I took one of my nieces down to Wal-Mart today to get her a new bike. Since she is only 11, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to go out and spend 200 or 300 bucks on a nice bike when she's gonna out grow it and beat it senseless over the next couple years.
We spent a few minutes sizing her up and of course she was more concerned about what color it was then anything. We ended up with a small 26" wheel bike. Wow, are those thing heavy! It probably weighs the same or more then my full size hardtail.
I only had to adjust.............
-Both brakes, the pads were either hitting the tires or going into the spokes.
-The front wheel was bolted in the drop outs crooked
-The front and rear derailleurs needed adjusted along with the rear needing the cable tension adjusted
-Both tires needed air
-The handlebars were pointed 10 degrees to the right
-The rear wheel was out of true
-Neither tire was seated on the rim properly
-The seat was crooked and angled up at about 20 degrees
Gawd help me if I worked in a bike shop, I'd probably get an attitude if someone brought one of these things in to get work done. I'm not a bike mechanic, but I know my way around all the basic adjustments and it took me an hour to get the bike running properly.
They really are crappy bikes with crappy parts but lets face it-this bike is gonna get left out in the rain, dropped on it's side and generally beaten up. I just wanted to make sure my niece has a safe bike to ride................even if it is a Wal-Mart bike.
This is a British site. The author of the site isn't a fan of wearing bike helmets as far as I can tell. Whatever, I wear one. I suppose you can argue your point one way or the other for the use of helmets but I bet he has never seen a bicyclist's head bounce off the hood and windshield of a moving car like I have.
Since I'm on vacation this week, I can do stuff with the family at night I usually don't get to do. I took our daughter to Borders so she could shop for some books. I'm no expert but I think Border's is kinda like a singles bar used to be when I was single ...........oh so many years ago.
Lots of girls wearing shirts where their stomach sticks out and lots of guys with greased-back hair. What's up with the hair grease guys?
I also sat down next to some really weird guy that was dressed in all black, weighed at least 300 pounds and had bright orange hair. I was okay with all that except the guy had a really loud whiney voice and talked to his date about his poetry, his dire finances and how nobody liked him..............I wonder fucking why. I know by the time I left, I didn't like him.
Borders has those automatic water faucets in their bathroom sinks. You know, the kind that turn on when you put your hands under the faucet? I wish they had a sign up or something, I was looking for the knob.
Anyone else a fan of Dane Cook? Check out the audio/video section.........
Dogs never do dumb shit like this.
Till later.........It's 7 am in the morning. Time for a nap.
2 comments:
but what happened to the cat..did it use all of it's lives?
I broke down and got the boy a 20" (or 16"?) Specialized for his first bike - It was about $120 - probably 50-70 more than I would have spent at Walmart, and I wonder about it sometimes.
I do think that bike shops are wising up somewhat - I don't remember $200 bike shop bikes a decade ago. But $200 is still $200 more than a lot of people have.
Hope she enjoys the bike. Regardless of where they're bought, bikes that are ridden are the best bikes. She's got a great uncle to imitate.
re: helmets - I keep going around in circles on this one. While the immediate consequences of getting in an accident without one are pretty severe, I kind of fear that manditory helmet laws ultimately discourage folks from riding (see previous bit about not having cash to buy bike shop bikes and apply to $20 helmets), with the knock on effect of discouraging ridership. Especially in areas with manditory helmet laws for kids, where parents might not buy their kid a bike for fear of Child Protective Services seeing the kid without a helmet and taking them away.
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