Originally Posted by
dddd
It's as if the attitude is that the customer only looks at the market-rated quality level of the components and cares not if the bike is assembled properly, i.e. "what they don't know won't hurt them".
I sound naive saying that, right?
I think about the consumer market as a whole, and would agree that most people don't know or even consider things like bearing adjustment, or lubrication. From a manufacturing standpoint, too tight may be better than too loose. Time is money. Wobble or slop is instantly noticeable, but binding may not be when the whole mass of the object is pedaled down the road. Or, maybe I'm misunderstanding.