Schwinn Varsity back from the dead (at Walmart!)

flameburns623

My advice: REFUSE to pay more than $300.00 for any new bicycle. REFUSE to pay more than $50.00 for any use bicycle. REFUSE to pay more than $5000.00 for a new car or more than $1000.00 for a used car. That's in US dollars, circa AD 2007.

At times, I rather like feudal ideas about value far more than I like the modern "a thing is worth what someone is willing and able to pay for it" concept. The latter idea is a recipe for eternal inflation. I probably will explain this poorly, but the feudal economy was built around the idea of stability and utility: a thing was worth what it was intended for, and for whom it was intended. One would never make a cart (or a bicycle) of gold or precious metal because the item could never be worth more than a similar item made of base metal. This tended to ensure that the price of common means of transportation and of common tools of trade remained within the reach of common people.

The practice of inflating prices based upon the ability of more-affluent consumers to pay was seen as price-gouging (there's a different term for it but I'm not finding the synonym at present), and it was subject to both civil and ecclesiastical penalties. The policy created stable, conservative societies which changed dramatically only during periods of extreme duress--periods of total war, disease, or famine.

A few folks may remember the story, included in many literature or social-studies textbooks in about the 5th or 6th grade. The story was meant to demean conservatism, but I took away a rather different lesson. As I recollect, the story is told of an ancient, good-and-wise Chinese emperor who had built a very peaceful and prosperous kingdom, but made many enemies in the surrounding kingdoms. His enemies formed an alliance against him, and their combined forces were approximately equal to his own; the victory could easily go to either side. In the weeks prior to the great battle, the emperor was secretly approached by one of his subjects, a prodigy who had created several weapons which might give the emperor the decisive edge. One was a crude sort of blunderbuss, a sort of rifle. Another was a sort of cannon. Most importantly, the prodigy had devised some sort of flying machine (I don't recollect if this was a hot-air balloon or a glider), to which he had attached a platform from which his other weapons could be utilised.

The emperor immediately recognised that these weapons would indeed give him a great advantage over his enemies. But he also recognised that these new weapons would totally disrupt the traditional methods of waging war, and would ultimately change society itself if such weapons proliferated. The Emperor excused himself and, without explaining why, sent the royal executioner in to dispatch the prodigy of his head. All of the prodigy's inventions were destroyed without anyone being told what they were. In the battle that ensued, the Emperor's army lost and he himself was mortally wounded; his dying words were something like "Though I have lost my empire, I have preserved it".

We were supposed to be appalled, as I recollect, that a "good and wise" king would esteem his traditions so highly that he would refuse to change his ways of conducting war. But what if the "good and wise king" were actually a bad and exploitative one? What if his enemies had been the real 'good guys'? After all--at the risk of invoking Godwin's Law--the most well-known proponent of traditional values in our time was also the leader who embraced new technology most enthusiastically. And the one who most of us most fervently disdain and despise: Adolf Hitler.

Sorry for the rant. I get frustrated at the bike snobbery that insists that a 'good bike' cannot be found for less than $700.00, largely because I just don't think that most people who buy bikes will ever perceive the least amount of difference between a $200.00 Schwinn from Wal-Mart and a $7000.00 bike from a local bike shop.