Stucky

Mmyeah..... I don't know how much good a sticker will do, in a store where I've encountered such things as a clerk who couldn't figure 10% of a round number.....

Reading is probably not their strong point. Looking is probably not their strong point..... We'll start seeing bikes now that have the handlebars held on by a sticker.....

Stucky

And a higher price.

unterhausen

I'm pretty sure that in almost all walmarts, the assembly is done by a contract worker working on piece rates.

My daughter is a clerk at walmart. She has passed college calculus, so I am pretty sure she could calculate a percentage.

jon c. 

You can get better value for your money. But WalMart is easy and convenient and there's no learning curve. A lot of consumers prefer that. We're all free to follow the path of our own choosing.

wphamilton

"Main parts" being frame, fork and wheels?

I purchased my "Walmart bike" from Amazon. Same bike, but of course I had to do the assembly myself. I also went over the entire bike, to the extent of my ability and available tools. Perhaps that's why I've had so much better luck with that bike than all the horror stories would suggest.

I've also purchased bikes from Bikes Direct and Performance Bicycle. I don't know if we consider Performance to be a bike shop or big box store, but I do know that I needed to do about as much corrective work on the PB bike as on any of the others.

I-Like-To-Bike

Another possibility is that many, if not most, of the "horror stories" on BF are generated/fabricated by people who neither own nor ride the bikes in question, but serve a personal agenda in the badmouthing of competitors' products.

TenSpeedV2

There is a good chance that you will find a bike with a fork installed backwards or brakes installed incorrectly on a bike at Wal-Mart. You won't find that at an actual bike shop. I have seen plenty of bikes at big box stores with very loose headsets, handelbars installed upside down, forks on backwards, bent crank arms, broken spokes, etc. I am yet to find any of that an actual bike shop.

Stucky

Have you ever actually inspected any of the bikes on display at your local Wally World? (And bear in mind that I'm a cheap bike/BSO advocate- not a bike snob).

On every occasion on which I've taken a look at bikes in Walmart in recent years- and mind you, these are brand new bikes on display for sale- I've seen exactly the stereotypes which are oft-mentioned here- including backward forks; inoperative brakes; various parts so loose that they are flapping in the breeze; immovable shifters; loose seats, or seats adjust so ridiculously tha one could assume that they purposely set that way to drum-up business for the local proctologist.....

Chuck Naill

I hear Walmart got the contract here for Air Force 1.

jon c. 

Were the people who didn't buy Yugos back in the day just "car snobs?"

Rollfast

No, the Yugo owners just loved cheap and misery. Kind of below the ugliest dog contest.

Rowan

There are several BF members who have assembled bikes for Walmart as staff, not contractors. Not all Walmart staff are as portrayed by the elitists.

Rowan

And in fact, there are several highly regarded BF members (highly regarded for their personable-ness and intelligence) who ride Walmart bikes, and very successfully at that.

When I have been in North America, I have found quite a few things in Walmart that continue to serve me well years after buying them.

Disdain is one of the privileges of wealth, I have discovered.

Rowan

And yet... where are all those complaints about proctologist visits posted here on BFs? As far as I can see, only in the 50-plus forum where the posters would consider a Walmart bike as junk.

Yeah, sure there are problems with the assembly of some Walmart and other big box store bikes. But don't ever tell me that every bike leaves your friendly LBS in perfect condition. Now, that is a subject that comes up repeatedly in various forums here.

The vast majority of bikes sold by Walmart and similar stores are for kids who are going to treat them like crap. They aren't meant to last, they are meant to introduce the concept of cycling fun to the kids. And I am sure that there are many here on these forums in their 40s, 50s and 60s who remember riding bikes that were way, way too big for them, had no brakes, loose headsets and chains that fell off all the time... and wheels way out of true.

Robert C

It is a bit funny to me, when I lived in Xinyang, Henen Province PRC, I purchased a Giant Tourer, which was considered a good, upper mid, grade bike. It had a Tourney rear derailleur, it wasn't bad and saw quite a few touring miles. I do notice that the walmart bikes are still, generally, better than the Chinese common grade, domestic market, bicycles.

GP

I've had no problems buying single speed cruisers at WM. I give them the once over visual, spin the crank, check the coaster brake and look at the wheels to make sure the bearings are OK then ride up to the cashier. When they still had greeters one tried to stop me but I was in an a-hole mood and rode away to my truck. The poor guy chased me the whole way. Luckily he didn't have a heart attack.

I don't think I'd buy a geared bike or one with hand brakes there. A buddy bought mountain bike at Sports Authority and had issues with it. The frame and wheels were fine but the brakes and hubs needed constant work. Then someone gave him two 1980s mtb bikes, a Schwinn and maybe a Diamondback and he's been riding almost trouble free ever since.

cbrstar

Even though this is BMX This guy take a Walmart bike and manages to break it within 5 mins because it wasn't put together right. The 2nd bike they go through it themselves and tighten everything up, and it actually holds up.

I worked at Walmart 15 years ago when I was out of High School. At that time they didn't care because all the bikes were sold on consignment. So if they broke they simply tossed it at no cost to them.

Robert C

I tend to agree, after al, how can anyone mess up a single speed cruiser (Ignoring my wifes single speed cruiser in China that was actually welded wrong).

I can even recall a single incident where I actually recommended a Walmart bike to someone. I was on the bus to my University, working on my MBA. A woman sat down and as we were talking she mentioned the reason that she was riding the bus was that her car was broken down and she couldn't afford to fix it. She commented that she was saving money on the bus but that it was a three mile walk from the stop to where she worked.

I point out a particular WM bike that I had seen. It was a basic bike with a three speed internal hub, fenders and rack for about $180. Frankly, when I first saw it I was amazed to see such a good bike at WM. I mentioned it to her, in conjunction with the bike rack on the bus, as a solution.

As ridiculous as it may seem, she took my advice and was still using it when I finished my MBA and moved on (Back to China).

I-Like-To-Bike

Amazing how only BF LBS groupies are aware of these products sold with such dangerous defects - where are all the dissatisfied customers and trial lawyers successfully obtaining damages from the big box stores for customers unhappy or injured by all the defective bicycles sold with very loose headsets, upside down handlebars, backwards forks, bent crank arms, broken spokes, inoperative brakes; various parts so loose that they are flapping in the breeze; immovable shifters; loose seats, or seats adjust so ridiculously tha one could assume that they purposely set that way to drum-up business for the local proctologist, etc.?

Rollfast

This only brings up the Pepsi Points controversy with the Harrier Jump Jet ad.

Rollfast

I think proctologists should have more than a Kia for putting up with some of the rear ends they meet.

Stucky

I HATE LBS's- Haven't set foot in one in 25 years. I wish Walmart sold better crap (instead of crappy crap ) so I could recommend them to people. I usually just tell people to buy online if they want brand-new.

Milton Keynes

If it had an FAA airworthiness certificate, perhaps. But that's the thing about bicycles, nobody signs off on whether they're roadworthy or not after they've been assembled. And apparently in the case of Walmart, nobody even checks.

OneCheapGT

I've purchased a few sub $100 aluminum single speed cruisers from WalMart over the years for cruising the beach, loaner bikes, etc. They've held up remarkably well.

I-Like-To-Bike

Oh but there is - BF's very own LBS Fan Boy Posse checking on the display bikes at the competition and making their oh-so-unbiased reports on this very Forum!