Originally Posted by
HillRider
So many parents, particularly those who don't ride themselves, consider kids' bikes as disposable toys and pay as little as possible and the results are what you found.
Sometimes they'll even ask their bike riding friends like me for recommendations. I tell them to go to a legit bike store where someone will assist them and stand behind the product, and not a box store. I tell them that the box stores use poorly trained kids to assemble that stuff and they don't have any maintenance staff and if anything isn't perfect they'll be SOL. Sometimes they listen to me and check out the LBS, and then buy the BSO at *Mart anyway because it was cheaper. Then they ask me for advice again on getting a brake adjusted or a flat fixed and I just shake my head.
My daughter had Trek and Specialized as a kid, and I never had any trouble re-selling them when she out-grew them.