What is it with all this....

[mr_hippo]

snobbery with cyclists these days? You seem to take great delight in calling cheap bicycles 'bike shaped objects'; these are bicycles built to a price and not a specification.
Weight - My bike weighs 10kgs, how much better is one weighing, say, 8kgs? Not a lot! Is weight the first thing to consider when buying a new bike? In my, never too humble, opinion - NO! Does the bike feel comfortable? Is it suitable for my intended use? Can I justify the cost of it? These questions are more inportant to me than weight.
Components - Building to a price means sourcing the cheapest and best components for the budget. Yes, I know cheap components break but shall I let you into a little secret? So do expensive ones. I have known expensive frames to snap with barely a handful of miles on them, Shimano crank arms to snap and other bits of kit to fail.
Intended use - I bought my late wife a cheap folder, we lived just over a mile from the bus route and used it to go to and from the main road. She used to have panniers on it so she could load up with shopping on the way home. Should I have spent three times as much and have bought a Trek? Yes, I could afford it but could not justify it. If people only want a bike to go to the local shop, school or work, why spend thousands?
Buy secondhand? - Why should I or anyone else buy your old cast-off? You may tell me - one careful owner, never been raced or rallied and you only used it to go to church on a Sunday but... how can the average man in the street tell if it is in A1 condition, the frame is true and not cracked?
The 'bling' factor - Your Dad promises you a new bike for Christmas, I can just see the look on your face as you realise he has bought one of the 'better' makes but it is used and not a blingtastic shiny new one! All of us like 'bling'.
Offspring - You may be a keen cyclist but is your child? "I'll buy him/her a good bike and not a cheap one." Before summer it is either wrecked or covered in cobwebs - what a waste of money, get a cheap one, if they take to cycling, you can always buy a better one.
Adults - Many people give up bikes in their teenage years and return in later life; "I'll just get a cheap bike and do a few miles a week, just to keep fit." A cheap bike will help them but if the cycling bug bites, they may decide to buy a better model and the cheap bike is either a pub bike,one to be parked at the station or used to practise their mechanical skills on.

I know some posters here also drive cars and complain about 'bike shaped objects' but why are you driving cheap Fords, Vauxhalls and Fiats? Surely, these are 'car shaped objects'. Why not save your money and get yourself a decent car? What's that? You can't afford one? Could that possibly be the same reason as to why people but cheaper bikes?

 

[DiddlyDodds]

I know some posters here also drive cars and complain about 'bike shaped objects' but why are you driving cheap Fords, Vauxhalls and Fiats? Surely, these are 'car shaped objects'.

As i started to read the post i thought the same as you have put at the end.

My mate did the coast to coast with us this year on a so called "bike shaped object" and left some of the "all the gear - no idea" lads behind.

 

[al78]

snobbery with cyclists these days? You seem to take great delight in calling cheap bicycles 'bike shaped objects'; these are bicycles built to a price and not a specification.
Weight - My bike weighs 10kgs, how much better is one weighing, say, 8kgs? Not a lot! Is weight the first thing to consider when buying a new bike? In my, never too humble, opinion - NO! Does the bike feel comfortable? Is it suitable for my intended use? Can I justify the cost of it? These questions are more inportant to me than weight.
Components - Building to a price means sourcing the cheapest and best components for the budget. Yes, I know cheap components break but shall I let you into a little secret? So do expensive ones. I have known expensive frames to snap with barely a handful of miles on them, Shimano crank arms to snap and other bits of kit to fail.
Intended use - I bought my late wife a cheap folder, we lived just over a mile from the bus route and used it to go to and from the main road. She used to have panniers on it so she could load up with shopping on the way home. Should I have spent three times as much and have bought a Trek? Yes, I could afford it but could not justify it. If people only want a bike to go to the local shop, school or work, why spend thousands?
Buy secondhand? - Why should I or anyone else buy your old cast-off? You may tell me - one careful owner, never been raced or rallied and you only used it to go to church on a Sunday but... how can the average man in the street tell if it is in A1 condition, the frame is true and not cracked?
The 'bling' factor - Your Dad promises you a new bike for Christmas, I can just see the look on your face as you realise he has bought one of the 'better' makes but it is used and not a blingtastic shiny new one! All of us like 'bling'.
Offspring - You may be a keen cyclist but is your child? "I'll buy him/her a good bike and not a cheap one." Before summer it is either wrecked or covered in cobwebs - what a waste of money, get a cheap one, if they take to cycling, you can always buy a better one.
Adults - Many people give up bikes in their teenage years and return in later life; "I'll just get a cheap bike and do a few miles a week, just to keep fit." A cheap bike will help them but if the cycling bug bites, they may decide to buy a better model and the cheap bike is either a pub bike,one to be parked at the station or used to practise their mechanical skills on.

I know some posters here also drive cars and complain about 'bike shaped objects' but why are you driving cheap Fords, Vauxhalls and Fiats? Surely, these are 'car shaped objects'. Why not save your money and get yourself a decent car? What's that? You can't afford one? Could that possibly be the same reason as to why people but cheaper bikes?

People don't have a problem with cheap bikes per se, it is the very poor build quality of the real bottom end bikes that you tend to find in supermarkets that are the issue. They tend to be badly put together with poor quality components that aren't up to the job of regular commuting.

Your analogy with cheap Fords, Vauxhalls etc is not valid, these cars will (in general) get you to work and back with decent reliability for many years, unlike the BSO's ridiculed here. With cars, it tends to be luxuries and power that you pay extra for.

You say "Why should I or anyone else buy your old cast-off?", does that mean you would only ever buy a new car then?

Yes things can go wrong with expensive components, but on balance of probability they are way more uo to the job of regular riding in the UK climate than bottom end components and will make the bike more enjoyable to ride.

For more info see here.

Here is a motoring analogy of what these bottom end bikes are like on average.

 

[Holdsworth]

I don't that there is a real contemporary analogy for modern BSOs as most cars are very well built these days, even the cheap ones. I suppose that if BSOs were around 30 years ago the equivalent would be BL.

I must stress that not all cheap bikes are terrible, take Decathlon for example. It is simply the ones sold by catalogues, supermarkets and department stores that are the ones to avoid. My first "full-size" bike was an £80 BSO from a catalogue, as you can imagine it wasn't much fun to ride so it never got used much for about 2 years until it was needed for commuting. It was put to work on a 5 mile each way commute and promptly started slowly falling apart, starting with the left crank which came off 3 miles from home on a busy A-road! After that I bought a cheap 20 year old racer off of eBay and have been riding it ever since. Despite the fact that numerous aged components have been replaced at cost I am still happier with it than my old bike which went the iron man yonks ago.

 

[User482]

BSOs put people off cycling because BSOs are not reliable, durable, or nice to ride. For just a little more, you can buy a budget model from a reputable manufacturer, which will give the owner a far better experience.

 

[Shaun]

Just wondering, is it about the "put together" as well?

I mean, would a really cheap bike that is put together properly at your LBS ride better and last longer than one that is put together by the catalogue company's stores staff?

 

[User482]

Just wondering, is it about the "put together" as well?

I mean, would a really cheap bike that is put together properly at your LBS ride better and last longer than one that is put together by the catalogue company's stores staff?

Possibly. Halfords supplied an insurance replacement Carrera for my wife. I went out to bed the disc brakes in, and found that the levers pulled straight back to the bars. So, a £350 bike supplied with non-working brakes.

 

[TheDoctor]

Just wondering, is it about the "put together" as well?

I mean, would a really cheap bike that is put together properly at your LBS ride better and last longer than one that is put together by the catalogue company's stores staff?

It's partly that - forks on back-to-front is a very common BSO issue.
Mind you, I've also seen seat posts that were too small to be tightened in the seat tube, or too large to fit in in the first place. Add in bolt heads that round off before they're tight, gear levers that can't be opened up to have the cable replaced and platic brakes that flex. No-one can put together a bike with these sorts of issues.
You can't polish a turd, and rolling it in glitter really isn't an answer!!

 

[Nantmor]

For some years I worked in a bike shop. I had to put the newly delivered bikes in working order, ready to be sold. We did not deal with the absolute bottom of the market, but the cheap bikes were much more difficult to get in even adequate shape. Cheap components needed skill and cunning to make them perform. Cheap wheels needed the attention of a good wheelbuilder. Cheap frames needed threads chasing, and greasing. The whole job took much longer than a decent bike. Working on a properly made bike became a real pleasure. Building up a frame with more expensive components was a joy. It is very unsatisfying to be unable to turn out a bike which will work well and continue working well.
I would imagine very few buyers of BSOs have either the skill or the will to make them into a useful machine, and to battle to keep them running. Any pride in ownership disappears as the rust blooms on cheap chrome.
Sellers of these objects seldom have the time (money) or inclination to do it either. That is, if they don't sell them in the box, without even attempting to get the BSO to work.

"There is hardly anything in the world, that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only, are this man's lawful prey" - - John Ruskin

 

[Maz]

Weight - My bike weighs 10kgs

1st Yorkshireman: 10kgs? Luxury! My seat alone weighs 12kg.
2nd Yorkshireman: Seat? You had a seat? I used to dream of having a seat on my bike!
...
...

 

[Theseus]

Just wondering, is it about the "put together" as well?

I mean, would a really cheap bike that is put together properly at your LBS ride better and last longer than one that is put together by the catalogue company's stores staff?

Somewhere out there in Youtube-land is a video of someone who tried putting a bottom of the range BSO together properly. I don't think he managed it.

 

[Archie_tect]

3rd Yorkshireman: Bike? Bike? We 'ad a clapped out wheel off've a brokken tractor that we'd roll down't big 'ill, wi' a stick to belt it wi'

 

[uphillstruggler]

i dont think that BSO as a term is snobbery towards the cheaper bikes, but a term that refers to all that is bad from a design, manufacture and vendor point of view.

if a BSO is all someone can afford, better that than nowt. And i would also hope that the 'snobbery' wouldnt prevent one of the lycra clad top of the range all the gear types offering some road side help if it was needed?

the thing i have observed and worries me slightly about the BSO rider, is the lack of reasonable (ie visible) clothing, helmet and lack of lights when out and about.

most respondees on this site, when the question arises about 'which bike' would normally add - dont forget to allow for lights, helmet etc, as would a LBS, which i doubt the supermarket type retailer would mention.

i read BSO as a term which doesnt just include the bike, but also the process with which it is purchased/nicked - sorry, couldnt resist

 

[ianrauk]

Somewhere out there in Youtube-land is a video of someone who tried putting a bottom of the range BSO together properly. I don't think he managed it.

They did manage it. (It was a bike shop) Except it near enough fell apart on his commute. The brake and gear levers were made of cheese and the head set was already rusting.

 

[mr_hippo]

Do heavy bikes put people off cycling? I started on a 'sit up and beg' made from scaffolding pipes, gas pipe tubing would have been a luxury! I have been cycling for 52 years and it never put me off. Some people are put off b heavy bikes and others by lighter models.
One bike shop here in Korat sells decent Thai made bikes and I was going into the shop when I first moved here. They had just had a delivery from the factory and one of the mechanics was outside assembling a bike. I noticed in his tool kit was a lump hammer and cold chisel - I never went into the shop!
For the price of the cheapest Trek hardtail here, I can buy about 10 single speed adult size roadsters from Teasco here. Millions of Thais use them not only for commuting, school and shopping, quite often it is the family's only means of transport but they are often supplied with a padded seat on the rack and foot pegs for passengers.
If you see a poorly assembled bike on display do you tell an employee about it and offer to show them how it should be put together od do you just start a thread on here?