Originally Posted by kemmer
For what you spend on a Next, you can get a good quality used bike. Name brand bike frames are generally made of stronger, lighter materials and the parts are of better quality as well. Sure, you can keep an x-mart bike going for years and years but it'll be heavier, uglier, require more maintenance, and perform poorly compared to a 10 year old bike shop bike. I'm all for being a cheapskate, but I'll take my old Trek (13 years old), Miyata (14 years old) and Maruishi (29 years old) over some brand new department store boat anchor any day of the week.
Edit: The Trek I bought new, but the other two were purchased for less than any Wal Mart bike. Other than tires, brake pads, and a couple of chains, the Trek has never required any maintenence. The other two bikes have needed nothing beyond the items I replaced when I purchased them.
yes and you will get all the used spare parts that came from a host of other bikes-take the rust off, paint black enamel over all these parts to disguise the rust decay, and inherit all the headaches the original owner had and be left with a rusting piece of ........ pay extra for the name., haha, i know all the tricks i was a mech for 10 years and all shops do the same thing dude.