A friend of mine is an avid collector of department store bikes he finds in the trash, and he said that he's noticed a marked decrease in quality over the last two years. Whatever they are making in china has deteriorated severely. He saw his first deformed cone recently. It didn't 'wear out', rather, it got physically deformed by the bearings. Not cool, even on a cheap bike!

The headset on my tall bike is off a department store pixie bike from about 10 years ago, and it is quite beefy. Actually surprisingly beefy. Its not precision by any means, but it is made from thick machined steel, and adjusts up nicely with no complaints.

Cheap bikes used to be decent quality, just heavy and featureless, but now they've removed the first part, and we are back down to 'completely useless'. Its a shame, really.

peace,
sam