Originally Posted by
yellowblack
The entire area here has a giant elitism when it comes to cyclist who ride Wal-Mart or Target bikes. The local bike shops refuse to even work on them. The other day I saw this girl come into the bike shop while I was picking up some stuff. She said, "Do ya'll do bike repair here even if I purchased my bike elsewhere?" and the owner told her, "I don't care where a bike comes from. I'll work on anything... unless it comes from Wal-Mart," the girl said, "oh..." and left.
Actually, there is a good reason for that. Many Wally World and Targe' bikes are of such poor design/construction that it takes more effort and time to tune them right and/or fix them than the bike is worth, and the bike shops know that they won't be able to charge enough to get reimbursed for their time and effort.
That said, that policy does discourage new cyclists from getting into the sport.