Poll on the use of BSO

[guitarpete247]

I bought the GF a Land Rover Lyra

a couple of years ago for about £200 from Discount Bicycles Ltd. If this is a BSO, I bought one. But it seems a decent specced bike. Not too heavy (I have to lift it onto the car rack). She didn't want me to spend a lot of money as she wasn't (still isn't) sure she'd enjoy cycling as it would be her first ever bike.

 

[marinyork]

In these parts if you can only afford a BSO then, when your current BSO expires (but see below), you will replace it with another BSO. Repeat ad lib to fade. Odds are it is cheaper than buying a decent bike which goes awol when your £5.99 combination lock gets ripped open.

That certainly happens, I work with someone exactly like that and on top of that he's a master ninja too. However, even he has been asking about getting something more robust. I've spoken to many people with BSOs and a lot of them will switch to something better earlier on than that. It's also quite interesting when you've talked ot them and nobody else have. There are a few that are very difficult to convince and very proud of their pride and joys, but you have to give it a go. They usually do come round in the end.

I can only say that I do think snobbery exists. It has just been bikeweek and on my travels during it encountered the annual snobbery, someone who was new to cycling and got an old race bike and being told that she should get something better by multiple people.

Unfortunately the theft thing is practical, there were two horrific stories of £1500 commuter bikes being stolen on very basic cable locks a year or so back round here and sadly another unverified one near where I often park my bike very recently. Pretty sad the latter one as I gather it was a newbie who was really enjoying it and properly spent on a beginner's bike.

Apollos are often nigh on indestructible. In these parts anyway. Post the nuclear holocaust that leads to humankind's extinction I'm sure the giant cockroaches which survive will ride around on old Apollos (and the odd Raleigh Pioneer. King Cockroach will have a super galaxy but he won't lend it out.)

I think it's interesting what opinions people have on stuff. I don't especially rate the apollo stuff, the adult stuff I know someone who has gone through multiple apollos. At about 18kg they are a bit heavy even for my liking. The older ones were more robust. But I think the cockroach story just shows how BSOs are really the future after all .

 

[colly]

I voted 'don't know'.

Now I DO know I think it's kind of daft, and smugly patronising.

So what if someone is riding a crap bike? Maybe they don't know or don't care, or maybe that's all they can afford.

Granted some will think all bikes are uncomfortable and heavy and be put off forever but most will either just plod around now and again and those inclined to do more will find out the joys of better equipment and buy something better when they want to.

Perhaps the acronym CSO should be invoked. That would pretty much apply to 80% of the people here.

And again.............So what?

Smug peanuts should maybe take a look in the mirror now and again.

 

[summerdays]

I find the term BSO elistist and snobby. What's wrong with using the term cheap bike? which is what they are.

As others have said the definition of a BSO being a cheap bike is wrong ... not all cheap bikes are BSO's at all ... just a proportion of them.

 

[Cycle_Stu]

I voted no.

I have to admit to looking at the cheaper hybrid bikes on sites like Winstanleys and cycle king and thinking one of them would do me as a cheap commuter to the station. Then I would'nt be fretting about leaving my bike there all day.

Agree, there is a difference between a cheap bike and a rubbish bike.

 

[4F]

My first commuter bike was bought from a catalogue for 50 quid but the gears needed adjusting on a weekly basis to stop them rubbing and the thing weighed a tonne, that was a bso and looking back a real heap of ****. Since then i have purchased 3 more bikes all secondhand from ebay paying no more than 300 quid for the lot

My FIL and father both work at bikehut and they are always moaning about the Apollo range which they says are always coming back for repair as the vast marority are not fit for purpose. They both did add that they also did a bmx range and these were really scrapping the barrel.

 

[lukesdad]

To often the term BSO is used to demean the person riding it. Examples as, ninja on BSO, I scalped a bloke on the way to work on a BSO. Its used all the time on the forum. It is IMO a bad term and would offend a lot of peeps used in this way. Elitest, snobbery ? Of course it is. One might say if your bike wasnt sub 7 kg and wasn t kitted out with titanium, carbon, scandium components down to the last nut and bolt it was a BSO ? There would be an outcry I own a few such BSOs. But then again I own a couple that aren t

 

[Stephenite]

Why isn't there an option for "Of course it doesn't offend me, but I do find it rather patronising and unhelpful"? If a bike is a heap of shoot, let's just say so, so that what we mean is intelligible to people who don't know a lot about bikes. And let's maybe pick a good time to say so, so that we don't dampen the enthusiasm of anyone who's getting on alright for the moment riding a heap of shoot.

I voted 'yes' - just because snobbery knobbery gets on my 'mits'.

I haven't read all the comments but 'theclaud' sums it up quite well.

 

[marzjennings]

I think BSO is a fair term for bikes sold that are, IMO, of such poor quality they're unsafe. If a manufacturer produced a car as low a quality as some of the bikes available in ASDA they would be banned from sale. Yet because bikes in general are sold as 'toys' and not modes of transportation they can bypass any real standards.

For example if a bike that looks like a mountain bike is sold with the sticker ."Do Not Ride Offroad." then it's a BSO.

A cheap bike can still be a great bike, but a BSO will end up being a BOS (bag o' shite) and a useless pile of rusting pig iron in the shed. I tried to steer my brother away from a BSO, but he was convinced that with his engineering skills he could keep a cheap bike running and he didn't need to spend more than £60 on a bike. Well the first pothole cracked the frame at the BB and first small drop off the curb blew out the rear shock. He did use those engineering skills to recycle the BSO into some cool stuff like a lamp stand and coffee table.

 

[sunnyjim]

I think BSO is a fair term for bikes sold that are, IMO, of such poor quality they're unsafe. If a manufacturer produced a car as low a quality as some of the bikes available in ASDA they would be banned from sale. Yet because bikes in general are sold as 'toys' and not modes of transportation they can bypass any real standards.

For example if a bike that looks like a mountain bike is sold with the sticker ."Do Not Ride Offroad." then it's a BSO.

A cheap bike can still be a great bike, but a BSO will end up being a BOS (bag o' shite) and a useless pile of rusting pig iron in the shed. I tried to steer my brother away from a BSO, but he was convinced that with his engineering skills he could keep a cheap bike running and he didn't need to spend more than £60 on a bike. Well the first pothole cracked the frame at the BB and first small drop off the curb blew out the rear shock. He did use those engineering skills to recycle the BSO into some cool stuff like a lamp stand and coffee table.

Hmm - '101 uses for a BSO'

Hatstand
Anchor for small boat

.
.
.

 

[Bicycle]

Not an offensive term, but as others have said, unhelpful.

If someone is happily riding their piece of shoot to get to work, the shops or having a pootle along the cycle path every Sunday morning and it does what they want it to, does it really matter if there are people out there who ride better bikes?

Is my Bic biro a pen-shaped-object piece of shoot to the people who insist on posh pens? It writes when I run it across a page so does exactly what I expect a pen to do. If a BSO moves forward when someone presses on the pedals, then it does what most people expect a bike to do.

+1

I am a bit of a bicycle snob myself, but I do find some cycling terms a little silly.

BSO (as used by some people) is one of them. It makes me giggle when users of the term rail with such gusto against being thought of as snobs.

"Well of course I have nothing against those cheap Bulgarian cabernets per se dahling..."

"Gosh! Tesco Value sausages!! I just don't know how you can; you're so brave to try them dahling..."

Other terms that smack slightly of someone taking it all rather seriously and still haplessly looking too hard for joy and fulfilment are Moton and Cager (unless used in irony).

We all ride bicycles... Some bicycles are better built than others. Some are better maintained than others. Some components are better than others.

If these heartfelt and grim warnings of BSOs being deathtraps had much credulity, I'd be passing deceased BSO-riding roadkill at every junction.

But I'm not.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I can only say that I do think snobbery exists. It has just been bikeweek and on my travels during it encountered the annual snobbery, someone who was new to cycling and got an old race bike and being told that she should get something better by multiple people.

So do I. But cycling is such a broad church it is almost bound to have snobby cliques. There are people who decry my wearing baggies on a road bike, there are people who nod/wave to me when I'm riding drop bars and who ignore me completely when I'm not. People who laugh out loud when I ride the Strida (and, honestly, who can blame them, it is hilarious). People who are apalled that I turn up on a club run on a fixed on full fakenger get up and then beat them up the hills.

But then I'm snobbish about

People who ride folders that aren't Bromptons
Anyone who isn't female, or an elite class rider, and who shaves their legs
Downhill mtb riders who push their bikes up all the hills
People who drive to rides with their bikes on or in the car
People who ride fixed but can't trackstand but try to do so on the roads.
People who ride bikes but can't undertake the simplest of repair tasks

and all of the above is utterly and completely irrational. I am pleased to the point of smug to say I've persuaded a few people from BSO's onto decent bikes over the years, often by helping them find a tidy 2nd hand good bike.

But can I say once and for all, to everyone, it isn't a scalping unless they are riding a better bike than you.

 

[Lucheni]

When I first heard the phrase Bicycle Shaped Object, I had to smile. It was amusing and I didn't feel so bad about wasting my money on a crap bike because I hadn't bought a crap bike, I'd hadn't bought a bike at all.

BSO doesn't mean cheap. I mean, I love cheap! I'd be pretty miserable if I didn't. I had to save for a year to get the bike I have now, it only cost £190 and it's astonishing how much better it is. I recently rode the old BSO for a weekend while my newer bike was in the shop for a service and I couldn't believe how dreadful it was. I rode that thing for a whole year without realising for a second how bad it was. I only traded up because I wanted to be able to fit a rack and mudguards and use it for lugging heavy stuff.

I don't think it's snobbery, I can totally understand that some people are content with their BSO's. I was happy enough with mine because I didn't know any better. I just tend to feel a little sorry for people on rubbish bikes because I suspect most of them don't know any better either.

 

[gbb]

I voted no. Would i have one ? no.
But the thing is, a lot of BSOs only need a bit of extra care/maintenance and setting up to become 'ok' bikes.
I'm always playing with someones at work, most of our staff are immigrant labour who buy cheap and cheerful. First thing is to adjust the hubs properly. One girl at work's got an Elswick MTB type thingy. It looks really nice,, she was so happy with it, but the wheels just didn't spin, grindy as hell, She didn't even realise. She asked me to set up the brakes properly...and that's unforgiveable to sell a bike with shoddy brakes, so i adjusted the hubs as well without telling her. She came in the next day and was so so pleased with the way it ran, it was so much smoother. It didn't quite make it into the BSO bracket, but it wasn't far off. It's running like a dream several months later.

 

[The Jogger]

Na