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Accell goes bankrupt
- Thread starter raylo32
- Start date
Apartunis
⚡ Regular
Mergers and acquisitions based companies do not thrive. The real businesses get bought out then stripped of valuable components and larded up with debt. Then they are sold off to poorly informed or oblivious investors. The pirates escape with the loot and everybody else is left with the mostly empty bag.
By the time Huffy bought the Raleigh USA name in 1982 it was already only a symbol and not a legitimate manufacturer. It changed hands a few times after that.
There is no point in paying decent money for a generic crappy Chinese bike featuring a respected trademark when you can pay substantially less for the generic crappy Chinese bike without the respected trademark.
By the time Huffy bought the Raleigh USA name in 1982 it was already only a symbol and not a legitimate manufacturer. It changed hands a few times after that.
There is no point in paying decent money for a generic crappy Chinese bike featuring a respected trademark when you can pay substantially less for the generic crappy Chinese bike without the respected trademark.
raylo32
🚴♂️ Mega poster
Yeah, not just bikes, either. You see stupid informercials all the time that sell cheap crap under famous old brand names like Bell and Howell. I don't know anyone who would actually associate this stuff with a company that expired decades ago, but there we are.
ZIRP during Covid was a good time for the bike industry. Anyone with a pulse could have a successful ebike business. Everything but bicycling and walking was basically illegal for a while there.
The problem is that Americans see bicycles as toys and not transport, they were willing to fork over those stimulus checks for anything they could get their hands on.
Hopefully one day that changes!
raylo32
🚴♂️ Mega poster
Yeah, there are two problems here with the concept of bikes as transport. First the simple issue of theft. Bikes are so easy to steal one needs a very secure place to park and store one at work, at the grocery store, etc. But by far the biggest problem is lack of safe streets and bike infrastructure which combined with a very hostile attitude by a significant number of auto drivers makes commuting dangerous in many if not most instances. And the current "leadership" is a prime example of that what with them literally removing bike lanes in many places and disbanding the Dept. of Transportation organization that was lead on safe streets. I know the person who led that organization and who is now "retired".
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Yes, it feels like USA, from a legal perspective, is designed against every form of transportation other than the car.
Some things are happening now at the federal level but it doesn't move the average much.
I'd abandon all hope that a currently very oil rich nation has any interest in catering to a form of transportation that uses a fraction of the resources. IE, what is currently happening at the federal level.
Much more impact can be had at the state and city level though.
Normally i'd say, just move to a liberal city that's invested in this infrastructure, however those are becoming the most hostile places for right to transport lately.
Parking is a huge problem for me. Business regulations are more lax than usual and a number of businesses don't mind me parking the ebike inside. Other ones, i won't shop at.
Still love the ebike though, and grateful to live in an area with basically no enforcement on speed, because otherwise, without that speed, it's very unsafe to ride in the car lane during the many times that a bike lane randomly appears and disappears.
Some things are happening now at the federal level but it doesn't move the average much.
I'd abandon all hope that a currently very oil rich nation has any interest in catering to a form of transportation that uses a fraction of the resources. IE, what is currently happening at the federal level.
Much more impact can be had at the state and city level though.
Normally i'd say, just move to a liberal city that's invested in this infrastructure, however those are becoming the most hostile places for right to transport lately.
Parking is a huge problem for me. Business regulations are more lax than usual and a number of businesses don't mind me parking the ebike inside. Other ones, i won't shop at.
Still love the ebike though, and grateful to live in an area with basically no enforcement on speed, because otherwise, without that speed, it's very unsafe to ride in the car lane during the many times that a bike lane randomly appears and disappears.
Apartunis
⚡ Regular
Pushing back against the micromobility version of AR15s is not the same as being hostile to rights of transport. I wish they would start with effective measures against micropenis trucks first, but movement in the right direction is still in the right direction.
I was just at the grocery store with my '80s MTB cargo bike pulling a cargo trailer for my reverse osmosis water run and there were four black e-things parked in the rack. Two not great e-bikes and two shitty e-motos with useless pedals and plank seats. While I was finishing my fill up the four honky teenagers assigned to them came out to saddle up. Nothing good will come of that. The fake "bicycles" are just an intermediate step towards the micropenis trucks that come next. It is wildly unlikely that this phase for those kids will result in transportation creativity or social traffic consideration going forward.
raylo32
🚴♂️ Mega poster
Yeah, I love my e-bikes and they have the speed to deal with traffic when needed, but I have opted out from using them as transport. Too much hassle, too dangerous. Instead, I use mine like I use my pedal bikes, for pleasure and exercise rides out in the country roads and the occasional path, like the C&O Towpath. On days when I want to go faster I take the e-bikes. On days when I want to maximize exercise, I take the pedal bikes.
Apartunis
⚡ Regular
Many cars are easy to steal as well. Police and merchants tend to take those things very seriously though, but not bicycles even if they cost more than the poison farting death boxes. Good locking technique that I rarely see in the wild goes a long way. My main theft problems lately have been scumbags subtracting headlights from my bike and/or rifling through my bags for goodies. I am not into lockable hard shell bags but I will do it if I must.
