Wal-Mart bikes are not generally sold to members of this Forum. They are sold to secretaries and nurses and school teachers who give them to kids age four, six and eight. When I take my nine year old nephew riding with his friends, I check over their bikes. Those Wal-Mart bikes are in unsafe condition. Badly put together (a fork on BACKWARDS!!!). Brakes not operating. Wheels not securely attached to the forks. Forks too flimsy to retain a wheel. And, when I talk with their parents, I find out their parents were told at Wal-Mart "the bike is assembled and ready to ride"...and the parents did not know enough about bikes to know what a huge lie that was.

Why would anyone assume that the average American mother knows how to safely assembly a bike and how to close and check a quick release for proper functioning when not ONE employee in the bike department of Wal-Mart knows how either?

With some time and effort, I can usually make those bikes reasonably safe for a slow ride around an empty school parking lot. But, I won't allow kids I'm supervising ride those bike in the streets...they just are not well made enough to be riding in traffic.

YOU want to blame lawyers for the lawsuits against Wal-Mart. That is a bit like blaming the fire department for a fire, or blaming the police department for bank robberies. Wal-Mart choses to sell crap that injures people. They invite lawsuits. In a recent trial, the executive at Wal-Mart who is responsible for their bicycle buying program demonstrated he has zero knowledge of bicycles. It is doubtful that he could take off a wheel, and properly remount it.

Many members of the Forums sneered and laughed at the notion that there might be anyone in America who does not know how to properly use a quick release. The fact is, the MAJORITY of bike riders do not know how to correctly use a quick release. After any of my bikes is serviced at an LBS, I check the quick releases before riding the bikes.

Even at the best shops, I have found staff members incorrectly closing a quick release. And, you can be assured, the quick releases on a $59 Wal-Mart bike are NOT the same quality of quick releases used on a $700 Trek. Last week, I showed a guy why his tire was rubbing against the chainstay of his $3,000 bike. He had closed the quick release incorrectly. And, he has been a regular rider for thirty years.

But, lawsuits may not be the answer. I would support a law that if Wal-Mart sells unsafe products to children, and a child is injured, the Wal-Mart executives go to prison. Money means nothing to Wal-Mart. Maybe a few years sharing a room with "Bubba" would cause them to be a bit more respectful of American children.

By the way, back in the 1970's, when Schwinn was a real bike company, Schwinn did NOT put quick releases on children's bikes. Schwinn had extensive in-house testing equipment, and had contracts with two university testing facilities to test bikes and bike components for safety. Schwinn sold safe bikes for children for a reason: customer safety was "job one". Wal-Mart thinks "job one" is to increase the billions of dollars in the pockets of the Walton family.