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Dreadful bikes, awful bikes, triage and maintenance
Earlier this week I reported on a dreadful Tescos bike which I'd done
some post delivery set-up on. The proud owner of said bike had a Halfords Apollo - also a Y frame 'full suspension' job - which he'd out-grown, and his mother asked me whether it was worth salvaging or whether she should just bin it. Well, it was a lot better than the new one (although I tactfully didn't say so) so I volunteered to bring it home and give it an overhaul to be ready for his younger sister. The Apollo isn't dreadful. It has a decent crankset, reasonable brakes, and the derailleurs, though bottom of the range, are Shimano. The wheels are reasonably good and are true. OK, so, to overhaul it New set gear cables £10 New set brake cables £10 1 inner tube £ 4 1 new rim tape £ 0.50p New grips £ 6 New saddle £15 (I actually spent £30 on a good one) Chain, PC48, with magic link £10 .... ideally it could use two new tyres, £10 each; and for cosmetic reasons I'd like to replace the brake noodles, £2.50 each. You're getting frighteningly close to the price a dreadful bike costs new. Now, of course, these are retail prices. I'm sure Sandy could do that overhaul for half the price or less. And the replacement parts are decent quality, not the very cheapest. At the end of the day the little sister is going to get a bike which actually is better than her brother's new one. But it won't /look/ better. It will /look/ second hand. And it won't be /much/ better. Having done this I'm getting a better understanding both of why people buy dreadful bikes, and why you see half-decent bikes in the skips at the council dump. -- (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/ ;; no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn. ;; Jim Morrison |
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