If you want to know how increasing bike prices have affected cyclists, consider this. It is not so long ago that a group of cyclists with nothing better to do would discuss their ‘dream garage’ – the bikes they’d like to own. This was usually several bikes. A university friend wanted 14, to include two identical time trial bikes which he planned to use alternately so that they’d wear out more slowly. He was going to have them in different colours so he could tell the difference, and when we suggested he get one and paint it a different colour on each side, he got very cross and stormed out of the pub.
No one now can afford to dream quite that big. The same discussion in a pub or cafe these days is about a single dream bike. Even in our wildest fantasies, that’s all we feel able to shoot for.
