and ambition to turn into the mysterious creature of wotsit that it is to (probably) most of us here.
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£100 bikes have five problems I can think of:
1) Heavy
2) Gears rarely index properly, because they don't use a proper freewheel with the ramps and cutouts
3) Brakes are usually very weak and hard to set up (plastic V-brakes, anybody?)
4) Hubs and other bearings don't stand up to water or mud because of non-existent seals and poor greasing
5) All the components rust quickly, due to the use of cheap pressed steel rather than aluminium alloy.
Thankfully chromed steel rims - which should come with a "do not use this bicycle in the wet" warning- have died out on all but the worst landfill fodder.
For flattish use in the summer, £100 bikes are probably OK, but for year-round cycling with any hills, you need to think about something better - or secondhand.
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Todays session :
BSO #1
Brake pads gone, flat tyres, brake leavers and saddle in the wrong position, gears working just fine (shocking)
Fixed it all, set the saddle to fit trainee and made the BSO road worthy.
BSO #2
Back brake cable not looking good but brake worked, missing front brake (broken off), flat tyres, tyres well worn down, needs replacing very soon back derailleur not working as it was broken of along with the front brake.
Told trainee that a trip to LBS would be a very good idea if trainee wanted to come back next week to start the course. As I could not have accept the trainee on the course today.
BSO #3
Bottom bracket very loose, brakes just about working, flat tyres, saddle way too high (a first), back wheel very out of tune, most gears working, head set loose.
Fixed breaks, lowered the saddle as it was over max, pumped tyres, managed to tune the back wheel in road worth shape. Told trainee to start dropping hints for a birthday pressie in Sept. as the BSO was way too small for trainee. The BSO make road worthy.
BSO #4
Brand new BSO, break just about working, gears working, bottom bracket loose.
Adjusted brakes, tighten the bottom bracket and made the BSO road worthy.
BSO #5
Brakes levers in the wrong position, seat too low, back brakes not working, head set loose.
Head set could not be fixed, told trainee to bring the BSO to the LBS to get it fixed and that the trainee couldn't join us on todays course.
Out of 5 BSO's I managed to make 3 road worthy, but only ended up with 2 trainees as one decided that cycle training was not something the trainee wanted to do.
And that is just a typical day in the office, must of these things could be fixed by a parent or a quick trip to the LBS or just some simple TLC, oh well.
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I wonder how many non-enthusiast parents understand how to take a bike apart? I practised on a succession of nasty cheap bikes, but I made a lot of mistakes; diving down a steep hill with really loose front hub cones gives interesting cornering.
I still haven't figured out how to remove the wheels on Mrs Z's bike; the front has a QR for the axle and the roller brake cable, but the rear has those and a torque arm.
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I haven't a clue, if certain members of this forum aren't available it is off to the LBS. I guess I do know enough to know when it's wrong though.
Keep at it Mr W, you'll have your reward in heaven :)
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It can be quite amazing how difficult people seem to find what seems fairly basic mechanics on bikes. I work with people who are generally qualified to at least Degree level in Physics (or something very similar), many of them are Drs, and it's amazing how difficult some of them find it to do something simple like adjust brakes. I don't mean get out the tools necessarily, on one bike I could make the brakes work adequately using the cable adjusters, which aren't exactly rocket science (<cough> ;D).
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that depends on the spec you give. If you say 'a chainsaw' then you have no right to laugh as an 80 quid B&Q special fulfills that spec. If you want a durable one with certain capacity etc. then you could laugh if the obtained solution doesn't meet the spec.
'I want a bike to ride to work on'. A BSO is fine if it is flat and not far. A ten mile round trip and it would be inappropriate.
Just like chainsaws. A B&Q special would do 99% of what I need. Just like my McCulloch (or is it Pro wotsit) hedge trimmer. It seems a bit tired now - after three or four years of ownership and 20-30 hours use max it is probably time to service it. (It was starting to cut out after the last trim.) The only maintenance it has had is some bog standard engine oil on the blades and refuelling.
The whole point is that for most people, the only specification of "bike" is "a bike". Most of the shops they see sell rubbish bikes, but for them that is "a bike". Remember that this bike will be left outside, they know it will be stolen, and maintenance will be minimal. Why should it be anything else?
Indeed, your pro-wotsit illustrates the example perfectly. You went out and bought something that you didn't know that much about and probably didn't care about that much because all you wanted to do was cut the hedge. So you went to a shop and bought the thing based on price (they are cheap....). Now to someone familiar with these things, you made an awful mistake: it is heavier than it needs to be, vibrates more than it has to and uses more fuel than necessary. To cap it all, it is starting to perform badly after 3 years - my favourite saw was bought in 1997, has cut down and blocked up literally hundreds of trees with a similar maintenance programme to yours. However, it works for you, and that is all that matters.
It is just familarity. We are familiar with bikes, and know about options that most people wouldn't even begin to comprehend. I'd be just the same in er, a fashion shop or going to buy a musical instrument.
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Now this pains me greatly to say this, but ...
maybe the fixie crowd have a point.
Actually, single-speeds make more sense. But my point is that a mid-quality, very simple bike will work better than a cheap 21-speed full-susser. Especially after a careless "user" has left it out in the rain and crashed it a few times. A wiser writer than me once observed something like "ALL kids bikes end up as single-speed clunkers".
Mr W could fix a lot of ineligible bikes by shortening the chain and chucking the gear paraphernalia (a loose bottom bracket can become ridable if you don't have a front changer).
The Royal Mail don't choose their bikes at random.
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My next-door-neighbour-but-one is 'something in the City'. He drives a beautiful aston martin, earns several squillion quids a day and is a very nice chap. He asked me to help him set up his sons birthday bike last autumn - it was a 60 quid full suspension Apollo job from Halfords.
I helped him set it up, then showed him it weighed quite a lot more than my mtb, pointed out that I'm about 3 feet taller & ten stone heavier than his son and suggested looking at islabikes...
his son loved the halfords bike but I havent seen him riding it in about 3 months :(
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that depends on the spec you give. If you say 'a chainsaw' then you have no right to laugh as an 80 quid B&Q special fulfills that spec. If you want a durable one with certain capacity etc. then you could laugh if the obtained solution doesn't meet the spec.
'I want a bike to ride to work on'. A BSO is fine if it is flat and not far. A ten mile round trip and it would be inappropriate.
Just like chainsaws. A B&Q special would do 99% of what I need. Just like my McCulloch (or is it Pro wotsit) hedge trimmer. It seems a bit tired now - after three or four years of ownership and 20-30 hours use max it is probably time to service it. (It was starting to cut out after the last trim.) The only maintenance it has had is some bog standard engine oil on the blades and refuelling.
The whole point is that for most people, the only specification of "bike" is "a bike". Most of the shops they see sell rubbish bikes, but for them that is "a bike". Remember that this bike will be left outside, they know it will be stolen, and maintenance will be minimal. Why should it be anything else?
Indeed, your pro-wotsit illustrates the example perfectly. You went out and bought something that you didn't know that much about and probably didn't care about that much because all you wanted to do was cut the hedge. So you went to a shop and bought the thing based on price (they are cheap....). Now to someone familiar with these things, you made an awful mistake: it is heavier than it needs to be, vibrates more than it has to and uses more fuel than necessary. To cap it all, it is starting to perform badly after 3 years - my favourite saw was bought in 1997, has cut down and blocked up literally hundreds of trees with a similar maintenance programme to yours. However, it works for you, and that is all that matters.
It is just familarity. We are familiar with bikes, and know about options that most people wouldn't even begin to comprehend. I'd be just the same in er, a fashion shop or going to buy a musical instrument.
The alternative in this situation is to hire. I would not buy a decent hedge trimmer because it would be cheaper to pay someone to do the work. I paid about 100GBP, overall it is probably equivalent to the hire of a decent one, and that is what I will do when this one dies. Though I may do something smart like check the plug to see what it looks like.
And yes, it is heavy, it doesn't vibrate too much, but it is starting to feel a bit loose in places. Good upper body workout (25m of hedge later).
..d
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Well I tried told the parent not to get a full suss BSO, and what did he get junior. Something that is heavier than jr and bound to fall apart soon.
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I think I may have just encountered someone like this. I've just been on a little sortie into Wimbledon to get a couple of last minute bits. As I was locking up my bike a middle aged lady on a Trek Hybrid tugged me about her rear brake. The cable was detached from the cable stop on the downtube and flapping like a spinnaker. She was convinced I was winding her up when I referred to the noodle.
Anyway, I sorted it out for her and she said 'perhaps I'd better take it into a bike shop'. I asked her when she last had it serviced and the answer was never, as she'd only had the bike for four years. No rush then love. ::-)
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Just saw a bike box in the recycling in our block of flats. 69.99 disc brakes and full suspension girls 8-10 y/o bike. :sick:
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I get this with my brother too.
Every time I visit him, which isn't that often, just a few times a year, I am asked to fix his bike. Every time he has "another bike." He cycles about 10 miles a day to work and back on a BSO. Every time I visit him, his wheel bearings and BB bearings nd cones are serverely worn. I stripped a wheel down once and showed him all the sparkly stuff in the bearings. "Thats metal that is," I told him. I showed him where it was coming from and told him that it also accelerates the wear rate of his bearings. I told him that the bike I used to get myself to his house, about 100 miles away, cost me £250 second hand, has done at least 50,000 miles, was over 10 years old, has had about £300 worth of replacement parts, some of which are still going strong, is still working very well and will last for much longer. Then I ask him how many "cheap" bikes he's bought in the last few years and ask him how much they all cost. I then ask him if he want me to build him bike that will last for about 10 years and need hardly any maintenance and have as low a running cost as possible (he'll never bang the miles out like I do so that wouldn't be too difficult)
He's just unwilling to spend the money on what I assume he thinks is,"just a bike." I know that he has the money but he just won't spend it on a bike, which he needs to get to work. ???
I refuse to help him now. He asked for my help and I've tol him what to do. It's up to him to help himself now. I'll help him pick a bike, but I won't bother repairing his worn out tat. Or I might just treat him to a decent bike if I see a good bargain.
I've nothing against BSOs. If I never had a stock of old bike bits that are close to their end, I would have one myself for popping to the shops and leaving out of sight. But I have a knackered old fixer for that, which gives a much better ride than a BSO.
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Excellent post above, TG.
I think you would make a fine columnist :)
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Its weird. When I was a kid with a paper round in the late 70s I was saving up for a Raleigh 10 speed racer. Not a fancy Team Raleigh one just a basic Raleigh. It was £110 pounds I remember as I had the picture and price on the wall. If a basic mas manufactured 10 speed bike cost £110 in 1979 then considering that a pint cost 30p back then and cost £2.50 now there is no way you scan make one for £80 now. I know we have CNC lathes and all sort of automation now but still that's a ridiculous decrease in price in real terms for something that is still essentially welded up from steel or alloy by human hands. It amazes me that you can get a decent bike for £250 which you can.
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Had a trainee last week, 10 years old, with a bike which front was heavier than mine, he could not do the signalling because he could not control/lift his bike. And they live in Dollis Hill, that give you an idea how stupid that is.
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Its weird. When I was a kid with a paper round in the late 70s I was saving up for a Raleigh 10 speed racer. Not a fancy Team Raleigh one just a basic Raleigh. It was £110 pounds I remember as I had the picture and price on the wall. If a basic mas manufactured 10 speed bike cost £110 in 1979 then considering that a pint cost 30p back then and cost £2.50 now there is no way you scan make one for £80 now. I know we have CNC lathes and all sort of automation now but still that's a ridiculous decrease in price in real terms for something that is still essentially welded up from steel or alloy by human hands. It amazes me that you can get a decent bike for £250 which you can.
Raleigh bikes were probably made in England in those days. Or at least the components were European and well made. They were probably well made bikes, allthough not top notch.
Nowadays the BSOs are mass produced in China and made much more cheaply.
A Raleigh Road Ace was about £300 in 1983.
The equivelent now, Dawes Super Galaxy is about £1000, so in theory a cheap £110 Raleigh of 1983 would cost about £330 in today's money. Which would buy you a bike which is about the same quality as a 1983 cheap Raleigh.
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Its weird. When I was a kid with a paper round in the late 70s I was saving up for a Raleigh 10 speed racer. Not a fancy Team Raleigh one just a basic Raleigh. It was £110 pounds I remember as I had the picture and price on the wall. If a basic mas manufactured 10 speed bike cost £110 in 1979 then considering that a pint cost 30p back then and cost £2.50 now there is no way you scan make one for £80 now. I know we have CNC lathes and all sort of automation now but still that's a ridiculous decrease in price in real terms for something that is still essentially welded up from steel or alloy by human hands. It amazes me that you can get a decent bike for £250 which you can.
Raleigh bikes were probably made in England in those days. Or at least the components were European and well made. They were probably well made bikes, allthough not top notch.
Nowadays the BSOs are mass produced in China and made much more cheaply.
A Raleigh Road Ace was about £300 in 1983.
The equivelent now, Dawes Super Galaxy is about £1000, so in theory a cheap £110 Raleigh of 1983 would cost about £330 in today's money. Which would buy you a bike which is about the same quality as a 1983 cheap Raleigh.
I'll go for the £1.00 pint of quality beer ;)
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I was stood outside Maffie's place of work with the tandem when an old gent approached me and explained how he used to cycle a lot.
We had a really nice conversation and one of his remarks was, how much cheaper bikes are these days.
This thread reminded me of that discussion. I think he changed his mind a little when I talked about my experience with cheap bikes.
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I guess one of the problems is that most kids bikes are bought as presents for Christmas or Birthdays, and have to fit into the 'present' price bracket, especially if the bike is perceived as something to have fun on occasionally - a toy, rather than a form of transport.
If you've bought a £75 quid bike, a £25 service is going to look very expensive. Most toys don't require servicing!
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Now this pains me greatly to say this, but ...
maybe the fixie crowd have a point.
Actually, single-speeds make more sense. But my point is that a mid-quality, very simple bike will work better than a cheap 21-speed full-susser.
I agree, but let me tell you about a single-speed of my acquaintance.
On the ground floor of my house is a small tailor's shop. The tailor's assistant (so an adult!) used to cycle to work. Then one day he dumped his MTB in the stairwell. It had no left pedal - just the pedal axle - no front brake lever, a disconnected rear brake cable, and two flat tyres. He left it there for several months, then one day said he was going to repair it and ride it again. Sure enough, it now goes home every evening and reappears in the morning. But his sole repair was to inflate the tyres! So he's still riding round perfectly happily with no brakes and only one pedal.
In fact this isn't so uncommon here - the old-fashioned rod-brake roadsters sseem indestructible (apart from the left pedals...) but they weigh a ton and their brakes never work that well in the first place - and so the other point is that, translating this to Woolly's pupils' parents, this is what they see expected around them. It's simply the way bikes are, the price they cost, and the place they come from - people who aren't particularly interested aren't going to think beyond Tesco or Argos (unless they go to Safeway or e-bay, I suppose!)
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Then I ask him how many "cheap" bikes he's bought in the last few years and ask him how much they all cost.
Reminded me of this bit of Terry Pratchett's wit and wisdom (cut-n-pasted from Wikipedia)
Early in his career, while he is still a nearly-impoverished Watchman, Vimes reflects that he can only afford ten-dollar boots with thin soles which don't keep out the damp and wear out in a season or two. A pair of good boots, which cost fifty dollars, would last for years and years - which means that over the long run, the man with cheap boots has spent much more money and still has wet feet. This thought leads to the general realization that one of the reasons rich people remain rich is because they don't actually have to spend as much money as poor people; in many situations, they buy high-quality items (such as clothing, housing, and other necessities like bikes) which are made to last
Sorry for the delay in replying.
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Ah yes! The "Boot" theory of of socioeconomic unfairness. One of my favourites! :thumbsup:
For anyone who's interested, the full quote is:
The reason the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in the city on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.