BSO?

[Markymark]

I understand its Bike Shaped Object but what do people actually mean when they say it as opposed to just a bike?

 

[ianrauk]

In a nutshell.
It's a cheaply made crap bike from a supermarket and/or catalogue. It's meant to be a bike but it fails to be as it is so crap in the first place. Hence bike shape object.

It's snobbery really.

 

[Canrider]

A cheap bicycle featuring overly-heavy-yet-fragile-and-low-quality parts, often poorly assembled/maintained?

 

[Markymark]

Ah, I thought it was some uber-cool contraption overly designed so it no longer resembles a bike.....compltely wrong end of the spectrum, hence why the posts I read never made any sense!!!

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Ah, I thought it was some uber-cool contraption overly designed so it no longer resembles a bike.....compltely wrong end of the spectrum, hence why the posts I read never made any sense!!!

That's the internet as a whole for me

 

[summerdays]

Plastic brake levers, metal adjusting bit for the brakes made out of very soft metal, wheel ball bearings go after about 200 miles, unable to get the gears adjusted for longer than 10 minutes - and heavy. (That was my experience of them - which wasn't quite enough to put me off cycling but a new bike was a revelation. I would also add in to the mix those full suspension bikes sold for kids that come with a seat post that can only be adjusted about 1 inch up or down - doesn't really leave much options for adjustment when the kid grows.

 

[Widge]

How many component parts can you make from a pot-metal with the fatigue strength of cheese? How often do you want to change gear? How much do you want your brakes to grip the wheels and how round would you like them to be? How heavy can an iron frame be? These and many other questions are answered by the infamous 'BSO'!

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Had something similar at work recently - Barrs had a promo, buy a can of Irn Bru and get a free raffle ticket to win the full suss MTB with full Irn Bru paint job and decals!!!

a week or so in, I decided to pick said bike up to see how heavy it was..... I would swear blind that the freakin' BSO was made from girders!
You'd need legs like a cart horse to ride it!

 

[Canrider]

Ovalised high-tensile steel tubing, anyone?

 

[biggs682]

trouble is a lot of people buy a BSO when they could actually have bought a decent 2nd hand quality machine that would have been a much better experiance

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Had something similar at work recently - Barrs had a promo, buy a can of Irn Bru and get a free raffle ticket to win the full suss MTB with full Irn Bru paint job and decals!!!

a week or so in, I decided to pick said bike up to see how heavy it was..... I would swear blind that the freakin' BSO was made from girders!
You'd need legs like a cart horse to ride it!

Aha, you mean this BSO? Picture taken a few months ago in a local charity shop, it was for sale at £ 200. Had to tell them about the backwards forks

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Aha, you mean this BSO? Picture taken a few months ago in a local charity shop, it was for sale at £ 200. Had to tell them about the backwards forks
View attachment 25047

The bike would have been even funnier if it had Irn Bru's old tag line; "Made in Scotland, from girders".

 

[smokeysmoo]

Aha, you mean this BSO? Picture taken a few months ago in a local charity shop, it was for sale at £ 200. Had to tell them about the backwards forks
View attachment 25047

The forks alone on this 'bike' sum up a BSO perfectly

 

[themosquitoking]

Aha, you mean this BSO? Picture taken a few months ago in a local charity shop, it was for sale at £ 200. Had to tell them about the backwards forks
View attachment 25047

It looks almost as horrid as the drink itself.

 

[Widge]

Good Lord...............what a nasty bicycle?