Wal-Mart is not a good place to buy a bike. They are junk, and they generally don't have an experienced bike builder assembling them.
When it is time for you or your child to get a bike, go to a professional bicycle shop. There is a huge difference in the quality of the bikes, parts and the service you receive.
End result: WalMart stops selling bikes.
When I see someone on a Walmart bike that is not assembled properly, I advise them of a local bike shop that can put it together correctly for $50. The usual response is "I only paid $79 for the bike". You get what you paid for!!! I paid more for my helmet than these morons paid for the whole bike!!!!
Out of curiosity I went to my local Walmart last summer to see who was assembling the bikes. My local store had 2 Mexican kids that spoke little Engish assembling bikes on a contract basis for $6 per bike! Nuff said!!!!
regards - red
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
And the price. Amercians want cheap crap, Amercians buy cheap crap, Amercians get cheap crap.
If you have a $100 in your pocket and thats it...then Wal-Mart is the only place to buy the bike. But if you want a bike that last five years....then I'd spend the $200 and go elsewhere.
I agree...my son put bikes togethre for Walmart after 10 hours training...
BUt for most of us, we can afford 98 dollar bike at Walmart but not the 300 dollar at a bike store...
Especially since our boys tend to wreck the bikes fairly quickly
"When it is time for you or your child to get a bike, go to a professional bicycle shop. There is a huge difference in the quality of the bikes, parts and the service you receive."
I used to sell and assemble bike in the early nineties and the Cost Co. Walmart $150.00 "mountain" bikes were outright dangerous. Kids coaster break bikes were safer.
Typically the box store bike has a soft steel caliper brake rather than cantilevers. I've seen these brakes bend as much as an inch on polished steel rims with zero breaking power when I tested them after a tune up.
In the early nineties I spent for handbuilt wheel than parents spent on bikes for their kids.
For fifty bucks more than they bought their death bikes at a box store I could have sold them a safe bike.
When we tuned box store bikes we would issue a verbal safety disclaimer to the customer in front of witnesses with a written discaimer on the repair receipt to avoid a lawsuit.
That was worth repeating in bold. Truer words were never spoken.
That's why I saved up and bought mine at Sam's Club.