MOUNTAIN BIKE DISC BRAKES ETC £50

[borderghost]

Ok yes its cheap but should be ok for a teenagers ocacional use mountain bike. Collect for free at your nearest tesco store.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/vertigo-eig ... pageLevel=

[goatwarden]

That's exactly the sort of bike we get quite a few of donated to the recycling scheme at which I volunteer.

Most of the bikes we restore start life as pretty cheap, but the main cost originally omitted to make them cheap was labour; so we spend time to set them up properly and they are generally acceptable bikes for commuting.

These full suspension cheap bikes, however, have extra cost put in in the form of added complexity. This means they have even nastier components than rigid bikes aimed at a similar market and are phenomenally heavy. As a result we have never recycled one as a bike; we thank the donor politely then pull off the usable parts (typically seat post and rear mech only) and carefully seperate the rest into aluminium, steel and landfill.

A wise person who once worked with us suggested that we should only attempt to recycle a full suspension bike if we were likely to sell it on for over £1000 (unlikely as our typical sale prices are £60 to £120).

[Brucey]

I'd tend to agree, not many parts on these machines that are worth keeping. Sometimes the discs themselves are OK, usually the wheels (and a few other crucial parts) are junk.

It doesn't matter how many man-hours you put into some of these machines, they'll never be any good.

I was recently loaned a cheap MTB by a chum of mine to ride down the pub and back. It was a cheap hardtail, of the sort that weighs about 35lbs and is built to a price. I checked it over beforehand, and made a couple of adjustments to it. I was not exactly heartened by the news that his son (whose bike it was) 'didn't seem that keen on cycling for some reason'. I soon found out why. I was having to pedal quite hard whilst going downhill, and whilst the brakes may have been dragging at times (they'd been clear when I checked them) they offered little in the way of actual retardation when you needed them. Later, we rode back, only a couple of miles up a slight grade, and it was utter torment, like pedalling in treacle. I was actually struggling to keep up with my (non-cyclist) chums, a situation they found somewhat risible. They refused to believe that the bike could be that slow until we swapped bikes, whereupon I (literally) shot off. Expecting a scrawny teenager to happily pedal something like that...? -you might as well ask him to flap his arms and fly....

If you want to put a youngster off cycling for ever, a £50 bike might do it....?

cheers

[Samuel D]

If you really must spend no more than £50 on a whole bicycle, you could get a vastly better machine with some careful secondhand shopping.

Still, it makes me more convinced than ever that a perfectly viable bicycle could be sold for, say, £100 if it were ruthlessly simplified and engineered for riding rather than shifting off a supermarket floor.

This particular BSO takes the opposite course, adding every imaginable contrivance at the expense of fitness for purpose. Everything about it, right down to its “mountain bike” label, is an offence to cycling – if you ask me.

[irc]

As they claim it is

Built to tackle challenging terrains

I think you are all just being picky. I'm buying two!!

[grani]

As they claim it is

Built to tackle challenging terrains

I think you are all just being picky. I'm buying two!!

I think you misunderstood what kind of terrain. It is certainly designed for the inhabitants of a very particular type of urban jungle. Not enough street cred for me unfortunately!

[hamster]

Borderghost, you keep highlighting these awful machines. Have you ever had to ride one or maintain it? Are you paid by Tesco to post them up on here?

Recently a friend asked me to sort his bike; the brakes were dragging. I reset the grub screws on the V-arms to set the pad clear of the rim. I then squeezed the lever only to watch all the grub screws push out of the v arms as they bit on nothing more than plastic and were of decorative use only.

The forks and suspension on your bike will not have damping; only springs. Assuming they move at all, then the bike will bounce on the rebound without any damping. That's not suspension, only a pogo stick. The fork travel is also insufficient anyway.

As the bike weighs 37lbs, it would perform better if made rigid and lighter.

It amazes me that people would never buy a car for £2000 new, rightly suspecting that it would be horribly compromised, yet seem to think that £50 on a new bike is some kind of bargain.

[Mick F]

It amazes me that people would never buy a car for £2000 new, rightly suspecting that it would be horribly compromised, yet seem to think that £50 on a new bike is some kind of bargain.

+1

[andrew_s]

I was recently loaned a cheap MTB by a chum of mine to ride down the pub and back.

Did you have another check afterwards, or just hand it back with appropriate comment?
Previous experience of similar symptoms (ie. someone sweating hard going slowly on the flat, & regularly stopping to fiddle with his brakes) leads me to suggest that it was excessively tight rear wheel bearings, possibly caused by a loose drive side locknut.

[Brucey]

if I had tried to relate all the things that were wrong with that bike to my chum, I'd probably still be there doing it now....

cheers

[gaz]

Let's not forget what Tesco think they are fit for: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... e-10450843

[Graham]

Borderghost,

Are you internet marketing for Tesco, by any chance ?

Or perhaps, anti-marketing ?

[karlt]

If you really must spend no more than £50 on a whole bicycle, you could get a vastly better machine with some careful secondhand shopping.

Still, it makes me more convinced than ever that a perfectly viable bicycle could be sold for, say, £100 if it were ruthlessly simplified and engineered for riding rather than shifting off a supermarket floor.

Indeed. £120 but a case in point: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-30 ... 84494.html

[whoof]

If you really must spend no more than £50 on a whole bicycle, you could get a vastly better machine with some careful secondhand shopping.

Still, it makes me more convinced than ever that a perfectly viable bicycle could be sold for, say, £100 if it were ruthlessly simplified and engineered for riding rather than shifting off a supermarket floor.

This particular BSO takes the opposite course, adding every imaginable contrivance at the expense of fitness for purpose. Everything about it, right down to its “mountain bike” label, is an offence to cycling – if you ask me.

I used to work in the Netherlands. Almost everyone rode a bike and these were very simple, the 'add-ons' were mudguards, a rack, a chain-guard and possible a light there was no suspension, no gears and they had very simple braking. The starting price for such a bike ~250 euros, including from places such as Halfords who in the Netherlands don't even pretend to sell 'mountain' bikes.

[Vantage]

Ok yes its cheap but should be ok for a teenagers ocacional use mountain bike. Collect for free at your nearest tesco store.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/vertigo-eig ... pageLevel=

If you're gonna punish your kids for deviant behavious, there are more humane ways of doing it. The naughty corner for example.