Not a for sale ad. :) I was just surprised that I got no responses to my reply to the Riv beater thread, but I did respond rather late... Anyway, if they can sell this bike for $120 in Thailand,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25150...@n08/4811164801/ I can't see why it couldn't sell in the US for $500 with some spiffed up specs. It really is too bad this market niche remains empty in the US. This is my wife's bike, a 2008 lugged steel, 6 speed Raleigh with metal headbadge, fenders, basket, kickstand, chainguard and skirtguard, and even a passenger seat w/foot-pegs in lieu of a rear rack. :) (As the Thais say: "buy one, free one.") I was dead-set against buying it, because it seemed too cheap, but it has held up very well for 1.5 years of almost daily commuting and the occasional ride to dinner with me as the captain and my wife on the back seat. The lugs are the crudest you'll ever see, the fork is a unicrown and an ugly one at that, the rear drum brake is a joke, especially combined with the plastic brake levers (but the stamped metal front sidepull works well), and the indexed shifting requires overshifting to get into certain gears (but at least it's easy to do with the thumbshifter). The nipples are plated steel and have started to rust (I just WD40 them on occasion), and the cranks, seat post, hubs, and bars are steel as well. The tire sidewalls cracked all around the first year because the tubes kept loosing air and my wife would ride it with 15-20 psi or so rather than dealing with the stock Woods valves or asking me to pump up her tires, but the tires are still going anyway. The paint started out as a metallic turquoise but has faded to a much nicer bluish silver from 1.5 years of tropical sun exposure at her work. Anyone wanna help me import these? :) Cheers, Gernot -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
