So what you're saying here is that every local store has to specialize in some niche to survive, but that the big box stores had nothing to do with it? You also imply that the only people capable of properly running a business that isn't niche are Walmart, HD, Lowes, etc.

FWIW - they did it by convincing people they would get the same product and the same service for a lower price. And they did...for a few years. Now, almost NOTHING is made in America, it's all disposable crap, and finding someone in one of these stores who can actually give you good advice is almost impossible. Remember when all the Walmart stuff said, "buy American"? Remember when Home Depot's big selling point was that there was an expert on every eisle? Walmart kept "driving down prices" by buying more and more from sweatshops overseas and people will still drive an hour round trip in a gas guzzler with their "Country First" bumper sticker, in order to save a dollar, but they're not helping their country, they're helping China and Iraq.

Rail on.

Points well made, WM is also driving down the wages of the working class. Little town I live near used to have a very large denim mill, average wage in 1998 was over $14 an hour and employed over 2,000 people. At the time it was one of if not the largest employer in the county. By 2001 the plant was shut down and shuttered. Now the largest employer in town is...Walmart with 450 employees at an average wage of around $10 an hour. When WM moves into town the tax base takes a hit as well as a proven increase in the cost of social services. Typically WM will ask for and get tax incentives to move to a town, when they expire, if the town says they don't want to reissue them quite often WM will pack up and build a new store a few miles down the road, outside the city limits. Currently WM has over 200 empty stores sitting around the country. Most of which were subsidized by tax payers and are now not generating any taxes for the communities they are blighting.

Aaron

To ignore all the other reasons not to shop at Walmart and just focus on the quality level of the bike in question, I will say it's okay. My problem with Walmart bikes is the usual attempt to give the impossible to the clueless. Suspension fork or dual suspension and 24+ gears at that price point is not possible in any way that even remotely resembles quality or even adequacy, and to the untrained eye they look the same as an LBS bike.

This Mongoose Paver, on the other hand, is exactly the sort of bikes that big box stores should be selling, I have no problem with a bike like this.

None of it changes the fact that Walmart is driven by sweatshop labor, is anti-union, and is probably the single biggest player in corporate America's race to the bottom in the last twenty-something years.

Not all Walmart bikes bad. My commuter bike is a 4 year old Schwinn "mountain" bike with thousands of miles on it. Aside from tune ups and minor adjustments (common for any type of bike), I've never had trouble with it. On rides of 50+ miles, it's done ok. The problem with Walmart bikes is that they are heavier and slower than other bikes. My bike weighs almost 40 pounds and even though I've put slicks on it, it's much slower than my road bike. Commuting on it makes me appreciate my road bike even more. There is no real comparison between them. When I do ride my road bike, it's more like flying than riding . I easily sail past most other cyclists on my 20 pound, skinny tire road bike. Unfortunately, bike thefts are all to common at the college I go to. So I needed a cheap bike I can afford to replace, instead of my much more expensive road bike.

I totally agree with most of the posts, especially the ones that say Wal-Mart/ Target are the down fall of America. It goes back years and has progressed, trickle down economics was supposed to mean the money you spent in your home area was to stay in your home area. It was supposed to buy local goods and pay local salaries. but we as a nation are now just giving our hard earned money to the corporations so they can pay lower salaries overseas and use cheap labor to answer their customer service issues. In the end they will go out of business after they ship all the jobs over seas and the Amercans have no money or jobs to pay even the cheap prices they are charging.

Big box stores are not the downfall of America. They may be an enabler, but assuming anything or anybody is responsible for the downfall of America, assuming further there is a downfall, it is us.

TRUE it is us for allowing it to happen. But I think all of us have gotten way off track in this post.

I agree!!! Check the assembly!!! Unless you REALLY want to put some time, frustration, and/or money into correcting basics, when you would MUCH rather be riding!!!

I fell in love with the Paver back in the spring... from a distance. Then it seemed to disappear from the racks. {There didn't seem to be too many of them around to start with!}

Last night, back at Wally World I found two. Rode comfortably enough, and handled well, but then we decided to put them to the test: One person holds the bike up and shifts, while the other person cranks the pedals at varying speeds.

Big fat FAIL for both bikes!!! Neither one knew what gear to be in when, and the chain jumped on its own more than once. Not onlythat, but one of them had a bent rear rim, and brakes that were adjusted WAAY too tight.

I'm going to give the Paver one more shot. My hope is that last night's store is just REALLY bad at bikes, and that another one near here (where we got my GFs alloy Schwinn that she loves so much) is still putting their stock together very well.

I bought a mail order bike off of ebay and I haven't noticed having to tweak the bike any more than a trek 1220 that I bought used... with that being said, my Dawes IS heavier than the trek...

but some of that could be the steel frame compared to the trek's aluminum frame...

"the bitterness of poor quality remains long after
the sweetness of low price is forgotten."

I'm sure that this has been suggested before, but Pawnshops,garage sales,CraigsList, and the like are good places to find a quality used biccyle. Look for a reliable name brand, and if it is cheap enough, you can take the bike to a good bike shop and have it looked over, tuned up, and maybe put new tires on it. In the long run, this would be more economical then going the Walmart route.

Interesting. Aaron, do you have a reference/link for this particular tidbit?

Personally, I like my Wal-Mart bike and my wife likes hers. I assembled both of them, getting her's unassembled at a store and mine through the mail. I think most of it depends on the person using the bike. I commute daily 14 miles round trip and she does 21 round trip daily, they work fine for that.

So I've read every post in this thread which was started over 2 months ago. I would love an update from the original poster on how she likes her new bike.

Here's the update thread.

First of all, I would never buy a bike at WM. And I am a little dismayed about how little is said about the LBS's stocked with communist-slave labor built bikes. My Kona is from Taiwan and my wife's Bianchi came from China.

It's only slave labor if it comes from an "EVIL" corporate giant like walmart. They little guys at the LBS are exempt according to most people on this thread.

I have a Wal-Mart Road bike that a co worker gave to me. It has horrible issues with flat tires. I think it has to do with the double wall in the inner wheel. It has drilled holes drilled thought the aluminum so you can access the spokes. I think they left shavings and rough edges in there from the factory. I am going to try to remedy the problem, convert it to a single speed free wheel and sell it on craigslist. I will use the profit to buy upgrades for my current commuter.

Most people are not willing to spend the money to purchase hand made bicycles. A substantial amount of manufacturing has moved to China from the rest of the world; mainly due to cheap labor and lax environmental laws. Try to purchase anything not made in China or other non labor friendly countries and you will soon be butt naked and walking everywhere. Taiwan does have labor laws and does enforce them.

Most people are concerned with price only and could care less where it comes from...until it affects their job.

Aaron

Taiwan is communist?

I would definitely replace the rim tape with cloth rim tape... When I had my denali, I actually used two spools on the rear wheel in order to feel a bit more secure that they wouldn't flat on me...

I was in the same situation as you. I even looked at that Mongoose. I went with the Forge Mstreet. You can get it from Target.com. With free shipping and 10% off coupon (you can google target.com coupon), it's $179 delivered to you door. Granted, you will have to put it together (very easy). I am a novice and put it together myself and it seems fairly well tuned.

So far, it's been great. Rides awesome and seems extremely solid. Goto www.forgebikes.com if you want to.

I had never heard of Forge before, but there is a lot to read about them on this forum. I think the general opinion is that they are pretty good bikes for the cost.

truth! a simple beach cruiser, commuter or toy kids bike from Walmart might be ok from a quality standpoint. my beef is usually with the quality of BMX bikes there. they deck out a bike with pegs, a gyro and a bunch of gimmicks and tell kids it's a "pro trick bike." the moment you take that bike down an actual ramp, it shatters. i have witnessed this many times at my local skatepark when groms come in with their $129 Next "trick bike" and the bike barely rolls home after the first session. if you take one of those 24-speed dual suspension mtb's off road, it's not going to take any considerable amount of abuse. why build a bike with dual suspension if it can handle dropping off a curb?

my other beef is the workmanship of the "mechanics" that assemble the bikes at WM. i make it a point to stroll through the bicycle section at walmart and i always see bikes with the cardboard tubes to protect the paint still on the bike. often, the brake cables are not connected to the brakes, axle nuts are loose, tires are not seated on the rim at all and brake cables are wraped around the handlebars in weird, inefficient ways. these bikes are DANGEROUS. i wonder if walmart/target/ etc has ever been sued by someone who bought one of their bikes and was injured because it was assembled incorrectly.