BSO - what is a real bike?

[weeman_mtb]

My local B&Q have jumped on the BSO bandwagon with bikes for £55!

That's about £47+vat so B&Q must be buying them in at around the £30 mark I'd guess.

How the bloody hell can any company, even in China, knock up and export a bike for that?

At that price no wonder people who don't know better are buying them but I expect it's not long before the bike ends up broken and then scrapped. A complete waste of resourses but typical of the throw-away society we are living in.

 

[velomaniac]

Sub £300 a BSO :shock: Naaa, sub £200 maybe, sub £100 definitely.

With the economies of scale sub £300 bikes are perfectly good these days.

Compared to the crap of yesteryear, todays BSO's are not too horrible. Anyone remember steel rims, single pivot caliper brakes with leather faced blocks, virtually no plastic or alloy, sprung mattress saddles and lights no self respecting moth would go anywhere near

 

[legrandefromage]

Compared to the crap of yesteryear, todays BSO's are not too horrible. Anyone remember steel rims, single pivot caliper brakes with leather faced blocks, virtually no plastic or alloy, sprung mattress saddles and lights no self respecting moth would go anywhere near

Enough about your current bike!

BSOs of today have far more plastic and are just as ineffective as the BSO of old. Same shite different materials.

 

[MikeD]

To sort-of echo perry's point, I go camping fairly often and am constantly bewildered by the sight of people turning up at campsites in a £25k caravan towed by a £40k Range Rover with a £25 boot rack on it carrying four bikes that cost a total of about £300. These people clearly aren't short of a bob or two, why do they persist in buying crappy bikes? Don't get it.

 

[Colinmac]

Stupid routercrash double post

 

[Colinmac]

I'm chuckling whilst I read this thread - recently at the top of Fort Williams DH track, I chatted to a lad for a minute then spotted his bike. It was a low-price full suspension old Carrera (nothing against them personally, I had a decent one a few years back). This one, though, had clone V-Brakes, a spindly rear sprung shock, and clone forks. Good few years old, and one of those bikes that, at a glance, you know is crap.

I winced internally, but really didn't know how to say "mate, seriously, I'd just take that back down on the gondola so you don't hurt yourself". He was really keen, but had to ask about the start points for the tracks, so clearly a first-timer.

He had a fullface helmet, but was in jeans etc too - no body armour other than gloves that I could see. His bike sat next to my SantaCruz v10 - which looked like a massive TANK next to it.

Thinking to myself that really, everyone deserves a try, and that he'd hopefully have enough common sense to stop if it was too tough, I decided not to say anything. (A lot of years ago, I rented a Marin bike locally, and did the track, with little or no preparation, so I figured we all deserve a shot) But that DH track is literally a bike or bone killer these days...

Needless to say, about an hour later, I saw him at the bottom, head to toe in mud (soft landing somewhere!) without his bike. Scrapyard, I'd expect.
Next time, I'll probably say something, but I know I'll sound like a right w*nker for it... :?

 

[IDB1]

That's about £47+vat so B&Q must be buying them in at around the £30 mark I'd guess.

How the bloody hell can any company, even in China, knock up and export a bike for that?

I'd be surprised if they cost that much..

I know a wholesaler (of pet goods) who supply, among others, The Range..

The chicken coop that The Range sells for £200 cost around £30 each to get on the tarmac in the UK from the Far East..

A few years back high power LED's were selling in the UK for £5+ each.. I was buying higher spec, excellent quality, direct from a Hong Kong manufacturer for around 3p each..

 

[mikee]

That's about £47+vat so B&Q must be buying them in at around the £30 mark I'd guess.

How the bloody hell can any company, even in China, knock up and export a bike for that?

I'd be surprised if they cost that much..

I know a wholesaler (of pet goods) who supply, among others, The Range..

The chicken coop that The Range sells for £200 cost around £30 each to get on the tarmac in the UK from the Far East..

A few years back high power LED's were selling in the UK for £5+ each.. I was buying higher spec, excellent quality, direct from a Hong Kong manufacturer for around 3p each..

yup i'd say around £8/12 each probably

 

[Dr S]

Didn't Jason McRoy win his first downhill race on a Halfords BSO up in Rothbury Forest?

 

[highlandsflyer]

I would rather and think I would have a better time by pushing 10p up my bum each day . . . we could bump that up to 50p a day

Ewwwwwwwwwwww...