Originally Posted by
bobn
If it were not for these budget priced bikes, a lot of kids would be disappointed on Christmas morning and etc.
Not everyone can afford to go to an LBS and then watch their kids outgrow the 'better quality bike".
Nobody - certainly not me - is criticising anyone for being unable to afford an expensive bike for their kids. But acknowledging that these bikes are cheap is very different from saying their frames are of good quality, as the OP claims. Sixty Fiver is right, bikes that were at the cheaper end of the market thirty years ago were of much better quality than today's equivalents.