Quote Originally Posted by TxDoc View Post
Nope
Actually the title of the thread brought back some memories and made me smile...
Several years ago when I entered specialty school, I was in a world pretty much new to me where I had to learn how to live on a budget.
I figured that living close to the hospital and spending about a year car-free was a good way to build some savings for the next few years and start over. I went to WalMart and purchased the cheapest bike available that would fit me. I think it was something like $ 44 at the time, and believe me I had to save for it.
It was black, had a big decal 'roadmaster' and looked like a hardtail mountain bike or something of that kind. Granted - I grew up in Europe with Bianchi and Campagnolo, so I had no idea what a mountain bike would look like and much less I knew how to use a flat bar bike.
By average cyclist standard, it was for sure one ugly bike - but it took me back and forth to the hospital and anywhere for almost a year, night or day, rain or shine, sometimes with loads of groceries or with a few huge and heavy pathology books in the backpack.

A year later life was normalizing, sort of, I purchased a car and a used Bianchi that I knew how to ride and put the Wally-World bike in the garage and pretty much forgot about it.
At some point, we had someone remodel our outside stairwell, and for a couple of weeks we had workers all around the house. One day, moving tools in and out of the garage I re-discovered the Wal-Mart bike. One of the carpenters looked at it and said 'oh I wish I had a bike to ride to work in the morning instead of waiting for the bus'. I put some air in the tires and gave him the bike. Next thing you know, he was riding around the block with the happiest smile.

So yeah, it may have been one ugly cheap walmart bike - but it made life better for at least two people, and maybe more if he will also pay it forward someday. Making two people happy - that's a lot of good work done by just one bike.
Awesome post! That certainly put a smile on my face.

No, you will not get booooed off of here for riding a Wal-Mart bike. My first "adult" bike was bought 7 years ago at a little bike shop in a nearby town that specializes in cheap bikes. I think he carries Schwinn and GT and is the only wrench in a 50 mile radius. It was a $200 mountain bike and I bought it to try to loose weight after I quit smoking. I thought I had bought a "really nice bike" that I couldn't really afford but my justification was that $200 was what I had saved from not buying cigarettes for 3 months. Little did I know that I would get bitten by the bike bug!

Fast forward 4 years and the $200 bike was replaced with a road bike and was hanging in the shed gathering dust. I gave it to a friend's daughter who was going to college. She rode it all 4 years of college then took it to California for graduate school. She sold it for $50 before she came home after graduation so I'm guessing it's still in California.

Enjoy riding, happinesshill, that's all that matters and welcome to TE!