DnvrFox

(FROM REC.BICYCLES.MISC)

Rowan

Ummmm... all Walmart has to prove is that someone who has some "knowledge" of bicycle assembly was responsible for the bikes from box to sale. There is a good chance the person who assembled the bikes has experience -- even if it is one or two other bikes.

If the bikes were sold boxed and unassembled, the purchaser is responsible.

I am only thinking the way the company would, to defend itself.

However...

Having dealt two weeks ago with parents and bikes... oh dear, what parents get away with is astonishing. Whether it is Huffy or bike shop stuff, the maintenance is virtually zero. I spent so much time just pumping up tyres to 40psi. I could have spent three hours attending to problems with bikes from just six participants.

I have found that kids are amazingly adaptable to deficiencies with their bikes. No brakes. No gears. Way-out-of-true wheels. Rusty frames. Bent handlebars. No headset bearings. Way out-of-control BB bearings. Little or no lubrication anywhere.

But parents still let 'em ride.

Just who is responsible?

r8ingbull

Honestly I think Wal-Mart should be held responsible for the product they sell. They have carefully crafted an image that they sell things for less than anyone. They actually sell cheap crap and pass it off as quality goods for less money. Sounds like fraud to me. Not to mention these people should even have to sue, according to Walmarts own sign on the front of the store "satisfaction guaranteed". Walmart should be forced to honor their guarantee and satisfy those people.

dee-vee

I rode a Next brand walmart mountain bike for 2 years. Needles to say it was a POS.

smurfy

I know of at least one LBS that won't even touch these bikes. The nuts and bolts are so poor-quality that they will break off just by "looking at them". When is the general public ever going to learn?

snowy

Just another reason for me as why I hate Walmart. You pay for what you get!!!

forum*rider

wal-mart is good to buy worms from when you go fishing. It's like $5.75 for 25 jumbo nightcrawlers, and these really are jumbo.

But everything else is crappy. Heck I bought a bag of potatoe chips from them once and I didn't think anything could be wrong with them. I mean their potaote chips...

But wal-mart failed again, my chips were stale. Now I just stay the heck away from that store.

slvoid

Please, they make it sound like just because the quick-release front wheels are manufactured in china, it' automatically a deathtrap. I'm chinese and I find that kind of offensive, well, on the other hand, I avoid a lot of "made in china" stuff cause even I know, the quality's gonna be crap, I can just tell from the cheap chrome in front of that vcr.

cyclezealot

I do not have to worry about being enticed by Wal Mart's cheap bikes...I have and will not step foot in the store...I despise box stores, let alone that one.

steveknight

someone else is always.

steveknight

it's not crap because it is made in china there is good stuff made there. it is crap because that is what the american companies specified. thats all they paid for. but if you think it is crap the same thing for the same price made in america would be horrible.

forum*rider

Well then thats the problem. People are not willing to pay extra for quality goods.

How can we get people to realize that paying for quality items is better in the long run?

Crankbait

My friend sees me going off daily for rides and dicided to by a bike and join me, he didn't feel like making the financial commitment and bought a Wal mart bike. First ride out his chain kept skipping on hills, so I looks at it and it turns out that his front chainring has some very deformed looking teeth. So out of curiosity I went back to Wal-mart with him to exchange, I couldn't find a single bike there without a defective part. What Junk, He even had a hassle about getting his money back. He now ownes a used Fuji and is making his life effort to boycot Wal-mart. You Get what you pay for !

steveknight

this is what caused corperations to go to china in the first place. people are cheap for the most part.

Dchiefransom

What's missing here is the information on what actually happened that caused the front wheel to come off the bikes.

slvoid

The problem is a lot of people view things as disposable.
When I buy a bike, I expect to have it for many years. I doubt the guy who buys the $59.95 mtb from walmart expects it to be able to last him more than a year.

operator

MMhmm, there seems to be a nice fad that bashing chinese made products and walmart here is cool. I'm not saying there aren't some bad products but it is unfair to automagically say something is bad just because it was made in China.

I'm guessing the people who are saying that do not have a SINGLE product made in china that they own or use?

If you know what you are doing you can buy a perfcetly safe and rideable bike at dept stores. Anti-xmart zealots here are trying to turn a single piece of news item into another reason for a crusade.

How about we just wait and see what exactly the reason for the front wheel failure is?

glowingrod

Let them die, one less to convince.

Anyway, were there Annoying Safety Dropouts on these forks? I'd think even foriegn manufactured would have those by now, if they didn't Walmart is screwed.

steveknight

remember walmart paysit's employee's so little that every store genereates about 100,000 in welfare payments because they do nto make enough.

glowingrod

Wal-Mart sucks. Gender-Biased, SweatShop Promoting & Supporting, Sprawl Initiators Enablers, Low-Wage,Long-hour Worker Abuse, Violaters of Child Workplace regulations, Consumer society promoting, Homogenizing cocksucers

vincenzosi

Yeah. I really wish they'd stop forcing people to shop there.

Bastards.

Karldar

Tell me about it. My wife forced me into Sam's Club this morning at gunpoint. Lucky for me, I only spent $368.66. Plus, I spent NO money on bikes or bike-related gear. Sweet, huh?

DieselDan

You sure about that? I bet you bought food that will be consumed before a ride and the calories burned as fuel for your ride.

LittleBigMan

Wal-Mart is responsible.

Dyno-whatever is responsible.

Parents are responsible.

Kids are innocent, but they probably need to take responsibility in a world that doesn't look out for them.

DieselDan

The QRs on those cheap bikes fail because the nut isn't tighened down enough and it works it way off, causing the QR to fall out and the wheel to come out of the dropouts.

Many of these bikes are put together, not assembled. Assembly implies a quality check was performed to some degree. That definition comes from a 35 year quailty control technician from Pratt and Whitney/United Technoligies.