Two things.
First, it is Not “bike-like object.” It is “Bicycle-Shaped Objects”—BSO.
Second: Massive Elitism.
Look … I spent a lot of years on BSOs when I first added cycling to my car-free lifestyle. I couldn’t afford and wouldn’t have wanted the stuff the shops were selling. I literally picked up bikes on the side of the road. I had a couple friends donate to me bikes they didn’t want---Sears Firenze MTBs.
I rode hard, I beat the snot out of things. I carried a lot of gear, I had no concern for mysef or my machines. I constantly built and rebuilt and always had a couple on hand.
Some bikes were pure …. Stuff, let’s say. I snapped the chainring off a one-piece Ashtabula crank on a Huffy trying to sprint through a 20-second window between people running the red two ways and people jumping the green in three other directions. Great time to be stalled dead center in an intersection about six lanes wide, believe me.
But most of them weren’t as bad as my mechanicing. I trued wheels by eye, didn’t worry much about roundness or tension so long as I could fit the tires between the brakes. I didn’t lube Anything, and I rode in hard rain pretty much every day for a couple months a year. I didn’t care. Bikes were consumables.
And you know what? I did some pretty good rides on BSOs.
I wasn’t a gentle, ride-the-sidewalk three-block commuter. I was a many miles two or three times a day, hop curbs, bash over obstacles (can’t bunny-hop with full panniers—or I couldn’t.) I rode seven days a week bike abuser. I carried loads of laundry, 50 pounds or more of groceries … and I did that long enough to buy a few decent yard-sale bikes---two of which were stolen, one which I still have. I also bought a bike-store bike—a Bridgestone MB4. (Lost it jousting with a car.)
I rode a yard-sale bike from Orlando, Florida to Washington, DC, fully loaded with about 80-90 pounds of touring gear. Bike worked flawlessly. By then I had learned how to wrench some.
The folks buying what we condescendingly call “BSO” are often getting bikes about as good as we had as kids. Some of the parts are cheaper—levers in particular. And All the suspension bikes are pretty much junk.
But for most casual riders … a Walmart bike can meet all their needs and do it for years without all the massive rebuilding we all like to claim they need.
Sorry to have to be honest and real—it’s just who I am.
For people who never intend to push hard, a Walmart bike is A Bicycle. Basic, simple, metal …. Technologies mankind mastered long ago, in a package mankind has been producing for what, 110 years?
I doubt most of those people would really get a lot more out of a bike costing six times as much—but if you come here, people argue whether one can buy a worthwhile bike for $700. People at Walmart buy worthwhile bikes for $110 every day.
I am sure there is snobbery in Every crowd. No matter what we eat, there are people who are both amused and nauseated. No matter which wine we pick, there are oenophiles shuddering and chuckling. No matter which car we drive, which barbeque sauce (“You BUY barbeque sauce?” “You buy bread in grocery stores????”) or which Whatever … there are people ready to tell us that we are buying trash and simply have not learned to appreciate the finer things.
We Are Bike Snobs.
Plenty of people are completely happy riding Anything Which Rolls. Plenty of people are totally focused on The Ride (like we Should be, you’d think) and not all hung up on the gear, the glitz, the glamour, the bling, the image, the lingo ….. They could not care less about which brands are which any more than they care about the ignition advance or valve lift on their cars.
There are people on this site who have tens of thousands of miles on Huffys and Magnas. They pop up from time to time—for these sorts of debates.
Basically … those people, the 73 percent or whatever …. Are like most peple who buy cars. Almost nobody really wrings out a car … it simply cannot be done safely on the street.
Ask Jefnvk about a Ford Fusion … there was a Fusion model which flat outperformed a 1975 Porsche Turbo (the first year the Porsche Turbo was offered, I think.)
I think the Porsche had a taller top end, but the Fusion matched it 0–60 and 60–0. Had equal or better handling (no barbell off the back axle.)
The Porsche Turbo was a Supercar, a Monster … and 30 years later a $28K sport-optioned econobox Ford could ace it.
But seriously … most econoboxes could be thrashed around at amazing and certainly unsafe speeds, way faster than most any driver ever bothers to probe. (Don’t ask me why I don’t drive any more.)
And for most people who drive at traffic speeds … anything with four wheels and three forward gears is just fine.
And for most people who ride bikes … Walmart sells them a completely acceptable product.
Wouldn’t work for us … because we want something else. But what Walmart and other big box stores sell is what a lot of people want.
I knew there was Something about you.
But as I recall the book said it didn’t really have much in it about Zen, or motorcycles.
A lot of the book was about insanity, and a lot of it was about “Quality” which Pirsig defined as sort of “undifferentiated perception, direct, unfiltered perception of reality without intrusion from the conscious mind.”
I do not believe the word “Walmart” appeared in the book even once—and I don’t remember any bicycles either.
Phaedrus, facing a desire to travel faster than he could on foot, would have chosen a bicycle not based on the name on the down tube, and would not have been impressed by a bike designed to Pretend to be a racing machine (as all those “ten-speed racers” were, around the time the book was published.)
Phaedrus would have looked past form, and saw that the seat would only function if someone pedaled constantly. He would have looked at his legs and seen that they were not bike-racer’s legs. He would have looked at an upright bike with one chain ring and a wide-range rear cassette, fattish tires, a wide, supportive seat, and swept-back bars to ease strain on the arms, hands and shoulders.
That bike almost perfectly describes the sub $100 DiamondBack a friend of mine bought at Walmart a while ago. He rides slowly, mostly on the sidewalk, he doesn’t do stunts or tricks, he doesn’t race … he needs a bike to get to where he needs to be (often the bus station.) And for him, that Walmart Diamondback is all the bike he will ever need.
Cost him less than $100.
I could give him any of my bikes … and none of them would work as well for what he needs as what he bought for under $100 at Walmart.