Where is the line between a BSO and a cheap proper bike?

[reohn2]

FWIW,My daughter bought a Viking(I know)stepthrough roadster new for £180 we had it delivered to my home so I could build it up and check it over,I changed the straight bars to North Road ones.
I was surprised by the quality of the bike,it has cheap Tourney 21speed gearing,cheap brakes etc,wheels are cheap too.
I've serviced it regularly for her,It's not even punctured in the three years of regular about town use and occasional longer rides she's used it for.

[Vantage]

I was very surprised at the quality of my girlfriends £180 Decathlon Original 3. It weighs about the same as my £600 rrp bike and if I'm honest, has smoother shifting gears, a better headset and stem and more powerful brakes.
I've recently stuck a rack and panniers on it so she can do some shopping with it and she loves it.
It's a brilliant bike for the money

[Ayesha]

If you buy a £9000 Pinarello, leave it out in the rain and not clean or lube it, it becomes a BSO.

[mrjemm]

If you buy a £9000 Pinarello, leave it out in the rain and not clean or lube it, it becomes a BSO.

Or a BSV... Bike Shaped Void/Vacuum.

[[XAP]Bob]

BSO: Bike Shaped Object.

I started with a BSO: £90 in the sale at JJB sport IIRC.
Did me fine for tootling, then I started commuting.
Only a little over a mile, but I quickly replaced the tyres.

Then I changed jobs and started 10 miles each way, added bar ends pretty quickly, then snapped a rear axle - new rear wheel. Couple more spokes (moatly aerospokes now had a couple of round ones). After a near miss in winter I replaced forl=k and front wheel to get a disc brake! Swapped out the rear wheel after an RTA and replaced the snapped BB at the same time - along with new mech and larger chainrings (all still rivetted).
Now I ride a trike, and have a new (to me) roadbike for a similar cost (but *so* much nicer...

[531colin]

A BSO is a bike that is such poor quality that I can't make it work. (an I'm good! )
If I can make it work, its a bike.....it might not be light, or anything, but if it works, its a bike!

[reohn2]

A BSO is a bike that is such poor quality that I can't make it work. (an I'm good! )
If I can make it work, its a bike.....it might not be light, or anything, but if it works, its a bike!

Exactly!
There's a lot of snobbery in cycling,if a bike is ridable and does what it's owner wants of,it then it's good.
BTW I hate the term BSO.

[Bicycler]

A BSO is a bike that is such poor quality that I can't make it work. (an I'm good! )
If I can make it work, its a bike.....it might not be light, or anything, but if it works, its a bike!

This was always my understanding of the term. A bike which is incapable of working properly. I don't agree with the term as a form of cycle snobbery, but I think it serves a purpose describing bikes produced so cheaply as to not be fit for purpose

[[XAP]Bob]

Depends on your definition of fit for purpose - I'd suggest that an axle which snaps inside a few thousand miles is symptomatic of a bike which wasn't assembled with sufficient quality components. The fact that the BB lasted such a short time is also symptomatic. There's little wrong with the frame...

[Pat Dwyer]

I suspect the last decade has seen a drastic reduction in the quality of inexpensive, basic bikes. In about 1999, we were living in rural isolation in Wales. I had a bike (a Sun of considerable age), and persuaded my wife to get one too, so we could enjoy the beauty of the area without needing to get the car out. There were no bike shops handy, so we went to Argos and looked in the catalogue. There was one called the Townsend Harlequin, in honour of its multi-coloured paint job, in both men's and ladies versions. It was what you'd describe as an MTB, with wide, flat handlebars. I think it cost £79.99, and they would deliver it to the house. It was ordered, and duly delivered. A transfer on the frame declared that it was handbuilt in England. It was necessary to turn the handlebars through 90 degrees, and to fit the pedals. It had three chainrings and a five-speed block, with click-stop indexed shifting for the rear mech. I could never get this to work properly, and simply don't see the point of indexed shifting anyway. The chain used to slip from time to time. I later discovered that they'd just fitted a new chain without shortening it. These points aside, it wasn't bad. My wife never really took to cycling, and I adopted her bike because it felt so much more secure riding down that steep hill to Lower Town, after we moved to Fishguard. The fat chunky tyres also contributed to this feeling. Eventually, I sold my Sun, and it's now running around London with a young lady on it. I still have the Townsend Harlequin. It's carried me to some really beautiful places, along lanes where you can ride for hours at the height of summer without seeing another living person. It's had a few modifications. I fitted mudguards fairly soon, and I've now replaced the indexed shifter with a downtube friction lever mounted on the stem. I've replaced the ball bearings in both wheel hubs, because the original ones weren't of very good quality, and soon turned into silver dust. It's now got a new chain of the correct length, and has been thoroughly sorted out. I wouldn't part with it for any amount of money. It's not as desirable as my newly-acquired Bob Jackson, but I don't think you can compare them anyway. I certainly consider the Harlequin to be a proper bike, rather than a BSO, but I wouldn't expect to get a proper bike for eighty quid now.

[Ayesha]

A bicycle that is bought for the same price as a tankful of petrol and lasts for more than the milage that the tankful of petrol would move the car, is bike is worth buying.

[Vorpal]

Depends on your definition of fit for purpose - I'd suggest that an axle which snaps inside a few thousand miles is symptomatic of a bike which wasn't assembled with sufficient quality components. The fact that the BB lasted such a short time is also symptomatic. There's little wrong with the frame...

Some people who own bikes, and even ride them regularly will still get years of happy use out of a bike that starts failing parts at a few thousand miles. And someone who uses it lightly to ride down to the shops once a week and church on Sunday may not have failures as soon, anyway.

Mr. V's pub bike is a cheap steel framed Apollo that's roughly 25 years old. All the bits still do what they're supposed to and it works just fine. I have to admit that it's a hassle to adjust anything on it. Most of the screws and nuts are rusty, but it still goes.

[[XAP]Bob]

Yep, but it gets a bit like trigger's broom...

[Bicycler]

You have to remember who is buying very cheap bikes. Often people buying them will have no experience with adjusting, fixing and replacing bits of bicycles. That may be good for Halfords who get to charge for the repair of the shoddy bike but it could quickly put new cyclists off as they find their new transport unreliable and more expensive than they anticipated

[sreten]

Hi,

A BSO is something that looks the part to the unwary,
but hasn't a hope in hell of doing the job intend well.

Like very cheap full suspension MTB's, tubed to look
like alloy, but made of steel, and even steel cranks
shaped to look like alloy, even steel rims over alloy.
They weigh a ton and everything they do is very poorly.

However it is also a term snobs who don't know much
about bikes apply to anything cheap, without having
any real idea about the merits of cheap decent bikes.

rgds, sreten.