What's up with Bigha?

In order to remain completely independent, Consumer Reports does not
accept any ads and it costs just $26 a year, less then many magazines
that are ad supported. But then the Consumers Union, who publish CR, is
a nonprofit organization and not out to maximize profits. No publication
that accepts ad revenue can be independent. It couldn't maximize profits
if it was. Because Consumer Reports does not accept ads or free samples,
paying retail for all tested items, it is the most trusted source of
consumer reviews.

If that were even remotely financially possible in the recumbent
world, I'd do it in a second. Collecting ad revenue is by far my
least favorite part of the job.

Bryan J. Ball
www.bentrideronline.com

Larry Varney wrote:
Lorenzo L. Love wrote:

My experience is that not a single reviewer of the Bigha that I have
read says that they will actually pay $3000.00 for one, i.e. not one
thinks it is worth it's price to them. Will you buy one?



I have mentioned before that I have never seen, much less ridden, a
BigHA. So, I have very little to go on, other than the price and
pictures I've seen, to determine whether or not I'll ever buy one.
Additionally, there's the factor that I already have an upright
recumbent and two recumbent trikes. I doubt if I'd buy a Gold Rush for
the same $3000, and it's not because I don't like the Gold Rush so much
as I don't need another bike.
I have seen and ridden a Gold Rush, so that helps me decide not to buy
one right now. I have not seen nor ridden a BigHA. That is the big
determining factor for it.

I've never seen or ridden one either, but that doesn't matter. The point
is, people who HAVE test ridden a Bigha say they would not buy one. My
question is: what knowledgeable recumbent rider would pay $3000.00 for a
Bigha? Anyone?

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand

'BentRider wrote:
In order to remain completely independent, Consumer Reports does not
accept any ads and it costs just $26 a year, less then many magazines
that are ad supported. But then the Consumers Union, who publish CR, is
a nonprofit organization and not out to maximize profits. No publication
that accepts ad revenue can be independent. It couldn't maximize profits
if it was. Because Consumer Reports does not accept ads or free samples,
paying retail for all tested items, it is the most trusted source of
consumer reviews.


If that were even remotely financially possible in the recumbent
world, I'd do it in a second. Collecting ad revenue is by far my
least favorite part of the job.

Bryan J. Ball
www.bentrideronline.com

Perhaps the recumbent market is too small to support an independent
testing organization. Perhaps not. We won't know unless someone tries.
Until then, we have only reviews from people who get their income from
the industry they are reviewing. In no way independent.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand

You've obviously made up your mind on the issue and have no desire to
hear the other side of it.

I'm only one in my own head and I know that I'm fair and honest. That
has to be good enough for me.


Bryan J. Ball
www.bentrideronline.com
Bryan J. Ball
Editor/Publisher
www.bentrideronline.com

I have never tested one or seen one for that matter, but I probably would
buy one. That's one bent I haven't own yet.

Bob (I ride wearing my Rolex because it is durable) Wand


"Lorenzo L. Love" wrote in message
...
Larry Varney wrote:
Lorenzo L. Love wrote:

My experience is that not a single reviewer of the Bigha that I have
read says that they will actually pay $3000.00 for one, i.e. not one
thinks it is worth it's price to them. Will you buy one?



I have mentioned before that I have never seen, much less ridden, a
BigHA. So, I have very little to go on, other than the price and
pictures I've seen, to determine whether or not I'll ever buy one.
Additionally, there's the factor that I already have an upright
recumbent and two recumbent trikes. I doubt if I'd buy a Gold Rush for
the same $3000, and it's not because I don't like the Gold Rush so much
as I don't need another bike.
I have seen and ridden a Gold Rush, so that helps me decide not to buy
one right now. I have not seen nor ridden a BigHA. That is the big
determining factor for it.

I've never seen or ridden one either, but that doesn't matter. The point
is, people who HAVE test ridden a Bigha say they would not buy one. My
question is: what knowledgeable recumbent rider would pay $3000.00 for a
Bigha? Anyone?

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand

Edward Wong wrote:

I'm certain your comment above is just "tongue in cheek", right
Mikael? ;-) Just for clarification purposes, I don't think anyone here
is against "speed". But there are those who are speed over utility
and that is unacceptable. This is alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent...not
rec.bicycles.racing....

Unacceptable? I see no requirement that a.r.b.r. be dedicated only to
utilitarian uses of recumbents. Even those with the strictest
interpretation of what is on topic would accept threads about recumbent
performance that ignored the utilitarian aspects of the bikes under
discussion.

On this discussion, I would not continue to argue with Lorenzo. It's
feeding the troll so to speak. IMHO, it's already time to let this
thread die.

That is rather wimpy. Do you need Mr. Dolan and myself to explain what a
REAL discussion is?

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side)

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:31:58 GMT, "Lorenzo L. Love"
wrote:
I've never seen or ridden one either, but that doesn't matter. The point
is, people who HAVE test ridden a Bigha say they would not buy one. My
question is: what knowledgeable recumbent rider would pay $3000.00 for a
Bigha? Anyone?

Why does it matter to you that the bike doesn't suit the needs and
preferences of the reviewer? Reviews are supposed to provide
subjective information about the strenghts and weaknesses of a
product. If I want to read "I loved it so I bought one" stories I'll
just come here to ARBR. In fact if the reviewer loved the bike and
decided to buy one to keep, I'm not sure if I want to know about it.
It would skew my judgement and I may end up buying one even though my
needs and preferences are very different from those of the reviewer.

If you're looking for informed 'bent riders who have decided to buy a
Bigha, there's at least one on the BROL message board.

Ken Kobayashi

http://solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jp/kobayashi/personal/

Tom Sherman wrote in message ...
Edward Wong wrote:

I'm certain your comment above is just "tongue in cheek", right
Mikael? ;-) Just for clarification purposes, I don't think anyone here
is against "speed". But there are those who are speed over utility
and that is unacceptable. This is alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent...not
rec.bicycles.racing....

Unacceptable? I see no requirement that a.r.b.r. be dedicated only to
utilitarian uses of recumbents. Even those with the strictest
interpretation of what is on topic would accept threads about recumbent
performance that ignored the utilitarian aspects of the bikes under
discussion.

I see no requirement that a.r.b.r. be dedicated only to speed aspects
of recumbents. That's what I meant. It's the attitude of instantly
dismissing a new bike just because it's not speed oriented that is
getting old. Two years ago, several of us strived to drive out the
trolls in a.r.b.r. who attacked not just the bikes but the individuals
who owned such bikes (ReBike, BikeE, etc.) You should have read some
of the really nasty posts and you would understand. We succeeded to a
point but there seems to be some "new blood" creeping in.

On this discussion, I would not continue to argue with Lorenzo. It's
feeding the troll so to speak. IMHO, it's already time to let this
thread die.

That is rather wimpy. Do you need Mr. Dolan and myself to explain what a
REAL discussion is?

Why don't you explain what the REAL discussion is to Lorenzo? And
what is wimpy about my statement above? ;-)----means I still keep a
sense of humor about this;-)-----there, I just confirmed it.

Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side)

Wile E. Coyote wrote:
We Have a Winner

You asked if there is a shortage of slow heavy comfort bents and the answer
is YES.
Everyone and his dog has been hell-bent on tweaking their bents to as low a
weight as is possible without it shattering if hit by a tennis ball. This
HAS resulted in a shortage of heavy bent behemoths and I suppose a 50 lb.
BigHa would qualify in the heavy bent division (which is getting smaller
every year).
In the Niche Market we have a winner, the slow heavy BigHa bent.
**************************************************


the Bigha is an overpriced solution in search of a problem.

Is there such a shortage of slow heavy comfort bents that we need to
pay $3000.00 for one?

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove




The EZ-1 SC cost is one sixth that of the Bigha. Is the Bigha six times
better? The RANS Fusion cost is almost one forth that of the Bigha. Is
the Bigha four times better? There are still a lot of slow heavy comfort
bents around for a fraction of the Bigha. But if you are going to pay
that much, why go slow? The Bigha costs more then the Vision VR65, Tour
Easy or Lighting P38. Is the Bigha better then any of these? You can get
a Greenspeed GTR for the same cost as a Bigha. Is the Bigha as good?

I got to go ride my slow heavy BikeE CT that cost one fifth as much as a
Bigha.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"You can fool half of the people all of the time and that's enough to
make a good living."
W.C. Fields

Lorenzo L. Love wrote:

The EZ-1 SC cost is one sixth that of the Bigha. Is the Bigha six times
better? The RANS Fusion cost is almost one forth that of the Bigha. Is
the Bigha four times better? There are still a lot of slow heavy comfort
bents around for a fraction of the Bigha. But if you are going to pay
that much, why go slow? The Bigha costs more then the Vision VR65, Tour
Easy or Lighting P38. Is the Bigha better then any of these? You can get
a Greenspeed GTR for the same cost as a Bigha. Is the Bigha as good?


Those questions can be answered (and asked) by everyone, of course,
but how credible would be the answers if the person had not ridden the
bikes mentioned? Not to mention how "six times better" can be
determined, whether it be related to bikes, cars, apple pie or any
number of other things we can purchase.
Lots of variable, lots of subjective opinions, criteria, and
viewpoints, but it all comes down to one thing: if the person hasn't
ridden the bikes in question, then his opinion of relative worth is
nothing more than that.


--
Larry Varney
Cold Spring, KY
http://home.fuse.net/larryvarney