30 March 2015

Disposable Bikes -- Being Disposed of

A recent post started a brief conversation about the disposable nature of the bikes most people are riding in Tokyo.  These "mamachari" and kids equivalents, cost only 10-20,000 yen, so if they get old or rusty, much easier to replace them than to repair or maintain them.
Mamachari pricing
Today, as I passed through Tachikawa, I went by a Cycle Base Asahi store just as a truck was loading up junky traded-in bicycles.  I asked the driver ... dragging bike carcasses out from behind the shop, how many weeks worth of bikes is this?  Answer:  One week.  Typically 50 bikes a week disposed of, at this one shop.
Truck hauling away the trade-ins.

Disposable bikes, stacked high

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