"ryancycles" <ryancycles@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:c81c6b23-6b37-4b72-ae41-75522711f833@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Just to give people a rough idea of the costs involved in building
> bikes.
> It's been quite a few years, but if I remember correctly the total
> cost of parts and materials for the Vanguard was about $700.
> Welding per frame $40, welding per seat frame $30 Paint $80 ****pping
> boxes $6 manufacturers liability insurance $50.
> So before such things as rent, electricity, heat, telephone, argon gas
> for the tig welder, etc. we had $906 into the bike. Labor costs? I
> don't really know. Excluding the costs for welding the frames that we
> paid a free lance welder for as mentioned above, we probably had about
> 20-25 hours into each bike.
> The bike required a lot more labor because of the additional
> complexity of the underseat steering. My typical work day started at
> about 8am, worked till about 2pm, took a nap for an hour. Worked again
> till about 11pm, usually standing at the milling machine making parts
> for the afore mentioned steering stuff. Went to the local watering
> hole and drank beer and shot pool till about 1am.
> I should mention that when we sold the company to Mr. Peek part of the
> agreement was that if he couldn't build and sell as many bikes as we
> did we would get the company back. Even with their space age facility
> and six people working they couldn't build as many bikes as we, (my
> son and I and our part time welder) could. Mr. Peek was no stranger to
> bicycle building and was building tandems when he bought our company.
> He was and is a very successful businessman in such diverse fields as
> manufacturing high tech wheelchairs and dragsters and as I have
> mentioned before has done a great job with the bikes he is now
> building. But at the beginning he felt he could successfully build the
> bike here at a reasonable cost and found that he couldn't.
> As I've mentioned before the basic Idea was to find a company that
> could manfacture the bike at lower cost. Obviously I failed. Probably
> because of all that beer drinking and pool shooting I did.
>
> Dick Ryan
Well, the above is quite a litany. Obviously you needed a cheaper way to
build a frameset. But the interesting thing from my perspective is how did
you think you would ever be able to sell such expensive contraptions. The
number of folks who will spend upwards of $2000. on a bicycle are few and
far between. I must admit that I eventually worked my way into that price
range myself, but I resented having to spend that much money to get what I
wanted.
In the early days of re***bency there were several small manufacturers who
built relatively cheap re***bents. They too never sold well which
convinced
me there was no market for such bikes. Your Ryan re***bents were for a
niche
market from the beginning and never had a chance in hell of ever gaining a
large market. There is nothing wrong with that but, please, do not blame
any
of your woes on the lowly bike shop owners and employees.
Regards,
Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota
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