Really horrible BSO's - why do people buy them?

[Cycleops]

That Mike Ashley has a lot to answer for!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Crap direct

 

[Lonestar]

Who cares about BSO's? It's the ugly big w/panzers I dislike.

 

[simonali]

Skip driver why salvage that??
It will be crap from the tyres up.
Even the dust caps will be poor fitting

Salvage? They used to call it stealing in my day...

 

[boydj]

I have one of these in my garage. My sister-in-law won one in a raffle and asked me to store it while they made some alterations to the house. I had to cycle it about a mile up the road (uphill mostly) - and I ended up walking it for the last half-mile. It seemed like about 90% of the pedalling effort was lost in the suspension. If I had paid money for that I would either have been put off cycling for life or taken it back as not fit for purpose.

 

[screenman]

A mechanic at one of the garages I do work for bought one for £85 about 6 years ago, he rode the 3 miles to work and the 3 miles back every work day until a month or so back, same chain same tyres. I guess he got value for money on that one.

 

[s7ephanie]

I started with a supermarket bso ! Then decathlon bike and now a giant, slowly working up !

 

[screenman]

Crap direct

I get some OK things in there for not a lot of money.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

A couple of years ago I needed to get my lad a bike for the summer, I knew he wouldn't look after it so bought him a Halfords special for £99, it lasted the summer before he knackered it.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I have one of these in my garage. It seemed like about 90% of the pedalling effort was lost in the suspension. If I had paid money for that I would either have been put off cycling for life or taken it back as not fit for purpose.

It's interesting if you look at the chainset. A typical mass produced rigid MTB or hybrid will come with a 28/38/48 triple. I've stripped a few of these sort of full-sus BSO's now, and they seem to come with 24/34/42 chainrings. Why might this be I thought? The obvious answer is the makers know how heavy and draggy to pedal they are, so they deliberately fit lower gearing compared to a rigid bike to try to hide just how much hard work they are!

 

[MartinQ]

Isn't Dunlop owned by Sports Direct now, along with Slazenger, Lonsdale, Karrimor, Muddy Fox and a host of other "illustrious" brand names, bought by Mike Ashley in other to tempt the unwary into buying dross?

Think you missed off NUFC :-)

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Years ago, one of the women in my group turned up in such a bike, she had bought it from Gumtree for 90 pounds.
We were only going for a ride along the canal, she could not keep up due to her bike, she was quite young, fit, but the bike was bouncing allover, dual suspension, really heavy thing.
I asked her why did she pick that one, she answered, well, it was cheap, it was advertised as a downhill bike, I want to do mountain biking.
Yes, I said, but we are not going downhill!
Maybe on a light downhill trail it would have been ok for a few rides, before disintegrating.
People are misled, buy bikes without riding them first, enticed by the price and by the description.
She had to abandon the canal ride.

 

[Drago]

Occasjonally over the years ive had people turn up at one of my courses on something like this. Some werent even roadworthy, so got sent packing. The riders of the ones that were (usually barely) roadworthy didn't have a good time.

 

[classic33]

Salvage? They used to call it stealing in my day...

Maybe it was and ridden into the ground.

First port of call was a police station I hope.

 

[gaijintendo]

Here is how you buy a bike like that:
Go onto Google Shopping or Amazon
Search "Bike".
Set maximum price you want to spend and order by price descending.
Then go as low as you can before the results are mostly accessories.
Check you trust the retailer (e.g. Sports Direct? I know of them!)
Buy that bike.

Nobody has bought one of these and ridden it beforehand. Or if they have it was 5 meters in a Retail Park store at best. I would suggest, before the pedals snap off, and without having to make an effort - the full suspension feels nice and soft.