I hate to pick on the folks who are thrown into assembling bikes for big box stores with little or no training, but this caught my eye today at Target.

Nothing is idiot proof.

This is a very good example why I never recommend dept store bikes to anyone. Compared to the lowest end bikes that you get at a bike shop these days, the dept store bikes aren't really all that terrible. It is the poor assembly that makes them poor quality and unsafe.

That is a common thread amongst bikes like that. When you are getting paid by the bike you don't care one bit if that bike is safe or properly put together it just has to be together enough to not completely fall apart on the way to the shelf. Nobody puts a name on that bike to trace it back to who built it because nobody cares at these places. If it looks enough like a bike they don't care if you get hurt they are 100s of bikes past that hunk of junk.

I was on a ride last fall, heard quite a ruckus ahead of me, including "every time I try to turn, the bike stops." Husband and wife. I noticed that the bike in contention had its wheel turned around like that, and I assume that the frame was engaging with the vee brakes. Given how nervous everybody was about the COVID at the time, including myself, and not wanting to join a ruckus, I rode on without stopping. They seemed safe but annoyed. They were probably not far from their car, as it was a popular location for parking and riding.

Including BF.

Hey, it's a hybrid...just might work better.

What does "R E A R" stand for?