Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
I honestly believe that a handful of bike enthusiasts and/or LBS connected personnel who obsessively wail about the evils of $69-$129 bikes sold at Big Box stores not meeting the same standards as mega dollar bikes sold at their favorite LBS are not exactly an unbiased source of info about the relative value of bicycles.
Nor are the enthusiasts and LBS connected posters' interests and needs identical, or necessarily even close, to the typical purchasers/users of inexpensive bikes purchased at Big box/department stores.
This is the most naive and ignorant thing i've read so far. Walmart employees (not trained bicycle mechanics are paid piece work to assemble as many bikes as possible. You bet your ass nothing is going to be adjusted properly and only the shoddiest of assemblies done.
Sure you could say the same for some LBS's. But at least they have REAL mechanics who do this job. There's no such thing as "relative" value. The $69-$129 bicycles will get people around maybe. Assuming something isn't so far out of whack as to render a repair uneconomical given the cost of the bike.
Walmart and big box retailers were never interested in servicing their bikes - because they know they are ****. The cost of doing a repair on a CCM or a supercycle with even basic problems will be too much for anyone who thinks "real bikes" can be bought for $100 new.