3 month old supermarket bike. Here's a list of faults.

[Arrowfoot]

Folks pick up bikes from supermarkets for a variety of reasons ranging from cost, convenience, impulse to new starters. Many of us I suspect started this way. I also reckon that vast majority got value from it and it was bought in a respectable condition and fit for purpose.

I also dread to think that our established supermarket chains have buyers that get it right for most products but fail utterly when it comes to acquiring bikes for their stores.

LBS that have no time to fix a supermarket bike is a whole different story. There is a high class hooker living nearby and everyone knows what she does but apparently its beneath her to service the locals. A hooker nevertheless.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

I've had this conversation with my mate a few times, but he still goes back for more. His wife's even worse. She's quite picky about which BSO she wants, but rides around to find a gear she likes and the never changes gear again. I've offered to build her a single speed at the right ratio, but apparently they're old fashioned.

 

[Cyclopathic]

I've had this conversation with my mate a few times, but he still goes back for more. His wife's even worse. She's quite picky about which BSO she wants, but rides around to find a gear she likes and the never changes gear again. I've offered to build her a single speed at the right ratio, but apparently they're old fashioned.

You just can't help some people. You should point out to her that single speeds are in fact very fashionable nowadays and that gears are passe.

 

[wintergreen]

I can understand why people go for the cheap supermarket rubbish.
My brother is a prime example. He has 3 kids, aged between 5 and 12. Works as a driver and after tax/insurance doesn't have a whole lot of take home pay to throw around. After looking at the price of half decent kids bikes in Evans and the LBS he saw some cheap supermarket specials. He managed to get a bike each for the 3 kids for the same price as a single bike from a bike shop.
The bikes only had to last the summer holidays, come the dark nights and the colder weather they will be resigned to the shed for the winter and can easily be replaced next year when they want to ride bikes again. Probably needing 3 new bikes anyway because they would have outgrown the bikes he bought this summer.
Yes the gears probably gave up after a short time, the brakes were terrible and no doubt bits fell off and broke but they were no worse than the bikes I remember cobbling together when I was a kid, They enjoyed riding them all through the holidays, My brother wasn't worried about them being trashed or stolen (kids do tend to leave them lying around) everybody's happy.
In a perfect world Im sure he would have liked to spend big money on 3 bikes but not everybody has the money to buy quality.

 

[Cyclopathic]

I can understand why people go for the cheap supermarket rubbish.
My brother is a prime example. He has 3 kids, aged between 5 and 12. Works as a driver and after tax/insurance doesn't have a whole lot of take home pay to throw around. After looking at the price of half decent kids bikes in Evans and the LBS he saw some cheap supermarket specials. He managed to get a bike each for the 3 kids for the same price as a single bike from a bike shop.
The bikes only had to last the summer holidays, come the dark nights and the colder weather they will be resigned to the shed for the winter and can easily be replaced next year when they want to ride bikes again. Probably needing 3 new bikes anyway because they would have outgrown the bikes he bought this summer.
Yes the gears probably gave up after a short time, the brakes were terrible and no doubt bits fell off and broke but they were no worse than the bikes I remember cobbling together when I was a kid, They enjoyed riding them all through the holidays, My brother wasn't worried about them being trashed or stolen (kids do tend to leave them lying around) everybody's happy.
In a perfect world Im sure he would have liked to spend big money on 3 bikes but not everybody has the money to buy quality.

This approach certainly can make sense. It does sound like your brother at least knew the difference between one sort of bike and another and made an informed choice. I might have suggested getting the oldest kid a decent bike so that when they grow out of it, it can be passed on. Obviously reliant on them all being the same gender though as not many young boys will want to ride a girls bike. But still an informed choice that made sense for him.

 

[summerdays]

I'm hoping that I've now opened the eyes of my BIL to getting bikes that are not the supermarket ones, as he managed to get a Dawes Redtail secondhand for one of his for about £25! It meant weeks of being shown potential bikes and saying no to most of them but his daughter has finally learnt to ride this year (aged 8 but very small for her age).

 

[MontyVeda]

I've had this conversation with my mate a few times, but he still goes back for more. His wife's even worse. She's quite picky about which BSO she wants, but rides around to find a gear she likes and the never changes gear again. I've offered to build her a single speed at the right ratio, but apparently they're old fashioned.

My friend (mentioned above) is also like this... sticks to the one gear she likes on her cheap heavy full-suss BSO... But she rides it into town everyday, she rides it to her mum's a few times a week and anywhere else she wants to go (so long as it's flattish and not too far)... she loves her bike as much as i love mine and as much as anyone else who loves their bike, if not more. Nothing wrong with that, and she will forever be one less person who's looking to 'upgrade' to a car one day... so it's all good.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Filipe Perestrelo ?sp? of Madiera made his supermarket "downhill" bike last three years, broke it in three and then got himself a decent one. On his BSO he could outride most folk on bikes costing £1000's.

That said, ime, supermarket bikes in Portugal, or at least the ones from Pingo Doce, are better quality than the ones sold here.

 

[markharry66]

I think personally any bike shop that would refuse to serve me based on quality of the bike would never see my custom ever again. Buyers market I go where I am treated well

 

[Drago]

I can see the shops point of view. How likely are they to get paid if they do £100 worth of rectification work on a £50 bike?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Lob it through the shop window.

 

[Kestevan]

I think personally any bike shop that would refuse to serve me based on quality of the bike would never see my custom ever again. Buyers market I go where I am treated well

Yeah...... but, look at it from the LBS point of view.

He could:
1) Try and sort out the issues with existing components:
He re-indexes the gears, adjusts the brakes and trues the wheels. 5 miles down the road, the plastic brakes have gone out of place, the badly made wheel is buckled again and the cheese-like gear components have de-indexed themselves. Customer (who probably knows little about bikes) thinks he's been ripped off by a poor workman and either complains or never goes back.

2) Recommend that all the dodgy components are replaced with decent (albeit low-end components). Customer (who probably knows little about bikes) thinks "hang on - £100 to fix it - I only paid £89 for the whole thing! He's trying to rip me off"; customer never goes back.

3) LBS owner says - "Look, it's a bad bike, it's not worth repairing". Customer ((who probably knows little about bikes) thinks - "Bastard doesn't want to fix this cos he didn't sell it to me. he just wants to sell me one of those massively expensive bikes he's got in the shop..... I could buy 4 supermarket bikes for one of them - and they all look the same"; customer never goes back...

Either way, the customer is unlikely to go back*

*I know, one out of 100 may see the light and buy a proper bike......but you get the idea.

 

[Apollonius]

Perfectly summed-up, Kestevan It really is a no-win situation for the bike shop.

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

I think basic Apollo/trax/universal bikes with rigid forks, if tweaked right and looked after can be decent bikes, albeit heavy with cheese for brakes but you do see a lot of people using them as low cost daily workhorse's. The full suss supermarket specials however are just plain awful, my mate had to sell his car and bought one to ride to work and is was just plain gash. He's now upgraded through cycle to work and says himself he can't believe how bad it was.
I can understand a lbs refusing to work on one but don't agree with the rudeness some have reported.

 

[cyberknight]

I think basic Apollo/trax/universal bikes with rigid forks, if tweaked right and looked after can be decent bikes, albeit heavy with cheese for brakes but you do see a lot of people using them as low cost daily workhorse's. The full suss supermarket specials however are just plain awful, my mate had to sell his car and bought one to ride to work and is was just plain gash. He's now upgraded through cycle to work and says himself he can't believe how bad it was.
I can understand a lbs refusing to work on one but don't agree with the rudeness some have reported.

+1 swmbo wanted a bike to ride around the local "trail" which is basically a cyclepath around a small lake saying she wanted to go once a week then start riding on her own locally for exercise.I bought a £100 apollo hybrid which is perfectly serviceable and will not fall to bits in 5 minutes once i had set it up and guess how may times she has actually ridden it untill she gave up?

twice.