howeeee

Just trying to show that I really have experience with these crappy bikes, I am not just talking about something I have no experience with. I dont know what these guys think you are going to get for 200 bucks.

My brother just bought a Colnago for about 8 grand. For me that is plain stupid. I ride about the same my milage as my brother, I am thinner for my height than he is and I ride right now a couple of cheap fixed gear bikes, one I bought used for 160 bucks the other I traded a vintage Schwinn Town and country tandem I got for free in pieces and put it back together.

I ride through the winter and the roads here suck year round.

There is a role for these cheap bikes to play as well as a role for an 8000 dollar bike that he probably bought on payments lol. I will build a better bike soon, but still will only have 700 to 800 bucks in it once done. Some guys dont have that much to spend are they supposed to sit on the keisters and get fat just cause some guys on here hate these inexpensive bikes? A guy can spend 200 bucks get back forth to work or school for a couple years staying healthier and helping the enviorment at the same time. Thats what bicycling is all about for most people, if 200 bucks will get it , I am all for it.

heymatthew

You're right, but it seems you have at least a little bit of experience with bikes and, based on the fact that you claim to have re-assembled a tandem, you have at least some mechanical ability. The problem with "these guys" is that a lot of them aren't bike savvy and may not be all that mechanically inclined. So, when these $200 bikes break, they either don't know how to fix them, get frustrated and quit riding them or they take them to a bike shop and have to dump more money into them to make them right.

Sure, you've had good luck with yours, but it's important for people to understand exactly what they're getting so that there are no illusions about the quality, or lack thereof, of these low end bikes.

I've said it before, that these bikes will get you from A to B, but it's a crap shoot as to how many times before something fails. It's not an "if" something fails. It's most certainly a "when" and "how badly".

Here's an example from another hobby of mine: I'm into fountain pens. I have some fairly high end pens (used to have a lot more, but have since thinned my collection). On the fountain pen forums, we get the same kinds of questions. "What's the best pen for under $100?" or "What's the best pen for $50?" The problem with these "cheap" pens is that they often write poorly, have terrible flow, are cheaply made and just give an overall poor experience, usually failing rather quickly which, in turn, frustrates new users and causes them to turn away from the hobby. Either that, or they contact a pen repairman and find that they'll have to spend what they spent on the pen to get it tuned to write properly. If they would have spent a little more, they could have gotten a pen with a great reputation, tuned out of the box to write smoothly and with good flow, and have an overall better writing experience.

Does a $50 fountain pen write? Yeah. It puts ink down on paper. Does it write as well as a $450 fountain pen? Mmm... That's subjective, but there's a reason I (and many others) don't own a $50 fountain pen, but I do own a $450 one and most of my others are $200+. They give a better experience, don't fail and need little to no maintenance to keep them writing/operating properly (there's more to a fountain pen than one would think).

It's all perspective, I guess.

TejanoTrackie 

So much technical fail in this post. Are you an art history major ?

heymatthew

Today I learned that steel = aluminum = bronze = silver = copper = gold. Metal is metal.

Juan Foote

Let's be honest for a moment though. If people were only to search for topics instead of posting duplicates there would be very little to actually discuss here....not to say much is getting discussed anyway.

howeeee

Yea I sometime forget I have been repairing bikes since I was 10 years old, mostly Schwinns. Here is before and after Tandem pics.

katsrevenge

Sure. It will probably end up more 'cruiser' than 'fixie' simply because he keeps nixing the more fun looking handlebars.

SquidPuppet

Oh my. Keep reading then. You'll figure it out eventually.

SquidPuppet

You are an idiot. ALL of my bikes are perfect.

SquidPuppet

Fixie = SS = Track bike = fixed gear = townie = CB = .........

heymatthew

Not sure reading is going to fix this issue...



I retract my previous statement then. No bike is perfect, except for SquidPuppet's bikes (especially the cruiser).



I was hoping you'd chime in on this. I wouldn't expect anything less than this exact response from you.

heymatthew

I think if there were fewer threads, we would actually get more accomplished because people wouldn't be wading through endless threads about which $200 bike will be less crappy. Those threads end up getting nothing accomplished anyway because people just end up arguing about which bike is better. It's the same ol' Kilo vs. The Hour, Apple vs. Android, Windows vs. PC, Israel vs. Palestine argument every single time.

A basic search would show people which bikes are most highly recommended. If they'd do a LITTLE research for themselves, then they'd discover that there are about 3 bikes in that sub $500 category that get recommended time and time again.

IAmSam

Nobody is forcing you to click on, nor to post multiple times in, any thread which has a subject that you do not care for...

heymatthew

You're missing the point. The point isn't whether or not I'm commenting on a thread or not. Obviously, we can overlook these stupid threads. The point is that it's ridiculous that EVERY SINGLE DAY someone (or multiple someones) post the same exact ****. "Which bike is best for $200?" or "Which of these ****ty bikes is best?" or "I have $500. What should I buy?"

A SIMPLE SEARCH along with some BASIC READING COMPREHENSION (or they could make a list if they need to so they don't forget) would result in about 3 different bikes in this category. The Kilo, which people here love (or love to hate), the Windsor Hour and, on occasion, the PureFix/Vilano bikes from Amazon.

But you're right. I think we should just start ignoring these people too lazy to do a simple search and maybe they'll go away and take their stupid questions with them.

steve-in-kville 

A fellow FP user!! I have a few Lamy's. Love 'em.

heymatthew

Lamys are the exception to my post above. I've never had a Lamy that was anything other than great right out of the box. For less than $50 thy Safari and Al-Star are my top recommendation to people new to FP's.