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The Fixie Bike Index

blog.priceonomics.com

11–20 of 89 posts

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#11
post #9
post #7

Wait a second- https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3387895/Screen%20shot%202012-01-17%... There are 100 fixies per capita in Manhattan? So each person in Manhattan owns 100 fixed gear bicycles? No wonder rent is so expensive; I imagine storing 100 bicycles isn't cheap!!

Sorry if that's not clear, it's all indexed to 100. Those are all relative values and not absolute values.

It's not "unclear" it's "inaccurate." :p "Per capita" means something specific, not just "you know, whatever." Thanks for the response tho! I could take the article more seriously if the charts made sense; consider fixing them? :)

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#12
Fixies have always been a fun subject of armchair economics. As late as '06, it was very rare that you'd come across track bike-specific parts. This was especially so with frames. Finding an old track hub in a used parts bin was practically winning the jackpot on a slot machine. Prices and competition for used parts was high, but mostly stable and flat. Ebay and track-specific forums were where you'd buy your parts; local bike shops hardly didn't even know the word 'fixie', let alone stock track parts (with it especially hard to find reasonably priced, non-Olympic competition level components).

The trend was growing quick, and folks started finding fancier and fancier vintage bikes as collectors realized that the market for the obscure bikes lit up like wildfire. At the same time manufacturers (big and small, global and local) began sourcing extremely cheap (>$300) frames from Taiwan and saturating the market, bringing prices down ~50%.

Then the Crash happend in '08. The market for fixies, mostly a semi-practical luxury item/status symbol similar to an iPhone at the time, fell significantly. They're still a big deal and quite popular, but not nearly as much so as a few years ago. Prices, especially the used market fallen drastically. A cheap, Average condition frame that went for $300 in early '08 could barely get $100 today in San Francisco.

Luckily for those who bought into the vintage/collector track bike market (like most), prices are relatively stable...

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#13
Missing detail: A fixie is actually borderline-practical in Manhattan because there aren't many hills. If you live in Brooklyn, you've gotta ride over some really steep bridges to get to Manhattan. So the hipsters ride single-speeds, or retro-bikes, which are actually more hipster than a fixie these days.

Get with it, grandpa!

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#14
post #9
post #7

Wait a second- https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3387895/Screen%20shot%202012-01-17%... There are 100 fixies per capita in Manhattan? So each person in Manhattan owns 100 fixed gear bicycles? No wonder rent is so expensive; I imagine storing 100 bicycles isn't cheap!!

Sorry if that's not clear, it's all indexed to 100. Those are all relative values and not absolute values.

Please keep the current scaling of the charts, but label it with the actual per-capita values instead of 0 - 100. (I agree with sequoia's comment.)

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#15
The Brooklyn vs. Manhattan result shouldn't be surprising considering that Brooklyn is really REALLY big, and much poorer than Manhattan. I would bet that if you were to whittle down Brooklyn to Williamsburg, or if you were to control for income, the results would look significantly different.

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#16
Orange County is a county, with a 3,000,000 population twice that of Manhattan (a borough.)

Orange, CA is a city, with a population of 150,000

Why is Orange County listed in the chart when all other entrants seem to be cities (or boroughs).

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#18
post #16

Orange County is a county, with a 3,000,000 population twice that of Manhattan (a borough.) Orange, CA is a city, with a population of 150,000 Why is Orange County listed in the chart when all other entrants seem to be cities (or boroughs).

You go to LA and you will see. :)

Re: The Fixie Bike Index

#20
post #14
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if that's not clear, it's all indexed to 100. Those are all relative values and not absolute values.

Please keep the current scaling of the charts, but label it with the actual per-capita values instead of 0 - 100. (I agree with sequoia's comment.)

We're just looking at a sample of the data so the actual per capital figures aren't meaningful. Would have loved to have showed that, but instead we just normalized the data to 100.
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