My kids all ride former-toy bicycles that I've had for a song from FB Marketplace and nursed back to health.

But yeah, I think the GP is speaking aspirationally. We need to get to a place where bikes are considered infrastructure the way a vehicle is, that everyone has one, and has a selection of shops around them to service it, same as everyone currently has lots of garages, dealers, and gas stations around to meet the needs of their automobile.

If bikes get to that point, that means buying parts online to me. Making it hard to get parts is not generally supportive of cycling IMO.

I buy almost all of my parts to service our cars online. Amazon, RockAuto, and brand-specific parts suppliers (PeachParts, HandA/Bernardi, Ricambi, etc.) I can recall going to a physical dealer 3 times in the last 20 years and each time it was for a “I need it exactly this afternoon and I’m willing to pay for it in dollars and inconvenience”.

Maybe to you it's a more convenient experience, but not everyone has the same approach to shopping. Some are happy to receive advice for specific products (or to have someone tell them what quality level they're going for), while others are simply happy to be able to have a human interaction at the counter (i'm in both categories).

Moreover, i'm not convinced online shopping is better for society at large. From an ecological perspective, from an anti-monopoly perspective..

Ecological perspective, it's better than having a single person driving a significant distance to a specific destination. (On top of the maintenance of that destination) Whereas - delivery wise... you're like a few hundred extra feet of driving maybe. (Assuming you live in a city/decently-sized suburb)

Packaging is the only issue that needs to be solved more efficiently but there are potential solutions to that.

The point is that if you're performing your own service of your car, you're already more of an enthusiast than your bicycling counterpart. Cycling for transportation needs to work for the mainstream, buy it from a dealer on installment, take it to the shop for routine maintenance, treat it as an appliance consumer. Enthusiasts will always find a way in spite of bad infrastructure.

I used to cycle as a means of transportation. Much faster than walking, on par with the bus, paid for itself in six months from money saved in transit fees.

I would generally order nothing online because I didn't have the education or interest to know what I was buying or what needed done. Part of the value of a good, physical shop is the relationship you form with people and being able to trust their expertise. I definitely needed some one I could look in the eye, explain my problem, and ask them to solve it for me.

I don't say this to contradict you necessarily, especially in your primary point, just to offer a very different perspective.

I think your situation is a quite common one. People prefer to shop in-person in a lot of situations and will continue to do so.

In the context of this article, those people are already buying these parts at bike shops. Removing them from Amazon doesn’t change this group’s buying habits.

yep, good point, lost track of the real point. thanks!

Not everyone is capable of handling the labor portion of the (labor + parts) equation of servicing a bike (not to mention a fleet of bikes for family).

I certainly can only handle the basics and the family rides a decent amount of miles/wk.

I buy local - many times it's even cheaper than Amazon - and I live in an expensive metro.

Presumably the people who can’t (or won’t) do the labor are already buying parts from their shop though, right?

I doubt many people are buying parts on Amazon (or previously from Nashbar) and asking a bike shop to install them.

I think the point is to enlarge the community. More local bike shops and services will lead to more riders, firstly because they’ll notice it as an option whereas many wouldn’t have before and secondly because the more there are the closer they’ll be to anyone’s home or workplace, thus more convenient.

I would expect new bike shop openings to significantly lag, not lead, local cycling popularity, but maybe that’s only the case in areas where real estate is expensive.

I very highly doubt we are going to get there until electric bikes (even if electric-assisted bikes) are the standard and affordable. Bikes might be great for most folks on flat land, but mountains are an uphill battle (pun intended) for anyone starting out as an adult and simply put, not everyone is going to do such a thing.

Additionally, most places I've lived didn't have bike racks (small to medium sized towns in Indiana), nor did a lot of workplaces put much money into employee break rooms. You can change out of those wet clothes in the public restroom, but it would be unacceptable to show up wet with sweat.

Cars just require parking spaces, and employers don't have to provide those.

My wife and kid wanted cruiser style single speed bikes...what you'd call a toy. And I'm not hung up in that word, it is what it is. But they bike a couple miles a day going to and from school. They sit all day in the sun and rain and just keep ticking away. They were both less than 200, and honestly, I don't see what would be gained in spending more given the criteria, other than perhaps appeasing 'bikesnobs'(is that a thing? I was thinking of something like beer snobs).

Sure it's not a race bike, or mountain bike, but they still work just fine for transportation.

If the bikes are serving their purpose, IMO there's absolutely no reason to replace them with anything else.

(Speaking as someone who personally would be highly unlikely to buy the type of bike you're describing.)

I think of my road bike and the mountain bikes I owned when I did that.. So toys(sports equipment).

But yeah, the majority of the US population probably thinks recreational bikes for their kids and maybe the ones they own to ride with their kids.. Also toys.