Buying a Non-Department Store, Moderate Priced Bicycle for Pre-Teens

I went with my sister-in-law and niece yesterday to buy a bicycle for my
12 year old niece. Thankfully it was not difficult to convince the
sister-in-law not to buy another Target bicycle! But buying a suitable
bicycle at a bicycle store wasn't so easy either.

The sister-in-law had only a few restrictions: $300 max, adjustable
height handlebars, adjustable reach handlebars, 21-24 speed, relatively
light, and proper size (not "grow into it"). She'll outgrow it in a
couple of years, so didn't really need top of the line components so
even SRAM front and rear dérailleurs were okay (though my son may end up
with it when she outgrows it so I had a vested interest). I wanted 26"
versus 700c wheels because we sometimes do some off-road, and it's not
easy or cheap to buy 700c off-road tires.

We came up with a grand total of two "bike shop bikes" that met the specs.

Schwinn Sierra GS (small) $243 sale price ($280 MSRP) (plus another 10%
in "Team Performance" rebate)
Trek Navigator 2.0 (14.5") $300 sale price ($330 MSRP)

The components were similar, with the $50 difference probably due to the
Trek name. She went with the Schwinn, because the frame style was a
little better for her, with a more sloping top-tube. If we had gotten
to Performance a few minutes later, we would have gotten the Trek, as
someone else wanted the only remaining proper size Schwinn Sierra GS.

One amazing thing that the Performance employee said, and I'm really
wondering if it's true, is that they include lifetime free adjustments
to brakes and gears (not such a big deal as this takes only a few
minutes) but also free wheel truing. Wheel truing normally costs like
$15-25 per wheel, and it's something that you're pretty much guaranteed
to need and it's a time-consuming task. Not sure if he was misinformed,
or if it's really true.

On Jul 27, 5:45 am, SMS wrote:

One amazing thing that the Performance employee said, and I'm really
wondering if it's true, is that they include lifetime free adjustments
to brakes and gears (not such a big deal as this takes only a few
minutes) but also free wheel truing. Wheel truing normally costs like
$15-25 per wheel, and it's something that you're pretty much guaranteed
to need


If a wheel is brought to proper tension and destressed, it will
rarely, if ever need any truing again. Heck--most factory wheels
benefit from just bringing the tension up 1/4 to 1/2 turn. I do doubt
that the mechanics are doing such preventative twisting. Thing is,
most bikes get ridden so little, that it costs little to make such
promises.

and it's a time-consuming task. Not sure if he was misinformed,
or if it's really true.

Time consuming? Tightening up a loose spoke takes seconds. Evening out
spoke tension and bringing a wheel up to proper tension on a factory
built wheel can certainly take a few minutes, but I doubt they're
getting that fancy.

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:57:46 -0000, landotter
wrote:
On Jul 27, 5:45 am, SMS wrote:
One amazing thing that the Performance employee said, and I'm really
wondering if it's true, is that they include lifetime free adjustments
to brakes and gears (not such a big deal as this takes only a few
minutes) but also free wheel truing. Wheel truing normally costs like
$15-25 per wheel, and it's something that you're pretty much guaranteed
to need

If a wheel is brought to proper tension and destressed, it will
rarely, if ever need any truing again. Heck--most factory wheels
benefit from just bringing the tension up 1/4 to 1/2 turn. I do doubt
that the mechanics are doing such preventative twisting.

I can't imagine Performance manually tensions all the wheels (or even
most of them) they sell. I don't know if there's many/any mainstream
bike dealers that do such a thing.

Thing is,
most bikes get ridden so little, that it costs little to make such
promises.

Ding, ding, sounds like a winner! They're betting on the 500 mile
average life of a bike, or whatever the right number is.

and it's a time-consuming task. Not sure if he was misinformed,
or if it's really true.

Time consuming? Tightening up a loose spoke takes seconds. Evening out
spoke tension and bringing a wheel up to proper tension on a factory
built wheel can certainly take a few minutes, but I doubt they're
getting that fancy.

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