When I was a 70 lb. kid, my bike had to weigh at least 30 lbs. Funny, I never noticed the weight, except when carrying the bike up and down the stairs. Kids have boundless energy, way out of proportion to their size. I rode nothing but "crap" through childhood; teenagedom and even in my 20's. Never had a problem with cranks or headsets or anything else (Although with today's kids being such porkers, those might be an issue...).

A kid's bike is a toy; not a precision racing machine that gets ridden 100's of miles per week. (Although I probably put that kind of mileage on my $59 single-speed when I was a pre-teen!). Half the bikes WE adults have are way overblown.....

You are missing what I am saying here. The bikes that are sold at Wal-Mart are junk. Junk parts assembled half correctly, by people that don't know what they are doing. You can't compare the bikes that we rode as kids to the garbage that is on the shelf at the big box stores these days. A kids bike is a toy, you are correct about that. I don't have any kids myself, but if I did, they still wouldn't be on garbage big box bikes. I have a nephew in Chicago, and you can believe that I will make sure that he is on a quality bike when it comes time.

My Cranbrook is a Wal-mart bike. I've logged over 700 miles on it since mid August (including a 54 mile tour with 2000+ elevation gain) and she's still going strong with very little maintenance. Since I've gotten my second bike, I mainly use her for more leisurely rides but she's been a great bike for me. Just sayin'

I get it. And even accounting for the fact that due to inflation, today's $99 Walmart bike is probably a lot crappier than a $59 bike of 40 years ago, STILL, considering the size and weight of kids, and how the bike will be ridden, they are usually sufficient- albeit, it would be a good idea to regrease/reassemble 'em- or at the very least, go over 'em with a fine-toothed comb checking bolts for tightness, and making sure that things are properly assembled.

Of course, not that there's anything wrong with wanting a quality bike for a kid either- but Walmart bikes do seem to work for many, many kids. If I had kids, I think I would at least start them out with a cheap BSO, if for no other reason than to teach them how to treat a bike, and to see how well they do so.

The one point I think you may be missing is that there is no evidence, at least that I can find, that supports your safety concerns based on accidents or injuries from cheap bicycles. Actually the numbers seem to suggest that most accidents and injuries occur to middle age men and involve a motor vehicle at intersections. That is also the saddest thing about bikes and kids.

Most, non-vehicle related, kid injuries are due to bike handling skills of some sort... running into something, falling, trying to do tricks, etc. I remember getting my first real bike for Christmas (it was used and my Dad fixed it up and painted it). I jumped on that thing and started peddling and didn't know how to stop it since it had a coaster brake. I ended running into a curb at a "T" and went flying over the handlebars onto a lawn. I almost became a permanent member of the Vienna Boys Choir.

Not that I am a proponent of big box bikes for kids, (I bought garage sale bikes when my kids were 8). But I suspect that it is far more likely that a cheap big-box will no longer function well enough to ride than a sudden catastrophic failure of the bike at speed.

John

This gave me a pretty good laugh! lol

We are getting closer to winter and even though I will still be out riding, I know that she won't. If next spring (or even later) she happens to really start taking it more seriously and not just riding for fun, then I will consider investing more.

Looking at the size of this bike and her current height, I'm leaning towards selling it off or donating it. She is going to have to have a heck of a growth spurt before spring for this thing to fit her. Shoot, some people spend more than 20.00 on the lottery with no return at all. Just glad I didn't spend a fortune on a bike that doesn't fit and/or gets lost or bashed.

I actually agree with you. I bought nothing but Walmart bikes for my kids and sure I had to tighten things up ever so often but a parent is suppose to be checking the condition of stuff like bikes to maintain the child's safety. And I had daughter that hauled those 35 pound bikes around so I hear you on that too. These Walmart bikes aren't designed to go on a cross country tour, their designed for kids to beat, smash, crash, bang, leave them in the rain, and still be rideable the next day. Other than checking to make sure things were tight on these bikes and adjusted properly for shifting and braking, and checking PSI of course, I never ever bothered to lube the headset or crankset or the hubs, why? These bikes weren't design to last 50 years, just until the child got too big for it, and I never had any issues with the that stuff other than things occasionally became loose.

So are the bikes junk? for someone like to me to ride yes, but not for an 5 to 14 year old, if an older child decides he or she wants to cycle competitively or ride long distances then it's time to consider a serious bike. I didn't really care if the bike was half assembled incorrectly because I took the bike home and went through everything anyways. Not all bikes sold at Walmart are entirely junk, I ran into a guy on the bike that was riding a Schwinn Prelude (not even close to the quality of the 80's version) that he had put on over 10,000 miles on it and never had anything done except the usual tune up which of course chains and cables were replaced, and this bike is under $300. How much further will he be able to go on that bike? I have no clue and I don't know the guy so I can't ask, but it got him started in cycling and he's maintain the sport for 3 years at the time I met him.

But again, for a kid a Walmart bike is sufficient.

That should be a good bike for her, just keep air in the tires, make sure the brakes don’t rub and keep it out of the rain. Most kids wouldn’t know the difference between an BSO bike and a LBS bike. And wouldn’t care. I’m guessing but I would think 90% plus of the kids get BSO bikes. Not the forum members, but the population in general.

I get my daughter BSO bikes because she doesn’t hardly ever ride. I get my son LBS bikes because he does ride (except his college bike). They are both happy with their bikes.

First bike that I can remember was a $54 JCPenney 10 speed, got it when I was 14, rode that thing everywhere, to all my friends houses, to work, fishing, even took it to college, never had any trouble with it. Don’t remember doing any maintenance on it. I didn’t know any better, guess it was bullet proof.

The time spent with them is more important than the bike their riding.

Remember the audience here—a bike forum. These are people (including myself) that are passionate about cycling and for the most part are lucky enough to have $$$ to spend on bikes. If you have the $$$ and that makes you happy--go for it. Doesn’t mean the BSO bikes don’t have a place in bike society, they have a huge place.

+1 So much, this.

I remember some kid smiling ear to ear on what looked to be his first ride on his first bike as I rode past him on the bike path several years ago. Dad was a few feet behind him trying to keep balanced at the slow speed, and it was great to see that.

Your point is well taken. Ideally, every kid would start out with a trouble-free, light-weight bike. In some cases, they will appreciate it and keep it in good riding condition.

In many cases, however, bikes are left in the rain or even left outdoors through the entire winter (I did that with one of my bikes), dropped repeatedly until the pedals hit the frame (I did that), ridden up and down curbs, vandalized by other kids, forgotten in vacant lots, or stolen. My friends' bikes all looked equally shabby. Our poor fathers would occasionally try to deal with the carnage so the bikes would keep creaking along.

When we reached teen age, some of us graduated to "English racers" (30 lb. three-speeds) that we continued to abuse and lose until we could get our driver's licenses. Then we promptly forgot about bicycles until our 30's.

This is not to say that a Walmart bike won't cause some frustration, probably with the shifting. That's why I suggested temporarily converting it to a single-speed. (My wife, who is not a kid, hates derailleurs, too.)

The weight and clunkiness of the OP's garage-sale find may be a plus. Thin-walled tubing in a kid's bike is almost guaranteed to dent or fold when banged around. Unless the bike is ridden in a hilly area, the weight shouldn't matter much. $100-200 for such a bike might be a dubious investment, but $20 is a good deal, especially since the bike will be quickly outgrown.

Of course, if the parent is always watching, always making sure the bike is being handled carefully and safely, then it will last much longer. But that's not my idea of childhood.

(BTW, I like your quote. Shakespeare?)

My "kid" is 30 and I still picked her up a cheap Schwinn at a garage sale for $10 when she said she wanted to start riding (for the 3rd or is it 4th time?). Had to fix the rear brakes, adjust everything, and replace the chain - total cost $18.00.

It feels sometimes like a cruel trap to be paying so much for a nice bike to get so little time out of it, but on the other hand it seems like we have laid out similar sums for other baby things, and I suppose we'll have to shell out for other sporting goods, musical instruments, day care, tuition...

Come to think of it, you know, having had just a few BSOs through my entire childhood/teens, nothing ever broke! Those bikes may've been heavy (I didn't realize it at the time) but they were built like tanks. The ONLY problems were occasional flat tires...and rounding off the axle nuts, trying to fix said flats with a pair of pliers- until my aunt gave me a funny-looking wrench when I was about 8. Did zero maintenance, other than a little 3-in-1 erl on the chain now and then, and I never had an issue with a crank or a headset, or anything.

I've wondered what kind of maintenance should have been done to my bikes when i was younger, and if they just didn't need it or if they would have been better bikes if they had been maintained. I remember my Grandfather oiling my chain once and he said something like "it really needed that" when I asked him why he was doing that.

I think these store bought bikes are perfectly fine for younger kids. I had purchased these kind of bikes for my kids when they were younger. It's cheaper to do this than at the LBS. From there we can check to see how the kids react to the bikes. Do they like riding? Do they take care of it? Answers to questions like this are generally easier to handle with the less expensive bikes. What happens if your daughter decides she doesn't really like riding bikes, yes there are those kids. Are some of you willing to waste hundreds of dollars to bikes that aren't going to be used.

I started my kids off with the less expensive retail bikes. After seeing they are actually riding them and taking care of them, I didn't have a problem buying bikes for them from an LBS.

** I do find that weld on the last picture interesting though. That is quick and cheap welding.

But a bike a child will outgrow and outgrow fast, plus they typically will beat them from crashing a lot and leave them outside where rain and theft can occur. Shelling out money for musical instruments or tuition a kid won't outgrow either. Both of my daughters played musical instruments, a sax for the oldest and a violin for the youngest, we didn't go out and get the most expensive instruments, but the instruments were played for 6 or 7 years through school, in that same time they went through 2 bikes but not 2 instruments. My oldest did skateboarding for awhile and we just got her a cheap Walmart skateboard, figured if she started doing stunts we would get one capable of holding up to that, but she never had that desire anyways; the same thing with the bikes, neither girl ever got the desire to want to ride more than 14 or 15 miles and not ride like I do so there was never a need for a more expensive bike. My one daughter got really good on the Sax if she had gone to college and got a music major we would have bought her a really nice Sax but she never took it that far. So the bike and sax thing is similar, you buy according to their ability.

Of course it is a prestige thing. AKA bike snobbery! Without an LBS provenance if just ain't a Real Bike for the child of a Real Serious Cyclist, doncha know.

I doubt if these two ever bought a bicycle for a small child.

I'm sure it's usable after a fashion. I think the welds look like crap but hey. The number of bikes I see advertised as ridden less than 100 miles/no time to ride why spend more?

scott s.
.

I may be a snob. Honestly, I don't care. Life is too short to ride a piece of crap bike, at least for me. If I am going to do it, I am going to do it how I want.

I rode many full rigid dept store bikes when I was younger.....I had a murray mountain bike( late 80s) I rode for 3 or 4 years everyday.... I overhauled it about once a year and never had too many issues,I also had parts from another dept store mountain bike that I had a collision with a pinto on......I did a part trade for a newer ( mid 90s) roadmaster mountain bike..... it was a tank of a bike.... after riding it for awhile I upgraded to a 93 or so diamondback outlook.....I have seen people that ride the wheels off a dept store bike, better than the fate of some bikes from the LBS that get ridden a few times and hang in the garage collecting dust for 20 years or so... I work at walmart and our assembly guy is a bike guy so he knows what he is doing.....

That's great coming from most of us here who have the money to buy better bikes, but it's a very blinded outlook on life because a lot of people can't afford high end bikes and life is to short for them to go without the enjoyment of biking so they buy what they can afford. Even us who have money buy what we can afford, I can't afford to buy a Tesla but there may be those with the means that own those cars may be saying life is to short to drive a piece of crap Toyota Prius (I don't own one by the way, just an example) at least for me, and if I'm going to buy a real green car then I'm going to do it how I want. See how ridiculas that sounds? Probably not.

I don't think you are a snob. You are an adult who has learned what a well-designed, well-built bicycle can do. It can enable us to go long distances at impressive speeds. A young kid is not likely to appreciate those capabilities because they seldom get beyond the immediate neighborhood, or a couple of miles down the MUP. If they show an interest in going farther, and are equally interested in maintaining their bike, then it may be time to graduate to something more refined. In most cases, that won't happen before age 12 - maybe later.

I love my wife, but she will never be as committed to bicycling as I am. A disappointment, but not the end of the world. I've gone to extremes to build a one-of-a-kind bike that exactly meets her requirements: an IGH hybrid with a Brooks saddle and everything alloy except the frame. The frame was salvaged from the Dunelt she owned when she was 17, and it's still the original candy-apple red. For those who are not bicycle connoisseurs, appearance (and sometimes sentimental value) counts for more than mechanical quality.

I think the important points are;
1. The bike is safe, which this one probably is
2. The child thinks it's cool, pretty, or anything that make her want to ride it.
3. Mom rides, so it's an activity they can do together.

I hope your daughter takes to the bike and the sport. I think you did very, very, well.

Keep in mind the bike is only safe if the adult in the family looks after the bike, problem is a lot of adults in today's electronic world can fix their daughters IPod or whatever but can't be bothered with even fixing a flat. The other thing is very few kids, if any, are going to scream bloody murder if they got a Walmart bike instead of a Colnago!