No not for everyone, some people will still need to ride motorcycles to work, but if you are really close, you could use a bicycle, or take the subway or something.
peanuteater,
Jun 11, 2:04am
Totaly agree, costs me circa $45 petrol for a weeks travel ( around 400km),would imagine in cities like Auckland theres plenty use more for less milage with stop start etc
peanuteater,
Jun 11, 2:07am
i Agree.if my work was close that would always seem logical.
apollo11,
Jun 11, 2:40am
In other words, it's all a load of rubbish. Time to bring manufacturing home, where we have better environmental and employment law. And to build quality products that won't break just out of warranty. Plus we need to stop shipping raw materials overseas and importing finished goods. Products might be more expensive, but I'd personally pay double for something of higher quality and made in NZ
harm_less,
Jun 11, 2:56am
Pretty accurate except far too many NZers have a Warehouse mentality and consider cheap = a bargain. That attitude has got us where we are now and it ain't going to change any time soon, or similarly our car addiction, unless draconian measures (aka taxation) are implemented.
cjohnw,
Jun 11, 3:05am
Unfortunately it is not as simple as that. I owned a business that was designing, fabricating and exporting products that were also sold locally for some years. Whilst we had an important small loyal local market it was the export market we needed for the business to prosper. The NZ market, especially for specialist products is minuscule. Sadly all the costs associated in manufacturing in this country is a massive barrier to competing with overseas manufacturers. We are simply not competitive in NZ. You say you would gladly pay double for locally manufactured goods, however that is the exception and not the general purchasing rule. You only need to read through some of the threads in these forums to see how the majority of consumers are price driven. A company manufacturing and selling products to sell at twice the price of imported items simply would not survive. I can vouch for that.
apollo11,
Jun 11, 3:34am
I'm sorry to hear that John. I worked in manufacturing for many years, mainly heavy steel componentry, and in the markets we supplied, Chinese stuff was non-existent. The last thing you need is for your half million dollar machine to be sitting idle because a component you skimped on broke.
harm_less,
Jun 11, 3:48am
That seems to assume all Chinese made products are inferior. That's not the case. Chinese manufacturers are more than capable of producing quality items but the problem lies in customers wanting lower prices so the resulting items are built to that budget and thereby what they receive is lower quality which is interpreted as typical of Chinese manufacturer. The real problem is that if you want cheap then that's exactly what you will get.
tygertung,
Jun 11, 4:01am
That's right, stuff made in China can be just as good as stuff made anywhere else, it depends on if one wants to pay for the stuff to be of the highest quality.
cjohnw,
Jun 11, 4:15am
^ what he said!
I would estimate at least 80% of the products we were competing against we could not have built much better. The problem was their manufacturing lines were robotic while ours were human!
loud_37,
Jun 11, 4:21am
I see Europe is happy they took 4 coal powered power plants offline while China is about to fire up 19 new ones. What the rest of the world does makes no difference while China keeps doing what is does.
apollo11,
Jun 11, 4:27am
In the field I was in, they didn't have the grades of steel or quality of machining to produce a product that would do the job. Some stuff was imported by locals but I don't think they had much success. The issue with Chinese stuff is that often if they can cut a corner to save a buck, they will- and it likely will be in an area that isn't noticeable until the component is being used.
apollo11,
Jun 11, 4:28am
Plus their government covers their shipping costs to foreign markets.
paul861,
Jun 11, 4:47am
what if everyone lived abit closer to work?
harm_less,
Jun 11, 4:59am
If you've ever visited a major Chinese city (Shanghai/Suzhou in my case) you will see why they are that competitive. Survival of the strongest/fittest/fastest takes on a whole new perspective in an economy that huge, and they will 'try it on' if they think they can get away with it so quality management is crucial.
trogedon,
Jun 11, 5:05am
That's a very economical car.
loud_37,
Jun 11, 5:25am
Have you not driven a modern small engine car lately, most are very economical and only getting better.
hkjoe,
Jun 11, 5:56am
Whilst I think many people today would have a problem with riding in the rain, can you recommend any websites or brands/types of clothing that would keep me warm and dry on my commute of 25km on my electric bike in Auckland. Summer, parts of spring and autumn is fine, but wet and cold weather no, at present. Cold I can handle, but wet is not fun.
alowishes,
Jun 11, 6:21am
Or when you have to deliver a load of timber or a heat pump etc
Or take the whole family in the rain to the nearest Maccas 30k away.
alowishes,
Jun 11, 6:23am
And if they don’t get away with it they shut down the factory and open another one elsewhere.
toenail,
Jun 11, 7:02am
correct, if NZ sold goods are all made in NZ, then NZ's CO2 output will be 10 folds more.
drsr,
Jun 11, 7:47am
Kathmandu, Evo cycles, Wiggle, heck even the Warehouse will sell you raincoats and rain pants. You can get shoe covers for really heavy downpours. Make sure you have mudguards that stop the water flicking up off your tyres. Like the Dutch say, you're not made of sugar, you won't melt! https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/riding-in-the-rotterdam-rain-2/
tygertung,
Jun 11, 7:53am
If you want some really good stuff, try Ground Effect, Made in Christchurch. Whilst it is a little bit expensive, it is very durable, so works out cheap.
And also I would recommend an extra long mudguard on the front, perhaps with a wee mudflap.
trogedon,
Jun 11, 8:30am
I have full length mudguards on my Winter bike and clip on ones for a couple of my other training bikes.
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