cudak888 

I don't deny that this isn't a Schwinn, and that the whole thing is a publicity stunt by Pacific Cycle, but I strongly disagree with this nostalgia rant on one specific point:

You're overlooking the fact that this has put a small US builder like Detroit Bikes on the map. A Schwinn for a new generation. From their photos on Google, their plant looks like something along the lines of Trek when they first started - if for city bicycles, rather than road bikes.

While Detroit's offerings are still steep at $600 to $800 a bike, this isn't 1975 anymore. You can spend that on a mass-produced, offshore job at the LBS. Heck, a Pure Cycles Pure City 3-speed will set you back $500, and that's for a hi-ten piece of gaspipe from a brand best known for hawking the worst boat anchor hipster fixies around. More like Pure$hit. Plunk down another $150 and you've got a full cromo Detroit Bikes City FC.

Be realistic: US labor isn't cheap. The Detroit prices are more than reasonable for an American-made bicycle of this type that isn't a complete pile of crap on a cracker (I'm looking at you, Worksman). Compare it with a US-made CoMotion Pangea - starting at $1,965 for the frameset alone - or the inexcusably pretentious, poseur "Wright Brothers Van Cleve" (also built by CoMotion) at $4,750. Blech.

I can't think of anything that deserves praise more than a small US company churning out practical, cro-mo city bicycles for under a grand. Nostalgia be dammed.

-Kurt

P.S.: If they're going to be sold through Wal-Mart.com, they're not going to be assembled by store employees.