this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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Asklemmy
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For a $200 bike, it's never going to work the way it's intended to work. ANY bike you buy at a department store--and many that you buy at general sporting goods stores--will be garbage. In 1995, the rule of thumb was to spend at least $500 on a bike to get something that you could realistically ride every single day; that's about $1000 today.
I'm saying this as someone that worked at bike stores as a mechanic off and one over about 15 years; the cheap dept. store bikes someply can't be fixed and adjusted to work the way that their owners expect.
(PS - yes, fixies are cheap and light. No, you should not under any circumstances ride them on public streets or trails. If you do, sooner or later you will have a serious accident that will involve stitches, broken bones, possibly surgery, and probably rehab.)
I concur with you, but I'd phrase it in a different way: if your budget is $200 for a bike, you should be shopping for a used bike-shop/reputable-brand bike on Craigslist or whatever.
Also, agreed about fixies, except that switching the flip-flop hub to single-speed mode and adding brakes makes it fine.
Well, that's why I specified fixie rather than single speed. ๐ I'm not a fan of single speeds since they're inefficient, but they're not inherently unsafe, and I'm not going to tell people that they're suicidally stupid if they ride one.