Curiously enough, ToysRUs were selling some 650c wheel Triax bikes for £70 apiece, a couple of years ago, so we bought 4 for the Kids Club. Yes, they're rather heavy, have 48(!) spoke wheels, but they've introduced quite a few of the youngster to roadbike riding and they've stood up to some clumsy handling and haven't needed much tweaking.

Not all Big Box store bikes are bad.

Oh, and one of the dads bought his son one as a cheap way into circuit racing (9 years old at the time). A month or so back, some thieving piece of diseased scrotal tissue broke into his garden shed and nicked it. The insurance are paying out £250 as replacement value