184

There are some brands of bicycles that can cost more than the down payment on a car. Why? Surely making a bike lightweight and reliable isn't so difficult that it warrants that price? Is it just the brand name or maybe it has to do with customization options?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Professorozone@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

To be fair, the OP did say "some brands" not ALL bikes. Also, I have one of those Walmart bikes and I pity the foo who owns one. On my very first ride, my pants tore the chain guard off. Pretty sure it was there to protect my pants. Then when I came to a stop, the seat exploded. Springs, nuts, bolts and washers went flying. I had to gather them up again and try to piece it back together to keep the seat usable. It's ridiculously heavy too. If you can't afford a nice new bike, I recommend buying a decent used one at a garage sale or something. I don't agree that they will serve the vast majority of people just fine.

[-] oldfart@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Not to "victim blame" because such unsafe junk should not be sold. But a $100 bike with amortized seat and spring suspension of wheels has no right to be durable. But an $100 simple bike with shimano gears or no gears can last for years.

[-] Professorozone@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

In a nut shell, I had an older but better built bike at work I used to get around campus. Someone borrowed it and did not bring it back. Eventually it was found in a work area where it was destroyed by a steal beam they dropped on it. The construction supervisor gave me $100 to buy a new one, so I went to Walmart. It appeared that they were all built the same. I noticed the warning sticker on the bikes were identical between makes leading me to believe they were just the same cheap bikes with different brands. So I bought the one that did not have coaster brakes. I hate coaster brakes. I still have it and use it as a spare bike. It's trash, despite being the most expensive bike I've ever bought. My current bike was given to me by a friend who was not using it. She said it was a $400 bike. Anyway, I digress, but that's why I bought such a cheap bike. The circumstances were just right. Don't want an expensive one just sitting outside at work. Plus I could use a company truck to go get it during lunch, instead of shopping around for a better used one.

this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
184 points (97.9% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35311 readers
850 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS