Another reason NOT to buy a Wal Mart bike..

[Tuckervill]

I have to say my son bought a WM bike with his own money when he was 6 ($40). A 20" bike, he still rides it (he's 14) to the pool in the summer. It has held up fine, especially for the way it's been treated. It's the bike that stays out in the rain when he forgets it. It's the one he leaves in the front yard when he goes to the neighbor kid's house, etc. He treats his mountain and road bikes like gold, though. I'd much rather he have a bike to neglect like that one, than have his expensive bikes stolen or misused in his youthful carelessness. Just having that bike has been a good learning experience for him.

What's funny is he's ridden it since he was 6 and the seat has never been raised!

Karen

[Flybye]

I believe Walmart bikes have gotten a lot worse in the past couple years. Walmart in general has deteriorated since Sam died.

That's funny that you should mention that because I was thinking the same thing last night as I was TRYING to sleep

I don't think that we can blame Wal-Mart for the deteriorating bikes, just the manufacturers - Next, Huffy, etc. for cutting costs on the bikes they produce.

Are any of the second rate brands sold off-shoots of bigger companies - for example, does Trek also mfgr. brand X??

Another thing that really blows me out of the water is that a company that wants a reputation as being quality like Shimano would allow low end bikes to have their components. I guess it is all about the buck for them, too.

[Mr. Bloom]

Walmart in general has deteriorated since Sam died.

Funny thing happened when Sam died...real estate in Bentonville boomed. Since Sam lived in the same ranch house and drove the same old truck, none of the Wal-Mart mgmt felt that they could live in a manner than their accumulated wealth could support...since Sam would view it negatively.

So, when Sam died, it triggered a building boom of huge mansions on newly built golf courses. It was amazing to see!

Tuckervill, would you agree?

[KSH]

So lastnight running hubby and I decided to take a field trip to the local Wal Mart to check out what our "big box competition" looks like.
I had about 5 people come by the store looking for bikes yesterday- despite the fact that I'm not even OPEN- and a couple of them mentioned having been to wal mart and target.
So I figured that to be able to counter the wal mart low price point I really needed to KNOW what they had.
HOLY MOLY do they have some poorly built bikes. First of all the wheels looked like they were about as strong as tin cans on the cruisers. And then Tony noticed that some of the brake cables were not installed correctly on some of the mtn bikes with disc brakes. But the kicker was the comfort bike that had it's suspension fork mounted BACKWARDS!!! Yes, completely backwards!!
That just shows you that the people putting those things together have NO CLUE what they are doing.
Tony's mechanic eye also noted some other potential safety issues. It was actually kinda scary. I mean people that don't know better are going to be purchasing these bikes- and often times for their kids- and they are putting themselves/children at risk. Part of me wanted to grab the manager and show him the glaring safety issues, but in the end I just walked out of there totally disgusted.
I already kind of had my spiel down to combat the "but wal mart is 200-300 cheaper", but now I REALLY have it down! And really, they aren't THAT much cheaper! Our low end Jamis mtn bike is only 100.00 more. I think the cruisers are the ones that are much cheaper. They were 89.00, ours are around 300.

But what I explained to the guy yesterday is this.
When you buy a bike from a big box retailer, once it's home- you are on your own. There is no one to take it to there when the cables stretch and it needs adjusting, or you have questions about it, or problems.
When you buy a bike from a bike shop you are not only getting a bike that's mechanically superior, but when you need to come in for adjustments, we take care of you. We offer free adjustments for life when you buy the bike from us. Yes you will have to pay for things such as new chains, or parts that wear out. But when you just need the brakes or derralliuers adjusted, we will take care of it for you. Yes, we will work on the wal mart bikes, but it will cost you. So in the end you may actually end up spending MORE than you would if you had bought from a bike shop.
Also a bike from a bike shop has been assembled by a professional mechanic. Most big box retailers hire people to build their bikes who have no prefessional bike mechanic experience. If they DID they would be working in a bike shop. So there can be big safety issues with the build of these bikes. I used to work for wal mart, and I remember our manager paying a few medical bills for folks who ended up in the emergency room because of the shoddy build on their bikes (yes this is a true story.).
And lastly, you really do get what you pay for price wise. These bikes shift better, are generally much lighter, and will be much more fun to ride. If I put you on a wal mart bike, and then on one of these Felts you would instantly know what I'm talking about.

So yeah, that was my spiel. And the guy agreed. In fact he was ready to buy a Felt Z100.... But I'm not OPEN yet because the landlord didn't do all the things the fire dept. asked him to do! Arrggghhhh!!

Ok, so would it be really bad of you to buy a WalMart bike... have them assemble it... and then display it in your store. You could also have people test ride one of those bikes and then test ride one of your bikes.

Now, you wouldn't have to TELL people WHERE the bike came from... but having the facts in their face would be a great way to sell one of your bikes.