Here is the story: you just got your paycheck and all of your bills are paid. You decide to buy a bicycle because you have been wanting one for awhile now. So you walk into Walmart, Costco or Toys "r" us and your eye catches some nice rides for low prices. So you figure it is a good buy right? Here is the reasons why you might have just wasted alot of money:

1. Weight of the department store brand bicycle vs a LBS (local bicycle shop) bike such as a Giant or Kona brand bicycle:

Manufactures like Kona or Giant go to great lengths to lighten their cross country full suspension and hartail designs. They do things like triple butt or double butt the frame, place welds where they look clean and save weight, and make the frame out of light materials to begin with. And then they (Kona or Giant to name a few) take it one step further by hanging high quality, low weight parts on the frame.

2. Componets on a department store bike are..well..crap comparded to the LBS offerings.

Walk into any LBS and look at thier lowest priced bicycle and you will see that not one of them (besides childs bikes) uses Shimano tourney componets. Shimano tourney componets are to lowest form of the Shimano line and in my opinion quite useless. Department store bikes are chuck full of these Shimano Tourney (SIS as it is called) componets. The Tourney componets BREAK very easy so don't expect much from these low end componets.

3. Department store bikes use outdated full suspenion designs

If you haven't noticed, Kona uses a typical 4 bar suspenion design, as does just about everone else. Single pivot designs are out dated by 10 years. It is true that some big manufactures still use the single pivot, like Santa Cruz bicycles, but they also add a Stable Platform Valve shock to cancel out BOB. (pedal induced bobing) Department store bikes rear shock are NEVER brand name shocks such as FOX or MANITOU. instead, if you buy a department store bike you get a no name, 2 inch travel rear shock. By the way, 2 inches of rear travel is so yeserday. Todays bikes are getting 3, 4, 5, and 6 inches of travel. Some get as much as 11 inches of rear travel.

4. Front forks on a deparment store bike make me laugh. Why? that's a easy one to answer.

Because they are NOT up to current technology and are even dangerous. Here is why I say that: New forks have a alloy 1 and a 8th inch steerer, 1 peice forged crown, 32 mm stanchions that are pressed into the crown, one peice lowers, and are typically are air over oil forks. Most new forks get 4 inches to 6 inches of travel, travel adjustment, preload adjustment knobs, and lockout devices. New forks can be had for as low as $150 bucks.

So what is wrong with department store bike forks?

From what I have witnessed, a majority of the deparment store bikes have alot of fork problems. Most use 1 inch steerers. The crown is welded on, not cast as one peice. The skimpy stanchions are just tack welded to the crown instead of being pressed into the crown. (thus if a weld breaks after a long hard ride, you are going to get hurt.) The inards are simple steel spring with no compression damning or rebound damning. No lockouts. No travel adjustment. No disc brake tabs. Are the lowers are bolted together instead of being cast as one peice altogether. All this adds up to a dangerous fork. And to upgrade to a newer for you have to get a new frame. After all, all newer forks are 1 and a 8th inch steerer, not a inch.

5. NO DISC BRAKE TABS on the frame of a department store bike? Get real.

From what I have seen, only 3 bikes I have seen at department stores have disc brake tabs (51 mm mounts on the rear left seatstay) and out of those three, the fork did not have disc brake mounts on two of them. Due to the fact that those two bikes had 1 inch steer tubes, no upgrading is possible, so NO disc brakes. I will NOT buy a bike no matter how nice it is WITHOUT disc bakes tabs. After all, once you go disc you never go back to V brakes.

6. Cranksets on department store bikes are a pain in the neck and will eat your money.

Why? because on department store bikes, most of them use BMX style one peice cranks. That means your bearings are not sealed and will where out very quickly. And then there is the weight issue again. One peice BMX style cranks weight twice as much as the regular 3 peice mountain bike setup. On top of all of that, you have these huge Chainrings and those chainrings have no ramps or pins to help pull the chain up and down and can not be removed or replaced. So what happens when you damage a chainring on the trail? You have to replace EVERYTHING including the BB.

Normal mountain bike setups are 3 peice cranks now have splined setups and the chainrings are completely replaceable. They have the ramps and pins to aid in shifting. The BB is sealed and will last a good 7 to 10 years.

7. Deparment store bikes only have 21 or 24 speeds?

The standard these days is 27. three in the front, nine in the back. Road bikes have 30. I myself have 27 and a 21 spped, overweight bike would kill me. Kona sells 27 speed low end hardtail bikes for as low as $499.99!

8. Welds on a department store bike are likely to snap because they...well...suck!

have you ever taken the time to pour over a department store bike and examine ALL of thje welds and then compared those to a LBS bike? you will notice that department store bikes are not welded all that great due to the fact they are produced in mass. If you weigh over 200 pounds you will break a department store bike sooner or later. The department store bike also has no gussets like my giant does. My giant has gussets around the head tube, disc brake mount, and BB to help frame stress.

9. Your department store bike will spend more time in the shop than at home.

Your department store bike will spend more time in the shop (LBS) getting fixed than it will at home because of these following reasons. Your rims will constantly untrue because they are low quality rims, built by a machine and not by hand with inexpensive thin spokes, and the hubs are a no name brand that can not bear alot of stress. so your rims will need to be trued and tensioned every month.
Your deparment store bike's drivetrain will need constant true ups JUST to shift properly. either your front chainrings and derailluer has problems throwing the chain or your rear derailluer has problems. Due to low end parts, what did yoo expect? Perfection? Perfection is Shimano's 2003 XTR lineup that retails for about $2000 dollars.
Your department store fork and shock never seem to soak up bumps and have to be adjusted all the time. Why? Your fork and shock are using most of there travel just holding you up on the bike. The rest is taken from you from pedaling (BOB) so your fork/shock act just like they were ridgid parts.
Not to mention your wallet is going to hate you because tune ups are not cheap on department store bikes.

10. Some bikes, like huffy, still use horseshoe type U brakes? and SIS shifters?

Get with the program. At least look for a bike with V-Brakes.

In closing, it would be wiser if you just save your money and buy a LBS bike. in return you are supporting your LBS and you get free tune ups.

DEPARTMENT STORE BIKES ARE A WASTE OF MONEY!