Originally Posted by alanbikehouston
K-Mart and Wal-Mart buy in such huge quantities that they could sell one speed bikes of excellent quality for $89.95 or $99.95. Bikes that would give five or ten years of safe and reliable service. Instead, they are selling "dual suspension", 21 speed bikes that provide MAYBE six months of hard riding before problems crop up that will cost more than $89.95 to repair
Walmart, KMART, and Target all sell single speed bikes but do not stock many of them, at least where I live near. I see them almost everytime I am in those stores and rarely see them move off the rack. The reason is, they don't sell well. You can buy them off their websites also.
One thing I have also noticed among some of the roadies I come across and have spent time away from looking at their cyclometers to talk to me riding my lonely hybrid. They spend more on maintanance in one year on their bikes then the cost of my hybrid. If you get six months of 3,000 miles of riding for an 89 dollar bike, that is an excellent value.
I am seriously thinking of buying a one speed cruiser just for the challenge of riding a metric century or even a full century on one of them. Don't know if I would tour on one of them although Or just something different..... I could always pick one up at a flea market for 20 bucks, spend a little bit of time cleaning it up and trying it that way.
You can also make any 21 speed a one speed bike real easy.
