What is a BSO?

[Edwardoka]

I seem to have a most uncanny knack for derailing threads with a slightest touch.
To quote Terry Pratchett, my innocuous comment about the Intel 8086 has had the same general effect as a steel bar dropped into the bearings of a 3,000 rpm, 660 megawatt steam turbine

 

[tamiya]

My Apple ][ ran both a 6502 and a Z80 on a CP/M card.

If you worked in a bike shop you would defo know what a BSO means

LBS vs BSO!

General RoT (rule of thumb)... BSO would have RRP $99
vs LBS's menu of
Safety Check $60
Annual Grease & Gears/Brakes Tune $80-125
Full Overhaul Rebuild $180-250

A$... afaik new bikes @ LBS start at about $400ish

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

so my tricked out Raleigh Lizard mtb would be ok for a coast to coast next year ????

A Raleigh Lizard might be a low-end, heavy steel MTB, but it's still a reasonable quality bike all said and done. Get rid of the knobbly tyres and I see no reason why you couldn't ride a long distance on it so long as speed isn't your main goal. Don't confuse weight or original price with quality. There were plenty of high quality hefty bikes made at one time, Raleigh Superbe and Pashley roadsters immediately come to mind. Light weight just gives you marginally reduced effort, often at the expense of an increase in fragility and reduced ability to use a bike in a carefree and casual manner without worrying about possible damage or financial loss.
I'm in the process of upgrading my pub bike from rigid MTB to a 1992-ish Raleigh Pioneer I'm putting together from donor parts. It's got a hi-tensile steel frame, steel wheels, and just six gears. Yes, it's low-end and it's fairly heavy. Financially it's near-worthless. Any bike thief would have to be pretty hard-up to want to take it. But it will never be a BSO because it has components on it of a sufficient quality to be reliable and maintainable.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

My Apple ][ ran both a 6502 and a Z80 on a CP/M card.



LBS vs BSO!

General RoT (rule of thumb)... BSO would have RRP $99
vs LBS's menu of
Safety Check $60
Annual Grease & Gears/Brakes Tune $80-125
Full Overhaul Rebuild $180-250

A$... afaik new bikes @ LBS start at about $400ish

Who nicked the mouse off Rank Xerox

 

[bigjim]

Edward Enfield rode a loaded Raleigh Pioneer in his book "Downhill all the way". One end of France to the other. Didn't seem to have any problems.
I paid Bolton cycles £60 for a new MTB a few years ago. My youngest son used it for two years commuting to work. On road and off in all weathers. Plus weekend rides hammering it off road. He never washed it and I don't think it saw much care. Only replaced the brake blocks. When he had finished with it it was in a sorry state , but could still be made into a serviceable bike.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Edward Enfield rode a loaded Raleigh Pioneer in his book "Downhill all the way". One end of France to the other. Didn't seem to have any problems.
I paid Bolton cycles £60 for a new MTB a few years ago. My youngest son used it for two years commuting to work. On road and off in all weathers. Plus weekend rides hammering it off road. He never washed it and I don't think it saw much care. Only replaced the brake blocks. When he had finished with it it was in a sorry state , but could still be made into a serviceable bike.

I'd happily go any distance on a reasonably well maintained Pioneer in complete confidence that it would get me to my destination. The only reason I won't ride my decent one anywhere dodgy is purely down to the risk of theft or malicious damage whilst unattended. It isn't especially valuable in cash terms, but to me it is a highly valued machine that I can't simply replace with a new one as they aren't made like that any more. Same goes for my late-80's 531-framed Gemini 18 hybrid. Cost me peanuts used, don't seem to be very sought after, but another nice-riding quality British bike that's no longer made.

Your son's MTB may have been cheap, but it clearly wasn't a BSO to survive that well. Before all the real dross full-sus junk took over it was perfectly possible to buy a cheap MTB and have it last well. Someone I know bought a low-end Falcon rigid MTB about 20 years ago for £60 in some kind of promotion. It's a decent enough welded hi-tensile job with basic Shimano mechanicals and cheap alloy rims, and it's still going strong as a utility runabout and even looks quite smart on the rare occasions it gets a wash. No rust on the frame, quite impressive really.

 

[keithmac]

Inded but computers such as the ZX80 used the Z80 chip which was not made by Intel. The Tandy TRS-80 launched in 1977 also used the z80 chip, made by Zilogs. In the UK market I am not sure home computers used much of Intel. I remember writing assembler programs on the TRS-80 back in the day. The later BBC Micro used the Acorn 6502 Risc chip, and I remember writing RISC assembler on those in the early 80's. Acorn of course turned in ARM the designer of most of the chips used in modern smart phones. Dragon computers used a Motorola CPU, as did the Amiga.

The Amiga was a revolution in home computing and far ahead of it's time!.

Good old Gary, Agnus, Denise and Paula!. Unlucky if you ever saw the Guru Meditation..

 

[Edwardoka]

The Amiga was a revolution in home computing and far ahead of it's time!.

Good old Gary, Agnus, Denise and Paula!. Unlucky if you ever saw the Guru Meditation..

I remember the incredible feeling of technological progress that came from going from a CPC 464 to an Amiga.
I loved my A600 but I later came to resent it because it lacked so much of the upgradeability of the line - an exercise in Commodore execs exploiting customers six months before the A1200 was released. It was originally numbered the A300 because it was effectively a trimmed down A500+ but marketing would never approve such a thing.

David Pleasance, the guy who ran Commodore UK (and later attempted to buy out the Amiga brand) is quite forthright about the demise of Commodore.
His interviews on youtube are quite insightful if you're interested.

 

[Alembicbassman]

BSOs are often sold with the forks facing the wrong way.

I pointed this out recently to a work colleague riding a British Eagle BSO to work. (She often used to take a taxi back home)

 

[User76022]

I remember the incredible feeling of technological progress that came from going from a CPC 464 to an Amiga.
I loved my A600 but I later came to resent it because it lacked so much of the upgradeability of the line - an exercise in Commodore execs exploiting customers six months before the A1200 was released. It was originally numbered the A300 because it was effectively a trimmed down A500+ but marketing would never approve such a thing.

David Pleasance, the guy who ran Commodore UK (and later attempted to buy out the Amiga brand) is quite forthright about the demise of Commodore.
His interviews on youtube are quite insightful if you're interested.

The whole amiga thing was a classic example of innovation betrayed by bad marketing.

The A500 was of course a classic. Awesome for its time. Later versions had their technical strengths but we're so badly misplaced within the market. I remember the A600 being pushed more or less as a games console even though the megadrive (or its successor?) was out at the same time, was cheaper, and was actually better placed for that sector of the market. The A1200 was awesome for its day, but I seem to recall it be positioned as a games machine with some productivity, despite the fact that hardly any games worked on it and its productivity suite was very limited. With decent software and better marketing, it could have rivalled the Apple Mac of the day. Personally I liked its AV capabilities. It would have been great for amateur movie and animation work, but I don't recall their being much in the way of software to really support that.

 

[keithmac]

I remember the incredible feeling of technological progress that came from going from a CPC 464 to an Amiga.
I loved my A600 but I later came to resent it because it lacked so much of the upgradeability of the line - an exercise in Commodore execs exploiting customers six months before the A1200 was released. It was originally numbered the A300 because it was effectively a trimmed down A500+ but marketing would never approve such a thing.

David Pleasance, the guy who ran Commodore UK (and later attempted to buy out the Amiga brand) is quite forthright about the demise of Commodore.
His interviews on youtube are quite insightful if you're interested.

I had a 2nd generation A500 (Kickstart 1.3), those were the days!.

Bought an A1200 many years later with a Blizzard 060 upgrade card but still to this day the late 80's early 90's Amiga demo scene will hold a special place in my heart!.

There were some very talented people around the Amiga (designing it and coding for it!).

Never see the like again imho.

 

[bigjim]

I'd happily go any distance on a reasonably well maintained Pioneer in complete confidence that it would get me to my destination. The only reason I won't ride my decent one anywhere dodgy is purely down to the risk of theft or malicious damage whilst unattended. It isn't especially valuable in cash terms, but to me it is a highly valued machine that I can't simply replace with a new one as they aren't made like that any more. Same goes for my late-80's 531-framed Gemini 18 hybrid. Cost me peanuts used, don't seem to be very sought after, but another nice-riding quality British bike that's no longer made.

Your son's MTB may have been cheap, but it clearly wasn't a BSO to survive that well. Before all the real dross full-sus junk took over it was perfectly possible to buy a cheap MTB and have it last well. Someone I know bought a low-end Falcon rigid MTB about 20 years ago for £60 in some kind of promotion. It's a decent enough welded hi-tensile job with basic Shimano mechanicals and cheap alloy rims, and it's still going strong as a utility runabout and even looks quite smart on the rare occasions it gets a wash. No rust on the frame, quite impressive really.

Well the word basic says it all. That's what it was and is probably the reason it lasted. A simple alloy frame and steel rigid fork. Basic low end Shimano drivetrain. Alloy wheels. this conversation has reminded me, I actually still run the wheels on an old steel Raleigh MTB to replace the heavy chrome ones. They needed new bearings and grease when he'd finished with them, but good enough now. The frame was dumped but only because it was scratched so much. The bars, twist grip and V brakes are still in the spares box.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

I've been cycling all my life, but until a few year ago I only had 2 bikes - a tourer and a mountain bike.
When I hit 50, I decided to get myself a "racing" bike so I could use cycling for fitness as well as just for fun. Not being sure whether I would like this kind of bike, I bought a Carrera Virtuoso from Halfords for £250, rather than splashing out megabucks on a "fancy" bike. The components were pretty basic, and I guess some would regard this as being a BSO.
However, I really liked riding a "racing" bike, so over time I have upgraded the wheels and tyres to something lighter, and fitted Tiagra groupset throughout.
This transformed the bike from being heavy and agricultural to being a really decent ride. I now also own a fancy carbon "racing" bike but, if I'm brutally honest with myself, my favourite bike to ride is the Carrera because it just "feels right".
I guess my point here is that if a BSO has a decent frame then, matched with the right components, it can be transformed.

the virtuoso is a good bike for the price. it may have cheaper components, but you can at least fettle them to get the best out of them.

carrera aren’t really bso bikes, although the apollo range are pretty much...

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

the virtuoso is a good bike for the price. it may have cheaper components, but you can at least fettle them to get the best out of them.

carrera aren’t really bso bikes, although the apollo range are pretty much...

Often used as low-cost drop-bar commuting bikes in central London, I've noticed quite a few of them locked up on the street. Presumably they also have limited thief appeal.
I wouldn't entirely agree that Apollo are all automatically BSO; mine isn't - but then its a 26" rigid, with no suspension bits to wear out and end up riding like a bag of spanners. At the cheap end of the market the name of the game is keep it simple and have as few moving parts on the bike as possible.