> If you're like most people, you probably bike once every few months
If you're like most Americans. In much of Europe, cycling is seen primarily as a mode of transport rather than a leisure activity. Rohloff's target customer rides several thousand kilometres a year, often because cycling is their sole mode of transport or because they live long-term as a cycle tourist.
There's a term in the bicycle trade, "Bicycle Shaped Object". It refers to bicycles built as cheaply as possible for exactly the customer you have in mind - people who ride a few times a year, usually buying a bike on impulse at a supermarket. Most BSOs are built to such a poor standard that they are unsafe to ride in traffic and will last no more than a few hundred kilometres.
To a lot of people in the bike business, the BSO represents everything they loathe in the world. The bicycle is a machine of pure liberation - a mode of transport that is practically free, that prolongs your life, that doesn't harm the environment and that helps you better engage with the world around you. The BSO crudely imitates the bicycle, selling a vision of freedom and health to people who will never experience either.
I'm not a leftist, in fact my politics border on Thatcherism, but I believe that business exists to serve humanity and not vice-versa. We get the sort of business we demand. Personally, I prefer businesses that treat their employees properly and do right by their customers, that value sustainability and longevity, that seek to serve their community. Rohloff care about cycling and see profit as something that allows them to continue doing what they love. If that isn't worthy of admiration then stop the world, I want to get off.
If you're like most Americans. In much of Europe, cycling is seen primarily as a mode of transport rather than a leisure activity. Rohloff's target customer rides several thousand kilometres a year, often because cycling is their sole mode of transport or because they live long-term as a cycle tourist.
There's a term in the bicycle trade, "Bicycle Shaped Object". It refers to bicycles built as cheaply as possible for exactly the customer you have in mind - people who ride a few times a year, usually buying a bike on impulse at a supermarket. Most BSOs are built to such a poor standard that they are unsafe to ride in traffic and will last no more than a few hundred kilometres.
To a lot of people in the bike business, the BSO represents everything they loathe in the world. The bicycle is a machine of pure liberation - a mode of transport that is practically free, that prolongs your life, that doesn't harm the environment and that helps you better engage with the world around you. The BSO crudely imitates the bicycle, selling a vision of freedom and health to people who will never experience either.
I'm not a leftist, in fact my politics border on Thatcherism, but I believe that business exists to serve humanity and not vice-versa. We get the sort of business we demand. Personally, I prefer businesses that treat their employees properly and do right by their customers, that value sustainability and longevity, that seek to serve their community. Rohloff care about cycling and see profit as something that allows them to continue doing what they love. If that isn't worthy of admiration then stop the world, I want to get off.