Tell me about buying a bicycle

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=scr4]
Yes, and that’s the only kind of bike you find at Walmart and Target, at least in the US.

You mentioned euros so I take it you’re in Europe. The situation is somewhat different in the US. Here, Walmart and Target do not sell simple, practical bikes suitable for errands and commuting. They sell bikes with lots of features that sound good on the spec sheet (front suspension, 3x6 speeds, aluminum alloy frame, etc), but with very low quality.
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D’you know, I think you are right.

Now, I have only lived in Holland for two years now, I grew up in the US. But I (like the OP I think) haven’t had a bike since I was a kid. It’s hilly in Atlanta and there is a real dearth of infrastructure conducive to non-auto trasportation.

Anyway, now that I am an expert in what a mommy bike (that’s what they call my bike here – a moederfiets) needs to have, I went to the Target and Wal Mart websites and had a look. Here was my honest reaction:

What kind of bullshit is that?

I dunno about the quality, I can’t tell from here. But I’m right with you on this, brother: most of those features would be nothing but a big fat worthless PITA on a bike which was actually used for its alleged intended purpose, to wit, transportation in town.

A couple hours with a wrench and a screwdriver removing things might make them serviceable I suppose. The frames look all right.

Well, now I know what you all are going on about. Though I still think a secondhand bike is the way to go and I am still not convinced that maintenance and adjustments are a reason to go to a bike shop for a person who plans to use a bike mostly in town.

But I guess if what i saw is what’s available, it might be a very good reason.

42

[QUOTE=b3tour]
Perhaps “safe” should be strongly added, in bold, to this list. Phase42 described two bone-chilling, potentially deadly incidents in great detail – I had one similar experience with a Magna bike bought at Target.
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Well, I did think tha t"safe" fell under the umbrella of “reliable” but your point is still well taken. After the ten-spedd of doom that nearly killed me, I do not want any bike that’s been assembled so poorly that you get a death wobble in the front wheel when you’re in trafffic because it was never set properly in the forks. The time my front wheel fell off, I was thankfully riding across a grassy field. So I went ass over tea kettle, but I wasn’t in traffic and the ground was a bit soft and muddy. On a street, I probably would have found myself under the wheels of a car.

[QUOTE=b3tour]
I don’t think the quality of the bike matters one whit for casual riding – anything made today should be fine for riding around town and getting your feet wet – but there are about a thousand things that can break your skull, resulting in death, permanent facial disfigurement, permanent loss of teeth, or legal and moral liability when your bike causes another person – such as a pedestrian – such maladies.
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The quality can make a difference. My first mountain bike was a no name brand I picked up at “Zellers” (a Target-like store). It was $119. I used to have a disgruntled sigh when I had to ride it to school. And I ONLY rode it to school, the very idea of “riding for fun” was unfathomable. I thought I simply hated cycling. It weighed a ton, shifting gears was klunky and if I did shift juuuuuust so, I might drop into the next gear, suddenly when I was headed uphill. But I can’t complain about the breaks.

That said, I have no qualms with a bottom-end bike from a recognized and reliable brand (like my poopy Raleigh, that I look back on with great fondness), if it comes from a reliable distributor, like a bike shop. When I got my first Zellers-bought mountain bike home, I had to get out a wrench because the handle bars were squiff, and the seat was crooked. My poopy Raleigh was definitely not a “qualify bike” it was a steel frame, but the compenents were all good and for a steel frame it was lighter than you would expect.

I still had to work hard to ride it, but it was a hell of a lot more comfortable and reliable. As a starter bike, it would have been acceptable, maybe downright decent. Only good memories of that bike, bottom end though it was.