This is a very good, well-written article. I can't agree more. Only one thing - if you're buying a decent bike, buy a decent lock to secure it with (Top category D lock, and/or motorbike chain).

I totally agree. I have hade my Trek 4300 for 8 years and it is still doing great. I bought the bike for $310 I have kept it well maintained and have spent about $80-$100 total on keeping up with maintenance. I will never by a cheap bike.

Thanks from, Adelaide, Australia. I bought a BSO recently.. For only AU$170... Thinking 'how smart I am'.. Bikes at local bike shop start from AU$300+.... and I saved heaps!! I was so bloody wrong. Utterly disappointed with bike I bought... it is a collection of heavy junk metal on wheels. Does not brake at all (trust me). Real wheel bent shortly after purchase, some balls (bearing) in crank case break off in day 2… thus getting ‘ kat kat kat’ noise….. Within weeks its all rusty and gear would not change properly... I’d be lucky to get AU$40 for it now..... � Never buying a bike from a generic super mall again, N E V E R…… And buying BSO does not only mean monetary loss but also loss of a ride and health for the time period.

that's a nice, well written article. i'd add to it though: you can get a decent second hand bike for £100, so why get bso? also... aluminium. damned aluminium. if you want a bike to last make sure it's steel. oh.. and derailleurs. bring back internal gear hubs for cyclists who want reliability.

This article is so true. My last bike was awful, so I saved and bought a lovely road bike for £400. Two years on and all I've replaced is one inner tube. It still looks as good as the day I bought it even though I ride it daily in all weathers. Don't buy cheap it's not worth it, you should get pleasure from your bike not worry about what will break next. If you can't afford new then do your homework to find a good one second hand. Happy cycling!

I have recently completed my 2000th mile, a little over a year after having bought a £70 British Eagle from Asda. Nothing has broke, I've not had any nasty mishaps and with a little routine maintenance everything has remained absolutely serviceable. I continue to ride this 'BSO' daily and have no complaint. To me and many others like me these bikes are truly bargains. It may not be as smooth or comfortable as 'proper' bikes, but as I've not ridden them to compare I wouldnt know. I have lost with this bike though. Three stone in weight. Best £70 pounds I ever spent.

i could remember the gone good old days when i had bought £40 tesco cheap throw awaya BSO way back in 2007, i can garantuee you it all happened what is narrated above ended up spending more than the actual bought price in fixing one or the other parts every week

My BSO purchased from Costco (Infinity Huron, $180 CAD + tax) just had its front derailleur snapped with the odometer at 2,500 km (1,600 miles), resulting the front shifter becoming stuck in the granny gear unable to shift (3 speed front). As a result the rear gear should only be shifted to gear 5 at most to avoid cross chaining (7 speed rear) limiting top speed to 20.5 km/h (12.7 mph).

This is a list of all the BSO companies in North America. If you ever find a decrepit product of theirs... do not hesitate to contact them and let them know it is ass. http://i53.tinypic.com/25qyp2t.jpg http://wvcycling.net

'Buy cheap, buy twice' Rode a BSO for the first time on holiday and I bought into it with a positive attitude as it was the only bike on offer. It turned out to be the sum of all my biking fears. The saving grace was the beautiful scenery we rode through. My advice is to spend £20 on MB magazines and look through the buying guides. They go from entry level to expert users. These guys do this for a living 24/7 and it will give you an insight into what your buying into.

The latest BSO to darken our doors is a Dunlop full suspension, the axle breaks in the rear wheel within weeks, we had one chap asking for a replacement, we told him to take it back to shop he got it from, they gave him another wheel, that axle snapped! He got another wheel, this one had a defective hub! We were had a donation of around 50 of these from a major retailer, a few weeks after we received them, they phoned to ask if they'd been useful, our answer was yes thanks, the reflectors were re-used and you currently get a good price for 'pig-iron'.

I knew nothing about cycling and just wanted somethign so I could go for rides out with my son. So I bought an Apollo Slant from Halfords. The bottom bracket was wonky and it sheared several teeth from the rear cassette. It was returned to the shop and they just replaced it with another bike. Within 10 miles I had bent one of the sprockets just through normal riding so I again returned it and complained. They replaced it with an Apollo Phaze. The thing rode ok so I thought but never kept it's adjustments very long, in fact I was having to adjust it daily. The rear cones came loose after 100 miles so I complained to the head office. They swapped it for a Carrera Vulcan and it is worlds apart. If I'd known at the start I'd have bought second hand. I don't see the problem with this; after all, people buy used cars every day and are happy with this. Why shouldn't it be the same with bikes?

People like you and some of you commenters get on my nerves so bad! I'm ashamed to think some people are so high up on the pole they think they can't ride a cheaper bike! Myself, I don't buy box bikes from department stores. But I know a few that rides them and they are doing just fine, some a year old and being rode every day. What the hell happen to 'At least they are riding bicycles' ? And having fun might I add! People, don't kick someone for riding a cheaper bike than you because they're biking and having fun. And who knows, maybe a 80 dollar department store bike is the best they can do. Jeezzzz people, share cycling and stop being so above other people just because they buy a better bike.

From looking around sites like Amazon at their bikes and the amount of positive reviews BSO's get, I suspect that the vast majority of the public don't know any better. Found one BSO full suspension for £300 (RRP £400 apparently?) and also found the same bike for sale at Asda. It makes no sense to me when you can get an entry level hardtail from most of the big brands for the same money?? But then again, if you don't know any different, you're stuck with BSO's. I commend your article and agree. Just a shame people don't read this before adding to their basket, whether it be on Amazon or at the supermarket. Sometimes it takes a ride on a nice bike for someone born and bred on BSO's to understand why proper bikes are more expensive. A friend of mine has a Carrera Banshee, for which he paid £400. I'm really surprised how good it is for such a low price. His girlfriend has a £150 BSO from Toys R Us and recently borrowed his bike and described it as a dream to ride compared to her bike and is now looking for a better bike herself. Nevermind Asda and its rollback on prices, I think Sainsburys 'Taste the difference' is the most fitting slogan.

I just bought my first road bike, from Tesco direct no less... It's not a bad bike - almost all Campagnolo parts - but the sheer number of BSOs on that website were astonishing. Having ridden hack bikes and BSOs for years I can definitely feel the difference now: praise be to the clubcard :P

I work in a bike shop and we only sell quality bicycles for cyclists. We only stock well known brands of bikes and all of our staff are cycling enthusiasts. We're genuinely here to help and don't put pressure on people to buy and discourage buying beyond their means. We try to build a rapport with a customer and like to educate and encourage people into making informed choices based upon their needs and in some cuscumstances we have reccomended that people look elsewhere, for example on eBay and classifieds etc for good quality and servicable bikes. Very often we have people comming in who just want a bike for next to nothing. We do our best to accomodate but our cheapest bike retails at just over £200 which usually causes some people to walk out in disgust. One particular gentleman was pushing me to match the price on a £59.99 bike he had seen in the supermarket. No amount of effort would convince him that our cheapest bike was not like-for-like. No pleasing some people, but there is definitely a market for cheap bikes there.

I bought a cheap £100 catalogue bike a few years back and it arrived in a flat pack. Both wheels were buckled out of the box so I sent it back and got another one which was exactly the same!! On returning for the 2nd time, I was pretty much fobbed off and managed to walk away with my money back fortunately. I then saw an article on watchdog about cheap bikes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/11/flat_pack_bikes.html, found this article and then decided that i'd be better off saving some money up and buying a proper bike from my local bike retailer. I've always had cheap bikes and assumed cycling wasn't for me but now I can't get enough of it when the sun is shining. Just starting cycling to work too and saving a fortune in fuel money :). You definitely get what you pay for with bikes, of course some are silly money but my arguement is that if you compare anything else, people are willing to spend the cash. A £10 mobile phone from a supermarket is awful to use and made of cheap plastic and nothing like an Iphone, but spend a bit more and you can get something nearly as good. The same logic applies to bikes.

Cracking article and totally true. I though I was alone with my loathing of BSOs'. Wanna see a BSO? go to your local scrap metal skip at your local tip - you'll see lots!

One thing nobody has mentioned yet; the online bike stores who are selling 2009/2010 bikes at huge savings. I have recently bought myself a rather tasty Cannondale at about 2/3rd the RRP from 2010 and about £500 cheaper than a similar spec 2011 bike from my local bike shop. It came delivered ready to roll and set up by a qualified mechanic. There are bargains to be had on a decent bike if you're willing to shop around on the internet. I do feel like i've betrayed my LBS a bit, but £500 is a big saving and they will still get the business servicing it.

This is great, but one thing you forgot to mention. SECOND HAND good quality bikes are much less expensive and just as good. Not everyone actually earns the average wage - it would take me a lot longer than 5.4 days to earn £400! But I bought a secondhand frame and built it up with secondhand parts for less than that, and my first bike I got for £90 on Ebay - it was worth more new but I didn't need a new one because it was a decent bike and so hadn't fallen apart when used previously. It's hard for beginners to know which bikes are BSOs and which are real bikes, how about keeping a list of inexpensive but "real" bikes to help people choose? I found Probike to have decent quality components etc and I don't think they're expensive even new. Ridgeback I think are recomended as cheaper but decent bikes. Got any more budget options that aren't rubbish?

Some (hopefully) constructive criticism of your otherwise excellent article: - Risk of theft - already mentioned in other comments. - A 100 pound bike that lasts two years fits your price per year rate perfectly well. - All bikes are disposable, it's just a case of time, and where you draw the line on a reasonable working life (for practical or environmental reasons). - You mention that a 400 pound bike will last 10 years. Will it really? With no further expenditure of either money or time? I guess it might if you never ride it, but then so will a 100 pound bike. Certainly many people I know will happily lavish time and money on keeping a bike in good order - it's a labour of love and cyclists are often understandably passionate about their mode of transport, but I think to be honest about this you need to factor in 10 years of brake blocks, inner tubes, tyres, cables, etc plus the odd larger job - a new wheel or bottom bracket - plus either the time and tools, or the labour costs to sort all that out. - There's that slightly superior and condescending tone that one often seems to get from bike officianados (BSO indeed...), which makes cycling a little less accessible to those not in the club. Halfords staff may lack knowledge at times but they'll never be patronise you like a small independent bike shop. Or perhaps that's unfair because it's good of you to share your experience and good advice with the world for free in the first place. - I think it's worth adding that suspension, as well being very poor quality on a cheap bike, will also make road cycling harder work by sapping the force out of every stroke of the pedal. Despite my criticisms I agree with the article, mainly because I'm saddened by seeing anyone try something new and be put off forever by a poor choice of initial purchase. Like a disheartened guitarist with a cheap guitar gathering dust because it won't stay in tune for two minutes.

I have wanted to mtb for quite a while, and I know someone who will sell me a good quality Kona Coiler for 500euros, unfortunately my dad thinks that cheaper is better and keeps bringing me around Halfords, looking at all the sh!tty bikes for under 200euros, how would be a good way to explain to my dad that i need a good quality bike not a sh!t one, and get him to part-buy me this bike. Also on a side note, my brother is like-minded with my dad, so bought a bso, from halfords for 100euro, apparently "full suspension", i borrowed it a few times and it is a piece of sh!t, the brakes are horrible, to change gears i had to get off the bike and physically move the chain after twisting the gear shifter, the chain came off a few times as well, and despite being "full suspension" i couldn't notice it at all.

your article is spot on, well done, i am an independent cycle dealer. i always say if these El-Cheapo's for £50-£100 were any good i would sell shed loads. The big supermarket multiples and sports store multiples selling these type of junk donot have their customers at heart, or their safety as a priority. Profit, Profit, Profit, i have been offered hardtail BSO's for as little as £ 12 +VAT & Full Suspension for £ 15 +VAT these prices included believe it or not DELIVERY. I politley turned them down. I have a rule if it won't go together well in the workshop, it won't work well on the road. This whole El-Cheapo BSO situation needs kicking into touch by Parlaiment. Safety first not profit, some of these BSO's are ridden by kids as well as adults. Price is not always the issue, it is quality, you cannot get quality without paying some money out. The stores always blame the consumer, they call it demand. The consumer looks at the store to provide quality and safety. The REAL demand is good quality + safety, to give the consumer a reliable product with no compromise. But at £ 50-£100 you won't get either. Independent retailers who sell quality bikes are not ripping consumers off, they are putting their reputation and investment on the line to sell good products which with maintenance will last for years to come. Bikes are a science of their own, not rocket science, but it needs specialists in their field to make them work efficiently & safely. It is the individuals choice, but it annoys me when someone buys a BSO & expects me to put it right sorry "just tweak it a bit" (customers words) for a a couple of quid, as they've only paid very little for it. Sorry i don't lower my pride to work for nowt and be expected to give them a Tour De France dream machine back for a couple of quid. Think about it, some bike shops run a "Savings Club" you can purchase a cycle for summer by saving with the shop through the winter or use the Savings Club for Xmas, Easter or Birthdays, you will be supporting your cycle local shop, who in return supports you and will help you enjoy your purchase. The "Savings Club" is an old classic way of paying for a cycle, it has been used for over 60 years. Ask at your local cycle dealer if they run a Savings Club, if so why not join it and save towards a better cycling experience.

I agree with you get what you pay for, but the trouble with living in an inner-city in a 3rd floor flat with no garage, shed, indoor space or even garden is that I have to lock my bike to a lampost on the street. Here it is rusting in the sea air, made worse in winter by the salt on the roads, is a tempatation to vandals and thieves (like most bike-owners in Brighton, I have had bikes stolen). So, unfortunately, for me there is little reason to invest in a bike as I know I cannot give it the security and care it deserves. This article may be about economics, but it cannot apply to the hundreds in my position. This is why we buy crap bikes. we know they won't last, but actually we count ourselves lucky if they don't get kicked in or nicked.

U.S. citizen, cyclist most of my life. Bike mechanic for five years now. I tell any cyclist that will listen that a used quality bike that's priced the same as a dept. store bike is a 500% better value, particularly if it's fitted properly and ridden often (at least weekly). I'm 64 and I weigh 12% more than I did in 1964!

Nice article! I have been riding for about 2 decades now, and have ridden everything from £100 Halfords bike's , to my current £4000~ Kona. While I was in the trade, I used to find myself telling this same old story to alarming numbers of customers, including many that had brought in their BSO's for servicing or repair. Whilst the bike I ride now is beyond the needs or means for most people, I have a need for it, in that I ride DH and freeride, and need a bike that won't fall apart doing it. But even at this end of the market, one needs to be sensible, as you can buy suspension forks for over £2000, and frames for £3000 etc. Madness.... The problem is, that a lot of people I have met buy a bike to use once a month, if that. They don't see the point in spending more than they have to on something they don't use. Oh well, I'll have to remain happy by watching the reactions of the uninitiated, when they climb aboard my 20Kg ''Sofa-bike'' Lol.

Your article was spot on ref cheap bikes.Bought a cheap mountain bike for under a £100 from an online sports company,and it was exactly as you stated in your descriptions.Turned out to be a pile of rubbish and the company i bought it from isn`t interested in refunding me.

I ride a 10-year-old Halfords Apollo BSO, the cheapest bike they were selling at the time - under £100. It is absolutely fine. I've had it since new and I've only had to replace the tyres. So cheap bikes do have their place. Especially if you're concerned about theft.

Brilliant article. I currently have a Raleigh Redrock which must be at least 10 yrs old. Have done some refurb / servicing my self and still going fine. Am now looking to upgrade to a hard tail with either v-brakes or discs (the raleigh has cantilevers!). Was considering BSO's but am now trying to source a 2nd hand Carrera Vulcan or similar as they look like the best for my budget (£200 max). (Unless anyone has any other suggestions?)

I was bought up on BSO's. My first 'mountain bike' recieved as a christmas present around 1992 was a rigid, hi-tensile steel framed Townsend with 12-speed Shimano SIS, Cantilever brakes and steel rims (which didn't brake in the wet!!!). My parents weren't particularly wealthy and bought what they thought was a good buy. The bike was far too big for me so I could grow into it apparently. Needless to say, the bike was awful to ride and got worse as the wheels got buckled and various parts of the running gear siezed up. I didn't know better at the time (age 11) but a couple of years later I bought a proper bike from a friends older brother for £250 used and the difference in ride quality was startling.

The problem is that most people see £100-£150 as the going rate for a bike and anything over that is seen as excessive or needlessly expensive. Anything under £100 is a bargain to average joe on the street. Most folk consider a bike as poor mans transport and can't see why anyone would pay as much as a cheap used car for a bike. I'd say that most people think good quality bikes are all about designer labels and are largely style over substance in the same way that designer clothes are often made in the same factories as the cheap stuff but are labeled with designer logos. There seems to be a general assumption that if something looks similar then it is the same.

I work for Halfords and yes admittedly they do sell some cheap stuff which does often come back but you cannot fault the Carrera or boardman bikes for the kind of components that you get for the money, once set up correctly they can more than compete with an equivilant raleigh or claud butler. Yes there are other bike manufacturers but for the money and the specification you can't fault it, but it is that halfords get the reputation for cheap bikes they have becuase of the people who know nothing about bikes at all apart from how to ride one, and you can get for at the moment for £203.99 a Carrera Vulcan V-spec which I personally own and I abuse on trails at Thetford forest in Norfolk and not a single thing has gone wrong with it in the year I have owned it, but for £199.99 an apollo pahze which again is a hardtail but that £4 difference they are a world apart.

BSOs exist because of what the average people are prepared to pay for a bike. As someone who regards cycling one of my main past times and an integral part of my life, I'm usually looking for the best bike I can comfortably afford when buying a new one. Family and non-cycling friends can never understand why anyone would pay thousands for a bike when you can get a bike for £99 from Asda etc usually dropping in comments like "How much? for a bike? does it have an engine for that price? you could buy a reasonable used car for that much money......" and so on.... Maybe the public at large are bone idle, fat, ignorant and narrow minded and see a bicycle as 'just a means of getting from A to B'...Fortunately one such friend is into photography and has recently spent £600 on a Nikon SLR camera. I quizzed him because I can get a nice 12 megapixel Tevion compact camera from Aldi for about £50. I think he got the point.

In 1990 I paid £400 for a Claud Butler mtb, including various accessories to make it more of a hybrid. 20 years later I'm still riding it and the only thing I've altered is the front forks. To put cheap suspension on the front was a waste of time, so I paid $100 for an overhauled set of Maz Bombers, and the necessary adapter bits. Now I've got an Ahead front end (curses on those who couldn't standardise things in the bike world if their life depended on it). To go with that, an inexpensive set of V-brakes transformed the stopping. It's still on the original chain and tyres, though they might get replaced soon, as the tyres are showing their age, rather than worn out. I think a total of £500 over twenty years is quite cheap - 25 quid a year - laughing, mate, just laughing.

A good quality and well maintained used bike is a much better buy than the cheap tat you find in catalogues, TV shopping channels and supermarkets and the initial outlay is about the same. Someone mentioned Halfords bikes; I would agree that there are some awful bikes for sale there (purely a business decision to fulfill the demand I imagine) but they also stock some fantastic bikes too. The Carrera and Boardman ranges really are superb and offer great value for money.

A few years ago one of my colleagues bought 2 Sterlinghouse bikes. At around the same time I bought a seat post for my bike which cost more than both his bikes put together. He laughed at me but I'm still enjoying my bike every day. He and his missus gave up after one cycle of theirs cos they were so unpleasant to ride.

Based on bitter experience: never buy a BSO from Halfords. I fell for the 'half price' line a few years ago, buying my wife a run-around. The brakes didn't work, so I took it back to another, closer Halfords. The mechanic told me that that model had been quietly stored at the back of the rack with a doubled price tag for a couple of months, then launched to the front 'at half price'. As for the brakes, they had been assembled completely wrongly. That day (five years ago) was the last time I set foot in Halfords.

This was fascinating, and I have to say I am totally convinced. I used to buy crap second-hand bikes as they invariably got stolen, but since inheriting a good one I can really see what the fuss is about - it's so much easier and smoother to ride. I wouldn't buy a BSO now, having read this. Thank you!

It always amazes me when you see a £35,000 4x4 with 4 BSO's on the back. They would never buy a new 4x4 for £3000, yet somehow fail to make the connection that a bike for 10% of the price of a decent one might perhaps be compromised...

Not all cheap bikes are rubbish! (Said with tongue in cheek) I work at a charity bike shop and we receive donations from the public of old bikes and make them safe and fit for use. We sell them and give the money to charity. Many of our bikes are actually good quality bikes that were hundreds of pounds when new. The BSOs (Mostly ex-supermarket bikes) are used for spares to repair the odd BSO that is worth the effort. We have a price cap of £40 that is because of our aim to provide affordable transport, not to reflect the worth! I have been fixing bikes since 1963. My colleague for 15 yrs more. We are training the young ones and we provide cheap, safe, worthwhile transport for the less well-heeled in Coventry. So please pass on the concept that cheap is bad only applies to new bikes. Used bikes that have been properly prepared are ay least as good as, or better than, most BSOs. Footnote - most BSOs that meet your description above have ‘brand’ labels - beware! (ie ‘reebok’) But probably have nothing to do with the brand they advertise?

People who buy themselves a bike from toys r us?? If they were trying to start up in any other sport, say golf; would they be happy with Fisher Price clubs? A decent, light, functional, reliable, serviceable bike from a quality manufacturer can be had for as little as £250+ and of course its possible to spend around £5,000 if you get silly, a £400-£1,000 bike will perform pretty much the same on the trail, give or take a bit more weight, less flash and less adjustability, but be just as much fun, cheaper to fix and less to worry about having to tweak. Great for beginners.

Couldn't agree more. I bought a relatively good bike from a reputable dealer in 1991 and it cost me very little in repairs in the meantime, despite using it almost every day. I still have it, although I bought a fairly similar new one two years ago, which is a pleasure to ride. "Cheap" machines are a scourge - and dangerous.

Interesting article, I've just purchased one of those BSOs with an aluminium frame and have every intention to do a few upgrades as and when I can afford them as I realise the standard components are'nt going to be upto much. I'm currently unemployed so my budget is very tight. In the past I have owned some very good mtbs including an Orange C6 until it was stolen.

Excellent resource/rant. Thanks for all the useful information and opinion.

Nice article Paul, thanks. I agree with 'you get what you pay for': I bought a £199 bike 4 years ago and have used it daily, it now needs replacing. My employer's signed up to the govt. 'cycle scheme' and I can now by a £600 bike for £360 (saving tax and NI) and pay for it over 1 year through my monthly salary- a great scheme! FYI - www.cyclescheme.co.uk, best wishes, Mike

This so called £50 bike has a sticker on it, saying it conforms to BS 6102-1992. Suggesting it is built to a standard. There is however no build quality what so ever. The free wheel seized up then failed. The pedal crank fell off and will not tighten. The brake arms are so thin, The replacement brake blocks will not fit unless "packed out" with washers. As some were missing. The list goes on. It's now in storage, the tyres might come in hady as will some of the nuts and bolts. Expensive spares!

Pay £50 for a bike from a supermarket, and you might as well throw your money away. From prsonal experience, it got me to work twice and home once. So it covered less than 10 miles.

Hi Paul. Awesome! I used to have to build BSOs (we called them that too..) and after a while my colleague and I refused to sign any paperwork claiming the bike was safe for sale, having to explain to customers why we had not signed the document. They truly are a complete waste of good metal and should be ground up to make spares for decent bikes!

Many congratulations on your "Dont! buy a cheap new bike" article. The big problem is, however, how does one put forward this message to the wider public who buy cycles solely by price? I dunno. James

I liked your article on cheap bikes - it put me off buying one from Sterling House.