Originally Posted by
HillRider
A lot of what you claim is based on undemanding riders on very modest terrain doing low mileage. Any department store bike will work adequately on flat Rail-Trails or neighborhood streets with no demand for fast, reliable shifting or hard use of the brakes.
Really? My department store bike does all of that, really well. In fact, last week, I broke 30mph on it, on a NYS Highway. And, since August (When I bought it), it has only needed a derailleur adjustment (At initial purchase time), and some chain oiling. And, thus far, I'm at about 600 miles or so (Bought on August 16th, so two months exactly).
I don't consider 300 miles a month to be a slouch. It sure isn't what some riders do, but it's far more than most do. And it's been used on roads and mups (It's a road bike).
My dad's Huffy I recently cleaned, has at least 5000 miles on it. That was his "light duty bike", and it's all factory parts, except tubes (They dry-rotted while in storage for 5 years).
My road bike cost me $260 (About 60 in accessories like a rack, bell, mirror, water bottle/cage, etc).