veganbikes

You don't have to go 96KPH down the Alp D' Huez to get hurt on a Wally Mart bike. You can do that just about anywhere. Crap is crap and we can sugar coat it all we want but the filling is still crap.

And yes I used KPH because we are cyclists gotdamnit and we will use metric!

jon c. 

That's not really true. I shop there from time to time as they carry a name brand pharmaceutical I can't find elsewhere. Their bullets seem as good as anyone's. And Fertilizer and batteries are fine as well.

But I wouldn't let a friend buy a bicycle there. And I do feel sorry that people who don't know any better are wasting their money buying bicycles there. When I was young, Sears served the same function. Their bicycles were low end, but were vastly better machines than one finds at a Wal Mart today. And were much more likely to be assembled correctly.

Keiffith

I find the wailing hilarious since I'm sure the ones belittling entry level cycles are NEVER going out of their way to let others not cycling inclined to ride their superior cycling machines with 5 gorillion gears, as well as miles (really its inches)

It's the car guy equivalent to a boomer with cargo shorts, white socks and sandals, who owns a C7 convertible, with a baggy wife that never puts out.

Witterings

No we won't!

indyfabz

That, combined with his post count and join date, ought to tell you something.

Cyclist0084

Perhaps she had a pump at home. Just sayin'

prj71

jefnvk

Yeah, but at least in my locale so is most of CL at that pricepoint, at least without significant work. Yet, we send people there all the time when they come looking for a $100 option.

DomaneS5

I go to Walmart maybe once or twice a year these days. Amazon Prime has taken it's place. I can get exactly what I want delivered to my door with free shipping without having to drive 20 minutes. Nothing against those who frequent Wally World.
Walmart still has it's place for emergency/immediate needs.

_ForceD_

Witterings

Well said

El Gato27

My take on the observation was from the Dad viewpoint. What were the odds that all 5 bikes would function properly right off the bat? Dad was probably going to spend a wee little time making adjustments on some of the bikes.

I could understand one or two bikes, but five?

Wal-Mart bikes have their place. My daughter has always had a Wal-Mart (or equivalent) bike. She doesn’t ride but a few times year. My son who rides more has a nicer bike. When my son went off to college I bought him a Wal-Mart SS bike. I had to replace the brake pads and true one of the wheels, but it served its purpose—short rides on campus, stored outdoors and getting banged daily on the bike racks. I had Wal-Mart type bikes till my late 20’s, rode JC Penney and Huffy bikes for thousands of miles before I bought an LBS bike.

I just know if my wife showed up at home with 5 (in my case 4) bikes from Walmart on Fathers day, I would not be too thrilled. Who knows; maybe she was going to donate them, more power to her.

jefnvk

Yeah, but again, you are a person who is on a cycling enthusiast website. People on a golf enthusiast website probably wouldn't be happy if their wife bought them a set of boxed set of golf clubs from whatever your local big box store is, but for people who go out once a year on father's day with their dad, they function as well as a set of $1200 irons.

As to understanding one or two but not five, it'd be pretty selfish for mom and dad to buy bikes and leave the three kids home

El Gato27

In that case I'd be happy with one bike!

coffeesnob

Some places I have been to have you slice your steak in front of them so you can tell them right then and there if it is acceptable.

DomaneS5

I played golf better with Adams Tight Lies... a cheap boxed set of golf clubs than I ever did with high-end Taylor Made, Nike or Ping clubs. I'm so glad I ditched golf as a hobby years ago... and started road cycling, rail trail mountain riding and skiing in the winter. I always felt worse after a round of golf mentally and physically than I did before the first tee shot. With cycling... I feel better after the ride than I did before the ride. It took me years to figure this out.

El Gato27

My son plays, he shoots in the 80's, which I think is decent. He's asked me to learn, I went out to the range a few times but realized I have no passion for the sport.
Keep thinking I should learn just to have son-dad outings, but I don't think it's happening.

jefnvk

Eh, my point was more that if you were really into the sport to the point you were posting regularly on forums, you were used to playing with fitted clubs and Pro V1s, you'd probably respond the same if your spouse brought home a set of said Tight Lies clubs and a bag of recycled balls as many here would feel if their spouse got them a box store bike. Yet, many here probably would balk at the cost of even cheap clubs from a pro shop (my irons alone were $300 after STEEP discount and an extra bit of haggling) and ask why the $149 full set of clubs with bag and accessories from Wal-Mart wasn't good enough.

And, FWIW, I believe there is/was a forum member here who rides exclusively cheap BSO bikes, and would claim they are just as good as those Adams clubs
(nothing against Adams clubs in general, my 52 wedge is one of my best hitting clubs I own, albeit not from a budget line, just the Salvation Army)

That is the primary reason I am doing it. My dad enjoys it, it is something we can do together as we don't have many other shared hobbies that he still partakes in.

DomaneS5

I still have a new box of ProV1 balls in the garage. They collected dust even when I played golf regularly. I always played with cheap balls... Noodles, Slazenger, Top Flite, etc... because I was losing them in water hazards and hitting OOB.

When me and my wife first rode together on the local rail trails... one of her co-workers gave her a Walmart bike, so she could ride with me. She rode it several times before we upgraded to a low-end Diamondback which was better. That was years ago. And now she has a Trek Skye SL which she loves dearly. Walmart bikes have their place.

jefnvk

Agree on all points. Didn't even know what Pro V1s were til last Fathers day. Went on a corporate outing where I got a box from a vendor a few years ago, not knowing anything about them. Pulled them out when dad asked what I was hitting that morning, they were just the first box in my bag I got my hands on, he took one look a them and said "nope, you're not using those, those are $50 a box". Handed him the dozen and told him "Happy Father's Day!"

But yeah cheap sports equipment exists for a reason. It is decent enough for a non-enthusiast who are going to use it once or thrice a year, and at a price point they can afford. Soon as my bag of balls I've found in the woods over the years runs out (and it is depleting at my rather technical league course at a rapid pace), I'll be to the $9 boxes of whatever is on sale from Dicks or Wal-Mart in a hurry. Yes, I realize there is better, no, I'm not paying for it until I get what I can out of the cheap stuff!

Milton Keynes

I know, right? It's a miracle I survived 50 miles of gravel on my Roadmaster mountain bike I use as a gravel bike. It's a death trap. I have to tell my kids to stay away from it in case it explodes. If only the government would come save me from myself...

Witterings

If you want to spend more time with him as every dad does and you're into cycling have you thought about buying him a Walmart bike so he can come out cycling with you

El Gato27

Yep, we hit the trails every now and then when he's home. About the only thing I can still beat him at. Basketball, running, are out with my knees. We'll go out for 15-20 mile rides.

veganbikes

It is in the rules, so...

jon c. 

Not really a good analogy as the Tight Lies line, and Adams equipment in general, is well designed and well made. And very well suited for a new player. They're designed to be easy to hit. But there are cheap clubs, and I expect Wal Mart sells some, that are poorly made and would be much more difficult for the beginner to hit a decent shot with. They'd be less likely to enjoy it and the clubs more likely to end up in the garage. There are good, relatively inexpensive bicycles available, but that's not what Wal Mart tends to sell. And there are people who can and do assemble bikes properly, but Wal Mart doesn't seem to care much about that. You can get lucky on that front. Some assemblers are going to know what they're doing and actually care. But one doesn't get the sense the corporation does.

None of this is a slight on the individuals buying the bicycles as some seem to think. They don't know the market and are placing at least some trust in their retailer. It seems to me that Wal Mart isn't as deserving of that trust as retailers may once have been. Somewhat ironically, in an earlier post I used Sears earlier as an example of a retailer that used to care enough about their product that they sold decent and well assembled bicycles at an affordable price. That was many years ago. Management over the years were too focused on maximizing profit and they lost the public trust they enjoyed in my youth. Now they're on the ropes.

It's not that people are wrong to buy a bicycle at Wal Mart, it's that Wal Mart is wrong for not caring more about the products they are selling.

For the record, I play mostly Pro V1s. When I had a better short game, I could actually tell the difference. Now, all decent balls are fairly indistinguishable to me. I find more balls than I lose so I seldom buy them. I play the best ball in the game because I find enough of them. But golf balls are not unlike bicycles. For the average casual rider, any decent bike will perform well enough and a cheaper bike that happens to fit well may provide a more enjoyable experience than a higher end bike with a less than ideal fit. For the average golfer, any decent golf ball will play just fine. And the bags of recycled balls can be a much wiser investment. Usually. Many years ago, I bought a box of recycled Pro V1s that were obviously the cheapest of counterfeits. It was like hitting a white rock. There are some bikes no one should have to ride and some golf balls no one should have to play. It not elitist to recognize that some people are selling crap.