I don't normally buy "cheap" bicycles, or frequent the shops that sell them, but last April I began a daily 5.5 mile (11 round trip) commute from my new home in a small hamlet to the mainline railway station. There is no available cycle storage facility at the station, we cyclits have to chain our bikes to the railings. Not wishing to risk my custom built Condor Cadenza I decided to use our local cycle shop, which is not in the FW Evans league, and buy a cheap bike that would get me up the 1 in 8 hill (on the way home of course!) but not be a major heartache if it got stolen or vandalised at the station. My route is along remote country lanes so some reliabiity is important. The Raleigh Pioneer Metro that I bought seemed fantastic value for money; £170 for an aluminium frame, good paint job, rack, mudguards the lot.
After two weeks I replaced the flimsy rim tapes having suffered a spoke induced puncture. Every couple of weeks I adjust the brakes and gears. After three months one of the pedals failed. Finally this week, after 997 miles, the back tyre failed along the tread ripping open and allowing the inner tube to explode. Fortunately I was only doing about 15 mph and came to a rapid halt. There then followed a four mile push back home along dark country roads. Fortunately the moon was shining.
I'm pretty annoyed about this. For a tyre to fail after 1000 miles seems very poor to me, never mind the safety aspect as I could have been going down that 1 in 8 hill (doing at least 30 mph). The bike and everything on it including the tyre, comes from Bangladesh but it is a fully branded Raleigh, again including the tyre. The shop that sold it to me has been indifferent to the quality issues; when it was delivered to me the gears were out of adjustment so that gives you a flavour of their approach. I've not yet gone back to them about the tyre.
Does anyone have any views or advice on this, apart from don't ever buy a cheap bike ever again?
Cheap bikes & tyres
I have a similar problem with bike parking: my bike has to stay locked up to a Sheffield Stand out side a university building all day - an ideal place for bike thieves due to the high number of people passing by and the fact that it's full of students so anyone acting suspiciously tends to blend in 
My solution, rather than go for a cheap new bike from a shop, was to build a 'cheap' bike from everyone else's offcasts.
A saved an early 1990s Marin frame from the tip, complete with stem, bars and shifters/brake levers. Saddle and seat pin was £3 from the local cycle jumble. Crankset £10 from a bike forum on the net. Cassette donated free from someone else on the net. Wheels were an old pair that were rough as hell but still worked. And all the rest of the kit was acquired in a similar fashion.
In the end I estimate it cost about £10 to build. I then sold the inigrated brake levers/shifters (as someone gave me some better ones) for £15, so I ended up with a "new" bike and a £5 profit.
Now, as you can imagine, the bike looks a bit rough. If had a bit of rust on the frame so I just sanded back in random areas and poured rustkiller all over it. This had the effect of turning it streaky grey and making it very rough looking indeed. I also took it down a few muddy tracks and got it covered in dirt. By this point it's looking really rough.
So, I lock it up next to all the bright shiney flash looking full suss £50 Halford's specials and it looks really appalling - not something that any one would want to bother trying to pinch. However, because the base components were of moderate quality, it's been giving good service for four years now. I never clean it and haven't had to do any maintenance apart from a bit of oil on the chain now and then.
Inbfact, cleaned up it would make a passable touring bike.
I also have another project on the go - a rescued road bike - owner was going to take it down the tip when I stepped in
This is a 1970s 531 job which I've convered to single speed and replaced tape and saddle, and it now does stirling service on winter club runs.
All these bargins are out there is you look: lots to be had on cycling fora such as this and, especially, ACF. Never walk past a skip inthe road with out having a look. Join your local FreeCycle if you have one - lots of free bikes and bits on there. Even car boots can be a source of cheap bits.
Plus, the other advantage this method has: it's green, you are recycling and saving your self money.
My solution, rather than go for a cheap new bike from a shop, was to build a 'cheap' bike from everyone else's offcasts.
A saved an early 1990s Marin frame from the tip, complete with stem, bars and shifters/brake levers. Saddle and seat pin was £3 from the local cycle jumble. Crankset £10 from a bike forum on the net. Cassette donated free from someone else on the net. Wheels were an old pair that were rough as hell but still worked. And all the rest of the kit was acquired in a similar fashion.
In the end I estimate it cost about £10 to build. I then sold the inigrated brake levers/shifters (as someone gave me some better ones) for £15, so I ended up with a "new" bike and a £5 profit.
Now, as you can imagine, the bike looks a bit rough. If had a bit of rust on the frame so I just sanded back in random areas and poured rustkiller all over it. This had the effect of turning it streaky grey and making it very rough looking indeed. I also took it down a few muddy tracks and got it covered in dirt. By this point it's looking really rough.
So, I lock it up next to all the bright shiney flash looking full suss £50 Halford's specials and it looks really appalling - not something that any one would want to bother trying to pinch. However, because the base components were of moderate quality, it's been giving good service for four years now. I never clean it and haven't had to do any maintenance apart from a bit of oil on the chain now and then.
Inbfact, cleaned up it would make a passable touring bike.
I also have another project on the go - a rescued road bike - owner was going to take it down the tip when I stepped in
This is a 1970s 531 job which I've convered to single speed and replaced tape and saddle, and it now does stirling service on winter club runs.
All these bargins are out there is you look: lots to be had on cycling fora such as this and, especially, ACF. Never walk past a skip inthe road with out having a look. Join your local FreeCycle if you have one - lots of free bikes and bits on there. Even car boots can be a source of cheap bits.
Plus, the other advantage this method has: it's green, you are recycling and saving your self money.
Hi Napier,
Upon reading your post my first though was that the bicycle was "not fit for purpose" and with this claim you might be able to encourage the shop to effect the required repairs. However, you also express a lack of confidence in their willingness and ability to sort things out to your satisfaction.
You have to decide what outcome you really want from the situation. At one extreme you may decide you want a refund and that you are willing to follow through the Small Claims procedure in court.
On the other hand you may just decide to put it down to experience and resolve problems at your own cost.
Only you can judge . . potential hassle versus rewards of winning. etc.
In your position I would try to find an unattrative, second-hand bicycle ( that might have some quite reasonable quality components. ) Then reconcile yourself to the possibility/probability that it might be stolen anyway.
Best of Luck
Upon reading your post my first though was that the bicycle was "not fit for purpose" and with this claim you might be able to encourage the shop to effect the required repairs. However, you also express a lack of confidence in their willingness and ability to sort things out to your satisfaction.
You have to decide what outcome you really want from the situation. At one extreme you may decide you want a refund and that you are willing to follow through the Small Claims procedure in court.
On the other hand you may just decide to put it down to experience and resolve problems at your own cost.
Only you can judge . . potential hassle versus rewards of winning. etc.
In your position I would try to find an unattrative, second-hand bicycle ( that might have some quite reasonable quality components. ) Then reconcile yourself to the possibility/probability that it might be stolen anyway.
Best of Luck
-
Dai
-
ed_o_brain
- Posts: 102
- Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 5:32pm
I think, for £170 you probably got your money's worth.
I would do one of two things:
- buy a new low end bike, for example you might be able to pick up one of last years Giant OCR3 s for around £300 if there are any left. There is a road bike in Halford's that looks okay for £300 also. Or perhaps save a few quid and buy similar, with little/moderate use off ebay. The benefit of doing this is that you get a modern bike (e.g. niceties such as STis, dual pivot brakes etc. and easy to get replacement parts as they wear out).
- buy an older bike <£100 but be prepared for the run around when it needs new bits that are now more difficult to get hold off - e.g. if it takes an older 6 speed screw on free wheel you will struggle to get a quality replacement. I put together a nice winter hack out of a couple of bikes that I bought for less than £40 each, 7 speed cassette with down tube shifters.
You could also try and get a decent folding bike that you can take on the train with you? I have no experience of this but I think I can safely say you might struggle on a Sinclair A-bike. Your trip might be do able on a Brompton, but you can probably get bikes which will be more suited to your commute, although the pay off might be that they take longer to fold or a more difficult to carry.
I hope you find a good solution.
Regards
Ed
I would do one of two things:
- buy a new low end bike, for example you might be able to pick up one of last years Giant OCR3 s for around £300 if there are any left. There is a road bike in Halford's that looks okay for £300 also. Or perhaps save a few quid and buy similar, with little/moderate use off ebay. The benefit of doing this is that you get a modern bike (e.g. niceties such as STis, dual pivot brakes etc. and easy to get replacement parts as they wear out).
- buy an older bike <£100 but be prepared for the run around when it needs new bits that are now more difficult to get hold off - e.g. if it takes an older 6 speed screw on free wheel you will struggle to get a quality replacement. I put together a nice winter hack out of a couple of bikes that I bought for less than £40 each, 7 speed cassette with down tube shifters.
You could also try and get a decent folding bike that you can take on the train with you? I have no experience of this but I think I can safely say you might struggle on a Sinclair A-bike. Your trip might be do able on a Brompton, but you can probably get bikes which will be more suited to your commute, although the pay off might be that they take longer to fold or a more difficult to carry.
I hope you find a good solution.
Regards
Ed
It's not what you ride... it's how you ride it
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Coventarian
Cheap bikes & tyres
Why not go for an unfashionable looking bike? Thieves like flash looking bikes even when they are crap.
I don’t think you can complain at £170
Buying a bike at that price I would automatically replace the tyres/tube/rimtape and expect the gears etc to need adjusting. The important bit is whether the frame is up to the job and all the bits that would be time consuming and pricey to replace are good enough to last out at least a couple of years.
The manufacturers don’t expect most cheap bikes to do more than a few miles a week so their not exactly going to go overboard on quality tyres are they? Swallowing up the meagre profits in the process.
Buying a bike at that price I would automatically replace the tyres/tube/rimtape and expect the gears etc to need adjusting. The important bit is whether the frame is up to the job and all the bits that would be time consuming and pricey to replace are good enough to last out at least a couple of years.
The manufacturers don’t expect most cheap bikes to do more than a few miles a week so their not exactly going to go overboard on quality tyres are they? Swallowing up the meagre profits in the process.
Cheers
J Bro
J Bro
-
Yorkshireman
- Posts: 352
- Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 6:59am
- Location: North Hykeham, Lincoln.
- Contact:
Re: Cheap bikes & tyres
napier wrote:I don't normally buy "cheap" bicycles, or frequent the shops that sell them, but last April I began a daily 5.5 mile (11 round trip) commute from my new home in a small hamlet to the mainline railway station. There is no available cycle storage facility at the station, we cyclits have to chain our bikes to the railings. Not wishing to risk my custom built Condor Cadenza I decided to use our local cycle shop, which is not in the FW Evans league, and buy a cheap bike that would get me up the 1 in 8 hill (on the way home of course!) but not be a major heartache if it got stolen or vandalised at the station. My route is along remote country lanes so some reliabiity is important. The Raleigh Pioneer Metro that I bought seemed fantastic value for money; £170 for an aluminium frame, good paint job, rack, mudguards the lot.
After two weeks I replaced the flimsy rim tapes having suffered a spoke induced puncture. Every couple of weeks I adjust the brakes and gears. After three months one of the pedals failed. Finally this week, after 997 miles, the back tyre failed along the tread ripping open and allowing the inner tube to explode. Fortunately I was only doing about 15 mph and came to a rapid halt. There then followed a four mile push back home along dark country roads. Fortunately the moon was shining.
I'm pretty annoyed about this. For a tyre to fail after 1000 miles seems very poor to me, never mind the safety aspect as I could have been going down that 1 in 8 hill (doing at least 30 mph). The bike and everything on it including the tyre, comes from Bangladesh but it is a fully branded Raleigh, again including the tyre. The shop that sold it to me has been indifferent to the quality issues; when it was delivered to me the gears were out of adjustment so that gives you a flavour of their approach. I've not yet gone back to them about the tyre.
Does anyone have any views or advice on this, apart from don't ever buy a cheap bike ever again?
If the only problem with the bike now is the tyre just buy a pair of reasonable quality tyres/tubes (I favour Armadillo).
Colin N.
Lincolnshire is mostly flat ... but the wind is mostly in your face!
http://www.freewebs.com/yorkshireman1/
Lincolnshire is mostly flat ... but the wind is mostly in your face!
http://www.freewebs.com/yorkshireman1/
I'm in agreement witrh the skip solution. I've got an ancient Gary Fisher Wahoo - all steel frame -MTB which I ride around the village and into town when I don't want to leave my decent Thorn chained up outside. She's called 'Skippy' for obvious reasons, and cost me virtually nothing - even the Brooks Pro was a skip rescue. I've also rescued several bikes from the tip and from skips which I've tidied up and either sold or given away.
Good luck,
Nigel
Good luck,
Nigel
Advena ego sum in Terra
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jayclock
1000 miles for a tyre represents about 3-5 years cycling for the average target market for that bike.
I would buy a 10-15 yr old MTB with no suspension, ideally in some crap 80's/90's colour scheme, service it fully, stick some slicks on it, and you should be fine. I have a Schwinn my Dad bought from Halford about 10 yrs ago. You can get cheap clip on mudguards which do the job fine.
Alternatively I got a 531 road bike off Ebay, about 1989, light surface rust all over (and the frame was a dull grey paint to start with. I pu blue tyres on it and I imagine the local chavistocracy would not be seen dead nicking it
I would buy a 10-15 yr old MTB with no suspension, ideally in some crap 80's/90's colour scheme, service it fully, stick some slicks on it, and you should be fine. I have a Schwinn my Dad bought from Halford about 10 yrs ago. You can get cheap clip on mudguards which do the job fine.
Alternatively I got a 531 road bike off Ebay, about 1989, light surface rust all over (and the frame was a dull grey paint to start with. I pu blue tyres on it and I imagine the local chavistocracy would not be seen dead nicking it