Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Just curious, how did you find out that you never want to buy a cheap bike from Walmart or Sears? If it was from reading bike snob /LBS affiliated personnel comments on BF, my advice is to enjoy your bike as is and when it no longer serves your purposes perhaps then ask around to include BF and your local bike stores.
I agree, sell it and get your money out of it to invest in something worth upgrading.
To answer your question specifically, there are lots of reasons.
I volunteer at a bike co-op, and see what these bikes look like after a year when people donate them to us.
I see plenty of people buy a pretty bike at a big box store, and then quit riding them as they get out of tune so quickly, and who wants to spend $50 to tune up a $200 bike? The bikes fall apart quickly enough that we get a steady supply of donor bikes of this type. Takes a lot of time and TLC to get a bike like this going again.
THey are heavy, break, rust, get out of tune. Upgrades are much more expensive than buying a complete bike.
If you have a good chromoly or aluminum frame, then you could try, but it is going to be very expensive to upgrade. The markup on parts is MUCH more than the markup on a complete bike. Besides, have you looked at the details? The welds? The dropouts? The base frame weight?
If you need a decent bike but need walmart prices, at least try bikesdirect.com. At least you'll have a decent frame (if you know how to fit it to you) and good components to start with.
If you are happy with your out of the box big box store bike, purchase a single speed, and just use it for casual riding around 10mph, a walmart type bike is fine.