unterhausen

I imagine the OP is better off with decent pedals. I'm a bit surprised the pedals that come with inexpensive bikes pass the lawyer test

Random11

The more you spend on a bike, the less you get. My bike didn't come with pedals. It also didn't come with a chain guard, kickstand, fenders, or reflectors.

chaadster

You gotta stop shopping at those skeezy places, man. Reflectors are required on bikes for consumer sale under federal law in the USA.

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-id....1512&rgn=div5

They might be rippin’ you off on the other sh*t, too. You should check.

chaadster

yeah, like mack_turtle said, the One Ups are nice, and not something to be upset about; you probably got the composite bodies with metal traction pins, right?

Do ask the shop about it next time you’re in, though, just to know what the deal was, like did they upsell you on those, or did the bike actually not include any pedals. Again, no biggie, because these are almost certainly much better; more comfy, durable, and safe.

If you want, you can tell them you know a dude who bought three new, complete bikes within the past 10 months at USD $750, $850, and $1.4k, all of which included pedals, so what’s up with that? It could be a Canadian thing. 😉

Random11

I followed the link and was surprised to see the requirement that bikes have reflectors. I went to look at my bike just to be sure... and it doesn't have reflectors. I'm guessing my LBS just didn't put them on when they assembled the bike. Looks like I'm riding illegally every time I take the bike out.

Dr.Lou

Since the mid 90s, none of my bikes since have come with pedals. If I didn’t already have some, I usually negotiated a set. The Surly Bridge Club I bought a couple weeks ago didn’t come with pedals, but my friends Marin Bolinas Ridge did.

Biketiger

My you guys are smart but I give it to Koyote for first pointing this out - the Talon 2 indeed comes with platform pedals and the shop should at least offer that.

unterhausen

They probably have the reflectors and didn't put them on. This is common practice. You might ask your shop for some reflectors, they either have some or can save the ones they get on the next bike they put together.

It's not illegal to ride without reflectors during the day. At night it depends on your location.

chaadster

The federal law is only to do with consumer sales. How you ride a bike you own is proscribed by other regulations.

Meeting the legal requirements of sale just means reflectors need to be included with the sale of partially assembled bikes, but showroom bikes should have them installed to be compliant, I believe. At the very least, a bag of reflectors should come with the assembled bike, or they should offer to remove them for you, if only to meet the spirit of the law. If a shop doesn’t even do that...skeezy.

mack_turtle

yeah, what's up with that? I was going to buy a Madone but it didn't come with a sissy bar, handlebar streamers, a horn, turn signals, a seatbelt, spokey dokes, or a place to put a baseball card in the spokes so I can pretend it's a motorcycle. I was about to compromise on those items, but when the shop refused to put the banana seat that I supplied on it, I decided to take my money elsewhere. it's a scam!

unterhausen

It's not skeezy at all, nobody wants reflectors so most bike shops don't put them on most bikes. It's not like the law has any teeth, the cpsc doesn't have any police or the baby section at walmart wouldn't exist. I don't understand why a customer that wanted reflectors wouldn't just ask about it, because shops have a lifetime supply of new reflectors in a drawer that they could put on a bike. And it's likely that most bike shops have a pile of incredibly cheap pedals off of new bikes that customers didn't want.

Reflector Guy

This saddens me....

Paul Barnard

Or he could have asked about pedals, seats and shorts in the same post!

chaadster

it’s totally skeezy...completely unethical. If someone needs laws to have teeth to make them compliant, that’s skeezy, too. “No cop, no stop,” is that how we should roll?

I have no problem with the shop removing them if the customer wants, but to suggest that shops not only disregard their legal obligation, and further, make it incumbent upon the buyer to ask for what is supposed to come with the bike, is pretty slimy. Give buyers what they’re supposed to have, and let them decide what do with it.

I’d guess that most people who shop at bike shops are either pretty inexperienced and haven’t thought ever in their life about reflectors, have never given any consideration to bicycle safety and were not taught about it in school, or have no idea that a bike wouldn’t come with reflectors and therefore wouldn’t think to ask about them. I don’t know that’s true, of course, nor do we know the converse is true, or even that a large percentage of buyers don’t want reflectors; correct me if there’s indicative data on that, but I’ e never seen it. Given that, and that reflectors are inexpensive, effective, easy to install and remove safety items for the general public good and have no deleterious effect on the bike or rider, the ethical, non-skeezy position for a shop to take is to mount them as required by law, or at the minimum include them with sale.

Further, it seems to me that a shop could use the reflector discussion to show distinctive service and care to the customer, and use as an upsell strategy for lights. That’s good business. Denying customers their due is not. That’s skeezy, like the OP’s shop and the pedals.

AlmostTrick

Shops who don't include the required reflectors on new bikes are leaving themselves open to possible lawsuits should one of their customers get in a wreck and the motorists lawyers are looking to shift at least some of the blame and financial judgements. Not a very wise thing to do.

Koyote

Given that every single state requires lights on a bike that is ridden at night, and that many (maybe most?) bike lights now include side lights, and given that reflectors work in only a very narrow range of conditions...It seems like the reflector requirement is just kind of pointless. If the bike is going to be ridden at night, the shop would be remiss in letting a customer head out the door under the belief that the reflectors will be sufficient.

unterhausen

I guess we'll have to disagree then, you're saying virtually every shop in the U.S. is skeezy because they do what their customers want. Also, nobody wants to talk about reflectors. The shop I work for doesn't put reflectors on most bikes that cost over $1000. Those customers know what they want and will ask if they want the reflectors put on. Hybrids, kids bikes and other low-end bikes get reflectors. Safety is a tricky subject. If an inexperienced person thought that cpsc minimum reflectors make them at all safe at night, then they are a disservice.

njkayaker

It's a federal law that bicycles are required to be sold with reflectors.

State traffic law dictates the legal requirements when riding.

Typically, reflectors and lights are required by state law when riding at night.

hillyman

One fight at a time. Got to work our way slowly to valve caps

njkayaker

This hypothetical versus reality.

It's fairly common not to include the reflectors. Has any shop ever been sued because of it?

njkayaker

Overly melodramatic.

AlmostTrick

I don't know, but I do know it's possible and that the resulting judgment could be devastating to a small shop. No way would I risk it when it is so easy to avoid.

njkayaker

The risk isn't going to be different from the purchaser taking the reflectors off and suing the shop anyway, The shop would need the purchaser to sign a statement and have it notarized.

AlmostTrick

Or a picture of their son with his new bike in front of the bike shop sans reflectors along with a bill of sale. I agree the risk is low, especially with adults and higher end bikes, but it's not zero so why would a shop knowingly risk it? I worked in shops, reflectors always went on new bikes. It must have worked, we were never sued!

unterhausen

I'm trying to remember the brand that got sued because the cpsc reflectors didn't keep the rider safe at night. People sue due to a bad outcome. The actual fault usually has nothing to do with it.

Here's another skeezy thing shops do, recycle the users manual.