Originally Posted by Maelochs

You have obviously never tried to repair a Walmart bike.

Most of the parts are proprietary and ultra-flimsy---hard plastic or stamped pot-metal levers, stamped chain rings, cheap and flimsy stamped brakes .... you cannot buy replacement parts so you have to go to a real bike retailer and pay----almost always half or more of the total worth of the bike---to get real parts.

Now you have a $120 bike with $60 brakes and the rest is still crap. When the next bit fails .... spend another $60?

As far as recycling goes, when is the last time you actually took a bike to a recycler? How much of it gets reused?

The plastic might ... but probably none of it is recyclable. The metal might ... but how much does the recycler pay to have workers disassemble the bike for $1.22 worth of aluminum?

And where I live, a lot of "recyclable" material is Not accepted for recycling any more because there is no profit---the market is flooded with cheap crap. A lot of it cannot be reused due to contamination, and a lot of the plastic is already partially recycled and all it is good for is blown-in insulation for houses ... and there are only so many houses.

I know it is probably regional, but I question how much of any "recycling: is actually done---as opposed to companies shipping everything to landfills in India so they can meet their federal requirements for waste-stream recycling by percentage.

I thought they were easy to repair? Hmmmmm .....

Also ... High-end bikes Don't get thrown away. Most of them are used by their owners and then relegated to back-up or rain bike when they get replaced by a new model. A lot are sold. And even the expensive bikes which don't get ridden get sold---garage queens? ever heard the term?---and then ridden by someone else who really appreciates a good bike.

High-end bikes Can be repaired, and generally get good maintenance, because not a lot of people spend a lot of money on expensive stuff and trash it. And even if they don't get maintained, they still get sold ... and people replace the worn bits and ride them for years longer. It is worth doing if the basic bike is of good quality.

Walmart bikes ... break them, toss them, because almost any repair will cost more than a new bike.

Originally Posted by hillyman

Well my bikes as a kid were Huffys and Western Flyers and I've been around awhile. Cheap stores sell cheap stuff. We're the ones who buy it so who's to blame?

Originally Posted by Maelochs

if you ride a bike past a discarded bike ... it depends if you are heading somewhere else, or back form somewhere else.

If I rode by a bike on the way to work, I couldn't grab it. If I was coming home from doing laundry and grocery shopping, I might be loaded down .... because if you are on a bike, transporting another bike home can be a challenge. And if that other bike is not functional (say, everything on the bike is good but the wheels) then how do you get the thing home? i guess if you have a trailer .... but if i could have bought a trailer i could have bought a cheap bike.

And what do you do if there are Two good but beat-up bikes at the end of a driveway several miles from home? it would be an hour walk to get one, but a very short bike ride, and time is always limited ... plus someone else could nab them. But if I ride out there, now I have to somehow transport two bikes on a third bike.

Yeah, scavenging bikes takes a lot of energy. I did it for a couple years .... try it or take my word for it.

Originally Posted by alo

I have done a lot of different things.

Sometimes I have walked home with a bike in each hand.

Sometimes I have strapped the other bike to the rack on the back of my bike.

Sometimes I have moved the bike I want to pick up to another location where someone else is not likely to see it and pick it up. I often do this if I see more than one thing I want to pick up.

I have asked the people living there if I can put a lawnmower out of sight in their yard. I came back to get it with the car.

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Well, if I had a car I wouldn't be out picking junk bikes!

Yeah, I have done those things .... and it took a lot of time and energy, which is what i said. I made it work, but it took dedication .... and back all those years ago i could miss half a night's sleep and still function.

A bike makes a good -two-wheeled cart---one can hang all sorts of stuff off it. However, it can be hard to push and balance .... but back then i'd push an overloaded bike a few miles rather than lose a couple good finds.

Originally Posted by RandomlyWest

Recently, there was a thread in this sub-forum where the owner of a new Breezer Downtown lamented that the bike was already "starting to deteriorate" after "a couple hundred miles."

The "deterioration" = some worn bar tape, a loose bolt on a fender, and a missing bar end cap. This is also known as "normal wear and tear" (or something close).

I got to wondering, did the OP not realize bikes could be repaired? Is there a whole community of people out there raised on bikes from XMart or wherever, with the presumption that bikes typically "deteriorate" after 100 miles of use, and when they "deteriorate" you should just throw your bike away and get another one?

Obviously, the Breezer Downtown is not an XMart bike; I've ridden one, and I think it's a really cool, durable utility bike...

Originally Posted by RandomlyWest

Recently, there was a thread in this sub-forum where the owner of a new Breezer Downtown lamented that the bike was already "starting to deteriorate" after "a couple hundred miles."

The "deterioration" = some worn bar tape, a loose bolt on a fender, and a missing bar end cap. This is also known as "normal wear and tear" (or something close).

I got to wondering, did the OP not realize bikes could be repaired? Is there a whole community of people out there raised on bikes from XMart or wherever, with the presumption that bikes typically "deteriorate" after 100 miles of use, and when they "deteriorate" you should just throw your bike away and get another one?

Obviously, the Breezer Downtown is not an XMart bike; I've ridden one, and I think it's a really cool, durable utility bike. But I wonder if hastily-assembled, poorly-lubed big box bikes are giving consumers the perception that this is just how bikes are - bikes look good when you first buy them, but they inevitably "deteriorate" within three months or 100 miles.

Originally Posted by collcs

An interesting question with perhaps not that clear of an answer. Is it from the consumerism "throw-away" culture (bikes, clothing, appliances, etc.)? Is this cultural response ingrained by increasingly short lives of even "durable" goods (I had a very experienced appliance salesman state that most new appliances were made to last 5 years at most....we have all seen Grandma's 50 year old round top single door fridge still working). Low cost has to be made at the expense of quality and durability it seems.There is also the issue of repair costs, the availability of repair professionals, and the hourly cost of such labor with the exorbitant cost of aftermarket parts in many instances. Paying for a compressor and $100/hr labor on that 5 year old fridge makes no sense. Perhaps by design (esp. the cost of repair parts)? Repair parts for bikes are quite reasonable, but again labor is expensive by necessity (the operational costs for the shop and a decent skilled labor pay). Thus.....the bikes end up in the garbage. I recently rescued a mid quality Mongoose alloy mountain bike. Typical Wallyworld assembly job (every adjustment/assembly was drastically off....wouldn't shift or stop. One wheel bearing loose....the other tight). Was apparently dumped and rear derailleur bent....so in the garbage it went. I put an hour and a few dollars into it and gave it to a friend's daughter to ride. I see this constantly....I think "planned obsolescence" is less of a factor really. Cheaply made bikes CAN run a long time with maintenance and repair.

Originally Posted by Miele Man

Scavenging a used bicycle is where a rear rack on your bike and a pair of toe-straps and a pair of 48" Coghlan's Arno straps in your seat bag come in might handy. Then if you come across a nice bike out for garbage or for sale cheap and you want to bring it home then, you can. Just rig up the secong bike like this.



That bike was sold to me for $30.00 CDN and included two brand new tires. You can still see the card wrapped around them.

With the bike fastened to the rear rack like that it's very stable and riding isn't affected at all. I use a toe-strap on each fork leg to make it even more secure.

Cheers

Originally Posted by cyccommute

The first thing you should notice is that that isn’t a $100 bike. It’s a better bike than most of the $100 offerings but it’s still got lots of warts. Corners were cut to make it that cheap and that may show up down the road but I would hope that it is at least a bit better quality than the very cheapest HelMart bikes. At about $400, it’s about the cost of a 40 year old HelMart bike if you adjust for inflation.