Comments on: Questions That Occurred to Me While Looking at a Bike Display in Walmart

By: Japan Travel

Japan Travel — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:39:24 +0000

Japan Travel…

[...]Fat Cyclist » Blog Archive » Questions That Occurred to Me While Looking at a Bike Display in Walmart[...]…

By: mzadvntr

mzadvntr — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:23:36 +0000

Apparently you haven’t frequented the rarer than air New England beaches lately. More expenseive and well made versions of these beach cruisers propel the wives of the CEOs from their multimillion dollar “cottages” to their open to residents only beaches during the summer. Most cottages probably have 2 or 3 of these stashed outside the garage for guests to use. After all, it really does look tacky if you drive your Mercedes 600 yards to the beach EVERY day.

By: dan

dan — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:28:12 +0000

This model of Walmart bike was very popular with the I need a disposable bike for 1 week at Burning Man this year.

By: TheChief

TheChief — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:11:14 +0000

I jsut spent more than $100 to have my cables replaced. Looking at these bikes I now see why my wife thinks I am a silly money waster.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:12:29 +0000

Heavy bikes need love too.

By: Corey

Corey — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:02:09 +0000

I have to take a different tact. Well, it just so happens I repair community bikes that are donated and given away to inner city residents for transportation. In other words… I’ve fixed that 1983 Huffy 10 speed you had when you were 8 (as was the case for me!) with used donated parts and had it checked out (for safety) and given away to someone in need. We do it every day (2000 bikes so far this year)

http://www.rcommunitybikes.net/

So I guess if you want to really know… a bike built for K-Mart in 1983 can still be fixed up and ridden now 27 years later for the most part. And almost all of them are from the 75 dollar bin ((or 35 dollar bin!)) from some department store at some distant past moment in time. I know I’m not technically answering your questions Fatty. Just had to chime in. Its hard to see the deprivation these people go through and TAKE THE DISCUSSION OF 7500 DOLLAR BIKES SERIOUSLY. But I love the feeling of giving away these ancient cheapies to someone who will really use it and who really needs it! Something to think about.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:28:22 +0000

Why the hell you were shopping at walmart is the only question I can’t get out of my mind…

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 05:09:39 +0000

I shall now take this post as an invitation to completely ignore the 4 questions you asked and go into one of my favorite rants.

There is nothing wrong with a $75 bike or a $20 bike or a free bike. It is conceivable that all of the above are perfectly fun and functional. I have issue with Walmart setting up cheap bikes in unsafe ways and springing them on the unsuspecting public who really don’t know better. I especially hate when they send their kids out on bikes that could get them maimed due to faulty parts or incorrect assembly.

I tend to collect bikes, so I have some cheap bike stories. I had a Panasonic road bike back in the day as did my brother. When I got a new bike, I gave my Panasonic to a strange who had recently had her bike stolen. She got a free bike. It was used, but used well and maintained correctly, so she did all right.

When I moved to the city, I needed a beater to get to the station, so I found an old (like first generation) Hardrock for $100 and again – had a fine time on it because I got it from someone who knew and loved bikes. I then sold that one for $75 to another friend who needed it more than I did. Again – perfectly serviceable $75 bike. Right now I have 2 bikes that see almost equal use – my road bike and my commuter. My commuter has around 1500 miles on it so far this year (actually a bit more than my very shiny expensive carbon road bike) and I bought it new on sale at Performance for $200. The brakes squeak a bit, it’s kind of heavy, but its got a rack and fenders and lights and I can ride it in a skirt to work. It is perfect for its function and the nice young men at Performance made sure everything was tuned right for me. The rear derailer was completely screwed up when I drove it off the lot – so I brought it back and they readjusted it and fixed it for me. That is the difference. That is why a $200 bike from a LBS (even if it is Performance) is infinitely more satisfying than a $75 bike from Walmart. It comes with people who love bikes to back it up. Walmart bikes do not come with the love built in. I’m not saying it’s impossible to put the love into a Walmart bike, but it’s much harder to do it that way. If I had my way, no store without at least 2 bike mechanics on staff would ever be allowed to sell bikes at all.

Now I”m going to stop trolling the Fatty blog, send a donation your way and get some sleep.

ps I love all my bikes no matter where they came from

By: John Driessen

John Driessen — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 03:22:18 +0000

There’s nothing like a bike you build yourself. I just finished my Americorp term helping to run a place here in Missoula, Montana called Free Cycles http://www.freecycles.org We literally had piles upon piles of “Walmart Bikes.” They are cheap and when they break the owners just dump them and buy another. To the person off the street who actually took the time to refurbish one of these bikes for themselves or for someone else they no longer were el cheapo bikes, they were bikes someone cared about and were invested in. Having refurbished at least 20 of these myself for a group of foreign exchange students and cruised around town on local trails, I’d much rather see 100 people on a Walmart bike.

By: phil Nolan

phil Nolan — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:47:05 +0000

Well…. Has anyone ridden one of them? Can’t really comment ’til ya do. All else is speculation.