I've told my Dept store bike story on here before. I bought 2 Schwinn Avenue aluminum framed hybrid bikes in 2002. Mainly wanted bikes for paved trails. Those bikes lasted until 2012 with very little maintenance. I knew going in that these were bikes that you couldn't put tons and tons of hard miles on. My son, who is very hard on things, rode one of the bikes and left it out in the weather quite a bit. I was pretty impressed with how well they held up.........I paid $400 for the pair.......I definitely got my money's worth. I know this isn't the typical Dept store experience......I might have lucked out.......