[pakennedy]

As it is the season, as the cyclist in the family, I had the “bike” brought round by my sister that she bought for my nephew, for me to assemble.

Damage limitation may be a more accurate term. As the reasonably knowledgeable cyclist in the family she didn’t, of course, ask me anything about what to buy and went out and got herself a “bargain”.

All £90 of “Dunlop Sport 26”.

How do they manage to build a full suspension mountain bike at such a low cost? I hear you ask.

They make the thing so cheaply that it is verging on dangerous! The brakes are made from punched steel sheeting! There’s enough flex in the material that you can have to brakes engaged at a few degrees of travel and *still* pull the lever round to meet the handlebars. The gears were built by someone who had the concept of gears explained to them and the end adjustment screws were so loose that I just epoxy glued them in in the end to get them to hold in place. Getting the brakes adjusted was a nightmare until I realised that the first problem I had was that the sodding wheels weren’t actually round and were 4mm off radially (once measured) so I had to spend an hour truing them too.

Add on the fact that the thing weighs as much as a boat and I don’t think my nephew will be riding it much.

Topic

[Anonymous]

Hindsight’s a terrible
Hindsight’s a terrible thing.

When I was a kid (and still at the age when you just had the bike your folks bought for you) I had an Emmelle Cougar MTB. Ten non-indexed gears, steel box rims and whitewall tyres, proper 90s fluoro yellow/orange paintjob. Weighed approximately a million tons. But I was happy enough with it, it didn’t break or anything. My abiding memory of it though, was taking it on a sort of cross country sportive week up on Exmoor, organised by my school.

Now, I’m not claiming that I was particularly fit at the time (not much has changed). But I’d been riding a lot, on and off road, the bike was the right size for me, etc… and from the very first afternoon I was at the back of the group trying desperately not to get dropped. I spent the first three days trying to keep up with everyone – anyone – else. Couldn’t work it out, and I was hating the whole enterprise. Finally on the fourth day I swapped bikes with a friend who had a Trek something… and I was flying. The Trek was so much lighter it was comical, the first gate we came to, I almost threw it over by accident.

Moral of the story – life’s too short for crap bikes.

[chrisl]

I fixed up my mate’s Halfords
I fixed up my mate’s Halfords Special version of the same; the bottom bracket lockring was hanging around the crank, and the reason the gears didn’t work very well was that the front shifter was wired to the rear derailleur and vice versa. (And I thought it was going to be a quick jobbie of tweaking cables!)

Quite frankly, just dangerous. Well, better now at least. Funnily enough, she hasn’t quite got to the state of regular cyclist yet.

[Flying Scot]

There is a knack to these
There is a knack to these BSO’s, you need to know when to stop adjusting them, as you will never get a repeatable result from gears or brakes.

You had it easy, just wait till you get one that someone else has had a go at first, including truing the wheel (I.e making them worse) with pliers, they usually have the forks / stem the wrong way round as well, as that’s how they come out the box.

These things are a waste of metal as a bicycle, their best use is to strip them completely and get the kids to treat them as a giant meccanno set building it up.

Merry Christmas.

[pakennedy]

19.1Kg. Just weighed it.
19.1Kg. Just weighed it.

[The _Kaner]

That’s not a bike …BSO
That’s not a bike …BSO still doesn’t come close…scaffolder’s trestle possibly….http://www.sportsdirect.com/dunlop-ds26-mountain-bike-26-inch-932296
15kg my eye…!!!

[pakennedy]

It’s not a first bike. He’s
It’s not a first bike. He’s 11. It weighs about 22kg.

My first bike was hand-built by my granddad and was a butcher’s bike frame! Way too big for me and never had stabilisers!

His mum has decided the whole family are going to get fitter this year so hopefully a second hand road bike (or hybrid) may get a nudge or two as a suggestion when the nights get lighter.

[therevokid]

i had a halfords special to
i had a halfords special to deal with a few years ago that you’ve just
described perfectly 🙂
and as for the children’s sized kona t that weighed more than the child did !!!!!!!

[Bazza155]

I guess it’s a 1st bike so
I guess it’s a 1st bike so he’ll have no idea on the quality aspect but if he enjoys it it’ll lead to better bikes which you can advise.
Did you have any idea about the quality of your 1st bike…….probably just trying to balance and get rid of the stabilizers.
It’s your job now to keep him interested and to get him to nag his parents into splashing out large sums for his next bikes.

[Author]

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