Oh... another thing I have noticed about dept. store bikes vs. LBS bikes. Direct Customer Facing Quality Control. Every wrench on this forum so far has recounted stories about how they've rejected bikes they thought were unsafe. I'm also pretty good friends with the people at several LBSes and I've seen them do the same thing. They look out for their customers. When the mechanic at my FBS was building up my roadbike, he sent the stem back and requested a new one because he found too much metal flashing in the handlebar clamp area. And yes, he could have taken a file to it. He felt that it wasn't right and that I deserved a stem that was correct from the factory. I think he said there were other issues with the shape of the forging not being correct too. For the most part, the higher prices you see at the LBS is reflective of the overall professionalism there.

I don't get that same warm-fuzzy feeling when perusing through Target, Wal-Mart, K-mart, Costco, etc and seeing what ends up on shelves selling $109.99 bikes. As a matter of fact, while buying toilet paper (the most common thing I pick up at Target), I have stopped people and pointed out assembly and build problems on bikes that they were rolling up to the checkout line and ready to pay for.