I had a customer last night bring in a Schwinn purchased from Toys R Us. He said he originally had a single speed but wanted to do the Moonlight Ramble (St. Louis's midnight bike ride) so he felt he needed gears. He also said he felt he wasn't good enough for a bike shop bike.

Well his first ride was the Moonlight Ramble. His chain broke during the ride. My mechanic was providing SAG support and was able to fix his chain.

He hasn't ridden it since and wanted us to go over the bike. Basically we have to rebuild the bike since multiple things were never adjusted properly from the beginning. We are also putting on a new chain for him.

I asked him what he spent on this new bike. He said $200. Well now he's spending about $85 more with a tune up and new chain. I explained how that got him to an introductory price point with a bike shop. I also explained how the warranties work on bike shop bikes and our own service warranty. No he doesn't have either of those from Toys R Us. I finally asked him if anyone assisted him in choosing the right size bike - no there was only one size to choose from.

So we have a new customer. We'll assist him in anyway he needs us to with the hopes in the future he purchases a bike shop bike - especially something that fits his needs and his size.

I know this is repeated daily at shops across the country. I completely agree with Deb that working on a cheap bike is considerably more challenging than working on a nice higher quality bike.