windhchaser

after having my lbs bike for 1 day i cant even tell u how much better it is .maybe it was just my walmart but there bikes are awful compared to my felt flow. hect i have more stoping power with one brake then i had useing both brakes on my walmart bike

agent pombero

Good. Walmart is a *****y company. Americans love to complain about how manufacturing has been gutted but then support the company that had a helping hand in destroying our economy anyway!

Phyoomz

Well, front brake alone almost always stops you faster... now if you're saying that using the rear brake alone on your new bike is stopping you faster than both brakes on your old one, then that's not bad.

Walmart bikes (and I can only imagine what you've been riding) are probably not the best things to use for something like commuting, where reliability is key. Frames and components will both be subpar, for the most part.

Congrats on the purchase

windhchaser

the lbs brakes i can stop it ona huge hill with 1 finger on rear brake lever also it has a very low gear so i can climb hills easy.i even stoped on the worst hill we had and was able to restart.plus everything just looks better

Burton

So just curious - I think we're discussing a $500 or $600 bike compared to whatever you paid out for what you got from Walmart. How much was that? Walmart do carry $1,200 bikes and those aren't exactly garbage - except when assembled by an ignoramus.

xtrajack

Now you know why I refer to that company as "The Evil Empire".

fietsbob

How about buying from Locally owned Businesses in General? instead of like Amazon?

Leisesturm

Exactly this. Walmart is but one example of mass market retailing. Target, Fred Meyers, and K-Mart all have sporting goods departments where low, mid and high end bicycles can be found. $500 spent at Walmart can buy you about as much (or as little) bicycle as $500 spent at an LBS. I don't shop at Walmart as a rule but when I was shopping for a low end tandem for me and the wife I looked at a number of option from various department stores and online drop shippers. To my eyes the Walmart Kent Dual-Drive tandem looks better than the tandems sold by Fred Meyer, Merlin and Micargi. The OEM V-Brakes stop as well as anything costing 3x as much. The only difference is the return springs on better brakes are stronger. Return springs don't stop your bike. Mechanical advantage stops your bike. Mechanical advantage is inherent in the design of the V-Brake no matter which unnamed Chinese factory puts it together. I support my LBS when possible and my other tandem is from an LBS. In other words... never say never.

H

2_i 

no more walmart bikes for me ever

When I travel, I will take any bike at the other end, no matter what, Walmart or worse. Sure, after you ride an LBS bike you begin to understand why they need to cost and why it is worth investing that extra money, but a marginal bike is far better than no bike.

agent pombero

A marginal bike can be purchased from Craigslist or Ebay without supporting the Evil Empire.

hhnngg1

The typical Walmart bike is really a bike-shaped object. It's not really a bike in that the parts are not meant to withstand the rigors of even slightly regular riding. Not trying to be snobbish here either - having owned several in the past, it's abundantly clear that they're so bad that they'll suck most of the joy of riding out of you. I could barely even use it for riding the 1 mile to work when I had it.

Their more expensive bikes are actually pretty decent specs.

robble

Because Amazon is likely to have what you are looking for at a substantially lower price and if you need to return something (pretty much anything for ANY reason) they make it extremely simple?

Depending on what it is I'll try to buy from a local business first but if it is 30% cheaper on amazon or it is something that might need to be returned I'll be looking at Amazon.

Case in point - I ordered a 64GB memory card for my g/f's daughter for Christmas. I used the address for her that was stored on Amazon from previous purchases. Amazon/UPS reported it delivered last week. Christmas morning I find out that she never received it. Thinking it was probably stolen from in front of her door where UPS said they delivered it I got in touch with someone on live chat at amazon. Christmas Day I had a live person within 20 seconds. After letting him know she didn't get it (probably stolen from in front of her door) he said he would overnight a new one free of charge. He then asked me to verify the address. I asked my g/f to verify it. She said "That is her OLD address!". I sheepishly let the Amazon rep know that oops, "I" made the mistake and it was my fault. He said no problem, he would still send a new one free of charge overnight to the correct address. I don't know of ANY other company that would have done this. She received the new memory card this morning at 9:30 am.

For something like my bike I chose a LBS over say bikes direct for the face to face interaction. Some items don't need that.

Electronics? Amazon will beat Best Buy any day.

agent pombero

I've always used Best Buy as a place for "Best Tryout Experience", ie, the place I go check out the electronic(s) & then buy them substantially cheaper on the internet.

Mark Stone

I wasn't aware Walmart sold bicycles. ?

windhchaser

i took her into bike shop today brakes was squealing right away the put it on rack adjusted a few things looked over the entire bike and it was no charge. if i understand its a lifetime thing but i know for sure its at least 1 year but he did say lifetime

achoo

And you call Walmart the "Evil Empire"??!?!

Would you pull that in a bike shop? Try on a pair of cycling shoes, find a pair the fit, then go home and order them online? Just to save money?

When that's basically all that Walmart does - sell things for less money?

Mark Stone

Sure. However, these days most LBSs match online prices, so it would be unnecessary. But if online prices were substantially lower, why not?

downtube42

"ever" is a long long time.

Gravity Aided

I commute and tour on a second hand bike I got at a Pawnshop .
I like to support my local characters.
Would have paid as much as I did at the pawnshop
for a bike at Wal Mart .
You might say you have to know your stuff
when going to buy a bike at a pawnshop,
but you'd better know your stuff
if you're going to commute
to work by bicycle , IMHO .

Burton

This is an example where the consumer recognizes that having merchandise on hand to try on IS 'value added' - ..... and still doesn't want to pay extra for it. On line realators at least don't have to deal with this kind of stupidity. Or people that 'buy' items and then return them a few days later after using them cause - they don't need them any more - the job's done.

Mark Stone

Well, like I said in my post this doesn't occur nowadays because Bike shops (at least in my area) charge the same prices as online, so I would buy it in the bike shop. However, lets say you were poking around in an LBS and came across some gear you liked - and then went home to scope out the quality of the item online (by reading reviews and asking BF posters) and to check out the rep of the manufacturer. While online you discover that the price at (for example) Nashbar is substantially lower, why not get it at Nashbar? It's not "stupidity", it's just budgeting - If the item is for sale at several outlets, whether local or online, I'm going to get the least expensive because I still have a family to feed and mortgage to pay and need to watch where all those dollars go Having items onhand is not necessarily "value added" unless it's an emergency purchase (like a new tire) or the shopper is just impatient.

Fortunately LBSs in my area are very competitive with their goods and pricing so I can get most of my bike stuff locally.

dcr

I buy books at small independent bookstores because I want to browse and support neighborhood businesses. The added cost for buying online is losing our businesses. I pay higher prices because I want to support stores that employ people and offer the opportunity to see more of a product that a picture on a screen. I pay more for food that's local. The best value is not the least expensive.

I am not always a conscientious consumer, but I do what I can.

Burton

I think the topic that was started here was the act of deliberately going to a retailer with the intent of 'trying stuff on' or 'trying something out' and then buying it someplace else. Realistically its impossible to verify or compare the fit of shoes or garments online, or evaluate some products for build quality or functionality without actually holding them in your hands. Providing merchandise, floor space and staff to enabke the consumer to do this is expensive and requires a higher markup in the inventory. Its a service and a demonstration to customer committment. Stores that base the customer experience soley on price are usually based around maximizing turnover and profit levels.

And this is a two way street that requires respect by consumers as well. 'Return Fraud' https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_fraud is hitting record highs in brick and motor stores and cost estimated $14.3 to $18.4 billion in 2011. Using any shop to try out merchandise with the preconceived intention of buying elsewhere doesn't technically fall under this catagory, but from a practical point of view does because it uses up floor space, service staff and depreciates merchandise.

That may not be what you yourself are doing but it is how the topic was initially brought up and unfortunately stores also do have to deal with customers that 'buy' tool to do a job and then return them for a refund afterwards, and others that 'buy' clothing for use Friday night and return them Monday morning. Every major power outage sees generators sold out everywhere and then long lines of people returning them afterwards. My choice of words may not be politically correct, but 'stupidity' seems to me to be the best description.

droy45

Alot of differing opinions here based on personal experiences I guess. I have two walmart bikes that I still own but haven't used in years because I moved on to better higher performing bikes. My wife still uses her Walmart beach cruiser but very rarely. Its fine for her. Now, here are the deeper details about department store bikes in general ( not just Walmart)

1. The frames are made in China for American companys such as Kent, Huffy, using high tech CNC welding processes and have decent build quality, fit and finish.
2. All the components are the lowest quality available and also sourced out of China, Taiwan etc.
3. The assembly is crude at best especially with the final assembly being done by an untrained Walmart employee.
4. The moving parts such as bearings will wear quickly if used regularly and replacements are generally not available and you have to resort to installing more high end components.
5. They are a good value for someone just trying to get back into cycling and not wanting to invest too much at first.

These bikes will always offer lower performance in braking, shifting and all the general functions of a bike. Marketing is a complicated subject in todays world because our American companies have sourced out Chinese companies to build their products in a predetermined low cost range. It's not that China makes only cheap stuff, as they are perfectly capable of building some very high tech quality items such as electronics etc. Your local bike shop will always have better quality bikes for a higher price of course. They do not have the power of mass marketing and the ability to get large quantities of out sourced bikes like department stores would. Even high quality bikes like Cannondale and Specialized for example have nice frames built in China because they make them so well and so cheaply for these American companies. They control the quality and performance by assembling them at their factories under stricter quality control programs.

It all depends on what you need. Most avid cyclers will move on to better quality bikes after having started on a cheap one or having used one growing up, and I don't think there is anything to be ashamed about that.

dynodonn 

Sounds like the OP had his "ah ha" moment, at least when it came to Wally bikes. My wife's moment came within the first ten feet of her first ride on one of my personally prepared LBS bikes.