Thorn Cycles Forum
Community => Cycle Tours => Topic started by: Vintagetourer on September 04, 2015, 05:02:07 am
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Cheap time for you overseas cycle tourers to come Downunder. Exchange rate is very, very favourable.
And boy am I glad I bought my Thorn Audax before the Aus Dollar collapsed.
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Not that any of us we need much of an incentive. Here's another pretty picture for enticement purposes only!
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Did I mention we have 11,000 beaches?
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That's encouraging from a UK perspective. Came over in 2007 and got 2.5 dollars to pound, returned in 2010 (for the Ashes 8) and found I only got 1.5 so it was a big change on affordability. Just got to hope the Chinese economy 'only' grows at 5% next year and my 2016 hols are sorted!
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to far for this kid besides all that sunshine and no rain .
my dollars collapsed years ago so no worries there.
jags
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Our colonial currencies are in a spot of bother, eh Graham? Mind you, ground Effect clothing from NZ is now somethin g of a bargain, although there's a limit to how much one can buy and wear.
As the graphs go down the rabbit holes, there are more than a few "told-you-so's" being heard chez nous, as our witless Prime Minister has tethered Canada's economy to the price of a barrel of oil. Political leaders seem to have trouble remembering that commodities are volatile. Maybe it's because they tend to play fast and loose with other people's money.
Like you, I bought my Thorn frameset at a time when I could afford it. Still trying to work out an approach to cycling in Oz, when we visit our family in QLD -- have thought about leaving my Eclipse there. Meantime, as the Loonie shrinks against the USD, the word "staycation" (="stay-at-home-vacation") has re-entered popular slang. We'll see how it fares in about six months' time, when it's 30 below...
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John I think that our narrow, commodity based economies are in deep doggy do as a few of us have predicted now for a while. All flavours of politics have flushed about 25 years worth of mineral boom up against the wall. It's been frustrating to watch. Norway has shown how to invest commodity capital. We have done the opposite.
Anyway, as you know I am a shameless promoter of cycle tourism in Australia, so this downturn is a brilliant opportunity to spruik doing rides here. And also to lobby for more investment in cycle tourism infrastructure. The New Zealanders are doing a brilliant job of this.
And yes I bought my Thorn Sherpa when I thought the exchange rate had tanked, but did even better with the Thorn Audax. Glad I did get them when I did. So pleased particularly with my Red Thorn Audax. I've already done about 9000km on it. Superb bike.
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So pleased particularly with my Red Thorn Audax. I've already done about 9000km on it.
That's exactly how these bikes are meant to be used, Graham. Good on ya, maite!
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I must be mad! I'm over in Yankeeland paying A$10 for a pint of ale! :(
You can read all about it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/852857548160671/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/852857548160671/)
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You might have to switch to half-pints to keep up with the exchange rate Sam:)
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Stuff happens, Sam. Reckon you weren't paying for the beer as such, but "the brand", the overhead of the bar, etc., but almost certainly not for decent wages-with-benefits for the servers or the workers who produced the brew.
And was the beer any good? (Sorry-o if I missed that info, but I can't log onto your FB page.)
Cheers,
J.
PS: Cheaper beer in these parts, and usually better than what you'll get south of the 49th, 'cept for micro-brewery products, which will be pricier still, and that's where I think we came in, no?
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Actually John, I wondered if people not "invited" into my group could actually access the page through that URL. Sorry!
I set up a separate Facebook group to share my holiday posts, comprising those friends whom I thought might be interested, rather than bombarding everyone with my happy snaps.
TBH, I haven't described beer in the journal, and actually commented on how cheap one breakfast was in a small town along the trail. But for the last week, I've been in Washington (especially Georgetown) and Manhattan, and the prices have been eye watering! My wife enjoys a single glass of Pinot noir with dinner, which, at our local in Oz would cost A$9. At a restaurant at the southern end of the superb High Line in NYC, the same (maybe 50ml larger) glass was $US20! I don't usually succumb to sticker shock, but I was stunned. :( Anyway, more fool me for dining in the tourist zone. :)
Whenever I visit such expensive places, I always wonder how the locals can afford to go out, but tell you what, I've rarely if ever experienced crowds like these revellers, visitors and locals alike. The U.S. economy is back, baby! (Or may they've all decided to "live for today" at the fin de siècle!)
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Thanks, Sam, no worries about the FB -- I don't have an account.
On the prices: obviously the exchange rate plays a part -- we have the same problem as you do, with a wonky currency. (Ours has been overvalued for much of the past decade, a product of the demand for oil & other commodities from China. Canada has been exporting rocks & logs for most of its history--or beaver pelts, or grain, etc.--but the current gvt has sworn off any attempt to diversify, being obsessed with becoming a petro-state and tethering the rest of us to the price of a barrel of crude. Rant over...)
Then, places like DC and other big capitals can usually rely on a steady demand from government workers--though DC has some decidedly down-market neighbourhoods. And in the party scenes you've witnessed, you're also seeing the effects of huge inequalities at work. The flip side of that is the rise in precarious work and income.
I have found quite a few places in the US where you can get a good beer, sometimes a very good one, quite cheaply. They tend to be in small towns or out-of-the-way parts of larger centres. Friends live north of NYC, for example, in Westchester County, a very toney place indeed, but on one visit, we went to a nondescript strip mall, and in a small grill at one end, had some A-grade ribs and micro-brasserie beer. How would you know about it if you didn't already know? You wouldn't, of course.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your time in the States -- there's some good baseball on the tube, BTW.
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John you will note how ineffective my shameless promotion of Australia as cycle-touring destination has been. I presented numbers, a graph and sound reasoning. But to no avail.
Sam went in exactly the opposite direction to our dollar. :)
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My partner Wendy and I were just visiting Boston yesterday. I was rather stunned by Newbury St which was jammed with expensive shops and crowds of people carry shopping bags and wearing the latest fashions. Over here in the Catskills, things are a lot quieter. I've been out to Seattle a few times over the past few years... it depends on the neighborhood, but there is a lot of money there too! It is very unevenly distributed though!
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Thanks John. I was hoping to barrack for both the Yankees and Mets leading up to a potential "Subway World Series" while I was here, but the Astros put paid to that! I'm more a Yankees fan than the Mets, but I'll still back them, I guess.
Graham, this is the story of my traveling luck. Whenever I make plans to travel overseas, alarm bells ring in all the financial capitals, and the Aussie dollar drops like a stone! ???
Jim, we're heading up to Boston in a few days. I'm sure the good burghers of the shopping and eating strips are licking their lips and rubbing their hands with glee.
We'll starve when we get home, but we'll live it up while we're here! :D ;) ;D
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Jim, we're heading up to Boston in a few days. I'm sure the good burghers of the shopping and eating strips are licking their lips and rubbing their hands with glee.
Wendy loves art and spent her day at the Museum of Fine Arts, while I just strolled around town in the beautiful weather. At the museum gift shop, Wendy found a new book for me that looks really great:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Wheelways-Traces-Bicycle-History/dp/0262029464/
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A colleague of mine who has been in marketing for a long time talks about the 'death of average' in retail. For example, he convincingly presents about how bicycle sales are at record highs but and so are Lamborghini and Rolls Royce sales. What has plummeted are sales of family sedans.
Similarly he says that sales of luxury foods are at record levels. And so are dirt cheap junk food sales at record levels. What is suffering are average priced meals.
And so on. He has reams of examples...clothing, shoes, sports equipment and so on. He has the stats to back up his argument. Basically the extremes of poverty and wealth have grown. On the positive, the data says that even extremely poor people are somewhat better off these days. I'm not so sure. The so-called trickle down effect is pretty well debunked.
It is interesting to see the range of bicycle prices these days. Even our local bike shop has $14,000 bikes, but perfectly good bikes are available for as little as $400.
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even extremely poor people are somewhat better off these days.
One thing along these lines that has my attention is how society demands / requires an ever higher standard of consumption / gadgetry for a person to get by. I don't own a smart phone & hope to avoid that expense, but more and more services are provided only via smart phone apps. Of course in most places in the USA it is practically impossible to survive without maintaining a car. The whole notion of "better off" is very problematic. If I have 50% more stuff, but to maintain social function / status I need 100% more stuff, maybe after all I am not better off. Social status might seem like a luxury but if a person's status drops too low then the person is basically an out-caste and subject to brutal mistreatment.
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Sam went in exactly the opposite direction to our dollar.
No accounting for taste, eh, Graham? ;) Our word here, which resurfaces every few years, is "staycation" (=holiday at home). Makes the point, but it's a terribly clumsy word to my ear, so we go instead beyond the horizon, searching for bargains, finding only false economies...
Rest assured that your Oz-promos have not been entirely fruitless. We're planning to be in Oz in Feb/March, visiting our family in QLD, esp our two granddaughters :-), but my Raven will stay home this time. Still working on options for cycling in Oz, however. Things may depend on the longer-term plans which David and Sarah make: he is just beginning a post-doc, and they are applying for residents' permits, so we do expect them to be Down Unda for a long time, if not the duration. One possibility would be for me to take my Eclipse to QLD on a later trip, and leave it there, to be used for day rides, shortish tours, etc. I think I'd have to install a more functional drive train before doing so, however -- my limited patience with wonky derailleurs has almost completely disappeared, after a couple of seasons with a Rohloff.
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...my limited patience with wonky derailleurs has almost completely disappeared, after a couple of seasons with a Rohloff.
Another couple of years and you'll discover your skills start disappearing through disuse, and memory weakens. "Now which of these two screws on the derailleur is in and which is out?"
Those are skills and memories I'm happy to say goodbye to.
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For sure, Andre. It's a bit like having to deal with Windows and Microsoft, after years in the Mac bubble: I find myself saying, "I'm 65 and then some, I've paid my dues and I don't need this, so why do I have to deal with these dysfunctional devices?"
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You hit the nail right on the head: 'Dysfunctional devices' If a device is that complicated to navigate and use then it is the problem, not you. I am perpetually underwhelmed by much of the gadgetry that comes our way. Considering how cheap it is to buy a device with the computing power Ada Lovelace could only dream of, it is noticable how counter-intuitive and difficult these things are to use. That said I've been looking at a wooden-hulled narrow boat with a diesel engine on ebay this past week so the paradox of my disposition is not lost on me!
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it is noticable how counter-intuitive and difficult these things are to use
So true. I don't move in e-design circles, but from the performance of the various tools, I'm left with the conclusion that the designers are specialists, not "laypersons". This is not entirely a fogey's POV: I began using Apple computers in the early 1980s, so I'm rreasonably e-literate, although I'm not a programmer. Our son, who's a research scientist using specialized lab software, and is also a programmer and tester, is scathing in his comments about the standard stuff.
Hope your search for your narrow boat works!
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Wow, not sure how this thread drifted from exchange rates to Luddite-ism, but at least it's distracting me from my fiscal misery. :-\
John, if you're back in BrisVegas in Feb/March, we have another possibility of meeting up. I got sick last year which prevented my "Tour de North Coast", but I'm planning to re-attempt this southern summer. 8)
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Thanks, Sam, let's stay in touch about that. We'll be in Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. Exact dates t.b.c., but we expect mid-Feb to early April. I can sniff around to see if I can borrow a bike to ride with you for a few kms at least. Will send you a PM when I know what's what. Cheers, J.
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Listening to all this, I think I need to retire:)