There Is No Such Thing As A Good, Cheap Bike
I need to confess something. I am more guilty than anyone else in the bike industry for perpetuating the myth that you can get by with a cheap bike. It made others feel good about bad decisions and me feel like a champion of the under dog. I was wrong!
There is no such thing as a good, cheap bike. There is no such thing as a good on-line bike. On-line e-bikes are an abomination that a properly funded CPSC would ban.
If your bike is more than just a toy you occasionally take out for a trip around the neighborhood, you need to make an investment in quality. Today, even the bottom of the barrel Shimano, SRAM and Microshift products are thoroughly reliable. They’ll flex, wear, perform sluggishly and need constant maintenance, but they’ll work for years. I swore by my cheap bikes. I lived with occasional missed shifts and constant adjustments and parts replacements. It breaks my heart that poor folks, using their bikes as transportation, ride the least efficient, least reliable and least cost effective bikes!
I think of some friends. They probably ride more than anyone else in The Quad Cities. They carry so much that panniers, dry and frame bags aren’t enough. They need back packs too! Little more than spit and bailing wire keep their entry level hybrids going. Some will probably get angry and challenge me to a race for writing this. Indeed, it has been decades since I could give them a run for their money, even riding their heavy, inefficient entry level bikes. The thing is, they live with constantly fixing or replacing groupsets that never really shift well. Wheels that never were super efficient, bend or break before they wear out (it doesn’t help that they have just one bike for all types of riding). Unfortunately, they generally blame their mechanic, or the shop that sold it to them, when their cheap stuff just doesn’t work or hold up. More and more I am finding I have to turn away bikes because they just aren’t worth fixing…especially low end e-bikes (anything under$1500 is low end on an e-bike and that’s pushing it).
Walmart recognizes this. They’ve started selling $500 throw away e-bikes! You know what? There are people that, except for the danger of poor assembly, could get by with those bike shaped objects. They’re just toys that will seldom be ridden, never far and only for recreation!
Until you have ridden a truly fine bike, it is hard to understand why investing more makes sense. Just as with every other aspect of cycling, e-bikes magnify short comings. Sure, you can make anything work. Put enough money in to it and it will run forever…and it will remain an inefficient, cheap bike.
If you are on a tight budget, but you need something for more than just playing around, buy a used bike. A good used bike is better than a cheap new bike. If you buy an e-bike, you’ll probably ride a lot more than you expected. At least pay a local bike shop to assemble and adjust it (I charge $80 plus any parts necessary to make it safe). In traditional bikes, look for ones with at least Deore components. Get 105 or Deore XT if at all possible. Feel free to text me what you are considering. I’ll give it an honest appraisal.