You're right in large part in my opinion. My beef is partly with low quality and maybe more with inconsistent quality. I looked at the cheapo bikes at Wally World the other day, and on the whole the $100-200 bikes found there have prettier welds and better paint than my $600 Sun Atlas Cargo. Realizing that the Sun is not a $1500 bike, it's still disappointing that the fit and finish is in many ways inferior to a bike that cost less than half the price sold at a discount store.

Of the three SACs I've had, they rank:

1. Nice looking welds that were structurally sound.
2. Rough looking welds that in my opinion not only looked bad but were poorly executed from a functional standpoint.
3. Rough looking welds that are better than #2 and probably are at the minimum acceptable level from a functional standpoint.

2 out of 3 of my bikes have had functional welds, one had pretty functional welds, and one had ugly welds of dubious functional value. Very hit or miss, and I recommend that anyone who buys a SAC lay eyes on it before plunking down cash. If you're satisfied with what you see after you give it a thorough once over, by all means buy one.

Here are a couple pics of the subpar (in my opinion) welds on bike #2. Hard to show them in pics without a macro lens. A lot of places on the bike were similar. Overpenetrated, underpenetrated, insufficient bead, etc. They looked worse in person. In the second photo, the bead is incomplete and there is actually a pinhole burned through the base metal tubing to the left of the rust spot where the bead is incomplete. Makes one wonder what more of the welds looked like under the paint. Speaking of paint, bike #3 has a lot of fisheye in it. Again, the average bike at Wally World has nicer paint quality. Today I noticed that the Sun badge on the head tube is peeling off already, and I've ridden the bike twice. Not the end of the world, but still.

http://s36.photobucket.com/user/mbri...b5e6e.jpg.html

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4...ps16d440a2.jpg


YMMV