IKEA gave a bicycle to each of their 12,400 US employees today as an early Christmas gift.
“It’s been a good year for IKEA, so what better way to celebrate our success than to thank our IKEA co-workers who made this happen,” says IKEA US president Mike Ward in a statement.
The bike itself is butt-ugly, but the thought counts for a lot IMHO and buying 12,000+ bikes can really add up. “With a strong commitment to good health and being environmentally conscious, IKEA selected an all terrain bike as the holiday co-worker gift for 2010,” says the press release, which further touts the benefits of green transportation and IKEA’s “strong commitment to good health and being environmentally conscious.”
IKEA also provides other bike commute incentives like cash for each day of bike commuting and on-site locker rooms and showers.
Props to Bike Portland.
This is nice, though they could do a bit more to make their stores safe for bicycle riding shoppers. The Ikea garages I’ve had to navigate are fairly treacherous.
I have to agree with the statement “…but the thought counts…”. To be 100% honest, it’s nice to work for a company, such as IKEA, who actually takes care of and gives half a hoot about its employees.
For the same money, they could have done an upright riding three-speed coaster brake with fenders.
I wrote about this as well: http://austinontwowheels.org/2010/12/07/ikea-is-giving-away-12000-bikes-should-we-be-patting-them-on-the-back/
Essentially, I give props to IKEA for taking care of their employees and being generous, but this should in no way be viewed as anything but a PR flash in the pan. Not only is the bike ill equipped for anything other than recreation but IKEA’s choice of non-bikeable store locations (at least in our market) leads you to question how committed they are to the big picture.
Does anyone have a scan of the assembly instructions? (I want to see the Ikea cartoon guy with/bike ;0)
It’s a shame a company so focused on good design would pick such a butt-ugly bicycle to distribute. The company is Swedish, for goodness sake. Beautiful dutch bikes abound over there.
Nonetheless, props to IKEA, for having the right idea, even if the execution was a little lacking.
That stamped derailleur on the IKEA bike costs 40 cents. The cheapest single speed coaster brake hubs are about a buck and a half in China. I can’t find any knock-off 3 speed hubs, leaving you either SRAM or Shimano, which wholesales for around $50, which is likely nearly double what IKEA paid for that entire bike.
I think the frame is probably the worst part of that bike. If I had to pick a $30 bike for IKEA employees, it would be a regular diamond frame, single chainring, cheap derailleur on the back. I won’t save much by eliminating the front derailleur, but hopefull I’d still be able to spring for fenders and maybe even a rack.
It probably came disassembled and in a flat box, but included a tiny hex wrench so you can put it together.
It probably came disassembled and in a flat box, but included a tiny hex wrench so you can put it together.
in a video that I saw all the forks were on backwards
Ha! Classic!
Actually, it did!
IKEA believes very firmly that paying to ship “air” in a non-flat-packed box is a waste of resources. The good thing is, it was much easier to carry home that way!
I have to agree, they must have been given a really good deal on that frame. Why pick a frame that looks like a rear suspension bike when you’re just making it heavier and and perform worse. I only noticed these because someone in my area is selling one on Craigslist (for $150 which is insanely high of course). It’s certainly nice to encourage bike use, but I also feel that the world has an over-abundance of unwanted cheap bikes. Just like stray pets, we shouldn’t encourage the cheap bikes to multiply.