frogbiscuit

And they went to Wal Mart. It is a nightmare. Daughter constantly complains the bike is difficult to ride, and things constantly fall off of it.

I told her not to go there, but I'm and idiot for suggesting a $100 bike is just like a $1000 car.

PedalingWalrus

$6000 Walmart bike

rumrunn6

not sure understand that last part. she is falling off her bike a lot, or just thinks she will? how old is you daughter & what bike does she have? any photos?

don't beat yourself up about this, she'll get thru this phase

WizardOfBoz

Safety first. Is the bike properly adjusted for your daughter's size? That should take care of the worry about falling off of it. Do the brakes work properly and can your daughter apply them (are her hands big enough for the levers, as adjusted)? If that's ok, then at least she can ride without falling and can stop. This doesn't help with poor quality, balance, uneven spoke tension, untrue wheels, poor bearings, low quality shifters, etc..... Sorry.

If its truly a cluster____ bike, perhaps a heart-to-heart with your wife and daughter and you can try to afford a better bike for her.

tagaproject6

Meh, it's a bike for experience. Who knows if she will stick to riding. Get here something more substatnial later if her heart is into riding.

PedalingWalrus

just buy her a real bike if You are so concerned about it.

MattTheHat 

I think the meaning was things keep falling off the bike.


-Matt

Wilfred Laurier

Those bikes are very basic, but you can make it better by keeping the tires pumped up and doing periodic checks to keep things (thinks) from falling off.

The main problem with those bikes is that they are not assembled properly. If the tires are inflated, the chain lubricated and the brakes not rubbing then they feel just like a decent bike when riding.

hillyman

Yea depends on age and bike here. I wouldnt go to a bike shop at any age unless they proved a lot of interest. A $100 bike laying on its side in the yard is better than a $1,000 one.

OBoile

Walmart seems like the right place to get a kid's bike until they've demonstrated a clear interest in taking cycling seriously.

rumrunn6

oh OK, that makes sense. remind me of a Kmart bike I bought. it had a little black clip that held the kickstand up when not is use. it broke in the parking lot before I even put it on my bike rack. all I did was put the kickstand down & it broke off

katsup

Return it to Walmart?

Skipjacks

Craiglist.

Get the bike shop bike from the parent who made the mistaken of not going to Wal Mart last year....pay them Wal Mart prices for the barely used bike shop bike.

phughes

A friend of mine flew to California with just his seat, pedals and shoes, and bags, bought a bike at Walmart, added a trailer, and rode it to the East coast. He gave it away when he was done, and flew home. It's a bike. Fix the issues, make it safe, and move on.

tyrion

Sometimes a little mansplaining is justified.

Litespud

All our kids’ bikes were dumpster divers or thrift store finds. Once I rehabbed them to ensure that they were mechanically sound, I thought no more about them. If the kids left them out in the rain or got them stolen, that was their business. My total outlay was maybe $40 each for bike and parts, and a couple of hours of my time, so I wasn’t losing sleep after that. Once the kids outgrew them, I usually cleaned them up and passed them on to some neighborhood kid

02Giant 

You "let" her take the daughter shopping...how nice!

dedhed

My kids were pretty old before they got a bike that wasn't a hand me down or department store bike. But I did know how to keep them maintained & in as good of tune as they allowed.

bobwysiwyg

I had the same thought.. quaint

hillyman

That is either the coolest or craziest idea I ever heard. Both very brave and what were they thinking. And I'm sure has been done by a few. Hard to top I rode across the US on a Walmart bike story.

Koyote

Paradox: it's kind of hard to become enthused about cycling if you're riding a piece of junk.

OBoile

Not for a kid. I got into cycling enough to be willing to save up my own money to buy a "good" one having ridden only the equivalent of Walmart bikes.

FiftySix

Makes me wonder if Walmart bicycle assemblers are employees.

My oldest kid took a job a couple years back as a bicycle assembler for Target. The assemblers were not employees, but worked for a contractor. That contractor paid each assembler only a few bucks per bicycle. I can't remember the amount, but $7 per bike sounds about right. The goal was to assemble the bicycles fast with crappy tools.

One could make $14 to $21 per hour depending on speed of unboxing and assembly. Of course, having 8 hours of work in a day was hard to come by and they had to travel store to store.

Something like in this job listing - https://www.ziprecruiter.com/c/NW-Se...prime&mid=7641

I-Like-To-Bike

It's easier if the cyclist doesn't spend time listening to or reading the biased comments of bike snobs and LBS employees/fan bois who describe products without an LBS provenance as "junk" or Bike Shaped Objects and inadequate for use by anybody for any purpose.

bakerjw

When I was a kid way back in the 70's, I had an old Schwinn that I outgrew. My parents went to one of the department stores of the day and bought me an All-Pro banana seat bike. It was shiny and magnificent looking. My best friends dad went to a local auction and bought him a Schwinn that was rusty and a bit banged up. His dad painted it and cleaned up the bearings. Although my All-Pro looked nicer, his was a dream to ride. It was a absolute night and day difference. Back then, I was not a bike snob, LBS employee or fanboi, but I could tell without bias which was the better bike. The same holds true today with box store bikes as components, primarily BBs and hubs, are of substandard quality. The BB and hub bearings in the last cheap bike (a tandem of all things) that I bought had no grease in them and ran like gravel even after cleaning and greasing. A new wheelset and cartridge BBs resolved those problems.

Depending on size, kids are hard to buy for as they outgrow bikes quickly and decent bikes are not inexpensive. Decent used bikes can be hit or miss too.

I think that most here just want to see kids ride on the kinds of machines that we ride where resistance is minimal. I don't mind crappy derailleurs, shifters or brakes, but friction in BBs and hubs just make it a less enjoyable experience.