Toys R Us is offering an alloy frame 'racing bike' in their sale for £49. It may be c**p, but if just a cheap pair of 700C tyres costs about £15, this seems like an incredible deal. Anyone bought one, and is it U/S in the other sense?
If you count the number of individual componants on a bike, many of which have to be made to precice engineering standards in order to work efficiently, I think you can safely say that your Toys R Us "bargain" will be an unrideable heap of shoot within 250 miles.
I can't comment, I can't imagine it's any good but it's almost worth a punt just to try it out as a cheap commuter and see how long it stands the abuse.
Decathlon do- or did- a cheap road bike with downtube shifters (around the £120 mark I think), a poster on another forum -probably ACF- bought one and posted a review and a few updates. I think he was relatively happy with it as a budget commuter, unfortunately it was stolen after a while so it never became a long-term test.
Seems to me that even if it only managed 250 miles, £49 is still pretty good value compared to a train ticket. The same distance in an economical car will cost £25. And as not all of your BSO will be worn out, the rest can be used for spares. Halfords asks a fiver for an inner tube and a tenner for a 700C tyre that wears out in less than 1000 miles.
That depends on what breaks first. 20mph+ downhill and a wheel falls apart or the brakes snap, you'll be hitting the deck pretty hard or going under a car and spending a lot more than £49 on some new teeth. Not such a bargain then. Don't do it, it'll be a crap ride, no fun at all and a bloody death trap.
Just had a look (curiosity) and it would seem that they're out of stock. At that price all the components are likely to be made of a substance closely resembling cheese (not sure about the frame). As its a 12 speed the rear hub may be a screw on (limited choice/availability/gearing) 6 cog, with an OLN/drop out width too narrow to upgrade to an 8/9 speed hub (ally chain-stays are 'difficult' to re-set wider. The tyres are an unknown quantity, but likely to be made of something like chewing-gum mixed with dried dog jobbies, if you want 'cheapo' tyres have a look in WILKOS(Wilkinsons) I'll bet they'll be better. Bear in mind that Toys R Us (from what I hear and see) have a worse record than Halfords regarding bike assembly.
This may be what's called a 'loss leader' in the trade ie it gets people through the doors and even if they don't buy the bike which may be a genuine bargain chances are they'll buy something else just 'cos they're there. 'course it may genuinely be a racer worth £49 in which case rather you than me...
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