Originally Posted by
HerrKaLeun
Those cheap (cheap for Trek to build, not cheap for the consumer) LBS bikes are just 1% above Walmart bike... please don't get design ideas from those BSOs with a fancy name.
Beg to differ, Any bike that I can keep alive with annual tune-ups for 20 or 30 years is a damn good bike. In this class I include Rockhoppers and Hardrocks, Trek 800s, 7000s, FXs, and Marlins, Gary Fisher hardtails, Boulder-era Schwinn hardtails, and Raleigh MT200s, and a lot of other low-end bikes from the major manufacturers. The shop where I worked for ten years offered free winter tune-ups on any bike purchased from us for the original owner (or family). I used to tease these customers that they got more in free tune-ups than what we got for selling them the bike. But I always added that as long as they let me sell them tires, cables, brake pads, handlebar grips, a hub overhaul and a new bottom bracket, and a new saddle when they needed it, I was glad to see the bike come back. And those bikes were loved and ridden.
Most big-box bikes do not last the first season of use.
But you're right about the wheels. Quick release hubs on a custom mountain bike is obsolete at the starting gate.