In bikes as in many things, you get what you pay for

I've voiced my frustrations in fellow cyclists on these pages here before, but ultimately I appreciate everyone doing their bit and choosing to ride rather than drive to wherever they have to go, squeaky chain or not (honestly). Since May is the "Bike month", and next week is the annual bike to work week , our shop has been very busy lately. This has something to do with it being spring and all, but whatever the reason we appreciate the business. One thing that boggles the mind is the ever present "department store bike," that appears on the shop step much too often. This phenomenon is a bastardized version of the bicycle, usually sporting some kind of horrific "suspension" and more often than not seems to be made of solid metal if the weight is any indication. I honestly believe these bikes do more harm than good. They bring their owners a skewed vision of cycling and bikes in general. Imagine a person that's getting back into cycling after years of being away from it. They decide not to spend too much money on their first bike in decades and end up with a $200 department store bike that they hate, and causes them never ride the bike ever again. "This is not how I remember biking to be," they think, "this thing is heavy, it squeaks, creaks, is uncomfortable and inefficient - I think biking is not for me." I'm positive that this scenario is not uncommon.

This is the powerclimber from Next... some serious high end stuff...cough cough

We get people bringing those sort of bikes in all the time because they're not working properly for their owners. All we can do is get them closer to their original condition which was pretty horrible to begin with. This poses an ethical dilemma for the shop boys: "Do we refuse the person service on the basis of the scrap heap she/he brought in this morning, or do we try to fix it as best as is possible knowing that the end result will still be a horrible bike.?" Cast not pearls before swine" is written in some black pulp fiction novel treasured by many.

"I have delivered your bike to the scrap yard for your own betterment," I heard Steve mutter under his breath the other day when he was working on one of those fine machines.