At what point is a BSO no longer a BSO?

[thelawnet]

As the title suggests really, what qualifies a BSO? When does a bike cease to be such a thing?

Just what bits make it a BSO or how much money does a person need to spend before those elite people decide it can be classed as a proppper bike?

Hmm, signs of BSOship:

Shimano Tourney gears.
off-brand gears
bought in Toys R Us or Argos
7-speed (or even less) cassettes (see above)
cheap suspension, of any kind
loose saddle, or loose anything
buckled wheels
flat/underinflated tyres (because a decent pump costs £20)
plastic brake levers
forks the wrong way round
disconnected, offcentre or fouling brakes
twist shift gears (not always)
weird noises emanating from bike (probably never been set up properly)
knobbly tyres on the road/around town (usually)

 

[endoman]

Mrs endo rides a BSO she won in a raffle, weighs more than our car! She has no idea though and only does fun rides with our daughter, so it keeps her fit. If she gets into it I'll get her something decent. I have given it a bit of a lube etc, so it's not too bad.

 

[slowmotion]

It's an engine thing, isn't it ? Any BSO is elevated to the status of Chariot of the Gods if ridden up Ditchling Beacon by Andy, at the end of a FNRttC....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32678527@N02/5720027052/in/set-72157626720074232

 

[endoman]

It's an engine thing, isn't it ? Any BSO is elevated to the status of Chariot of the Gods if ridden up Ditchling Beacon by Andy, at the end of a FNRttC....

http://www.flickr.co...157626720074232

I have about 6 bikes like that in the garage, sadly they are all arranged as spare parts for bikes thanks to number 2 son. Must be due for a trip to the tip soon to make space for my next bike if I get into this cycling lark.

 

[slowmotion]

I have about 6 bikes like that in the garage, sadly they are all arranged as spare parts for bikes thanks to number 2 son. Must be due for a trip to the tip soon to make space for my next bike if I get into this cycling lark.

Hang on to one. You could be The Engine.

 

[Hip Priest]

Years ago I bought a hardtail mountain bike from Motorworld for £80. After about 10 miles the steering became loose and just wouldn't tighten sufficiently, so I took it to my LBS who managed to sort it with a replacement part. Then after another couple of weeks the bottom bracket broke completely, so I junked it. I'd say that was definitely a BSO, as it wasn't fit for purpose - that purpose being cycling. My current bike is an Apollo Vortice hybrid bought for £180 from Halford's. Many enthusiasts would describe it as a BSO, which is fair enough, but the difference is night and day compared with the aforemention MTB. It at least gets me to work and back without complaint.

 

[MacB]

Years ago I bought a hardtail mountain bike from Motorworld for £80. After about 10 miles the steering became loose and just wouldn't tighten sufficiently, so I took it to my LBS who managed to sort it with a replacement part. Then after another couple of weeks the bottom bracket broke completely, so I junked it. I'd say that was definitely a BSO, as it wasn't fit for purpose - that purpose being cycling. My current bike is an Apollo Vortice hybrid bought for £180 from Halford's. Many enthusiasts would describe it as a BSO, which is fair enough, but the difference is night and day compared with the aforemention MTB. It at least gets me to work and back without complaint.

I think that's just where laziness has crept in and BSO gets used incorrectly, ie just to describe a bike someone doesn't like, rather than the true/original meaning of the term. The BSO didn't really exist when it was just your LBS you dealt with, the closest you had then tended to be Frankenstein bikes that people(mainly kids) cobbled together.

If your bike does what it's meant to do, is comfortable and isn't costing a fortune to make it keep going then it's not a BSO.....it may however be a crap bike

 

[Hip Priest]

I think that's a fair assessment. It's not very good bike, but nor is it a full-suspension MTB for just £69.99! It'll do me for a year I reckon, and if I've still got the bug I'll replace it with something in the £300-400 range.

 

[Moodyman]

Halfords Apollos are not that bad. I've got one for my son, sure the parts are not as good as my bikes and it's pretty heavy, but it's perfectly serviceable and takes a lot of abuse. I don't regard it as BSO

 

[exbfb]

Bike are like guitars.
Just as you get BSOs, you get GSOs as well.

The difference is, I think, down to the perception of the user though.

I think many of us get tempted into a bit of snobbery about a minimum standard or cost that we would admit to owning.

My first bikes are a late 1990s Diamindback Lakeside which I was given by my brother. It has some nice bits on it, but probably isn't worth very much. To me it's my lovely comfortable hybrid which I love dearly.
My second bike is a new Trek 1.1 which I got through C2W and had a ticket price of £500. None of it is top end, it's actually their entry level road bike. I love this one too as it's all the road bike I need.

To those more serious about cycling than I, these two would possibly be BSOs, to me they are a couple of very prized possessions. I won't let them out of my sight, some folks wouldn't lower themselves to riding them.

Guitars are the same.
I've had all the dear kit. At one time I had 3 Status basses, a '69 Jazz Bass, a handmade Jaydee and a handmade Overwater. All of the above were lovely, but I eventually realised they were more than I needed.
I am now proud to play a Squier Jazz 5 string as it's all the bass I need and doesn't hold me back or let me down at all. To many it would be a guitar shaped object though.

All depends on you perception.
As long as it's fit for purpose, that's enough.

 

[TheDoctor]

It's in the details.
If you can set it up so it works, and it carries on working, and it's nice to ride, then it's not a BSO.

As an example, I got a second-hand Apollo kids bike for £20 last week.
It's a Halfords own-brand, with plastic brake levers. And it's pink with flowers on.
Thus far, the signs are not good.

However, the brakes are good enough to lock the rear wheel and to do a stoppie, the seatpost and stem are the correct sizes and are easily adjusted, and it has well-greased ball bearings throughout. And the bolts aren't made of cheese.

It's not a BSO.

 

[Hip Priest]

Spot on, exbfb. I think we all have things we're interested in and knowledgeable about, which cause us to look down on novices or people wirh lesser equipment. The biggest bike snob in the world might have a watch that a watch enthusiast would regard as a watch-shaped-object.

Human nature I guess.

 

[chillyuk]

Glad it doesn't depend on price, my Ridgeback Adventure GS Hybrid only cost me £64 used from a LBS

I have one of those, but mine was £30 odd from a boot sale. I have had it two years and done over 3000 fairly trouble free miles on it.
I gave my Grandson a Probike hybrid 3 years ago, (that's the BSO Probike, I believe another maker has the same name but makes decent bikes) and it has exactly the same kit on it as the Ridgeback in terms of gears and brakes. It is also fairly trouble free. So why isn't my Ridgeback a BSO.

 

[3narf]

There's more to it than this.

The really cheap stuff originates in the far east, where a bicycle is bought as a multi-generational workhorse. The skills and will to keep stuff going is endemic; unfortunately it disappeared from these shores a long time ago.

We became rich in a very short time. We can afford decent stuff with a brand name and round bearings; unfortunately it's a double-edged sword as we now rely on quality stuff to operate with no maintenance (I'm not talking about bike enthusiasts, just the average chimp in the street).

Part of the problem is with the free market economy. In the '70s, all the cheap stuff came from Hong Kong. In the '80s it came from Japan.

Now it's all coming from Taiwan and China. There's never any choice. Whenever a country developes to the point of attaining such luxuries as human rights and adult labour, they price themselves out of the market. Cue another round of cheap rubbish flooding into the UK from another 'developing' country.

Ironically, the more useful/intelligent/enthusiastic you are, the more chance there is of you being able to get some use out of one of these crap bikes.

I think as bikes become more ingrained in the general population in the years to come, less and less buyers will be fooled by a £69.99 full suspension bike. I bet you don't see many of them in Holland.

 

[ufkacbln]

A BSO is something not fit for purpose, so componentry that will fall apart very quickly(sub 1 mile in some cases), parts that won't do what they allude to(suspension 'springs' to mind as do brakes) or a frame that is poorly put together, misaligned or has geometry not suited for the intended use.

IMO, as long as the frame is sound then it's not really a BSO, it's just a bike in need of an upgrade, which can wait until the existing parts wear out. From what I've read online a few of the Decathlon bikes fall into this category, good value and a frame worth sticking some better bits on as and when.

It's a BSO until it becomes safe and pleasurable to ride