Today there are many types of bikes to suit all users and all purposes.Ī basic geared bike with no accessories consists of over a thousand pieces. It is a means of transportation, a complex piece of machinery that has evolved over a hundred years. You get what you pay for.Ī bike is not a simple toy. But you cannot buy a new bike of any quality for silly money. Ask yourself which is more likely to sell a quality, reliable, well set-up bike: A local bike shop that you could take it straight back to if you were dissatisfied in any way or a business with a web site as the middle man and hundreds of miles between you and them? Don't get me wrong, you can buy excellent value quality bikes online and some bike shops can rip you off. To this guy, the bike shops were making loads of profit by ripping people off, whereas he'd got a great deal online. Went to a few bike shops but you wouldn't get anything like this for that cost". Yet he looked at me and said "yeah got it off the internet, only a hundred and twenty quid. The components were cheap and nasty, the frame made from huge heavy lumps of metal poorly welded together. It was possibly the heaviest clunkiest, badly built bike I'd ever seen. He answered and wheeled out this 'bike' - it was stunningly bad, a brand new cheap suspension bike. I went round to pick it up and knocked on the door. Last summer we had a booking from a guy who'd bought a bike on the internet that had come in a box and that he was having some trouble with. A little flippant maybe, but there is a serious point. I don't take it out in all weathers, bounce it around, use it to transport me and other goods, leave it locked up in various locations and expect it to stop in a hurry if a washing machine suddenly pulls out in front of me. It has one moving part (the switch), casing and a filament. It's here in the corner of the workshop being used every day. I bought a brand new cordless kettle a few months ago for less than a tenner. Enabling the savings to be passed directly on to us, the consumer. I want to try and make a contribution as I'm seeing more and more people buying these bikes and then discovering that they are useless for any purpose except landfill.īefore we get into bikes themselves, some thoughts and an anecdote:Ī truly global economy the Internet, supermarkets - great aren't they? Delivering better value, lower cost products through increased competition, innovation and efficiency. I'm not trying to persuade you to buy a bike from me, as we don't sell bikes. There is no hidden agenda behind writing this. I run a local business that services and repairs all types of bikes (including BSOs). I am a bicycle mechanic of 20 years experience. Throughout this article this type of bike will be referred to as BSOs - Bicycle Shaped Objects. After reading through it hopefully you will understand and agree with this proposal and can then make a more informed purchase. The article proposes to show that cheap new bikes are poor value, a false economy, not fit for use & damaging to the environment.