Same on the BMX tales. I would, however, venture to say a BMX at Walmart isn’t half bad and is probably heavy and pretty bullet proof. Start adding tchotchkes and doodads, like suspension, gears, aluminum frames, etc and, uh, not sure I would bet on reliability. But if that’s a risk somebody else wants to take, more…

All that about cars not working upon purchase, failing at basic operational tasks, being too fragile, and being too expensive to repair so the car gets scrapped — That’s sarcasm, right? I mean, good analogy — please commence the list of cars that fail exactly how you describe, shortly after purchase. Replace a…

Amen. If there’s one thing Walmart would pay attention to it’s a class action lawsuit. Does anyone really think they would put bikes that are actually, quantitatively more dangerous than more expensive bikes out there? Maybe they would, but the civil courts will eventually penalize them. Sure the bikes are going to be…

I don’t quite know where these stores are that literally sell a bike where the frame or similar important pieces fail and they won’t allow you to return them. Did Walmart change their policy? Or are these frame failures occurring two or three years later, after they have been abused and sitting outside in the weather?…

When the bike breaks and/or is unrepairable reasonably soon after buying it, I am pretty sure the simple solution is to return it. Last I checked, Walmart will take stuff back for a long time. These arguments “That these cheap bikes are junk!” are not at all new, and are always shouted by the LBS. But the fact is, any…

Yeah, the cheap bikes are just that cheap. But people also abuse them and wonder why they break early. Of course they are not going to last as long and not get repaired. What the hell kind of insight is that? Have you seen even the cost of bike tires, lately? Literally two tires cost almost what some of the Walmart…

Yeah, I understand the repairability argument, but I have seen legitimate, if heavy, shimano components on Walmart bikes. In case you haven’t been around bikes lately, the components are drastically changing so rapidly they are making many, many bikes exceptionally difficult/expensive to repair.

“annecdata”? Nice.

The StumpJumper was bought new in ‘86 (my Dad and I were kind of nuts about bikes and he bought me an $800+ bike when I was 12 — I felt, and still feel like the luckiest kid in the world). Through regular riding, the frame cracked twice. The first time, I sent it back and Specialized welded (maybe brazed) it back…

If I buy a bike from Wally World, and that sucker breaks, I am taking that sucker right back and getting a new one or my cash back.  That's how I'm fixing it.

Well, I am pretty sure we do have minimum standards for bikes -- LBS bikes and reputable used bikes.  If someone wants a beater from Walmart, seems fine to me.  It's not like it's  a mystery -- who cannot take literally 2 minutes and google up a review of any brand?

They’ll be fine.  Shit, they have YouTube to refer to and Ebay to buy from, for Christsakes!

Well your Ma shoulda taught your candy ass how to operate a welder.

I am 100% right there with you! How many times did I “ghost ride” any of my decent bikes? Zero. How many times did a random Huffy, Roadmaster, AMF, or whatever get “ghost ridden”? Hundreds of times and they sure as hell didn’t live long lives, nor were they even as well built as the bikes I have seen at Walmart lately.…

Side note: Trek and, I believe, REI have an upgrade policy for kids to trade the bike in on the next size bike. I got one last year for my daughter and the quality does seem really good, but certainly not heavy duty. I believe the WalMart bikes would actually be perfectly fine for her, but I think the Trek is going to…

There’s literally only one indestructible bike — mid grade and up bmx bike. I rode literally 10's of thousands of miles in the late 80's, 90's and 00's and was very, very lucky in the injuries department. Lots of racing, group rides, mountain biking, and long “tours”.

Oh no! Kids are going to be forced to not break and learn how to fix their bikes??? The horror!

Not going to lie, I would be very interested to see how efficient a camper/road tripper your van can be turned into. Manual, diesel, relative light weight, non-emissions — pretty solid fuel efficiency basics. I will certainly read your soon to be titled article, “How I crossed the country on X gallons of fuel and…

I would actually pay above asking if Ricardo Montalban would drive me around in this van while I yelled “THE PLANE! THE PLANE! THE PLANE!".

Ssomething, something, something... David Tracy... Nope. No how. No way.