Originally Posted by iltb-2

Baloney! If those bikes aren't ridden more than 50 miles there is no practical reason they couldn't. What makes you think the owners would have cycled more if they had bought, and were bent over like pretzels, on fancy "high quality" enthusiasts' machines?

Put new tires on any inexpensive 30 year old Huffy, Columbia, Sears, Firestone, Montgomery Ward, etc one or three speed and they are good to go for another 30 years for the typical city cycling that is actually done or would even be considered practical by most any person considering bike commuting. Doubly true for any bike built prior to the 10 speed "racer" fad of the 70's.

Actually I was in Walmart yesterday and saw several one speed balloon tired bikes with full fenders for about $80 that would serve the commuting purpose for a large slice of the typical commutes of both adults and youth. The only maintenance that should be required is checking the air in the tires on occasion. I don't buy into the propaganda put out by the LBS claque who bad mouth any and all products that do not have name brand/LBS provenance.

My point is that the extreme long distance commuter, all weather condition commuter or the cyclist who will commute regularly on long dirt roads and long steep hills is the exception, not the rule in the real world, though the opposite may be true for the BF commuting expert population. And those typical real world commuting cyclists do not need, nor necessarily get any significant value for their money, from up scale products targeted for a tiny slice of the total population - well to do cycling enthusiasts.