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.
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.
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.