Today I serviced cheese

Josey' nospam@josey said:

One of the daughter's friends brought her bike around. About 12 months old
and rusting already.

I fixed lots of things that were loose, oiled, made the brakes work, pumped
the tyres from <5 to 40psi etc.

It's a little steel dual-shocker. First shock was how bad the brakes were,
second shock was to find a sticker to see it was sold be a reputable LSB.

The brakes will never be wonderful, as it has Plastic V-brake arms!

Trading Stadards should do something about these bike shaped objects.
Such [censored] should never be allowed to be sold. And all they care about
is that the bikes are sold with a bell!

"Josey" <nospam@josey> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

One of the daughter's friends brought her bike around. About 12 months old
and rusting already.

I fixed lots of things that were loose, oiled, made the brakes work,
pumped the tyres from <5 to 40psi etc.

It's a little steel dual-shocker. First shock was how bad the brakes were,
second shock was to find a sticker to see it was sold be a reputable LSB.

The brakes will never be wonderful, as it has Plastic V-brake arms!

Jc

If a bike shop doesn't sell these kids bikes it won't sell very many kids
bikes.
Shops can only sell what their customers buy.

Mike Sales.

"Mike Sales" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

If a bike shop doesn't sell these kids bikes it won't sell very many kids
bikes.
Shops can only sell what their customers buy.

Mike Sales.

Sure, but won't they just be charging £80 for the same type of cheese as
Tesco sells for £50?

Jc.

In article <[email hidden]>, Josey
jc@nospam says...

Quoted message said:

"Mike Sales" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

If a bike shop doesn't sell these kids bikes it won't sell very many kids
bikes.
Shops can only sell what their customers buy.

Mike Sales.

Sure, but won't they just be charging £80 for the same type of cheese as
Tesco sells for £50?

Hopefully there's a better chance that it will fit reasonably, be
supplied properly set up, given a free service after bedding in ...

Josey' nospam@josey said:

One of the daughter's friends brought her bike around. About 12 months old
and rusting already.

I fixed lots of things that were loose, oiled, made the brakes work, pumped
the tyres from <5 to 40psi etc.

It's a little steel dual-shocker. First shock was how bad the brakes were,
second shock was to find a sticker to see it was sold be a reputable LSB.

The brakes will never be wonderful, as it has Plastic V-brake arms!

Jc

was it one of these 'china' specials, £50?

Mike Sales said:

Quoted message said:

It's a little steel dual-shocker. First shock was how bad the brakes were,
second shock was to find a sticker to see it was sold be a reputable LSB.

Quoted message said:

The brakes will never be wonderful, as it has Plastic V-brake arms!

If a bike shop doesn't sell these kids bikes it won't sell very many kids
bikes.
Shops can only sell what their customers buy.

I agree. What are the alternatives?

1. A simple frame with maybe 7 gears at most. For the same money,
you'd get a much better bike which would be useful for going
somewhere. However, to most children this would look pathetic when
others have full susp. 21 gear BSOs. Can you imagine the kid with the
simple bike winning the argument about who has got the best bike? This
stuff matters to kids, and it would require a very confident,
knowledgeable child to be happy with the technically superior simple
bike. I'm sure it happens in cycling families, but why on earth would
you expect the non-cycling parent to buy anything other than the £50
special the child asks for.

2. Parents spend enough to buy their offspring proper full susp.
bikes, which will be the right size for them for maybe a few years.
It's just not going to happen.

These BSOs are mostly used for riding up and down the street, and they
are good enough for that (although I do find the dodgy brakes a little
scary - trading standards should do something about that).

Maybe these rubbish bikes might make children think that cycling is
hard, and stop them progressing to proper cycling, but I am doubtful
about that. They can't be any worse to ride than the no gear
heavyweight that I started on, on which I went off on 20 mile day
"tours" while still at primary school.

Customers want to buy these things, so why shouldn't bike shops sell
them? If they have them in the window, they stand a chance of getting
people in through the door and talking to them about the advantages of
better bikes.

Rob

in message <[email hidden]>,

(') said:

These BSOs are mostly used for riding up and down the street, and they
are good enough for that (although I do find the dodgy brakes a little
scary - trading standards should do something about that).

I think this is the point.

You're right - you aren't going to stop children preferring flashy looking
bikes with lots of boastable features. But the bikes, however heavy,
however hard to ride, however inefficient, ought to be basically safe, and
the V brakes fitted to the cheapest bikes on the market at present are not
fit for purpose.

This isn't 'LBS vs Tescos'. This isn't 'proper bike vs BSOs'. Tescos and
ASDA are going to go on selling BSOs, and, frankly, they will still be
able to sell BSOs with better quality brakes for half the price an LBS can
sell a proper bike.

We need Trading Standards to do something - to work with Tesco and ASDA
among others to do something - about the quality of brakes on BSOs. Not
just the brake arms, but also the noodle clip. It's questionable in my
mind whether V brakes are a good solution for children's bikes, because
the noodle and clip are not very robust and if they fail the brake fails.
Either calipers of cantilevers would be better.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; lovely alternative to rice.

Simon Brooke said the following on 21/05/2007 13:05:

Quoted message said:

We need Trading Standards to do something - to work with Tesco and ASDA
among others to do something - about the quality of brakes on BSOs. Not
just the brake arms, but also the noodle clip. It's questionable in my
mind whether V brakes are a good solution for children's bikes, because
the noodle and clip are not very robust and if they fail the brake fails.
Either calipers of cantilevers would be better.

This problem with noodles failing on BSOs is quite an old story - have
Trading Standards really not sorted this out yet? It would seem to me
that working brakes are far more important than bells.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

in message <[email hidden]>, Paul Boyd

('usenet.dont.work@plusnet') said:

Simon Brooke said the following on 21/05/2007 13:05:

Quoted message said:

We need Trading Standards to do something - to work with Tesco and ASDA
among others to do something - about the quality of brakes on BSOs. Not
just the brake arms, but also the noodle clip. It's questionable in my
mind whether V brakes are a good solution for children's bikes, because
the noodle and clip are not very robust and if they fail the brake
fails. Either calipers of cantilevers would be better.

This problem with noodles failing on BSOs is quite an old story - have
Trading Standards really not sorted this out yet? It would seem to me
that working brakes are far more important than bells.

Cynically, I think it's easier for a Trading Standards officer to count the
bells than assess the quality of the brakes.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; my other religion is Emacs

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Paul Boyd

('usenet.dont.work@plusnet') said:

Simon Brooke said the following on 21/05/2007 13:05:

This problem with noodles failing on BSOs is quite an old story - have
Trading Standards really not sorted this out yet? It would seem to me
that working brakes are far more important than bells.

Cynically, I think it's easier for a Trading Standards officer to count the
bells than assess the quality of the brakes.

It would be better if they could assess the parents who buy the damn things
then let their children ride them.

Oh, I forgot.
Its completely safe to let their kids mix with 40-tonne trucks because the
same 'shop' sold them a lump of head shaped polystyrene.
Brakes? Who needs those.

John B

Simon Brooke said:

Cynically, I think it's easier for a Trading Standards officer to count the
bells than assess the quality of the brakes.

Trading standards are investigating a complaint I have made about V
brakes at this very moment. As soon as I hear anything I will let you
know.

On 21/05/2007 19:33, Tom Crispin said,

Quoted message said:

Trading standards are investigating a complaint I have made about V
brakes at this very moment. As soon as I hear anything I will let you
know.

That's useful to know. As you are involved with children and bikes, I
hope they take your complain seriously. Definitely keep us posted please!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On 21/05/2007 15:59, Simon Brooke said,

Quoted message said:

Cynically, I think it's easier for a Trading Standards officer to count the
bells than assess the quality of the brakes.

My LBS has a big box of assorted bells near the counter. They look
suspiciously like they've been taken off bikes that have been sold :-)

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Paul Boyd said:

On 21/05/2007 19:33, Tom Crispin said,

Quoted message said:

Trading standards are investigating a complaint I have made about V
brakes at this very moment. As soon as I hear anything I will let you
know.

That's useful to know. As you are involved with children and bikes, I
hope they take your complain seriously. Definitely keep us posted please!

Continental drift seems swifter than trading standards, but they are
certainly taking the complaint seriously. It has been taken out of
the hands of trading standards Lewisham and is being investigated by
trading standards Nottingham as the home town of Raleigh bikes. The
last correspondence I had with them was on 27 April.