Originally Posted by
joe_5700
When I regained interest in biking in my adult life, I decided to go down the department store route and bought a Schwinn Ranger 26" mountain bike from Target. I paid $139 for it and it was a great bike for the money. It was of good enough quality to get me back into riding again. After riding for months and racking up hundreds of miles on the bike, I realized I wanted a more efficient bike/faster, so I sold the bike on Craigslist for $75. The bike gave me absolutely no trouble what so ever. Except for when I attached a trailer to it and stripped out the bolt on the rear wheel....
It really depends on how you bike and what you have ridden before or currently own. I have saved myself probably thousands by NOT taking very high end bikes for test rides at my LBS.
One could argue that higher end bikes are a waste of money by the diminishing returns in performance/reliability.
I agree completely...depending on the bike. Value and price are not necessarily linear. I wouldn't hesitate to spend $1700 on something like an
Azor Opa, because I know they are built to last. Yet I wouldn't spend that much on a Trek Carbon Fiber Road bike, not a good value to me.
I have pointed out many, many times that the
Mongoose Paver at WM is an excellent value for the price, but not something like the
Next PowerX Dual Suspension MTB.
Aaron
