Dissertation on customised bicycles and the motivations for buying one

stanbolyarov

Hi all,

My name is Stanimir Bolyarov and I am currently a final year marketing student at RGU in Aberdeen. I am doing my dissertation on the customised bicycle market in the UK and the motivations and perceptions of people about it. One of my methods for collecting data is via netnography (internet etnography) which in simple words is browsing through forums and social media websites and looking for posts, comments and opinions of current and potential customised bicycle buyers. There are a few ethical guidelines I need to follow and they include me actually posting this on here so I can get your approval of using your posts as data. On top of that, I am hiding all information about people's names and post dates so everything stays anonymous. If someone is not ok with me doing this, please leave a comment and I will make sure not to include your comments in my paper.

Thank you all,
Stan

The Rookie

Marketing and ethical......novel concept, I wish you all the best with that but fear it won't last!

As for any of my posts, feel free!

Not sure what you mean by 'customised bikes' though, one-off custom frame, build to order by mix and matching stock parts (inc frame) or post purchase 'upgrades' or like me building my own bikes by sourcing parts from various places (including frames but off the shelf) and building your own bike.....I think I'm up to about 9 so far.

bbrap

I think most bikes owned by those who frequent this site could be classed as custom in one shape or another. Many who buy off the peg bikes will in a short space of time change something, whether that makes it custom or not is down to interpretation but changing bits and pieces on a bike is so easy that most will do something. If your interpretation of custom bikes is like the world of custom motorcycles (flame paint jobs, chrome etc etc) then I would think that finding relevant articles on this site could be challenging.

stanbolyarov

Thanks for the replies guys. Customised bicycles as in those sold by frame builders or certain companies like Seven or even Mango Bikes, which are with custom geometries, parts, paintjobs, etc or just built-up with different standardised parts. I am also exploring the different levels of customisation that these companies/people offer, so that's why I am trying to include everything.

The Rookie, bbrap, I am totally with you on this one but for this certain dissertation, I'm looking at the ones, stated above.