What a crudding crock of shoot!

[02GF74]

A bit of a rant so bear with me.

My friend bought a Schwinnnn mountainnnn bike a coupe of years ago, 1/3 price I think for about £ 300 ? ... but she wanted a full suspension one, this one has front squidgy forks only. My recommendation was that for the money she want to spend, full suspension was unlikely to be any good.

Well, she had £ 100 voucher from work and went and bought a £ 100 full suspension piece of crudding shoot from Argos that is an abomination in the eyes of any bicycle owner.

She brought it round to my house and the first thing I checkes was if I could move the saddle - I could. I undid the clamp, which was pretty tight and I am no 5 stone weedling, tightened up the nut and then clamp it shut. Could I move the saddle? Yes I could. WTF?!?!?!? I didn't want to tighten further as I suspect something will give so the early signs were not good. After sitting on it for maybe less than a couple of minutes, the seat post has dropped right down, no surpise there. I'll probably need to squirt a blob with the old MIG welder onto the post to stop it dropping.

She had "assembled" the bike, assembled in the loosest possible term, literally, The font nuts for the axle - note nuts and not QR - were done up finger tight as I presume the nut on the quill - note quill and not Ahead stem - resulting in the bars coming lose. Result being that she had to walk 3 miles pushing this piece of crudding shoot.

Anyway, the the nuts were addressed by introducing to Mr Adjustable Spanner but she pointed out he front brake was not working. Investigation showed that the metal bracket through which the noodle end goes was splayed out! Doesn't bode well when you need to grab a handful. A pair of pliers sorted that out, in the process the noodle itself coming apart! but the cable was too long. I tried to screw out the adjuster and noticed the barrel thing was bent!! Quality!! That did not fix it so I had to undo the nut that clamps the brake cable. What the buggering bollocks is going on here?!?!?! The whole nut assembly is spinning round so I had to use pair of pliers gripping the cable to stop the spinning!!! Same problem when doing it up but now done.

One hundred pounds for that!!! Might as well have spent it on lottery tickets or cheese or twix or something useful!!

How can shops justify selling shoot like that? It is of not use what so ever. Did I mention it is heavy too and the welds look like they wre done by an arthritic blind man?

Thinking about it, some little Chinese orphan makes the parts, antoehr asseblems the bike, another packs it up before it is shipped half way acorss the world. Then it is unpacked and delivered to the store where finally a shaved money will pick it up in the store to gvie to the customer.

The selling price includes VAT and some profit for Argos as well as some small amount of money to the each of the people involved in the chain so the total cost of the parts if bought at source must cost no more than £ 30 or so. THIRTY FREAKING QUID!!! No surpose it not very good.

 

[tyred]

Supermarket bikes should come with a government health warning.

How can they get away with selling these things anyway? I thought all goods sold had to be fit for the purpose for which they were intended.

 

[jimboalee]

Like IKEA flat packs?

 

[sheddy]

Not fit for purpose. Tel her to get a refund as it will put her life in danger.

 

[jimboalee]

There are two IKEAs within a drive from my home.

Every week in the local rags, there are adverts publicising "Furniture assembly man".

When the punters buy a flat pack from IKEA, they know that if the don't know how to put it together, they must find a man who can.

I am presuming that Schwinn bike came in a card carton with most of the bits in plastic bags, just like my Dawes Giro 500 from Spa Cycles.

£100 is REALLY on the bottom end of the market.
I've just been on the Argos website to look at their cheapest MTB. £90.

The last bullet point on the list of details states "Some assembly required".
That's the wording most buyers don't read. If the shopper does not know how to build and adjust a bicycle, they are in for a right old game.

Good job you were at hand.

 

[tyred]

But the point is, these bikes are usually of such poor quality that no matter how well you build it, you'll never have a decent bike.

 

[02GF74]

I cannot think of another item you can buy - maybe ikea stuff? - that is so unfit for the purpose.

Cheap it may be but it is of no use whatsoever.

I am still amazed at how much stuff you get though, albeit useless stuff, and the fact that someone in the far east can be bother to make/assemble it, as I have been known to pay more than that for a set of disc wheels.

 

[Eat MY Dust]

Like IKEA flat packs?

Hey leave IKEA out of it. I've got a few bit of IKEA in my house and there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[roshi chris]

Not fit for purpose. Tel her to get a refund as it will put her life in danger.

Totally agree, there is no way I would pay for that. Goods do have to be fit for purpose and that clearly isn't.

It annoys me actually because people intend to take up cycling, then buy something like that and get put off. Imagine buying a new car for £500 that the brakes didn't work on and the seats slipped around etc. The company making it would be prosecuted.

I personally think there needs to be two categories of bike - toys and vehicles. Road worthy bikes should have to meet certain standards and will necessarily be a reasonable price. Supermarkets can still sell the toy versions if they want but at least that way people know what they are buying.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Someone on here was posting updates on how brilliant his £50 road bike from Toys R Us was going recently, with regular mileage updates. He got to 200 miles and then disappeared.

I wonder what happened?

 

[jimboalee]

Bikes DO have to meet standards.

www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20031101.htm


Before this, there was the lighting regs and a 'Stop test'.

 

[andy_wrx]

O2GF74, I was giggling to myself as I read your diatribe. Thank-you for brightening-up my day.

You really are not impressed are you ??!?!


The disturbing thing is, non-cyclists see these things in the supermarket or outside Motorworld car accessory shop, or advertised in the back of the Sunday paper for £49.99 buy-one-get-one-free and think that's how much a bike costs.
They then start talking to you, ask how much your bike was and when you say £300/£500/£1000/£2500 (delete as applicable) they look at you as though you're some sort of imbecile...

 

[upandover]

Everyone I know who's not a cyclist thinks my bike was very expensive at £250 (decathlon).

When I did go into a couple of shops though, they all but laughed at me wantiong a bike fro less than £300. One of the owners in the specialised shop in particular (old hill) were really quite rude to me.

While I agree £100 won't get you far, there has to be a balance presumably. Next time I'm planning to go second hand, but the bike I have now (even though only 1k in) has proved reliable and is a nice bike to ride.

Steve

 

[Calum]

These bikes put people off of cycling, which is the most annoying thing. I once told someone that my bike cost £400, and was greeted with a mixture of laughter and shock!

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produ...2|cat_10199392|Bikes+and+cycling|10199440.htm - Hurts the eyes doesn't it!

 

[mickle]

On paper, if I were to replace them (or were to insure them) four of my cycles are worth £3K, £3K £2K and £1.5K. Even cyclists sometimes look at me as if I have some kind of mental disorder when I tell them.